I'm not quite a maintainer yet, but I am SLOWLY making the transition, knowing that I might have to drop my cals back down to reach final goal, but giving maintenance a little bit of practice run for the time being while I really focus on stregth training, reshaping my body, fitness and have just started exploring whole foods and new recipies. So far I'm still losing, but it's been less than a week since incorporating these changes so my body might just be freaking out. But anyway, I wanted to get your best pearls of wisdom regarding maintenance. I've heard several times that it can be harder than losing and with the stall/rut I recently experienced I totally get this. My new found excitment for whole foods and fitness could not have come at a better time and it has really remotivated me and given me something else to focus on other than weight loss, but what happens when excitment of that wears off? What happens when people stop noticing, when the scale isn't there to pat me on the back, when new clothes just don't do it anymore, when I forget what it was like to be fat...? How do you stay motivated, how do you stay focused?

So far my thoughts are to try to continualy change up my exercise with new fun stuff, try to keep it new and exciting in the kitchen, try to keep my outfits form fitting at least a few times a week and try to make every outfit I wear make me feel HOT, to keep coming back here to get and give support and to just keep learning. But in the long term of life (I'm relatively young and have a young child with the possibility of a future child) is this going to be enough?

It just isn't possible to stay at a high peak of excitement for a lifetime.

I rely on my healthy habits. There are things I JUST DO. It is the way I live, I don't have to be excited to do them. I try not to think of these things as hardships I have to be motivated to accomplish, I try to think of them as regular, ordinary, every day things.

I meal plan on Sundays. I always pack lunches. I look up calorie counts for restaurants online before I go. I measure rice, pasta, salad dressing, protein for my salads. I say "double veggies, dressing on side, no butter" instantly. I don't eat fast food. If there's a choice of sizes, I order the small. I avoid the foods I know trigger me to eat in a way that doesn't make me happy (chips, crackers, packaged baked goods, cookies). I forgive myself if I am tempted to eat off plan (because it does happen).

There are still flurries of excitement, but yeah, it's just ordinary after awhile.

Yep! It is enough! Truth be told I'm so glad to be done. I've been able to slow down with the whole work out routine and focus on a new life now. I found a great guy, and I still watch what I eat. I have a "before" picture of me next to my computer screen at work so I can remember to not go back, and I also have a "before" picture on my phone and I look at it when I need to be reminded, or I feel down. Or simply when I want to splurge on naughty food. The work was hard. It was probably the hardest thing I've ever done and I had natural child birth without any pain killers! haha But I'm confident I won't ever go back. We've worked to hard to come this far just to turn back around. Good luck to you, and I let myself splurge once a month. But of course my calorie intake the day before and after are lower than my normal 1,500 daily ones I take in so it balances out in the wash. It's just to let you know that it's ok to live a little every now and then.

*This* is definitely my way of life now. It's just what I do and who I am. It's a part of me.

Motivation - having it, not having it - is irrelevant. It doesn't changes my behaviors. They are ingrained in me. It is natural for me to do this. And - I NEVER WANT TO LIVE ANOTHER WAY. I LOVE my life now and going back is not an option.

You mentioned maintenance being harder - well the only harder part of it, is that it is longer. Other than that - not so much. I know what to do. I know how to keep the weight off (the same way I GOT it off). I've got great habits to rely on. Wonderful strategies, tricks and a tool box of goodies to help me get up should I, I mean, when I, falter(& I do). I know what foods to eat - and which ones not to eat. I've got an incredible slew of luscious, healthy recipes. I'm a pro at planning, shopping, etc. So maintenance is easier in the respect that I could do it with my hands tied behind my hands so to speak.

I also don't view living this way as a hardship or a burden. I don't have to talk myself into it. To me, it's a joy and a blessing.

Mostly, my new habits are just that...habits. But if I DO get in a rut, my usual fix is to give myself a goal to work toward. It isn't a weight goal, obviously, since I'm at maintenance and don't need that number to change. Usually this is a fitness-related goal for me.

For example, I found myself in a bit of a workout funk a while back. I established myself some fitness goals (running a sub-30 min 5k was one, heels on the mat in downward dog was another, and the third was "try a new activity each week"). I made a calendar to track my progress and made a plan to get where I wanted to be (hmm, this sounds familiar...a lot like weight loss!). And it completely remotivated me to have a goal to work toward.

And my heels are not quite on the mat yet (yoga was curtailed due to injury), but I have run several 5ks in the sub-30 min range.

I'm almost here. I admit in the begining there was a lot of poor me, why do I have to eat this way and now I want to make the right choices and often I do it without even thinking. The poorer choices are often very unappealing and that is a great relief to me.

Pretty much what Amanda and Robin said... motivation comes and goes. If I relied solely on motivation then I wouldn't get very far because it's always waxing and waning. That's why I'm *committed* to living this way. If you are relying on excitement then I have to tell ya, after a few months of seeing the exact same weight on the scale, excitement is not easily found!

Part of the reason I was successful at losing weight is because my goals were non-weight related. when I set out to lose weight, my goals were to become a runner - whether I weighed 200 lbs or not. I think that is also why I am successful (so far) at maintaining...trust me weighing in the low 130s is awesome but I am constantly setting new goals for myself because if I don't have them, I tend to become complacent. So i am always signing up for races, trying to lift more weight, etc. It keeps me on track pretty much 90% of the time.