For those of you who have been successfully dieting for a while, do you think that the beginning was the hardest bit?

I've successfully lost weight in the past (a while ago!) and found that once I got going, it was a lot easier...

But I suppose I just want people to post and say YES Cookiebell, it'll get easier as you get into it!!

when it comes to dieting, yes, the beggining was the hardest.

maintenance is another can of worms

I don't even want to think about maintaining, the thought of it puts me off dieting to be honest!!

Definitely.

Beginning dieting - very difficult to get to the point of committing.
Ongoing weightloss - definitely does get easier; it gets a lot more second nature, plus the more I lose the more I think I don't want to waste all that effort.
Recovering from interim lapses - not quite as hard as beginning but pretty close.

Maintaining - for me, the Holy Grail of impossibility so far. I will plan to do better this time.

DEfinitely the beginning is the hardest! You're letting (forcing) the bad habits to die while learning how to incorporate the new healthy ones. There's no routine yet. You're not used to saying no to certain foods and yes to others. You're learning meal planning, what healthy foods you like and dislike. The healthy lifestyle is not automatic.But you stick with it, not allowing yourself to *cave* and those new habits get ingrained in you. And then it DOES become automatic, second nature and habitual and that's when it gets LOTS easier - even easy.

And maintenance - piece of cake (rarely ). By the time you get there, you WILL have those good habits down pat. You will have found great healthy foods to eat. The good eating has BECOME your new normal and just what you do. And you'll be feeling soooo wonderful you won't want anything to ruin it.

Yes, but . . . .

...when you get to maintenance those old habits are still there. The underlying causes of your weight-gain are still there. Life, and all its stresses, is still there.

Maintenance can be done, but it certainly isn't easy for most of us. However it is worth it, it really is.

Best of luck to you on your weight-loss journey.

Thanks all - am feeling quite positive about it all and have taken my 'before' photos...

But hopefully, you've learned through the losing process how to COPE and DEAL WITH *life* and all of its stresses, joys and other food challenges.

And I think for many, at some point, the underlying causes of ones weight gain, is no longer *relevant*, for many - it just becomes HABIT. Initially, there may have been a *reason* for the weight gain, but after years and years and years - it's just what you get used to - habit.

And good habits - ONCE ESTABLISHED - are just as hard to break as bad ones.

We talk about easy? But really, how HARD is it? Does it require time, effort thought, planning, discipline - will yes, but so what? So does every other thing in this world that really, really matters - employment, marriage, kids, friendships, religion..

And if you ask me, nothing, nothing compares to the hard of being morbidly obese, obese or even overweight. THAT'S hard.

I guess it all boils down to - choose your hard. And again, I hate to even call *this* hard. I just don't think of it quite that way. Perhaps I'm getting stuck on semantics here.

Actually, for me, the beginning is the EASIEST. That's when I have all my motivation...that's when I'm excited and positive and have visions of daisy dukes dancing in my head. I'm wonderful at starting a new diet (or lifestyle, if you prefer), but once I'm a few weeks in and the newness wears off, I start losing steam.

The hardest part for me really comes after a few months. Thaaaat's when it starts getting old and I have to struggle every day to stay in a healthy, positive mindset.

For me, the VERY beginning is hard (and I'm starting again after slipping on maintenance!) My "new" starting weight isn't really so daunting, but I've still got this overwhelming feeling of "Get it off! Get it off!" like this 10 pounds is some kind of creepy alien insect that's suddenly latched on to me. I want it gone NOW! I am aware of it constantly.

But when I lost weight before (and it was quite a bit more) I became very motivated once I saw the scale start to dip, even a little bit. I focused more on the delicious, healthy foods I could prepare and eat and soon I didn't want the other stuff (I've never been much of a junk food eater). So I know I need to hunker down this first week, drink lots of water and choose my food wisely, and I will soon have RESULTS to focus on, rather than this extra weight that came from outer space

Once I get back to a maintenance weight, let's hope I stick with it this time. My weaknesses: wine and pasta!

Good luck!!

I think this is why you want to lose weight with a plan that could be your life--I lost a bunch of weight once (ok, several times) on 900 calories a day/slimfast type plans. Those were so miserable that there was never any thought of maintaining like that: once the weight was off, I needed to invent an entirely new eating plan, and frankly, months and months at 900 calories pretty much inevitably sapped my will and my ambition to do such a thing--so I went back to my old habits.

THIS time, I am eating a lot more--and exercising a lot more so that I can--and maintenance can be a variation on the quite livable life I already have: I'm hoping to exercise once a day, not twice, to have a roll with my baked chicken breast at night, to be able to eat moderately when a social occasion calls for it, and eat a substantial meal twice a month or so. But I can vary the habits I have in a controlled way, building on what I have already done, instead of starting from scratch just at a time when my willpower is low.

But to answer the original poster: YES, the beginning is the hardest if only because, like the proverbial frog in hot water, you don't know how miserable you are now. You've learned to settle, to tolerate it. As you lose weight, the rewards pile up, and you feel better and better about yourself.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that if a plan is still making you miserable after 3 weeks, if you are having to fight to stay on it, you need to change the plan in some way because it's only a matter of time before it collapses.

I'm thinking month 2 & 3 of dieting is the hardest for me. The first week might be a struggle but once you get into it the first few weeks you have the most motivation. I start struggling around the end of month 1 and starting into month 2 and 3. That is where a diet goes from fad to long term and if you aren't doing something that you can live with long term, it gets old and you start going back to old habits.

I'm starting to struggle now, and I'm a little over a month into it. Granted, life is throwing me a few curve balls - vacations, travel and work stress that I'm contending with. So if I only maintain over the next 2 weeks I'll be ok with that as progress.

It all sucks. LOL

(except for buying new clothes )

I agree with ThicknPretty - getting started is easy for me. I lose and I feel motivated but then somehow it becomes boring to me. Then I have to re-commit again.

Oh cut it out you, it all doesn't suck.

I bet you can tell us a whole lot about how much it ummm, sucked to be super morbidly obese.