Describe what finally made it stick for you?

Big picture thinking and understanding that there is no finish line...health, nutrition, fitness, etc are lifetime endeavors...you don't stop just because you've reached some arbitrary number on the scale. You can always be more awesome than you are right now.

People yo-yo because they tend to focus soley on some arbitrary number on the scale...there goals are focused soly on this random and arbitrary number rather than actual health, nutrition, and fitness. They reach some number on the scale and just stop getting their nutrition and fitness on.

When your goals are actually health, nutrition, and fitness related...well, looking awesome and fit and being at a healthy weight and physically fit, etc are just natural bi-products of that lifestyle.

My health was suffering - tired of being tired!

First I joined a gym, then I changed my eating by listening to my body. When you start working out and struggle through 15 minutes and your body is aching for nutrition it starts getting clearer - day by day!

My change in eating started with the removal of pasta, bread and rice from my diet and eating vegetables, fruit and protein, while working out daily and increasing my level of activity. Little things add up, like getting out of line at the store for that forgotten item on the other side of the store I still have sweets but I am more selective in what type of sweets/junk I want in my food plan.

I was working and attending school for a period of time and fitting in the gym and homework and cooking all my meals - I work in a law firm will call stress level medium- high, but I have learned how to take a walk or go to the gym when the stress gets to me, instead of looking for something to crunch on!

The better you start feeling the easier it gets to stick to it, this does not mean there are not times when I don't workout or eat over my intended calories but I take those times and moment for me learn what triggered it and find other ways to combat it the next time it happens.

To start, I do not have any kids, but I work full time, 6 months of this year I had 2 jobs and I've been in school all year. I've lost 54 pounds and I am NOT going to stop. I did the yo-yo thing too. Tried diets, pills, anything. What made me stick to it was thoughts of my future. I see my grandmother having health problems and my parents were over weight as well and began to get high blood pressure among other things. Also, I got in a serious relationship with my best friend. We now plan to get married and have kids and just the thoughts of my future with those kids helped me stick to it. My goal is to have a strong, healthy body before we decide to have kids so that I can continue to eat well during pregnancy, and teach my future kids about a healthy lifestyle. I learned how to cook last year too so I could teach them. So I guess, I'm doing it for my family and I. I want to see their kids and run around with them. I don't want to have all those common health problems that come with old age if I can prevent them. If you can just picture your goal, and start a simple routine, you can stick to it. I think a lot of people just try and go balls to the wall when they start a diet. That's really hard. If you want to be healthy, it's a lifestyle, not a diet, and that's how I think of my every day life. I only have one body and one life, I don't want to mess that up any more.

Short answer: I made it easy on myself, meaning I made it sustainable for the long haul.

1. I set the bar low: a half-pound loss per week. (Over 66 weeks I averaged three-quarters of a pound/week. That includes faster loss in the beginning, slowing as I got closer to goal.)
2. I used what I call "bridge foods" to deal with cravings. Here's an example:

Raisins gave me the sweetness I craved but not the fat of chocolate. However, they were still calorie-dense. I then moved from raisins to grapes and typically eat two cups of grapes after my workout.
3. I kept powering through plateaus, including my longest plateau of 48 days. I did not further restrict, but kept following MFP. I kept doing the right things and waited everything out as my weight fluctuated up-down-up-down-up-down. I might feel impatient, but I never got discouraged. I kept telling myself that I'm in a much better place now than before I started all this.
4. I made fitness as easy on myself as possible. I'm a caregiver and work out at home, on a mini-bike that's right here by my desk. Everything is within reach: equipment, music, water, towel.
5. I take everything one day/meal/minute at a time. Recently I missed a workout session because we spent five hours in the ER. Fortunately things turned out well and I got right back to my schedule.
6. I'm in this for health, period. As a friend told me, "If you go down, you both go down." It's that basic. I have much more stamina than before I started, and I'm in a much better place emotionally. That in itself is priceless.

I describe my method in more detail in my MFP-1-year-anniversary entry from this past September:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1095703-mfp-1-year-anniversary

In terms of motivation, I just decided I didn't want to be fat any ore. I'd had enough. I decided to do whatever it took. I made a commitment to myself to get healthy. Actually, I did that about 6 months before I stated losing weight, but I had some other stuff to deal with before I tackled the weight. I just decided I wanted to be healthy.

In practical terms, I made new habits. I realised that going on a restrictive regime wasn't gong to last very long, so I only made such changes as I knew I could live with. The big changes were portion control and becoming active. Exercise is now habit. Counting calories is habit (and one I have yet to kick, although I intend to one day.) Attempting to meet my nutritional goals is habit. Otherwise, not much has changed. I still eat all my favourite foods, still go out for dinner/drinks if I want to, and I don't force myself to do hours of exercise I hate. So, the key for me was creating new habits, and making a healthier lifestyle that is still enjoyable enough to live with and not need to "fall off the wagon".

ETA: and just to note, I didn't give up bread, or pasta, or switch chocolate with grapes. I just adjusted portion sizes and started paying more attention to the nutrients I get each day.