Thanks Moonlight! Great question
I'd be very interested to hear other maintainers on this one.
My two'penn'rth is that yes, for me it is getting easier, although I still find certain environments tricky. Since losing the weight these are some of the things that have helped:
- Carrying on with good habits from MWL days, for example, batch cooking, taking food with me when I'm travelling, speaking to restaurants ahead of our visits, getting back on track after off-program days.
- Meal planning so that I don't have to think too hard what to fix for dinner (or breakfast or lunch for that matter!)
- Keeping foods simple most of the time but doing more complicated meals at weekends or for special occasions. This and meal planning reduce decision making which helps me preserve willpower for tricky situations.
- Exploring new books on topics like habits and making changes in other areas of my life, for example, getting more organised.
- Staying in touch with the lovely people on this forum, continuing to read and watch videos/webinars.
- And as Jeff Novick would say 'getting a life'
There was a short period this summer when I had a slight sense of fatigue, but that passed. It helped that a couple of friends and my husband decided to do MWL for a while. If I veer too far 'off-piste' then my body kindly sends me a reminder of why I'm doing this
I'm still working on being confident enough to ask for what I want in resturants. We don't eat out very often at home, so this is mainly when travelling and I'm working on my Spanish to help with this!
I've been reading a couple of books about addiction recently and they've got me very interested in the interplay between the conscious and subconscious elements of our pysche or the logical and emotional parts. I''ve realised that, when I'm in certain situations (restaurants or big celebratory family meals) I can feel deprived. I'm caught between the conscious thought that 'I'm not going to eat that because its not good for me' and the subconscious feeling that 'it'll taste good and make me happy, so just do it'. Most of the time, I really enjoy this way of eating, so this insight has been helpful for dealing with the occasional sense of deprivation.
Yes, I hope you're right. Recently there's been discussion in the UK media about the environmental impacts of different foods so that's good.