Very interesting thread.



For me, it's a little bit of everything. You go through phases. Sometimes maintenance is as easy as pie. Other times, it's right out the window. Then comes that itchy-leg/bloated feeling you described. Successful maintenance means that your new lifestyle is so engrained in you, that going back to how you used to be not only feels physically uncomfortable, but wrong on a moral and emotional level.



I'm in the 'eternal-vigilance' camp. I have an addictive personality, and that will never disappear. As well, I'm disorganized and impulsive by nature, and if I'm not paying attention to things going on in my life, they just disappear off my radar. Without my "to-do" lists, I'd be lost and my work would never get done.

But that's not to say you don't have peace, also. The food obsession, the all-or-nothing, perfectionist attitude; the noise in my head; it's softened from a roar to a dull whisper. It's a voluntary paying of attention, not the negative voice in your head screaming at you. There is a specific kind of peace you feel when you know you're feeding your body properly, not abusing it.