I have to be vigilent all the time or else it's so easy for me to slip back to my old ways. I wouldn't say it's "hard" though. In some ways by pre-planning for contingencies, I find it easier to maintain and I gives me a peace of mind that I won't let myself go too far. Basically, I just put various triggers in my life that lets me know that I'm not paying enough attention to the way I eat, including:

1. I still keep a food journal and record everything I eat. I know some people are able to get away from this after they enter maintenance, but I find that I can't maintain without my journal. It's kind of weird, but I'm a numbers/data kind of person and I actually enjoy the process of doing this so it's actually not a chore.

2. I weight and measure myself every week, including taking caliper measurements. I have a weight or fat % increase limit that I will not go over.

3. I wear a jacket that just barely fits me that I wear regularly. I know immediately if my waist or chest increases by 1/4 inch.

4. Most importantly I have a pre-set plan for what to do when I go over my limit, including not eating out for a week or two, reducing the amount of carbs I eat, etc. Since I don't let myself go too far before I do something about it, I find that it only takes me a week or two to get back in line.

Anyway, I think everyone is different, but for me I do feel like it's a life-time thing. For some reason I've lost some natural ability to control my own appetite. So I do have to work at it, but since the alternative is far far worse (emotionally and physically), I don't mind.

I do think that it will probably always be something that we have to do - planning ahead, exercising, watching what we eat, etc - but I think it will get easier as it becomes more of a habit. I struggle with it.. I know I probably will for quite some time. But losing weight just feels SO GOOD. And I agree with what others have said.. that staying unhealthy & big is hard.

Stay strong. You CAN beat this & you WILL! :hug:

For me, it has gotten easier. The good eating habits are more ingrained and I've gotten out of the habit of pigging out on boxes of cookies and bags of chips. I remain vigilent, though, because I'm only one trip away from the grocery store and I could fall into that at any time.

But.....lots of things have gotten easier. I don't have to buy the clothes from the big ladies' department anymore; I can buy in misses. I don't huff and puff going up and down stairs. I am pretty sure now that when a guy checks me out, he's thinking "hmmmmm!" instead of "wow, she's a big girl". My asthma is a lot better. I look better nekkid.

So even though it can sometimes be a pain to have to remain vigilant against the possible backslide into a cookie-induced coma, it's still easier than being 50 pounds overweight. Much, much easier.

I go in cycles. Sometimes it seems easy. Sometimes I back-slide, regain a little, and then getting back to my maintenance window is hard. As time goes on, I do think that the easy days far outnumber the really hard days.

But the benefits of being lighter are always there! I feel so much better, am healthier, and wearing cute little clothes doesn't suck either. So, when I get frustrated and feel like weight loss and maintenance is a never-ending battle ... I re-focus on all of the benefits and remember how worthwhile it is. Like Glory said - pick your hard.

I've written something like this so many times, someday another mod is going to delete my post because it's a duplicate. However ...

Yes, we will always have to think about food but ... we always have! When my kids were little I had to plan what to buy for groceries, I had to plan and make breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, bake sale things, birthday party things, enough things for a friend to eat too ... I woke up thinking about their breakfast and lunch and they were hardly on the buss when I started thinking about whether or not I needed to buy groceries in order to make supper.

This not entirely different. Actually, I'm a whole lot more organised about this.

Set it all out there and go with it. If you have your fridge and pantry well stocked ... some days you won't even have to think much ... and that may free up 20 minutes for you to dance around the kitchen ;)

I think asking if it will be this "hard" may lend itself to you still tweaking what IS going to work for you long-term. For me, anything worthwhile takes work--a good marriage, a good career, a good relationship with God, etc. But also you have to think your strategy over, find your shortcuts, figure out what is mandatory for success and move forward. Just like a marriage, a career or whatever, weightloss or being fit isn't always going to be blue skies and birds singing.

It's an exciting winding road and one worth traveling. I was so far back in the woods! Now it seems like I am finally catching glimpses of the sun through the trees ahead of me. Even though the road gets steep, even though the things along the way try to distract me, I really must persevere. Staying in the woods is simply NOT an option. Darkness falls, it gets really cold and the animals come!

Oh, also. I MUST write this.

I cannot give credit to the poster--I cannot remember who it was.

"Being fat is hard. Losing weight is hard. Staying fit is hard. Pick your hard."

What a great post!!!

I'm about 9 months into my weightloss and about half way to my goal. I have to say making the right choices is still pretty hard for me, but it is getting easier. Most of how I eat, plan and exercise is just part of my everyday routine. I still have a hard time with cravings and eating in social situations. However since everything else has gotten easier(including exercise which to me is a miracle) I assume that eating in social situations/turning down food will get easier the more I do it.

My best advice is to stick with your plan to lose weight, just keep doing it even if you have to adjust your plan 100 times if you keep striving towards your goal it will become more routine and therefore making it "easier"

In my own humble and personal journey, losing the weight was not hard. It was easy. Very easy. When I hear people say how hard it is, I scratch my head, because *for me* it was, well simple. NOW, mind you, I have lost weight many times in the past, so I can honesty say that (in my case) practice makes perfect.

Maintaining a weight loss is something I have NEVER successfully accomplished. I reached my original goal on July 3rd, so technically I have been in maintaince for almost 4 months. I can honestly say it is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. So far it is not eaiser *for me*. You know being fat was hard, I hated eating at restaurants because I knew people were staring, I hated to go to the grocery store because I felt people checking out my cart, the pain, the embarrassment...all the emotions, being fat sucked and was hard. But now...being a totally normal weight, I sometime think to myself, I can eat junk food in public and people won't judge me, or I can buy a cart load of baking supplies because I look normal, and no one will judge me... I feel I'm teetering on the edge constantly now, and it is a very hard and extremely lonely road for me.

Gosh I sound like such a downer....;)

No need to be lonely, LB!! We are here!!

For me the "hard" part of it comes and goes, some days it feels really natural and some days I have to think about it.

Someone said "you can never go back to the way you ate before" and my immediate thought was: why would I want to?

And then someone else quoted a trainer saying they never ate for pleasure anymore and I thought that is a sad way to look at it. The way I am eating now gives me a lot more pleasure than the junk food, processed food, rich foods I used to fill up on. Flavor, results both superior.

I would have to add my voice to what Manda and Meg said. I will always have to be vigilant because if I am not, I will soon be on a slippery slope. (The funny thing is that I have a coworker, in fact we sit back-to-back) in his late twenties, who is quite petite for a guy and he seems to live on burgers and fries. At least that's what he has for lunch on most days. He never gains an ounce.)
As far as "hard" goes, yes, sometimes it is a struggle but for the most part it has become so ingrained in my mind that I always check how much protein/fat/carbs in anything I buy. I used to read labels even before my weight loss journey but not's bordering on obsession. :-)

Thanks everybody for your words. It's just been a bit of a rough week as I've been really disciplined about staying on my plan lately and I'm still not seeing the numbers go down and I'm feeling hungry which makes me cranky. But thanks to the support of everyone at 3FC I'll keep plugging away and tweaking my plan and figuring out how to make this week. I may the SLOWEST loser, but I'll find a way to lose sustainably! I really appreciate your thoughful responses.