What helped you stick with it?

I have been the same for the past 20 years...I've been doing ok for the last 2 but was "off track" for a couple of recent months. What I'm telling myself now, to stick with it, is that I'm not "starting a new workout plan". I tell myself this is a part of my life..it will be ongoing. I try to remember how great I feel when I workout. I am doing the couch to 5k and weights a few times a week. On my off nights I let my body and mind relax. I'm trying to look at this (eating healthy and getting fit) as a way of life that I'll be doing the rest of my life. So, I won't allow myself the option to give up..just short breaks and treat myself every once in a while. I've had a hard time learning moderation but I'm working on it! Good luck to you!!!

Keeping my food diary going no matter what. I’ve made a lot of mistakes trying to hit my number. There are a lot of mistakes you make, loss of concentration, fatigue, misread menus, inadequate planning, even math and counting mistakes. But I always tried to enter everything into my food diary and put a number on it. Even if I was just making a good faith estimate.

I didn’t like recording my mistakes. But everything was recorded. Because I didn’t like recording mistakes, I started concentrating on not making them.

I started to view weight loss as a set of things to do. The only way not to do them was to decide not to do them. I paid attention to my thinking. A lot of the time I would catch my brain trying to talk me out of doing what had to be done. I’d catch myself thinking that what I was doing wasn’t good enough. This was the first step to t talking myself into quitting. I heard this somewhere and repeated it to myself - perfect is the enemy of the good. I didn’t need to be perfect to succeed, just good enough.

I worked week to week. If I lost .2 lbs for the week, I accepted it as progress. If I wasn’t OK with a loss, what would happen when I gained?

I tried to do everything the easy way whenever possible. My program was a project I was doing but it wasn’t about me as a person. I decided that I wanted to lose weight and I had to take certain actions to stand behind my decisions. Weight loss was the right thing for me to do. I wanted to do the right thing. I found self respect in the process.

Start a food diary and never stop. The process is more important than the numbers.

Keeping it SIMPLE and doable, so I will stick to it. I get these lofty ideas of doing body weight & lifting exercises every day and sit-ups, walking EVERY DAY, etc. I don't stick to it ever. What I stick to? Tracking ALL my food always, and taking long walks about 3 nights per week with longer, much more difficult hikes 1-2 times on the weekend. I've maintained 130 lb loss for 5 years and counting, by doing this. I still get ideas of doing way more but I doubt I'll ever TRULY stick to those hardcore workouts. I think it's important to know yourself, and most of all not to forget that screwing up a little bit (or a lot) doesn't mean you failed! Just try again.