Hi Dewolla.  It's good to hear from you, and I'm so glad you're
maintaining well - your numbers are looking great.

Did you do anything particular to lose the loose skin - (I'm thinking
of exercise etc. rather than plastic surgery!).  I have a large amount
of wrinkles around my hips and thighs which I don't think will ever
leave me:(

Are you eating very differently in order to stay within your
maintenance range, compared with when you were losing?  

I'm always interested to hear about how people handle maintenance.

janice

Oudstanding, Dewolla!  I'm so glad to hear from you, and to hear that
things are going so well!

Chris
262/130s/130s
started dieting July 2002, maintaining since June 2004

It's so nice to hear from successful losers :)  It sounds like
maintenance is going well, too.  

Beverly

That's a pretty good accomplishment.

i

Welcome back Dewolla and thanks for the update!

Thank you all for the nice comments and encouragement!  Yes, maintenance is
what I feared most but it isn't the big problem it had been for me in the
past.  Before, my goal was to just be a normal weight and continue with my
poor nutrition choices.  This time it was to achieve a healthy weight and to
eat properly for good health.  That required a complete rethinking of my
eating habits and developing a new relationship with foods.

Timing was great; WW came out with their Core plan just about when I was
starting maintenance.  I'm not intentionally plugging WW but what they offer
sure works for me.  I have nothing in the house except low-energy-density
foods (fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meats, fish, poultry, healthy oils,
whole-wheat pasta, skim milk, FF cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese, and sour
cream, brown rice, eggs, old fashioned oatmeal, low-fat microwave popcorn,
dried beans, etc.) and have learned to eat when I am hungry and stop when I
am satisfied.  I don't have to think about it anymore, which is a great
burden lifted.

Another thing I recognize is that I will always have an addiction to certain
foods such as snack chips, cookies, sugar, butter,  hot dogs, bologna, ice
cream, and others.  I just don't let them in the house anymore.  We cook all
our meals about 95%-100% Core, including desserts.  Where I used to slather
mayonnaise on everything I now use mustard.  Potatoes are wonderful with FF
Italian dressing on them instead of butter and sour cream.  We have omelets
for Sunday breakfast using whole eggs, FF cheese, Morningstar Farms sausage
patties, FF frozen hash browns, and fresh salsa.  We cook in nothing but a
moderate amount of olive oil.

Anyway, all this works for me.  Its quite a change from my weight loss time
when I weighed everything to the tenth of an ounce and balanced my
macronutrients precisely to my chosen ratios!

- Dewolla Stepon
------------------------------------------------------------
268/176/170-180

  That must have been wonderful to hear!  Thanks for posting this. It's
nice for those of us who are at the start of our dieting struggle to
hear from those of you who have won the battle and kept the weight loss.

So good to see people suceeding at maintanence! Well done you!

Rachael
176/113/111-119