why does losing weight have to be so hard???

Don't give up! You can do it! I love carbs and salt and i finally found for me i have trouble giving up the good foods so i exercise to earn them. In that i have found as i exercise and drink more water my cravings are dwindling away which makes it easier to eat salads, fruits and veggies and still have more room left for the good things.

Focus on driving the car. Filling up at the gas station isn't the high point.

This is about a life change, though... you're going to have to sacrifice at first. It does get much easier to eat healthier after week 1... your stomach shrinks and you start finding foods you love that are low calorie OR low cal versions of the food you love.

Ditto.

Also, you are threatening to order a pizza and eat the whole thing. Guess what? Pizza IS NOT off limits. Eating an entire pizza is. It really is all about moderation. You can make 3 pieces of pizza fit into your calories for the day. An entire pizza, not so much.

The good news is, the beginning is the hardest. This will get easier and easier and the weeks and months go on. It will become second nature to eat in a more healthful manner, you just have to be willing to put in the work. Nothing that is worth it comes easy. Rely on the message boards here for support...you can lose the weight so long as you want that end result bad enough!

It's hard because you do less putting it on than taking it off.

Sucks, I know.

If it was easy, we wouldn't have any overweight people. As you eat better, you'll start to crave those things less and less. Eat good, feel good. You can do it!

It gets better! I promise! One of the things I did was to cut my pizza up into tiny bites and eat each bite very slowly..you than realize how filling it is and o ly eat about 1/4 of the amount. You can do this!

You know the saying: Being overweight is hard, eating right is hard, being on control is hard. You choose your hard.

But as an encouragement it does get easier when you start to enjoy the new lifestyle, and acknowledge with grace the fact that you want a healthier life.

It does get better! Once you get into the habit of logging and looking at what you are eating, y ou start to think before you eat and make better choices. MFP was really difficult for me in the beginning, I had so many days and weeks where I wanted to give up and stop logging. I kept going and I'm almost halfway to my goal, it has taken time and I still have days where I feel like quitting, but my body is adjusting and so am I. It also helps to have people look at the food you are eating and help you to know what is good and what isn't so great for weight loss and for your body.

You can do this! It's not about just losing weight, it's about changing your whole lifestyle. It takes time but be patient and persistent!

It doesn't have to be hard.

Change your mindset about losing weight and it will become much easier. If you look at this as a punishment for being fat, then yes, it's going to suck and it's going to be hard. If you think of this as a lifestyle change in order to have a healthy body and look better (in the end), then it's not too hard after all. Just remember that this is long term, not immediate and you're going to have to wait for results. But that's ok.

Will some days still be horrible? Yes. Life is like that. Some days would be horrible even if you weren't trying to lose weight.

And as far as "carbilicious" food goes, you can still have pizza. I had pizza last night in fact. I had Lucky Charms for breakfast. I'm going to eat some chocolate later too. But I'm also going to make good choices today: an apple, yogurt and cottage cheese for snacks. Lean protein and veggies at dinner. Maybe a grapefruit later. It's about chosing the healthy option most of the time so you can have the not-so-healthy option some of the time.

Also - carbs are not evil. Lack of carbs does not equal weight loss. A calorie deficit equals weight loss. Carbs are a great source of energy. So, don't think you have to forego them to lose weight.

Most people gain weight slowly and then try to lose weight fast. That is why it seems so hard.

Try walking a mile and then sprinting a mile.

To fight hunger or the simple desire to munch on crap all day long, look for low calorie food options such as pickles, celery, spinach, plain popcorn, and more.

Some foods you can eat ALL day long and still lose weight.

This is about a life change, though... you're going to have to sacrifice at first. It does get much easier to eat healthier after week 1... your stomach shrinks and you start finding foods you love that are low calorie OR low cal versions of the food you love.

Ditto.

Also, you are threatening to order a pizza and eat the whole thing. Guess what? Pizza IS NOT off limits. Eating an entire pizza is. It really is all about moderation. You can make 3 pieces of pizza fit into your calories for the day. An entire pizza, not so much.

The good news is, the beginning is the hardest. This will get easier and easier and the weeks and months go on. It will become second nature to eat in a more healthful manner, you just have to be willing to put in the work. Nothing that is worth it comes easy. Rely on the message boards here for support...you can lose the weight so long as you want that end result bad enough!

Both of these!!! All the way! Also, I'm not an expert. Far from it. But when I was first starting out, I got so completely overwhelmed with this huge mountain in front of me that I wanted to give up. I felt really, really out of my comfort zone. I decided to take a day (or a few days if you need) and eat what I would normally eat in a day before I joined MFP. I wanted to give myself a baseline to work with. It was completely shocking to see how many calories I was consuming in a "normal" day. Somehow, concentrating on the logging, rather than worrying about changing my diet all at once, made it easier for me to get used to changing my lifestyle, rather than thinking of it as a "diet" or like something I HAD to do. Now I'm at peace with it. If I have a day or two where I screw up, I don't panic, I just refocus myself. Plus, now when I eat too much, I feel really physically sick. I love that. I still eat pizza, and cookies, and whatever else I want, just not huge portions of it like I used to. And it's working for me.

Have to keep pushing yourself and sticking to it. Eventually, you adapt the lifestyle and have less trouble with staying focus, just figure out your goals and find what works best for you.

No pain, no gain right?

For me, it always takes a couple of weeks before a new routine becomes routine. My only advice to you is to not let yourself get to hungry, then if your like me, you'll start to obsess over food and that obsession will eventually lead to a binge. Good luck to you in your journey.

for a lot of people, the more refined carbs (sugar, flour, etc) you eat, the more you want. I would suggest trying really hard for a couple of weeks not to eat much of that stuff and eventually you won't crave it so much.

Notice I didn't say NOT to eat it, just focus on trading those things for fruit (still carbs, but more filling), vegetables, and lean proteins.

This is what I have done, and it has worked really,really well. for me. I do not crave junk at all, anymore. In fact, when one of my kids offers me some and I take a bite, it never really tastes good. I actually crave good stuff now. Weird, but awesome!

I've been eating much less (1200-1340 from whatever I felt like before) for almost three months now and a couple of weeks ago I was pretty confident I was going to (stupidly) eat a whole plate of noodles on a cheat day out of town but I got full about half way through and had to take it home with me on the plane. I was quite impressed with my stomach because there was a time I could have eaten it all without regret!