It seems to me this recording food intake in the diary is training me to judge how much to eat without the diary. In the future it should be possible to weigh regularly, and increase or decrease food intake based on weight.

Do you think it will be possible to forego the daily diary someday, Dot?

@EdEarl I think that is very possible. I was wondering myself a couple days ago if I was feeling steady enough to go on without public logging of intake. The biggest hurdle seems to be the launching, getting from the "I'm going to lose some weight" to actually limiting what is eaten.

In the past year I went from very devoutly recording everything, with calorie numbers to writing down foods but often without calories then, during the 6 month maintenance phase to writing down some days sometime just parts sometimes just weight. I agree that over time it became more instinctive to get the right foods and RIGHT amounts. didn't seem like I was as dependent on seeing the numbers every day.

However, I think the daily weigh in is likely going to be a lifetime habit if long term maintenance is going to happen. Without the daily check on that, it becomes very easy to creep back upward without thinking about it. I currently keep a white board on the wall and write the weight on it daily. This may be another measure I continue to take daily for the long term just to ensure I don't lose sight of the long term goal to keep it off. I

This is why I choose this method of dietIng this time. I knew that looking term I wasn't going to be happy with giving up carbs or any other food "group" so I needed something that I could get used to and perhaps learn to follow day in/day out without difficulty.