What change did you make that helped you most?

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Replies

  • pelles
    pelles Posts: 32 Member
    I started loving/forgiving myself.
    I dropped sugar. Mostly.
    I started logging every dang thing I ate no matter how embarrassed it would make me.
    I started doing kettlebell exercises.
    I started carrying around my fitbit.


    The first one made all the rest possible.

    This is great.

    I dropped alcohol. Mostly.
    And also carry around my Fitbit.
  • SAbreu83
    SAbreu83 Posts: 13
    Plan my day and my meals, cut back on carbs (specially after 2 pm), cooking and eating at home is the rule not the exception, and always sit to eat my meal and snacks. No sodas, drastic reduction on alcohol and processed food. Eat every 2-3 hours, and the most important: move my *kitten*! Basically I followed the 17 days diet program and that changed my life!
  • AmyBecky74
    AmyBecky74 Posts: 437 Member
    I cut back on carbs. I never realized how many carbs I ate. Staying under my alotted cal and carb count made a huge difference.
  • beandawgy
    beandawgy Posts: 92
    Started tracking my caloric intake and calorie burn (with the help of my HRM), instead of just focusing on how much or how hard I worked out at the gym.
  • thelovelyLIZ
    thelovelyLIZ Posts: 1,227 Member
    I got a tumblr blog where I blogged about my journey. Having that accountability made all the difference.
  • Jeneba
    Jeneba Posts: 699 Member
    Going to the gym before work.
  • toaster6
    toaster6 Posts: 703 Member
    I cut down on sugar-- especially sugary drink. If it has sugar, I don't really drink it anymore and make a point to exercise more. Cooking my own meals has helped a lot too since I control what and how much of something goes into my food. Portion control is also a huge factor for me; I still have some junk food every now and then but I make sure to limit it.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    I started tracking calories and macronutrients.
    I lift weights.
    I use common sense.
    And I look at the big picture, not the hour to hour or day to day stuff.
  • Lyra89
    Lyra89 Posts: 674 Member
    Portion control :happy: - Measuring cups, measuring spoons, food scales, & learning how to read labels properly :tongue:
  • mandy031383
    mandy031383 Posts: 94 Member
    bump
  • briannadunn
    briannadunn Posts: 841 Member
    I joined this site and read a book called Eat To Live. It changed my life.
  • vicki9168
    vicki9168 Posts: 89 Member
    For me its not so much about weight loss but health.
    I am taking much more notice of the carbs I eat, what foods have carbs in it that once I didn't take so much notice of or even know about plus cutting out some of the recipes I love. As a result my health is better and have lost a couple kilos, will have more work to do once I have this and blood sugars sorted.
  • sobriquet84
    sobriquet84 Posts: 607 Member
    Learning how your body responds and reacts to different sources of calories and different qualities of food.

    Understanding my body and the science and design of it has given me everything I need to maintain a healthy weight for the rest of my life.
  • tracypk
    tracypk Posts: 233 Member
    Bump!:wink:
  • jassyjan1
    jassyjan1 Posts: 308 Member
    What worked for me honestly was pre-logging my food and doing very low Carbs.
  • tommygirl15
    tommygirl15 Posts: 1,012 Member
    Some fantastic responses here!

    For me, it was when I started counting calories and educating myself on nutritional values of all the food I eat. It made a world of difference.
  • Cyriatan
    Cyriatan Posts: 23 Member
    Study.

    I've spent months in PubMed and reading people like Lyle McDonald and such, seeking for the base of many ideas I had about nutrition and body recomposition. Starting dieting without the understanding of what a protein is, having a grasp of the metabolic process of fat loss, etc. is crazy. Starting to exercise and specially lifting is crazy if you don't have a minimal idea of what muscles are there in your body, what is their natural movement, what's the purpose of isolation work, how muscle is created, etc. There are so many things to know yet there's also the sufficient and basic amount of knowledge you should get to be, therefore, confident in what you're doing. Knowing what's happening in your body, understanding the process taking place in body recomposition in general, as well as getting to know minimally what "healthy" may mean; this is the most important and basic key for success. Because any difficulty you may confront won't lead you to biased myths that will stall your path because that minimal knowledge prepares you for that. Knowing and keeping pace of many things thought to be truth in the past but not now (for example, meal timing, "clean" eating, etc.) will allow you to accomodate your diet to your lifestyle better, then, will make everything easier. The most important thing is, when you know the minimal (we're not playing to be doctors or experts here, never, I don't mean that in any possible way; actually the more you know the more you see how deep many problems go) you are more capable of being responsible of yourself. Going to the nutritionist (or MFP, or X) and saying "yes, yes, I will" to everything that person may say is not the thing to do. The thing to do is not to confront him/her without being humble and aware of your ignorance, but with the needed critical spirit of asking WHY should I be doing this, with the will to prepare yourself to change the way you have been living in this aspect - that requires the capability of being minimally independent, minimally knowledgeable, minimally confident in what you're doing because you know what's happening and know you're doing the right thing and is a long-term, whole-life decision. You can't be that dependant. Things will come to their way when doing so and knowing so. Losing weight is a compromise to oneself, I think, which implies more than anything trust, confidence. In yourself and what you're doing. The only way to do so, is understanding sufficiently the pace you have to take so when something unexpected happens -say, a plateu- you know those things that will resort to a good choice, and that will make you stick to your plan - you know it's just time, compromise and effort, because you're in the right path and results will come.

    Personally, I have hypothyroidism and after many defeating stories I was tired of making myself to be DOOMED, saying "Oh, I'm ill and it's hard, look at those who struggle also to lose weight, I was healthy and got this, how unlucky...". I understood putting those excuses is dooming yourself and that you have always to fight for the idea of being ABLE to do the things you want to do instead of easily giving up because you're ignorant and everybody seems to say it's hard. There are impossible things, sure, but search very well before giving up. I started searching about it, metabolism, nutrients, etc. and came to know I was putting excuses and following the trend of indulging in my hypo thing to not make the changes. It was because I didn't know what to do. I learned how. I lost weight and still do. I'll get to my goal, and I'm still learning everyday.
  • rebeccap13
    rebeccap13 Posts: 754 Member
    Got off my butt, started cooking all my meals, and stopped binging/purging.
  • NCchar130
    NCchar130 Posts: 955 Member
    This is a journey of knowledge. Learning what works for losing weight. I want to know what change you made that has made the biggest impact on your success of losing weight and getting healthy. For me I haven't figured it out. I'm still crunching numbers. I have ED so in the past restricting food was the only way I knew how. I have been eating which is good but I can't seem to get it right. I have been fluctuating 5 lbs for over a year. I have my macros set and I eat at a deficit. I'm sure my issue is accurately logging my cals. I'm just wondering what has worked for you.

    Thank you in advance for any advice or information.

    1) Logging every bite of food. This led to 2) Don't drink your calories. I still drink *some* calories, but I reduced that to a fraction of what it was. My downfall was sweetened coffee drinks.

    I kind of knew before I started logging that I was drinking a ridiculous number of calories every day. When I started logging was when I fully realized it was over 1200 a day. After eating, I was easily consuming 2500-3500 calories per day because of the drinks. All that with no exercise and with a sedentary desk job.
  • activaporlavida
    activaporlavida Posts: 13
    bump!
  • SmallMimi
    SmallMimi Posts: 541 Member
    Quit drinking soda pop and got off my *kitten*
  • 000Helen000
    000Helen000 Posts: 4 Member
    I'm pretty new, but just joining MFP is great for keeping me on track because I make sure I'm honest about what I'm eating and recording. Before, I would eat 3 healthy meals a day...plus the cake, plus the chocolate bar, plus the second helping, plus...plus....Now I'm realistic about what I'm eating. I don't want to record that I had all those extras so I don't eat them. One treat a day max. I've also figured out that it is possible to eat half a chocolate bar and save the other half for another time (of course I already knew that I just had difficulty putting it into practice!).
  • CIBBIELOUK
    CIBBIELOUK Posts: 9
    I started cutting out/down carbs in my diet on August 1st. I eat 3 meals a day with a snack between breakfast, lunch and after supper. (6 meals a day) sounds like a lot, but I am feeling better. I have shed 10 lbs, and am aiming for at least 5-10 more by Nov, 20th. I also joined Curves and went 3 days a week before I had gall bladder surgery a week ago. However, I am going to return to Curves. I dropped 2 BMI's. I am under a doctors care.
  • pwittek10
    pwittek10 Posts: 723 Member
    MFP and walking!
  • powahouse11
    powahouse11 Posts: 13
    less carbs and more lean protein :)
  • jenkinsjerry
    jenkinsjerry Posts: 99 Member
    Simple stuff, really.

    1. Being consistent and honest, logging every day for over a year
    2. Eating far more foods that are actually track-able. This cut down on restaurant eating, where you have to guess/estimate calories (love the barcode scan feature)
    3. Daily/regular exercise with a quality Heart Rate Monitor to measure calories burned.
    4. Eating all/most of Exercise Calories
  • atjays
    atjays Posts: 797 Member
    Eliminated soda. I only have the occasional zero cal or sugar free soda/drink.

    Keeping fast food to an absolute minimum. Even if I'm cooking unhealthy foods, it's still far superior to mcdonalds anything.
  • vmekash
    vmekash Posts: 422 Member
    Tracking calories, and actually measuring out servings. Eyeballing a serving, I was WAY off. This little change made a huge difference. It is in the details, you know.
  • JosephVitte
    JosephVitte Posts: 2,039
    The biggest change for me, so far, is inputting everything I intake. that has allowed me to see where my weak points are. Sugar was the big one. Now everything is under control in that department, and things are looking good! Thanks MFP!
  • bridgelene
    bridgelene Posts: 358 Member
    Honestly......just STARTING here for me. Logging what I eat to actually SEE what I take in, therefore holding myself accountable. Honestly, I knew about MFP for probably 5 months before I actually started using it bc I had some friends who were already using it and saying good things, and I had downloaded the app on my phone about 4 months before I was brave enough to face and take responsibility for what I was doing.

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