So far, I've been really successful since joining dietbet and rejoining MyFitnessPal. I just weighed in again this morning and my scale showed 243.5, which is 6.5 lb less than my weigh in on Jan 20 when I started.
I've seen this movie before though.
I'm hyperfocused on my food intake, I'm trying hard to push things out of the way to make time to do some cardio. I know losing weight gets harder over time - if I was a betting man, I'd bet that this 6.5 lbs has fallen off much more easily than the next 6.5 will. I need to stay hypervigilent for a while since I've fallen so far into the obese category (BMI of 32.1) at the moment. I'm not a dumb guy, I know how to lose weight...we all do I guess. I've done it before several years ago (I want to dig out my photos and share some day).
But there will come a day when I want my life back. I think the key is to turn my behaviors now into a sustainable and natural pattern of behaviors. I may not spend an hour on the treadmill every other day for the rest of my life, but I need to find joy in smaller portions, healthier food, and make time for some basic form of cardio. I'm fortunate to have a beautiful wife, who is at a healthy weight. She enjoys healthy foods. Sure she occaisionally eats junk, but she seeks out healthy stuff and loves it. Her portion sizes are reasonable, and she stops eating when she is full. I typically stop eating when my plate is empty. Small things like that I believe are the key.
Look - my relationship has its ups and downs - it is not a disney story for sure. But its good to watch people who have these healthy behaviors and aspire to follow a similar pattern. Hopefully you all have someone around you who you can look up to as a model for good health.