LOST!What now?

I know a lot of people say maintaining can be just as tricky as losing the weight in the first place, I still have quite a way to go but I'm interested what replies you'll get as I'll (hopefully) have to think about this within the next 6 months! xxx

Anything that helps you get off the couch helps! :smokin: You're obviously lacking motivation, but that's okay, it happens to the best of us! When you feel this, think about your body and imagine all the good things it does for you, how it helps you do things without running out of breath. All these things are very empowering and makes me feel more confident in my abilities, personally. You should always try switching around workouts, don't always do the same thing as that can get boring. Yoga is very calming, sleep is good too, if you're not sleeping enough that can also stress you out. Eat your carbs during the day when you most need it, for energy. Drink a lot of water, that keeps your system fluctuating properly. Binges are complicated, you need to *kitten* WHY you are binge eating and try to eat your favorite foods in moderation rather than blowing your calories. :flowerforyou: If you need a friend, I'm here!

Maintaining is not easy!
When I started out in January 2011, I was just focussed on how to lose the weight and that didn't seem too hard to do, as long as I stayed motivated. As I got about halfway to my goal I realised that I needed to start looking at this as long term change, not short term "diet".

It's almost 500 days on MFP now and I've done OK - not great, but OK. I lost 22kg and I've put 3 back on.

For me, I know that the answer is just to keep aiming to have more good days than bad days. I know what I need to do (ie. eat a variety of foods, not too little, not too much, and do some exercise most days in the week). Sometimes I do really well at that and other days I completely blow it (hence the + 3kg).

My strategy is to treat each day and each meal, each minute really as a new opporunity. If I'm at the supermarket I have the option to buy a family block of chocolate, a single bar of chocolate or to walk away from the chocolate aisle empty handed. If I make the choice to buy a small amount or none at all, that's a good choice. If I buy the family block, that's a bad choice because I don't have a family to eat it and I'm bad at just eating a little bit.
Almost every time I will walk away or choose a little bit. Sometimes I buy (and eat!) more rubbishy food than is good for me. I'm not going to beat myself up over it, but I do try to pay attention to "why did I do that?" and make a strategy so I don't do it again.

So, my advice is: don't treat this as a short term adventure that has an end date, work on building a strong foundation that will last. Good luck with finding what works for you.