How do you stay motivated

I think of it as more of a lifestyle change. The only difference between the "losing weight" phase and the "maintenance" phase will be that I'll have a larger calorie budget when I'm maintaining.

When you are on a diet, that means that you will eventually go off the diet. If you go back to the way you used to eat, you will gain back the weight. Rather than dieting, watch your serving sizes and stay within your calorie goal.

It's best to make changes that you can live with for the rest of your life. Don't be too drastic.

Very well said seska422. I think out of all the things that people can learn about a new lifestyle, that would be it. If it is important to you, then incorporate it into your new lifestyle, if it isnt, cut it out. If you arent happy eating the way you are eating now, you will go back to your old ways and gain the weight back again. Good luck with your journey!!!

I stay motivated to maintain in a few ways. For starters, since I never deprived myself while I was losing, I find that maintaining is even easier. I still get to enjoy all the foods I like and I even get to eat a little more of them. I developed the habit of batch cooking on the weekends, so it's pretty easy to keep doing that. And finally, I gave away all my old clothes. I am plenty motivated to continue to wear my JCrew skinny colored jeans and the nice skirts and dresses I bought for work.

Every time I got on the scale and see I'm still in my range, I do the happy dance. And I do it every morning. And it's been 3 years.

I accepted that motivation sometimes doesn't last, that it is something I need to keep on working on and around, especially now when closer to goal. Probably most of us will face a period where motivation drops. Sometimes, when we see how far off our goal weight/look etc is, we lose a little motivation because we've decided internally that its too hard and the glitter of that initial drive starts to fade. That's something that happened to me, given that I started trying to lose weight over 1 year ago now and I'm still not where I want to be.

So, some of the things that drive me forward, are having a new smaller goal (smaller than just the big ones of lose x amount of total weight/fat % etc) after another, because these give me a sense of accomplishment, pride, and trick my mind into moving forward towards progress more easily because I've got something measurable to work toward. I started off just trying to be able to run 4.2km as a goal, and other ones have included 10k, 21k, 44k, also being able to lift a certain amount, bike a certain distance, walk x amount of steps every day for a month, walk 50km in one month, etc.

I'll usually have another goal or challenge once one has passed, sometimes alone or sometimes with friends. I believe that having goals will be good for maintenance as well, because I started off not being able to do any of those things, I was 100% sedentary and unfit, and now I have done all of that, and I just think okay "I might not be at my goal body/weight yet, but neither have I stopped trying to be healthier and fitter in over an entire year, I have never gotten back to where I once was when the other 24 years previously I did no moving and became more and more overweight"

I look at the photos where my waist was 39 inches , then I check the mirror, see it's about 33 and remind myself I don't want to be able to not fit into my clothes again

Find a routine/habit that works for you. For me that means having daily activity goals, logging my food. And having a maintenance range rather than a specific maintenance target weight. I am more strict when I'm on the high end of my range, in terms of keeping to a certain calorie intake. When I'm on the low end, I splurge a little more. When in the middle, depends on the day/situation. But I still log, still aim for accuracy even though I do not use the food scale all the time now.

memerules123 wrote: »

how do you keep the goal going

What has helped me the most is having support from people on the same kind of journey. MFP is good and I belong to a Facebook fitness group also -- they are my sanity and my inspiration on those many many tough days.

joepratt503 wrote: »

I remember that every day I slack off is another day added before I reach my goal. There is nothing worse than thinking "hey, if I had just started this a MONTH ago...I would be 4 more pounds down than I am right now".

Oh have I been there!

Been in maintenance for a couple years now and I've found that for me, I have to keep myself focused. I'm always working towards new goals (food, health or fitness related). When I don't have goals that I'm striving for I get lazy and let things slide.

The weight loss phase is for a fairly short period of time. The maintenance phase is for the rest of our lives-20, 30, 40+ years. With the dismal success rate for long term maintenance I'm very aware how easy it is to get off track, and once that happens it's a pretty slippery slope. I plan on keeping on top of things for the rest of my life, in big part by always working towards a health/fitness/food goal, to keep my weight and health in the forefront of my life