Will I have to Be Here for the Rest of My Life?

it depends on how dedicated you really want to be and how important it is to you,

I worried about that for awhile. But if you work hard on your diet, add a good amount of fitness into your routine, and achieve your goals, you will get to a place where you can cheat from time to time and not only not gain any weight but not feel guilty about it either.

Trust me, it's possible. But for now you just have to work!!

The more of the nutrient void un-satiating foods you plan on eating (ie. sugar, soda, refined carbs), the more you need to worry about counting calories. If you can reserve those foods for rarer occasions (ie. cheat meals/days), and eat primarily more natural foods in general, then you could eventually stop counting calories and still maintain a decent weight. Its up to you really and the food choices you can live with.

You will find balance. Eating at a deficit is hard! And the bigger the deficit, the harder it is. We get hungry on a diet, and hunger + temptation = binge. When you are maintaining your weight and have more calories to work with, you will probably feel less inclined to "eat like you don't care" (because you will be eating more than you are now just on a daily basis). It will get easier! Maybe for now, up your calories so you are eating more (but still losing) and at restaurants, order things that you can easily estimate like salads (dressing on the side) or sandwiches where you can see all the ingredients.

There really is a middle ground.

And you should eat whatever you damn well please on your wedding day. How many weddings are you planning on having? Unless you're having one a week or something, it won't matter.

As I started to lose weight I got into the groove of realizing what a normal portion looks like. Once a month or so I would end up going over my calories for one meal- whether it was a night out on the town, a dinner out...I guess you could call it a "cheat meal". After I reached my goal weight, I knew I did not want to log every morsel for the rest of my life. Now I am in maintenance I do not log weekends at all. I still try to eat well, make good choices, etc. but I go 100% MFP free (and still don't worry about calories every once in a wile for a meal). So far, so good! Eventually I will taper off on the logging...but baby steps!

I have learned a lot along the way. There is no going back for me. I worked too hard to be fat again. I have worked too hard to eat unreasonable portions of food on a regular basis.

Having been here 7 months, I find I like the discipline of it..............I need the motivation, the "challenge" of making my goal each day. It has helped me a LOT to change my habits................and once you do that, the rest becomes second nature.

I still eat junk food sometimes, and I am a sweet-a-holic.........but I restrain myself, because it's WORTH it!

I plan to hang around here until people get sick of me :smokin: :smokin:

As I started to lose weight I got into the groove of realizing what a normal portion looks like. Once a month or so I would end up going over my calories for one meal- whether it was a night out on the town, a dinner out...I guess you could call it a "cheat meal". After I reached my goal weight, I knew I did not want to log every morsel for the rest of my life. Now I am in maintenance I do not log weekends at all. I still try to eat well, make good choices, etc. but I go 100% MFP free (and still don't worry about calories every once in a wile for a meal). So far, so good! Eventually I will taper off on the logging...but baby steps!

I have learned a lot along the way. There is no going back for me. I worked too hard to be fat again. I have worked too hard to eat unreasonable portions of food on a regular basis.

love this! my brain is different now to!

Losing the weight isnt about counting cals though - you've surely come to learn what is high cal and what isnt, so just make the right choices... Have the cake but have a salad too. It's about teaching yourself balance whilst still enjoying life.

You'll be fine. Wedding cake is a meal in itself!

I used to worry about this until something finally *clicked* into place and I realized that this isn't to fit into too-tight jeans (which I gave away after they kept falling off), it's to live a better life that is active and strong and everything I've always hoped for.

I don't buy "health food", I buy new tastes and new recipes and I'm so much more happy with every passing day because my body is being built into the well oiled machine it's supposed to be.

Everything in moderation, everything that tastes good...and EASY doesn't mean GOOD most of the time. That is true with most things in life. I've actually lost the craving for Chicken Selects and French Fries. I still crave a good ice cream from DQ and I'll have one this weekend...or I may go for a REAL good thing and stop at Cold Stone Creameries.

It's all in the thinking. Change your mindset about what this means to you and your body will follow suit.

No. This obviously isn't where you'll be "stuck".

You said it yourself......you know you wont stick to it. You talk about how awful it is. If you say it's awful, it will be. If you say you wont stick to you, you won't.

You have to have a healthy mindset to stick with this forever.

I've been doing this for 5 years now, and I still enjoy eating healthy. Do I have a day where I eat a bunch of bad food? OF COURSE. But as long as I stick to 85% eating healthy and watching what I eat, I'll maintain. And if I take a vacation or something and don't watch, I will come back and do a week of strict eating and exercising so I get back to normal. It turns into routine really. Eventually you start to memorize calorie counts of your favorite foods and you can do a mental calculation in your head. I can rattle off the calorie counts of thousands of foods...it has become second nature to me.

If you have a mindset of "Do I have to do this for the rest of my life" instead actually changing your life for the better, my guess is you will return back to your old habits.

And as for the cottage cheese wedding cake (LOL), that sounds nasty and would be very extreme in my opinion. There's always room for cake.

Am I stuck counting calories and trying to hit marcos for the rest of my life?

depends on whether that's what works for you

Will I forever have to run away from soda, sugar, bad carbs, and anything that brings me joy? Am I stuck eating a sugar free cottage cheese cake on my wedding day and expecting my guest to love it as well?

no. most of us on maintenance have slip days. will you be able to eat everything in sight on your honeymoon and not gain weight? no. can you have a nice dinner and cake at your wedding? sure.

This haunts me. I have dreams of counting calories and worry that I'm doing everything wrong. Over Spring Break I went to visit my boyfriend and I ate like I didn't care. Which at that point, I DID NOT CARE. I was happy, I was full, I was lovin' it. I'm back home now and dread having to buy foods with bar codes just so I can make sure I'm counting right. I can't even eat out because 90% of the places I want to go to don't have nutrition facts and guessing calories upsets me to no end.

most do, except the smallest of locals. you can generally find nutrition info at the restaurant website.

So am I stuck? Will MFP be my new home from here on out?

it's up to you. there are a lot of ways to maintain. pull up a stool and have a drink with the rest of us.

to answer your question, though, yes, you'll have to be aware of what you eat for the rest of your life. however, diet and exercise will become part of your routine. it's not that bad, and it's much better than gaining the weight back and having to do it all over again. you can do it.

I'm back home now and dread having to buy foods with bar codes just so I can make sure I'm counting right.

Wait wait wait. This is not right at all. You should be buying fresh veggies and meats... not boxes and cans.

there's worse places to be stuck than here... as others have said..umm forget the cottage cheese wedding cake..that would look gross smooshed in your face!