OK - I'll Give the Bad Stuff Up!
 

After much moaning, groaning, denial, soul searching, but mainly reading lots and lots of your posts, I have QUIT diet soda, my nightly big glass of cabernet and I am down to one cup of coffee, soon to cut that in half with decaf and eliminate it. I was just wondering if any people on maintenance are able to add any of these three things back?

Hi, Holly.

I'm not on maintenance (yet), but I can tell you that cutting back on the sodas made a difference for me. I cut back on caffeine in general, I drink 3 liters of water a day (plus the two or three diet sodas, instead of 6 or 7), I never was big on wine to begin with. As for coffee, once or twice a week I have some with heavy cream and Splenda.

The thing that caused *me* the most trouble was counting on lowcarb bars and drinks. They caused me to crave carbs more, and I had a really difficult time avoiding the "candy cauldron" at work (a plastic cauldron that's always filled with sweets--chocolate, hard candy, gum, etc). Once I cut out the "fake food," the cravings vanished--and the weight started coming off again. Learning about the percentage ratios helped me a lot, too--70% fat, 4-5% carbs, and the balance protein. Those two things are what I attribute most of my recent success to.

I hope some of the maintenance folks answer your post! Good luck to you!