My secrets to losing weight

I just lost 15 pounds. That may not sound like a lot, but I have been wanting to lose 10 pounds for the last five years at least. I made the decision because I was in terrible pain with calcific tendonitis. My doctor suggested I take a disability leave from work while waiting for surgery, and my time at home was spent on prescription pain killers and lying on the couch with ice on my shoulder. I had already quit dancing which is a passion of mine , quit lifting weights which I used to be in the habit of doing, and I couldn't even eat or hand write or type with my right hand so the term losing muscle mass is an understatement!

I felt like I was destined to waste six months of life feeling rotten and probably eating lots of potato chips on my way to two hundred pounds.
I decided to try and stay at work and to lose the last ten pounds with help from mfp. I had already been tracking on mfp for a while.
My plan was to lose ten pounds whether I exercised or not.
Ok, so that's the back story, now I'll tell you what worked for me:


This is what I didn't do:

1) I didn't write long lists of rules and promise myself I would obey them all!
2) I didn't worry about when I ate. Although I usually eat breakfast, I know that many people don't and still do very well reaching their goals.
3) I didn't care if I met or went over my TDEE. TDEE means that nothing is going to happen!!! It's fine people! Over TDEE meant that I made up the difference over the next few days, or I forgot about it!
4). I had macro goals but never expected to be spot on, and I mostly just made sure there was a minimum amount of protein in there.
5) The only exercise I did was running and I only ran if I felt like it. So no pressure to exercise.
6) I didn't try boosting my weight loss with special tricks. I only ate foods that I enjoy. I ignored all the extraneous advice. TDEE was my only concern.

This is what I did. (2 things)
1) I just relaxed about it. Even when I plateaued for months I believed in the process.
2) I always always logged!!! This is so important to me because logging gives us far more information than a scale. If we always log and don't make too many changes, it's also the best way to know for sure what our TDEE is:)


Two other things I did:

3) I didn't eat potato chips much( this is a personal issue) but I did eat ice cream and pizza and whatever else I wanted to eat.
4) I believed I would reach my goal. I visualized it every day.( you don't have to do this, it might be another gimmicky thing, but I like to do this.)


I honest believe in the importance of keeping things as simple as possible and getting on with your life!