How did you decide your "goal"

Did I believe I'd be 137?  No, not really.  I KNEW I'd get to 150 because I'm very goal oriented and focused to the point of obsession when I have a goal.  However, I didn't think I'd be this small.  I didn't actually even realize that I'm pretty small-boned, especially for my height.

What made me most successful was my laser focus on my goals and following the much talked about 600-800 calories, less than 40g of carbs, more than 70g of protein.  At five months when I thought my weight loss was slowing down, I dropped to under 20g of carbs, more than 80g of protein, and stuck to around 600-700 calories.  It wasn't fun, but it was very effective.  I also ramped up my exercise.  The thing that has made me the most successful so far is LEARNING about myself, and FORGIVING myself when I've made bad choices.  They weren't often, but I would immediately get right back on the horse, the next day or even the next meal and move forward.  Before surgery, if I made a bad choice, it was a month of bad choices or more.  I spiraled out of control with self defeat.  I don't do that anymore.  Forgive, try to learn something, move forward.  I'm also an exerciser.  I have been for years.  BUT I don't do it for weight loss or even maintenance, I do it for my sanity.  I love pushing my body, I love seeing what I can do, I love the endorphins, I love the rush of being physical when so much of my life is mental.  Find some type of exercise you genuinely enjoy so it's not work.  Good luck!  It's a fantastic ride, and I never had any idea of how hard, how easy and how satisfying it would be.  No typos there because it has been hard, but it's also been easy.  It's so strange :)

What a great answer!  I am going to save this and re-read it often to keep me going!!!

My goals have never really been numbers, but rather things I wanted to be able to do, like shop anywhere, travel without seat belt extenders, sit in a booth, not be "the fat one." I passed those awhile back.

Reality is that your weight will settle at whatever weight your intake balances your output - you eating in a way you can enjoy long term while being as active as you can enjoy long term.

So - what sort of long term eating plan can you enjoy? What sort of activity do you enjoy?

Kelly-Anne

Before surgery, it was to get into a size 20 (tall) and be able to move better.  Then, right before surgery a normal bmi.  Then a month or so after 220 (much higher) because I didn't want to set myself up for failure.  Not long after though I realized that if I set it at 220 it would be unlikely I would have a real chance at a normal bmi, so back it went to the normal bmi goal (under 25) and it stayed there until I hit it.  Once there I dropped it by another 5 pounds for some wiggle room.  Eventually I did a little more here and there, and now have my fatty rule set at 182 (original goal weight was 195).  Thing is though, I just had plastic surgery on Monday (TT) and he took 5 pounds of tissue, so my new fatty rule by default is now 177.  I may need to adjust it down a bit more if there was weight loss associated with the TT, but given the fluid retention and swelling it is going to be a while for things to settle down.  So, in a nutshell- once I hit my major goal I just started adjusting from there.  If anyone were to ask, I would still respond that my goal weight is 195, because that truly has not changed.  If I went back up to 195 I would still be happy, although I do not plan on that occurring.