Losing Weight

My New Year's resolution is to stop losing weight by mid-April. I have lost enough weight for people to notice and it has been an interesting experience. First, I have to admit that I loathe the whole process. I am sure that there is a better way than my method, because I often feel hungry and therefore cranky. My method is to track the calories of everything I eat on a the Live Strong web site's Daily Plate and keep myself 500 calories per day under a maintenance intake. This has resulted in a steady pound per week loss. I pretty much eat the same stuff I always have, just less of it. A few observations:

• Knowing that I will have to record a snack is in itself an disincentive to eating between meals. It means I will have to take the time to look up and enter one more item.
• I'm far less likely to eat something, because "it's good for me." Why waste effort on food I don't like.
  
• Liquid calories mount quickly; beer, soda, fruit juice and Jameson's Irish Whiskey all add to the daily calorie bill; so do those tasty coffee creamers.
  
• The whole process is much like managing a budget, except it's done on a daily, not weekly or monthly basis.

I am also concerned that I will not be as attractive to my mate, if I lose too much. She expressed some reservations at my goal, which would still put me at 16% body fat, not exactly slender. I have always been a bigger than average guy, both height and weight, and losing the weight starts to change that self image or at least contradict it, so I see a long time of still counting calories to maintain my weight when I get to goal. That prospect is not motivating at all.

All told, I can empathize with those who have trouble getting the weight off, there is a lot of challenge. One of my favorite sayings is: "Things are the way they are for a reason." That is really true for a person's weight.