Hi everyone -
I am again beginning a successful weightloss journey. In the past, I've lost a lot of weight, got to exactly where I wanted to be size-wise. I've done this a few times, utilizing different methods, all of which were healthy ways (no magic pills or starvation). So, clearly, it isn't a matter of "how do I lose wieght". My question is HOW DO I KEEP IT OFF? I'm considering using hypnotherapy in conjunction with my new eating / exercise plan. It is something I've not used before. For me, l[I]losing[I]weight is easy. Keeping it off, well, that's another story. If any of you have any advice or experience with maintenance, please share. Thanks

Maintenance means...
- Still paying attention to what you eat, tracking it from time to time to see how you're doing.
- Keeping up with your exercise, perhaps not as much as when you were losing, but maybe just as much; you won't know til you get there.
- Weighing from time to time to make sure you know what's going on.

Maintenance does NOT mean...
- Going back to the old way of eating; that's what got us fat, right? That's how we regained in the past, right?
- Giving up exercise because we feel like we don't have to worry.
- Avoiding the scale when we are afraid to see what it says.
- Pretending we've solved the weight problem forever and can eat anything we want all the time.

Good luck with losing! And come on over the the Maintainer's forum for more information.

Jay

You should come on over to the Maintainer's Forum.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/living-maintenance-170/

There's a whole slew of us who have taken the weight off - and here's the thing - KEPT IT OFF. I've been maintaining my 165 lb loss for 2 1/2 years now and there's many who have kept if off way longer than that.

How do I and many of them keep it off? By doing the same healthy things that we did to LOSE the weight. Continuing on. NO STOPPING. No going back to the old ways that got us to be overweight in the first place.

I've made a true lifestyle change. I overhauled my eating habits - once and for all and permanently. I've created a new normal. This way there's no gaining it back. My maintaining part of this journey looks identical to my losing portion of this journey - same healthy, healthy foods in reasonable portions (though the amount of salads and veggies I eat are GINORMOUS), same avoiding most of the junk out there in the world, same dedication to physical fitness. Though I have raised my calories by adding in occasional splurge meals and I don't usually exercise the 2 hours a day that I did towards the end of my losing journey.

Losing weight is doable, as you know and keeping it off is too. You just must DECIDE to. Luckily for me, I love my life now and would never in a million, billion years dream of going back to my old ways. It wouldn't be possible for me to do so. These good eating habits I've acquired are just as ingrained in me as my old bad ones were.

I urge you to start thinking long term right now. Right now. Realize that the way to keep the weight off is to make a lifetime commitment to healthy eating and exercise.

I look forward to hearing of your progress - now - and in the future.

I think the key to successful, long-term maintenance lies with the conscious brain, not the subconscious. So my opinion is that hypnosis wouldn't be of much benefit for keeping weight off. Maintenance means thoughtful, mindful choices, made with knowledge and understanding of nutrition and calories. Maintenance means a commitment to move and use our bodies. Maintenance means always recognizing that we're in control and that our daily choices determine whether we will keep weight off forever or become another sad regain statistic. We need to be thinking, always thinking, always aware of our choices, always knowing that the power to keep the weight off is entirely in our hands and under our control. These are all part of our conscious brains.

So to answer your question of how do you keep it off? Exactly the way you lost the weight! The mantra of our Maintainers forum is: Maintenance looks just like losing, with a few more calories. And since weight loss is easy for you, then maintenance should be a breeze.

While you're losing, you're assembling your personal tool box of skills and strategies for weight loss. So once you reach your goal, you have all the tools you need for lifelong weight maintenance. Like Robin and Jay said, there's no going back to old habits and lifestyles. The journey continues; reaching goal is only the beginning of our lifelong commitment to healthy living.

We reach goal -- yay! -- and get up the next morning and do exactly the same things that we did the day before. Nothing changes (except you get to shop for a lot of cute little clothes!) You'll still count calories (if you're a calorie counter), go to the gym, plan your menus, and do all the things that helped you lose the weight. You get a few more calories (which is awesome!) but the underlying framework never changes. I've been at my goal weight for more than seven years and a day in my life today is indistinguishable than a day in my life in 2001 - 2002. In a nutshell, that's the secret of how we keep the weight off -- simply continuing to do the things that caused us to lose the weight in the first place.

We would love to have you join us in Maintainers!

Thank you Meg, your response was kind.