Those in the South -- How do y'all keep weight off?

Yeah, that be my issue. My resolve has strengthened, but when moms bringing me a pot of chicken spaghetti and the father in law takes us out to eat and has Sunday family dinners, those 2-3 days cancel out the 4-5 of eating right. Easy to not have temptation 2000 miles away.

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Brisket, dirty rice, baked beans, smoked meats

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Nothing wrong with brisket or smoked meats snd hard to overeat on those if you don't put sauce on them.

But in general it's fricking hard. I have become comfortable being around 15% bodyfat lost of the year.

Here is my thing

-If not raining I walk at work in and out and at lunch for few min. Between playing with my kids I try and get 10k or so steps a day

-strength train 3-4 times a week. Twice is the minimum I will allow and that's only when stupid busy

-hard conditioning twice weekly. Usually 4-12 min depending on what I am doing.

-get 7 hours sleep minimum but trying to make real effort to get to 8-9 hours

-foe nutrition....I try to eat like an adult. What does that mean? Something like the following-

- breakfast:3-4 eggs, 3-4 straps of bacon, piece of fruit

-lunch: 8-12oz some form of leaner meat, veggies and a piece if fruit.

-Dinner with family- in general I try and eat meat first then veggies until I'm full, then if I really want a tad bit of the bad stuff.

-snacks- protein shakes

If visiting family I allow more leniency as you can't get that time back, but if we go to dinner, I try and be smart about it. If at their house, I do my best to not go crazy. I keep it to one meal if at all possible. I try to get up and remain active.

In general, you can't cook every day like your parents are cooking and serving you right now. Fine to have that once a week once you are at maintenance, but don't make habits of it.

As far as brisket and smoked meats, I eat the shite out of it. I do it without sauce. If I want sides I'll take off the fat cap(this is rare for me personally).

What you do most of the time matters way more than what you do some of the time. Just like a person can't get shredded by eating right a few weeks per year, you also won't get fat by eating poorly a few weeks per year.
I track everything in myfitnesspal and stick to it. There are several nights a year where I go to visit family, go out on a date, or go on vacation where I just eat whatever the hell I want. It helps keep you sane and it won't make much of a difference if you're doing everything else right. Plus if you're eating healthy 95% of the time your cravings for shite food are going to disappear and on those nights away from home you'll naturally choose healthier options anyway

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How has anyone else fought this? Anyone have major struggles with it?

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Try being 5’7, very active, and needing to eat only 2100 calories a day to lose a pound a week. It’s fricking awful with the food choices around me.

But I do well by cooking almost all of my food. Only problem I have is my own will power failing to turn down sweets in my pantry.

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Your problem is your associating eating a lot of food with “having a good time” and that is not the case at all.

If anything eating too much does the opposite, you feel sick and bloated and tired.

Does eating more of a a certain food make it taste better? Nah. Does it make you feel better? Nah

You can enjoy food without eating mounds of it

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Yeah, I choose not to live my life tired, inflamed, and feeling like shite. That's not to say I don't ever eat fried food or pizza or whatever every now and then, but it's not hard not too.

Get Covid b/c everything tastes terrible afterwards. Haha

Man I was gonna start a thread about this because so many people are asking about dieting. Diets that have cheat meals and cheat days have quit working for me as I’m getting older. I’ve been dieting hard for 6 months without cheat meals and cheat days. Like they said above, you just have to choose to not associate food that is bad for you with a good time.

I feel like bad food should be like something you try to see what it’s like. Not something you use for fuel. Breaking that relationship with food finally has me feeling like I’m not just on a temporary diet waiting to have bad food again one day. I feel like I just don’t eat that stuff anymore.

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Those in the South -- How do y'all keep weight off?

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Don't eat all that high calorie stuff on a regular basis, plus go to the gym regularly. It's not hard to do but you have to be disciplined.

Lunt calories not carbs. Exercise. Regular walking is great. Try to eat all meals within an 6-8 hour window.