If you have lost 15lbs or more....

consistency is the number 1 thing to have - make it a lifestyle change not just a now change, thats when it started working for me

coffee and lifting.

Just eat less calories (portion control), exercise a bit. Cut out as much Soda and fast food as you can. And make sure you are losing weight for you and not for impressing others.

Good Luck

15 lbs in one month. I'm doing primal/paleo - basically, I'm not eating sugar and refined carbs (It took a good 3 days of complete omission, but once I was off, all cravings for sweets and refined carbs went away! *snoopy dance*). I'm also eating as much "real" food as possible - eliminating all the chemicals and cr@p that processed foods have - which ironically means most low fat and non-fat foods are out (because when they take out fat, they add sugar and chemicals :huh: So if/when I eat dairy, it's the full fat stuff). My meals consist mostly of protein and a veggie, with nuts as a snack. Eating this way makes it hard to overeat because nutritious food is relatively low in calories. (I struggle to eat 1200 calories, but I'm eating every 2-3 hours *go figure*).

Do I "cheat?" I've been tempted 2x. Both times I took a nibble and tossed it - WAY too sweet and tasted "off" (who knew my tastes would change so much? Prior to this, I would have been all over those baked goodies!) If one day there is something I want to eat, I will eat it. Odds are though, after eating such a pure diet, my tummy might make me miserable for a few hours. So not worth it. (That actually happened last weekend when I ate cured bacon after a month of eating uncured. I felt sooo sick. I'm thinking it was the nitrates.)

I've been on too many diets, this is something I want to do long term. Nothing is off limits (consequences aside) as long as I'm trying to be healthy most (90%) of the time!

Focus on whole/ clean foods. Eat often enough that you're not starving when it comes to mealtime. Meal plan and prep ahead so that you are not having a "need food NOW" situation and there's nothing that will take less than an hour to cook, thus justifying takeout. If your're gonna eat something off-book (outside of your usual healthy ish planned meals), try to log it ahead of time so you can have your depressing reality check (or crow of delight) ahead of time rather than after the food is eaten.

Measure your food and log it.
Track how you feel about your food and how your food makes you feel, plus what worked and what didn't.

If you want to appreciate food for other reasons than nutrition (cultural connection, social gathering, extreme deliciousness, whatever) put work into figuring out how you can modify those habits and how you can build some of those experiences into your plan.

Don't try to tackle too many habits at once. Take it as slow as you need to to make the changes stick. If that means you're not hitting the gym for a while because cooking your own food takes forever, so be it (but moving is awesome, so don't deny yourself the endorphins forever).

portion control is number ONE!

Healthy choices is number TWO!

Moving is number THREE!!

This

First thing I did was watch my calories and drink more water.
Eventually cut off any other drinks
Then made healthier choices
And now I'm moving more c:

EDIT: 23 of those lbs below me, was only from watching my calories and drinking water. :bigsmile:

EDIT: 23 of those lbs below me, was only from watching my calories and drinking water. :bigsmile:

H2 Oh, my goodness!