I want to add two -

COOKING SKILLS
and
VARIETY

I've done GREAT at maintaining (am the SAME STUPID WEIGHT OF 210 since last May!), but haven't mastered getting over my plateau yet. My maintaining success in my opinion is from weighing myself every morning no matter what. It keeps me honest, and assures that I never again will have pounds "sneak" up on me as those HUNDRED POUNDS just materialized "suddenly" over those 25 years!

Cheryl

CONSISTENCY is key

Eat clean EVERY DAY
Exercise EVERY DAY (except Sunday, the day of rest!)
Put your mind to it EVERY DAY
Drink plenty of water EVERY DAY
Plan meals EVERY DAY

For me it's a matter of eating at home whether I want to or not. Keeping my appropriate foods stocked with careful planning. Keeping to my low carb plan and walking most every day.

My thing would be exercise. I don't really have the food down yet to "losing weight level." I'm pretty much eating at maintenance. But I have added exercise consistently to my life, and that has made a big difference in how I look and feel. My keyword would be AWARENESS. I never had to watch my weight before in high school. I just ate food, i would exercise, and it was fine. I knew rationally that eating a lot would make you gain weight, but I never experienced what "a lot" meant before. Now, in college, (after 3.5 years of gaining!), I'm finally at the point where I realize that eating a lot and drinking a lot makes you ::gasp:: gain weight. Shocking, I know. Now at least I am aware of what I am eating, aware of its effects, and aware of how my body feels when I exercise or when I don't. This lets me make informed decisions about my health.

I am exactly like this. I have to plan in the morning/night before or else I will eat too much or eat way too little because I'm afraid of eating too much!

Focusing on health and the commitment to be healthy rather than weight.

Whenever I simply focused on weight, I would slide back into my old habits once I reached my goal. Doing it for health gives me a push to stick to it long-term.

And with exercise, I just do it five times a week. No excuses unless I am too sick or injured to do an activity. Keeping track of your fitness progress is a great motivator, but there will always be days in which you would rather be doing something else. And that's when the commitment aspect comes in.

Such great thoughts. I never really thought about the "emotional end" before. Maybe that is what was lacking....

Mari

1. Keeping a food journal and limiting my calories to 1200-1400 per day.
2. Cooking dinner instead of going out. I always cook enough for two nights so I don't have to cook every night.
3. Working out with a trainer 3 days a week.
4. Allowing myself the occasional treat.

I thought planning was really important but lately I've been so sick that I haven't been planning. It's part lack of energy and part that my appetite is all screwed up and I can't accurately predict what I want to eat (and one of the illness was the stomach flu, so a lot of my normal meals are off the table at the moment). Turns out, I do fine without planning. I'm just careful to keep my meals within certain ranges (200 calories for breakfast, 300 for lunch, and 400 for dinner) and to make sure snacks fit in the days limit before I eat them and I come out under my limit every day.

1. Keeping a food journal and limiting my calories to 1400-1600 per day.
2. Cooking dinner instead of going out.
3. Working out 6 days a week (fairly heavy duty cardio workouts, 75% to 85%. of max heart rate for 30 to 60 minutes + 3-4 days a week of weight training) + Walking the dog 7 days a week. IMHO this is the main reason I've managed not to gain...cause I'm way more disciplined at exercising than pulling off less than 1600 calories
4. Planning ahead - always having a healthy snack available...if I gotta go looking there's no telling what I might find.
5. Weighing daily

It's funny, when people talk to me about my losing weight the first thing they ask me is "how long do you have to eat this way?"

The NUMBER ONE thing I have to tell them is..

This is a lifestyle not a diet!

That's the mind set. It never ends and it's never perfect. It's what I make it.
To support that lifestyle, the best things i've done for myself are

~get rid of the junk and anything artificial
~drink LOTS of water
~eat every 2-3 hours
~move more

1. Water (mostly all I drink)
2. Planned Exercise (4-5 times weekly)
3. Eating 3 meals a day that I prepare, plus healthy snacks
4. Sheer "wanting it!"
5. Support Partners

AMEN to that, sister!!!