The weight is off, now comes the hard part!

Wow, never did I think that maintaining my weight loss would be much harder than actually losing the weight. I don't mean this in the I want to eat everything now way. I mean this in the How can I learn to eat more now way. My calorie goal to maintain my weight is set at 1,800. I maybe hit 1,400 at the most, and that may only be once or twice a week. My average is about 1,000-1,200 before exericse! After exercise my net is about 700-900...I know, not good! As much as people may not believe me, I am full, and I am satisfied. A lot of the time, I eat just to push up my calories, not because I am hungry.

When I was 252 lbs, I had to adjust to eating less and moderating my food/portions. Then when I was exercising I was adjusting to a healthy caloric intake with exercise. Now that I've reached my goal, my stomach has shrunk, and my body/metebolism is used to the lower calories and the high exercise. Working out is like my sanctuary! I use it to get my "me" time, to blow off steam, to sweat out a long day, etc. I look forward to the gym everyday, so reducing exercise has proven to be very difficult for me. So, instead of changing that, I am trying to eat more/higher calorie foods. Again, hard. I am stressing out more when it comes to maintaining than I did when I was actually trying to lose the weight.

Starting this week, I have been trying to eat more, and I'm not quite succeeding but not quite failing. It's a learning process, just like losing the weight was.

One day at a time...