This is going to sound strange, but here goes:

Does anyone ever stress out that, no matter what, they're going to stop making progress? That even if you stuck to your lifestyle changes perfectly forever, your body is just going to get stuck. I freak out about this every time I step on the scale, and especially recently since I've been hovering around 230 for almost a month now.

I know it's irrational, and I know that I'm eating less calories than I burn, and that eventually it will catch up with me, but I still have a little voice in the back of my head that tells me: "this is it! You're done! Not even 40 pounds and you're done!"

Luckily, I use that voice to stay on plan, and work harder for better results, but I don't think the voice will ever go away. I'm sure one day I will be pushing 50 pounds, and it will be telling me I'm stuck. Same for 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100.

It is the suckiest little voice, and it's one that I can imagine would derail a lot of people. I know it's derailed me in the past.

I guess this is the time when it stops being a thrill, where pounds are melting off every week, and it becomes a trudge through the mire to get to the other side. Which is super pessimistic of me, but at least there is a goal at the other end. I'm happy to spend time trudging if eventually I reach said goal.

Anyway, I guess I'm just hoping that other people have heard that little voice as well, telling you that you've come as far as you're going to come.

I always think about this quote:

Vinny Gambini: 5 minutes? How do you know? Did you look at your watch?
Mr. Tipton: No.
Vinny Gambini: Oh, oh, oh, you tesitfied earlier that you saw the boys go into the store, and you had just begun to cook your breakfast and you were just getting ready to eat when you heard the shot.
Mr. Tipton: That's right.
Vinny Gambini: So obviously it takes you 5 minutes to cook your breakfast.
Mr. Tipton: That's right.
Vinny Gambini: That's right, so you knew that. You remember what you had?
Mr. Tipton: Eggs and grits.
Vinny Gambini: Eggs and grits. I like grits, too. How do you cook your grits? Do you like them regular, creamy or al dente?
Mr. Tipton: Just regular I guess.
Vinny Gambini: Regular. Instant grits?
Mr. Tipton: No self respectin' Southerner uses instant grits. I take pride in my grits.
Vinny Gambini: So, Mr. Tipton, how could it take you 5 minutes to cook your grits when it takes the entire grit eating world 20 minutes?
Mr. Tipton: I don't know, I'm a fast cook I guess.
Vinny Gambini: I'm sorry I was all the way over here I couldn't hear you did you say you were a fast cook, that's it?
Mr. Tipton: Yeah.
Vinny Gambini: Are we to believe that boiling water soaks into a grit faster in your kitchen than anywhere else on the face of the earth?
Mr. Tipton: I don't know.
Vinny Gambini: Well, I guess the laws of physics cease to exist on top of your stove. Were these magic grits? Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?

You think the laws of physics don't apply to you? Eat fewer calories than you need to maintain your weight and you will lose weight. There might be plateaus and slow downs, but it will work for you too. If it doesn't, make a doctor's appointment to see if anything is preventing it.

LMAO! I love that movie! This is dialogue I need to keep in my head because yes I fall into the same trap!!!! Glory87 you made my day!

Ah ignore the voice, or tell it to shut the heck up - or don't. No difference provided you stay with that plan. Let it keep talking to you - all the way to goal in fact. See what it tells you then.

I hear that same voice so often, it really does need shutting up!

LMAO @glory87- how funny and true it that! love that movie.

Girl i have been hovering around 230 for months. I cry. I complain. And just this week and I starting to figure out that the reason Im not losing...is me. I cannot say for you, of course, but I was in total denial. I cant eat 1800 cals (or more) a day, work out a few days when I can...and lose weight.

you might think that you are doing all the same things but i bet if you really thought about it you might find (like i did) that you have to make some adjustments.

That quote is amaaaaaaaaazing. I love it. A big part of why people fail, I think, is because they decide that they are special snowflakes and that it will work differently for them than it does for everyone else.

That doesn't mean, "oh, I can't eat carbs!" or "I have to cut out sugar to lose weight." Those are legitimate tweaks that everyone has to make to their own personal plans, and are actually super important for weight loss. What I am talking about is more of the, "uggggggh, all of your advice is TERRIBLE and you don't underSTAND me and my body is different to everyone in the world and I can't lose weeeeeeight EVER!"

I am not a big fan of special snowflakes. Or, at least, special snowflakes who whine, lol.

So thanks for the responses, everyone! I am going to be extra careful this week, and try playing with my exercise a little bit, and eating some different things, and just shocking my body out of the usual routine!

Ugh yes. You'd think after 90 lbs., I'd believe I'm really losing it. Even though I only had 1 month where weigh in was the same as the previous month, each weigh in I'm suprised that the scale actually moving down.

Well, yes.... me....

I for the first fifty pounds or so, I had this bizarre notion that I would end up a fat thin person-- meaning that even if I lost 100 lbs, I would look exactly the same-- same fat rolls, same triple chin, only somehow in miniature...

And now, that I'm down to a 14, I really have to stretch my imagination to think I could really lose and additional 30 or so to get me to a normal BMI.

The way I am now, chubby but fit, is pretty much my "native" self-image-- it's pretty close to the way I liked to imagine I was when I was heavier. I think when I squinted, I was imagining that I looked pretty much the way I look right now.

The next step-- going from overweight to thin. That is hard for me to imagine.

And as for the "special snowflake" LOL. Man, I thought I was a special snowflake for twenty years. I "couldn't" lose weight because I "couldn't" control myself around food because of some special psychological quirk.

Turns out my special psychological quirk was DENIAL. Who knew?

I have nightmares about waking up and it's all come back. Sometimes when I step on the scale I am a little afraid it will go all the way back up, and this whole thing has been an elaborate delusion--which isn't entirely crazy when I think about how long I wanted this to happen. If, a year ago, I were to have a psychotic break and slip into a delusional state, it would be exactly like this.

Yes! That strange little voice speaks to me, too, and says the same things! I have to keep re-directing my thoughts and deliberately think about positive things. I hope that voice goes away soon. It's exhausting to fight with it!

Yes, but that voice has quieted down over this last month, now nearly eight months in. And that voice is THE reason for my previous failures. I'd lose 30 pounds, but not in a timeframe I saw as desirable, therefore I was a failure and doomed to never lose more than 30 pounds. So this time I gave myself a year's commitment to being on plan, no matter what my silly brain told me. That has made all the difference for me. Here I am nearly 60 pounds down, double my previous record! And as that year mark approaches, I am more and more firmly entrenched in a lifestyle, not a diet, and not at all worried about maintenance. I've got this in the bag.

But it has taken a long, long time to get where I am mentally. And I have to say this positive line of thinking is only present most of the time. I still have days where I'm convinced my body has stopped losing. But most of the time, I'm more rational these days.

I feel the same way. All of June I have been hovering around 182-184. It's not fun. I know I should have lost but it just isn't happening.