Slippery slopes to gaining weight

I lost 140 lbs because my blood sugar was scary. Sometimes slipping is unavoidable, it happened to me very recently despite being more or less consistent for 7 years (by consistent I don't mean perfect)! You're never immune to it. The trick is to learn sustainable habits that will carry for very very long. If a habit still feels daunting and unsustainable a month later it's very likely this won't get better and you'll give it up eventually.

I always had my eyes on maintenance when I was losing. I didn't care how long it needed to take (took 6 years, a year break, and one regain), what I cared about was will I be able to keep the weight off? My weight loss phase was basically training wheels for the most important phase, maintenance. I experimented with habits and strategies, kept what I liked and tossed what wasn't going to be sustainable. This resulted in losing less weight or even none sometimes, but how much I was losing wasn't as important to me as the learning process. When I regained some weight at some point I did not panic, I just collected myself and tried to troubleshoot. What lead to the regain? What can I do differently? This helped me much more than beating myself up about it. Any opportunity to learn is very valuable to maintance, even if you don't like the outcomes.

The trick to consistency is not perfection, but to catch yourself quickly when you find yourself slipping. I'm currently in maintenance, but for about 3 weeks recently I was slipping and just didn't care anymore. The moment I felt even a hint of caring I took action. It's not a sudden jump back, but I'm gradually building back momentum at a pace that won't overwhelm me back into not caring. I'm not tempted to take drastic measures or "punish" myself for slipping. I'm leaning on tried and true personal strategies that I found helpful for years.