Keeping it off is the true goal.
Jim
I hear ya Jim, but I think (hope) I'm safe. I'll tell you why (sorry in advance for the long explanation).
I went basically a year at the same weight (after losing like 45 lb. over the course of 1.5 years). I was doing OK at maintaining that weight, but I needed motivation to really start losing again (and stop this +/- 4 lb. oscillation). When I found myself again at the +4 lb., I decided that something needed to change. I needed motivation! After previously loosing a respectable amount, my efforts and tactics had gone stale.
This new "program" I have is working for now, and like I mentioned in a previous post, I have plans for continuing to "reward" myself for maintaining the weight loss.
What I should admit is this: in the past, while my wife has been OK with me using some of our surplus funds for guns (even after we've contributed to such savings accounts as an emergency fund and college funds), until I came up with this challenge, she wasn't on board with me spending this much on guns this quickly.
When I ran this idea by her, she readily agreed. She isn't a miser, but she does love to save lots of money (an attribute of hers for which I count myself very blessed). But she said that she easily agreed with the program (even to use future ammo/gun rewards for maintenance) because she wants me to be healthy and stay around longer. Of course, we've agreed on a less-aggressive reward system for maintenance.
The catch is (and this is why I think I'm safe), that less-aggressive system for rewarding me (based on maintaining the final goal weight) will sort of replace my previous "gun allowance." It won't replace it completely, but let's just say that we were able to agree on a system where I am still better off than I was with my regular allowance IF I am a good boy going forward. So right now the program is a "carrot" (which is producing great immediate results), and it will sort of transition into a hybrid "stick/carrot" in the future.
So some of you who say things like "well I just buy what I want when I want/can afford to," that might work well for you, but this has been a win-win for me! I have more motivation and I lose weight, and the "finance committee" is OK with accelerating the pace of my gun purchases. In the end, whatever works for you is great! So far this is working really well for me.
I honestly don't even get tempted to "cheat" on my diet these days. I hope this continues!