Keep your eyes on the journey, not the prize

It doesn't take a long time to lose weight, it does take a long time to lose it.

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to be patient during the weight loss process. Your goal is to lose a pound a week, or at the most 2 pounds - that is the only healthy speed at which to lose weight.

And as you lose weight, it's only natural that you look to the future, and think, in 20 more weeks I'll have reached my goal...I can celebrate! And even if you don't think that consciously, you'll be thinking that subconsciously. There's an end to your quest...and at that end you can resume your lifestyle before you started on that quest.

Not so.

Your change in lifestyle must be permanent - if you want to permanently be at your healthy weight.

Which means that, even subsconsciously, you musn't obsess on the "end date" of the weight loss portion of your new lifestyle. Once you do achieve the weight that you desire, you can only verrrrrrrrrry gradualy start adding an extra portion or so to your diet. You must allow your body time to get used to its new weight. At the beginning, your body (and I'm anthropomorphizing) will want to return to its old weight...the weight it was used to being at. You have to give it time to get used to being at your new weight.

If you start adding two extra portions instead of just one, if you stop exercising, your body's metabolism will do all it can to return to the normality of that old weight.

Maintaining a healthy weight is a lifelong journey, but it should not be an onerous one, since you do not have to give up any of your favorite foods. You simply must consume them in moderation.