I'll weigh in on this (bad pun, I know lol)...
I'm down about 20lbs and still dropping. My sister posted this on my facebook "Satan starts with s and s is what you watch out for sodium, sugar, and starch."
That's what I'm keeping tabs on... I don't count calories at all, I do watch the carbs though and I stay away from all processed foods because all processed foods have way, way too much sodium and/or sugar in them (makes me really puffy). I don't drink any calories and I don't drink any diet soda's either. While nobody is completely sure as to why, there is a proven link between diet soda and obesity. Besides, all artificial sweeteners (even the ones touted as "natural") give me migraines.
I've severely limited carbs to either a 1 cup bowl of Cheerios (about the only whole grain anything I actually like) or one slice of bread, per day, and I eat these for breakfast. When I eat fruit, I eat it in the morning. However, I eat as much fresh veggies that I want and I eat whatever meat I want. I also eat eggs.
Snacking: Elijah23 hit it right on the nail. Don't allow yourself to get really hungry. I snack a LOT... I snack all day long... celery with cream cheese, almonds, peanuts (all nuts are good), cottage cheese etc. I do keep in mind the carb count of these snacks, but if you stick with low carb snacks, it's pretty amazing at how often one can nosh.
Holidays: I sailed through Thanksgiving with no problems (and I was the cook!) I even enjoyed a nice slice of pumpkin pie. And, the day after, I enjoyed a slice of apple pie. The pies were made completely from scratch with a fresh pumpkin and fresh apples, and I had no real problem with my blood sugar being too high. I don't eat dessert every day by any means, but I do eat one very occasionally and truly enjoy it when I do. I just factor the carbs in that's all. On Thanksgiving, I passed on the mashed potatoes and stuffing, ate lots of turkey and veggies and then was able to enjoy the pie. Added a lot of whipped topping on the pie as well, because whipped topping really doesn't have that many carbs to speak of (but I did make sure I was accounting for the carbs that were there.)
Exercise: Very important. Not only will exercising raise the metabolism rate and help burn more calories, it will also help build muscle so that one doesn't wind up with a huge amount of sagging skin. This wasn't a huge problem when I lost a lot of weight in my 30's but now that I'm 51, sagging skin is a huge consideration. I walk a lot, and I've noticed that my skin isn't sagging at all on my legs, bum and hips. But, I wasn't doing any weight training or exercising my arms much and wow, I'm really having to work at keeping my arms from flapping.
Now, I've got a very wonky thyroid and I'm approaching the benchmark (25 lbs) of when I tend to simply stop losing weight. I've battled this over and over since my thyroid went wonky, but my husband's physical therapist had some pretty good advice for me to work on in order to circumvent my body's tendency to stop losing weight no matter how much of a calorie deficit I've developed. The key (the pt says) is to keep the body guessing as to what kind of exercise I'm going to put it through and to not stick with any one kind of exercise for more than 4-6 weeks (about the length of time it takes me to simply stop losing weight.) So, I've switched from walking to working out with my daughter's dancing game on Wii and my son's weights. The real test to this will come in about two weeks or so, when I'll most likely have lost about 25 lbs and will be moving into my third month of weight loss.
Meanwhile, my blood sugar is doing good... I still want it down a bit more... my blood pressure is just fine and my cholesterol has dropped as well to within my normal range (210-220). And, I've dropped two pants size. I had to shop for new clothes this weekend! :shades So, all in all, I'm doing pretty good.
California, I hope you're sticking with things. Don't get discouraged too soon... For the first month or so of my "new normal" I didn't drop any weight. I was starting to get a little discouraged because, as usual, I was limiting calories, exercising and I just wasn't dropping any pounds... but all of a sudden, things kicked in and it started dropping off. Stick with the diet, even if you start to plateau and it gets discouraging. Stick with it because it's a healthier, better way to eat and move. The weight loss will follow, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but it will eventually drop off.