Maintenance

I've gotten a lot of compliments lately on my weight(fat)loss.  It makes me feel great that others are noticing, but I have this nagging voice in the back of my head (and sometimes even in my mouth) that says "Yeah, but I've done this before.  Weight loss comes easy.  It's keeping it off that's hard."

You see, a few years ago I lost 46lbs.  I was tracking everything that went in my mouth and all the calories points that I was burning through cardio exercise.  I concentrated on portion sizes and read every label at the grocery store.  I lost the weight in half the average time of anyone else on that program.  But all along I knew that I couldn't maintain the lifestyle.  By the time I had reached my goal weight I was so tired of counting points that it made me angry.  Sure, there were somethings that I could carry on with like exercising regularly and eating off of smaller plates, but I was still putting processed, high carb/sugar foods in my mouth constantly.  Also, I wasn't eating near enough veggies.  

So... I put about 35lbs of the weight that I had lost back on.  So sad.  

When I got tired of being fat again, I decided to take a different approach.  I started eating low carb and then eventually tried to eat sort of in the "Zone".  Finally, in March of 2012, I decided to try paleo.  I was scared.  I won't lie.  The idea of not eating pasta, rice or bread anymore was daunting (even though I had already given up bread for the most part, we still occasionally had low-carb tortillas and whole grain pasta...etc.)  Then after months of unexplained stomach issues that were leading me to miss work and spend countless hours in doctors' offices, I decided to try the Whole30.  The low-carb/zone eating allowed me to lose about 10lbs.  Through Paleo, I lost another 15.  Then, with the Whole30, I lost another 8lbs.  So... I'm back to my goal weight!  I've maintained it for a about a month now.  

I feel like I have a better chance of sticking with the Paleo/Whole30 lifestyle because my health and well-being really depend on it.  I have found that gluten and dairy were causing my unexplained stomach issues and I have no desire to ever eat anything with gluten in it again after my latest episode.  This way of life is so much the opposite of what I did before, that if it doesn't work, I don't know WHAT will.