When you get to the keeping-the-weight-off phase, don’t think you’ve arrived. If you do, that’s wrongheaded. Keeping weight off is not a fixed ability—either you have it or you don’t. Everyone has to work at it, just like anything else in life. You still have to be careful and modify and learn.

Take walking on a slippery surface (an apt example). You have to be careful not to slip. You try it out. You have to be cautious, watchful, plant your feet just right with each step. When you feel the least little slip, you modify the plant of your feet, the size of your gait. You sense, get feedback, use the feedback to keep your balance; and you successfully traverse that slippery surface until you’re on solid ground again.

Is that clear?

Take another example: making breakfast. Oh, you think it’s simple? Well, it’s not. Look at all you have to do. No fixed ability here. You
have to work at it. Skill, yes, but not fixed ability. Think about it. Let’s say you’re making an egg and bacon on an English muffin. What’s involved? First of all, you cook each item just the way you like them. This means being watchful so as not to over or under cook, which in turn requires you to adjust the burner flame and take the pan off when ready. You want all the ingredients to be ready at about the same time. This takes balance, adjustment, awareness, and lots of  “being on top of it”.

You get the idea. Well, it’s the same for keeping weight off. If you think of maintaining the weight you’ve lost as a fixed ability, no “being
on top of it” needed, you will be doing yourself a terrible disservice.

by Maria's Last Diet