What incentive have you given or gave yourself

I'm going to look fantastic on my wedding day! Already saving for skin removal and new boobies

I don't think I'll ever reach my end goal. But for this cycle I get to write my blog, as I usually do after reaching my short term goal.

I don't really have a goal lol. I have specific goals like I want to do a push up or run 10k or whatever. I never reached my weight loss goal. About 10 lbs away I decided to quit losing and stay where I was at, which was about a year and a half ago.

"What incentive have you given or gave yourself"
Better health, more good years, increased fitness - plus the sense of achievement from succeeding at something I had failed to do for 20 years. I didn't need an object as a reward.
I'm very goal driven so my weight loss goal was simply ticked off and replaced with new goals.

"Do you think it’s easier to maintain than keep losing it?"
For me it's far easier. Part of the reason I stayed roughly 30lbs overweight for so long was that I didn't have to work hard to stay in that range. I hate dieting and that's another great incentive to stay in my maintenance range.
But for many others maintenance is hard or harder than losing weight - it's very personal.

I gained weight in an unusual way, I lost weight in an unusual way and maybe I maintain weight in an unusual way - it's really important to know yourself and tailor your strategies accordingly. If that includes a reward or incentive being helpful then go for it.

nicole_eastwood_taurus wrote: »

Do you think it’s easier to maintain than keep losing it?

You have to have a strategy to keep the weight off. Which strategies work for you are something you have to figure out.

I'm 62. I don't know how many times in my life I've lost 20-40 pounds and then regained them a year or so later. I started my first diet when I was a teen, so there were a lot of diets. I always lost weight fairly easily, but regained it just as easily. As I got older, the times between diets got longer and longer, not because I didn't need to lose weight, but because I hated dieting. I also was in denial about how much weight I had gained because of the change in clothes sizing. As long as I could wear a size 10 or 12 I didn't feel fat, even when I weighed 175. I was active, which kept me from gaining more, but not active enough to actually lose weight with all the walking and backpacking I was doing. About 8 years ago, I decided to get serious about losing weight. I dropped 45 pounds. Then I started running. With the running and continuing to watch my diet, I lost another 10 pounds. Since then I've mostly kept my weight 120-125 lbs. I know from past experience that if I don't log what I eat, I end up gradually increasing my intake without really being aware of it. Because I run a lot, I can eat a lot, but thanks to the food log, I know exactly how much I can eat without having to worry about gaining weight. If I wasn't as active as I am, I would have to work a lot harder to maintain that loss. So for me it's a two prong effort: tracking what I eat and staying active. It's not difficult, but it also means that there is no end point for me as long as I want to stay thin.

I didn't have a separate reward because getting to my goal and getting to eat a little more in maintenance were both reward enough. However, being able to have dessert on a regular basis rather than settling for just a little bite of something sweet has been pretty darn great too.

i found that buying new clothes was a huge incentive for me. But once i got to that point.. i had a real hard time knowing what to buy. Years of buying black V neck clothes and tops that didn't tuck in.. frumpy styles 'don't buy frumpy any more.' it was hard to develop a new style.

As for maintaining... it has been up and down as i am coming up on my one year anniversarry when i started for the last time....Dec. 28th. This time, i got it done. But twice now, i've had to go back to dieting to get off 5 or so pounds i've gained. I'm ecougraged by posts in this thread that say it takes time to master a consistant weight.

i will add... that exercise and being active is more key to maintaing than for losing.

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

Adjusting to maintenance was tough for me. It was probably 9-12 months before I really got the hang of it and it's a bit over 18 months now and I wouldn't say I'm always relaxed about it even now.

I feel this way, too. And I’ve been maintaining a couple decades. For me, maintenance is regaining and re-losing the last 5 pounds repeatedly. When it’s time to cut, I do it with a 250kcal/day deficit (.5 lb/wk), so it’s not fundamentally different from maintenance—same way of eating, same macros, same habits, same exercise... just a few more calories every day. Sometimes maintaining seems like more mental effort than it should be (emotional eater), but it’s still easier for me than cutting simply because there are more calories to work with.

ETA: sorry I didn’t respond to OPs question re rewards. Managing my health feels similar to managing my house or bank account or family responsibilities. It’s just something you do. It’s not necessarily fun all the time, but failing to manage has bad consequences and managing well feels great.