Maintenance - I thought we'd never meet!

In all my years of battling my weight, I never thought I'd have a need to learn how to maintain my weight. I've always been either losing... or gaining.... or losing.... or gaining. In fact, people would say to me, "Losing it is easy, keeping it off is a whole other story." Their words went in one ear and out the other, because I believed in my heart I'd never lose all the weight I needed to lose; therefore I'd never need to maintain. So much for positive thinking!

Well guess what.... maintenance and I have met.... and we're getting along quite nicely! Yes, I went through a couple of weeks of pushing the limit with my eating. Just like our children, I wanted to test the waters to see just how much I could eat without getting in trouble. I gained four pounds during that "trial period" and just as a child, I learned the lesson from my consequences!

Those four pounds gained are long gone and I feel as though I've found my groove! I would disagree that maintaining is harder than losing. Every single day of my life I am sooooo thankful for the 86 lbs I've lost! I do not lose sight of the hard work it took to lose that weight. I let that fuel me to make good choices every day! The cool thing is that I can still have my Dew. I can still have my Panera Bagels. I just continue to do so in moderation. I still eat only when I'm hungry and I still play the game of "how much can I leave on my plate!"

A lifestyle change is the only way to experience long term freedom from the bondage of food!!! I've had people ask me, "How did you do it?" as if it I could sum it up with one word. I did it by following through with alllll the tips I've shared in my blog. All of them together lead to my breakthrough!!! And it's the continuing practice of those tips that keeps the weight off!!!!

Every bit of sacrifice is worth it my friends - every bit!!! I have never felt so great in my entire life! Thanks to my weekly personal training sessions I've done for the past four months, I have muscles in places I didn't know muscles existed!! I have seen myself move into smaller size clothing, even though the number on the scale is not decreasing. This lifestyle change is one of the best decisions I've ever committed to in my life!