Howdy,
I have thought of the moment when I could join this group, it was a motivation many a time. However, as I neared my goal of 160, I kept thinking of moving it back to 145. So I have another 15# before my second goal. So I am not a maintainer yet as I will still be trying to achieve a deficit. One day, I will be here:-) I read your insights all of them every day. Thank you for being so generous with your time to post.

A strange feeling occured when I saw the calorie allotment for maintence calories on my Loseit app, I felt an uncomfortable momentary panic, it was 2000 cal. It didn't cause my decision to weigh less but I found I felt better seeing the lower calorie count. My plan for maintence is to slowly add back calories 100 at a time and see what happens.

i never, ever want to reloose this weight again.

Karen, to Maintainers! You absolutely belong here NOW! Lots of our members haven't reached their final goals yet or are fighting off a bit of a relapse, but we're all still maintainers and we're all in this together. So please stick around, post a lot, and we're all looking forward to getting to know you.

Meg-
I will always remember your help with the iHop spinach omelet shock:-) What a learning moment that was. Your appreciation of exercise led me to WATP. Something that would fit my schedule while still being effective in cardio health. 3C is such a beautiful resource, thank you for the hours of effort it muct take you.

Thank you, Karen, but honestly I get back much more than I could ever give. And I think that's why we have such a wonderful group of maintainers here, knowing that group support is an essential part to keeping the weight off for the rest of our lives. As you so rightly said, we never, ever want to re-lose this weight again!!

And isn't that Ihop stuff a major eye-opener! And Ihop isn't the only one. Restaurants are the when it comes to weight loss. Megan, one of our amazing maintainers, has a theory that restaurants spray a magic calorie spray on all their food to be sure that it's at least twice as fattening as the same thing we'd make at home. I'm convinced she's right!

I'm really glad you're here with us!

You are right iHop isn't the only one. That magic spray must be sold at restaurant supply houses:-)

I am so glad to have you all. That rockinrobin, her spot on quotes are going through my head:-)

LOL guys, the magic spray is sold at restaurant supply houses -- it's called lard! Or butter, or salt. The three sneakiest ingredients in restaurant food.

Karen, even if you're not at your goal yet right now you are maintaining a 32lb loss! That makes you a maintainer!

You gave me a nice chuckle. I am enjoying this site more and more. Thank you for the warm welcome.

Well, from working in the restaurant biz for 15 years now I can tell you what the spray is, but then we'd all have to commit suicide together since I don't know where you all live...

Seriously - butter flavored oil spread on grills, lard in fryers, butter on prepared veggies, salt for preservation of food in shipping... it is everywhere. The restaurant where I work now gets deliveries every day, or at least every other day at the small locations, so our foods are fresh and have very little added salt and preservative. We use non-trans fat fryer oil, and use a restaurant grade PAM spray equivalent on the grills and griddles. I don't think there are many places out there that do that, so I always look closely everywhere I go.

Welcome Karen! You are definitely maintaining a loss. Come on in.

What are you looking for? What are your clues if you will?

I did think maintence was a constant point and I would live happily ever after as long as I ate the right number of calories). I am glad to start thinking about mainting as being variable. Which then is a lot like weight loss.

Rockinrobin-
I love your sayings, especially, but not limtied to "Don't wail on the scale if you cheat when you eat." I said that to DH, who has never ever had a weight problem but has endured my weight losses for almost 30 yrs, when I ordered my tiny turtle iceream cup. I will not "wail". As it was I have weighed less the past two days. It is by no means license to over eat for me. I search for your posts each day. Learning from those who have been there and done that. This is something new from weight loss attempts in the past, learning from maintainers. Thank you for your generous gift of time in posting.