What Has Worked For You?!

What has worked for me:
Eating the same food as I normally do, and just being more aware of my portion sizes. Eating slowly so I can feel that I'm full, and don't go back for seconds and thirds.
Making more food from scratch, so I have more control when it comes to the ingredients.
Eating snacks and sweets ONLY on saturdays!
Making sure that I eat healthy (that I get protein, iron, vitamins, calcium) so I'm not tired. I'm full of energy!
Working out to Youtube videoes, mainly Jillian Michaels.

What has not worked:
Cutting carbs to a minimun. I love pasta, rice, potatoes, and bread. If I can't eat that for the rest of my life I'd be grumpy. So I'm keeping that, just watching the portions, and picking the whole grain/whole wheat alternatives.
Barely eating - makes me tired, and not in the mood for exercise.

Upping protein intake and trying to meet daily requirements of nutrients worked. Just consuming the proper number of calories (1200)with disregard to nutrition did not work.

Upping exercise worked. Crosstraining worked, by being able to do back-to-back hard workouts using different muscles.

Not: Low carbs, cardio only for excercise (hate how I look and feel), controlling calories without thought as to what the calories come from.

What has: Strength training combined with a healthy diet. 30-40% protein in my diet, around 50g of fiber per day (from real food, and mainly fruits and veggies), 25-30% fat in my diet, and most of my carbohydrates coming from raw fruits and whole veggies.

When I'm eating nothing but lean meats and proteins, fruits and veggies, and some fats (usually a couple servings of peanut butter set my macros back on track if need be), my body really "self regulates". I can eat until i'm full, pig out (on these foods) when I feel the need to, and the "equilibrium" for my body is around 10-12% body fat (granted, 3x per week strength training and 3-4 days of 30 min cardio is included in this). I couldn't care less what I weigh, as I'm not taking any illegal or legal suppliments other than the protein powders, and I have no real ability to get overly large doing it this way.

What did not work- deciding I had too much sugar in my diet and cutting down to 1 serving of fruit a day. I did not lose any weight or get any leaner and I was a scary crabby. Now I eat between 3-4 servings per day.

What else did not work- eating tons of broccoli and carrots. It may be a health food, but it made me super bloated and uncomfortable and I swear some days I looked four months pregnant. I quit eating broccoli and now eat asparagus, squash, zucchini, celery, spinach and cucumbers and feel much better.

What did work- forcing myself to have vegetables with every meal/snack, eating fruit whenever I wanted (I was so grateful to eat that apple guilt free it didn't even occur to me to want chips or candy), giving up bread completely, and cutting back quite a bit on cereal (this is not an evil carb thing, these are just two high calorie foods I was eating excessively).

For exercise, short little workouts keep me on track. If I know I have to do something for 30+ minutes, I won't do it (and my job, commute, and baby leave me little extra time anyways). So, I do around 15 min of short, intense cardio (like sprints) a few times a week, and some body weight exercises (like squats, lunges, pushups, pullups) and a few things like deadlifts and kettlebell workouts. This is not as good as it could be- I do not exercise with the intensity and consistency needed to make a big difference, but even something is better than nothing right?

I create a calorie deficit.
I eat lots of protein.
I lift weights.
I rest.

Then I do it again.

there are no tricks, just consistency.

Eating MUCH higher protein.

Eating not a low carb, but a lowER carb, with my carbs coming from non junk food sources

Jillian Michaels, although I'm not sure I like her much.