The bells should be ringing the flags flying. You are there!!!!! You've arrived at the place where millions of overweight people have never been since they were children. At the weight you were meant to be, and the impact on every part of your life is enormous. Am i right?

Now let me interject a reality check. Have you won the battle of the bulge Or have you only graduated from boot camp, in shape now for the battle ahead I can personally attest to the fact that you have achieved the latter. Recidivism among people who have lost considerable weight is such a well documented phenomenon that many cynical doctors advise their patients not to even bother trying to lose!

Fortunately with Atkins, such pessimism is unwarranted. This is not to say you don't need a lifetime maintenance plan accompanied by unceasing vigilance. The former is the lifetime maintenance phase; the determination to succeed is your responsibility.

I would expect that as you travelled along the slow pre maintenance path, one day you realized you were actually in life maintenance: your weight remained constant within a pound or two for several weeks. The decisions to move from induction to Ongoing Weight Loss and from Ongoing Weight Loss to pre maintenance were concious on your part. But it is not always easy to define the moment at which you leave pre maintenance and move to lifetime maintenance; the former segues naturally into the latter. But from now on you will have conscious choices to make every day of your life.