Today is my six months at goal Atkinsversary, after losing 120+ pounds. I am just now starting to feel comfortable negotiating my way through the world in a smaller body. Actually maintaining my goal weight has not been very difficult, so far. I think that is because I had some amount of focus on working my plan is such a way that going from the active losing part of this to maintenance was more a matter of tweaking, than making big changes.

The psychological aspect has proved more challenging. I had a really tough time with body image for a number of months, and still have problems with it from time to time. Initially, I hated my thinner body far more than I ever hated what I looked like when I was morbidly obese. I was in big time denial about my weight at 235, and honestly (or dishonestly) didn't really see myself as fat unless I had to buy clothes or I ran into size related barriers like airplane seat belts.

Initially, all I saw when I looked in the mirror at my thinner self was the flaws left behind by all those pounds and years. I also had this Alice in Wonderland thing going on where sometimes I felt teeny tiny, and other times I felt really huge. That took months to get through, and I still have some of that going on from time to time.

I don't weigh myself every day, and although I do Fitday often enough to know what my maintenance carb and calorie count is, I don't use that tool everyday either. Instead, I concentrate on having what I consider to be "good" days, and on being careful, if I eat a bit too much one day, to watch my eating for a few days afterwards. I do weigh myself if my clothes feel too big or too small, or if I have tried a new food, or made some other change in diet or activity level. I also get weighed at the doctor's office, periodically, so between my wandering on the scale at home, and that, I probably weigh myself every couple of weeks.

I feel good about myself and my accomplishment. I like how I look, at least most of the time. I like that it doesn't feel as strange as it did when I first lost the weight, and I anticipate it will feel even better a year from now.

vicki