Last 10-12 lbs

So stop it!! Sooo much easier said than done. But on the positive side, you haven't gained. I gained 20# during the fall-holiday season last year, thought for sure I was doomed. But the new year brought me new focus and I am back to within 5# of my goal.
You need to find something to bring you a new focus. Maybe planning for a vacation, new clothes, a different goal to work towards. Figure out where the main problem lies, such as wine? Certain time on the weekend? Make different plans for those specific instances. Can you make a feasible less calorie dense option available for the wine? Different activities to do for fun on the weekend? Find a walking or work-out buddy? Take up a new exercise routine?
It can get downright boring if we stick with the same thing all the time; find something new to change it up, make things more fun so you're not relying on wine and food throughout the whole weekend.
Good luck and wishing you the best!!

I am 5’9” and weigh 146.6 today. I joined MFP about 5 lbs ago to help lose a few extra lbs and to then maintain after losing 40 lbs on my own since last april. I knew I would find the final weight loss and maintenance the hardest and that if I didn’t start paying close attention to what I was eating by weighing and recording food I would eat more than I thought I was eating by grabbing a nut here and a handful of grapes there and a slice of cheese while getting something from the fridge to make dinner. And I was right. I had been “plateauing” even without drinking any alcohol for 6-8 weeks every 10 lbs or so and all of the sudden I started losing a lb a week again. So make sure you are really weighing and writing down everything.

Also set yourself a fun goal - best if it is exercise oriented too so you have to train for it - like a 1/2 marathon in an amazing location (you can walk/run) or a hiking or walking or biking vacation somewhere where you go from place to place and they transport your bags for you, or a fundraiser for a cause you care about in your own town that will motivate you to do the exercising and the event (maybe with a partner or a friend or a kid?) or a reward of an item of clothing or a day out to a spa or a massage that you will do at the next x lbs lost and not before.

gorple76 wrote: »

Thank you everyone - all of your responses have resonated with me. I’m not sure yet what my next move will be. I think I’m nervous about a prolonged maintenance break in case I put weight back on from relaxing too much, but I know that’s a silly way to think about the whole thing. It’s something I need to get my head around I think

Here's a thing: Weight loss may have an end date, but successful weight management is forever.

Taking a maintenance break can be useful during loss (hunger/appetite hormones, psychological break, blah blah blah). But - maybe more importantly - it's a chance to figure out and practice your maintenance strategies.

Sooner or later, that needs to happen. If you want to stay at a healthy weight long term, it requires new habits. You can't just go back to the old ones. That "relax too much" worry you have makes me think you still might have some work to do on those habits.

A very few people maintain by going back to the old habits, gaining a small number of pounds, going back into a deficit - basically a controlled yo-yo. IMO, that requires more of the mojo muscle.

What habits will work for you - eating and activity/exercise - to keep your life reasonably happy, while staying more or less in a range of a few pounds, more or less on autopilot? Figuring that out during weight loss is really helpful. Life gets complicated now and then, and a maintenance strategy that requires constant motivation, willpower, discipline . . . well, that would break down, for me; and I suspect that's true for a lot of people.

Getting more specific for a moment: One of my maintenance strategies (I'm in year 6+) is "calorie banking". My routine calorie goal is a bit under maintenance calories - not punitively much, maybe 100-200 calories. That creates some wiggle room for more indulgent days occasionally. Some people do that as a weekday/weekend pattern, but as a retiree, my pattern is less regular. It's still a strategy that works for me. If you like to kick back a bit on weekends, maybe it's a thing for you to consider?

(Over around 4 years earlier on in maintenance, I'd let my weight slowly creep up 10 or so pounds, still in a healthy range - my jeans were getting tight, I hate to shop. All I needed to do was reduce the frequency/magnitude of my indulgent days - for a long time! - and creep my weight back down. Nearly painless!) Obviously, my maintenance approach still includes logging/tracking, which I don't find burdensome or obsessive - maybe the most productive 10 minutes of my day, in benefits. If logging forever isn't for you, you'll need an alternative.

You can figure all of this out. It's a process. I also endorse that idea of checking out the "maintaining weight" part of the Community. It's not super active - there are quite a few maintainers here, but many of us are free range in the rest of the forum, not as much in that section. But it's accumulated some excellent content, helpful, worth reading.

Best wishes!

@ReenieHJ I don’t have a precise goal other than to be within the lower end of the BMI range, and at a weight I can maintain. My doctor and I discuss this every couple of months but have just agreed on lifestyle and maintenance targets to hit rather than weight goals centered on numbers.

I don’t want to hijack the original question so I am going to answer your question further in a way I hope is also helpful to @gorple76 — maybe she should stop thinking about numbers on the scale too as motivation to sustain the healthy eating plan she has been on and consider setting some goals along the lines of the ones i set with my dr that are specific to her needs and interests and thus motivating for her lifestyle and health …

In my case those goals are to ensure my bloodwork is good without having to take medicine, that I am in a healthy to low end of healthy BMI range to reduce pressure on joints because I have arthritis in pretty much every joint and a history of arthritis in my family, that I pick a weight I can maintain without starving myself and missing out on enjoying things (I actually am fine even now as I am losing so am hopeful)…. I have done well between 135-145 depending on exercise and other variables but that was also pre chemo induced menopause, and rapid weight gain associated with medicines I was on for different things after. I also now have some limits on the types of exercise I can do so I am aiming to lose a few pounds extra just in case these new factors make maintenance more complicated than anticipated. Understanding my health as a whole, and thinking about all the things that happen to my body (and have happened to it in recent years including aggressive breast cancer, a bout with an auto immune disorder, peripheral neuropathy from a combo of the two, arthritis …. And I take care of elderly parents, work full time as a university professor, and need to be around for a while yet!) keep me motivated.