What foods do you want to stay away from?

Ugh! I am a night eater too! The worst part is that it's usually after I've already gone to bed & wake up in the kitchen eating flour tortillas or white bread with margarine. :grumble: I also need to just make sure these things aren't in the house. Otherwise, I try to avoid fast food of any sort, processed foods, and sweets. I do enjoy cooking so when I have the time, it's not difficult to prepare a healthy meal for us. Good luck! Jaime

undercooked/overcooked food
food that has fallen on a dirty floor
spoiled food
yucky food

Basically anything that tastes good or gives you any degree of pleasure should be nixed. Losing weight is an exercise in self-denial. You have to hate yourself enough that you enjoy denying yourself things.

Just kidding. Cut out the processed crap and soda. Diet soda is fine. Wine, beer, etc. should be a once-a-week thing, if that.

I try not to "take away" anything . However I personally struggle with sweets. I find I keep it as a special treat or avoid it. I hope once I'm better at self control and making better choices it will be easier to allow sweets. I become a monster once I get my fingers on them so I stay away.

Okra is pretty nasty. Fuzzy on the outside and slimy on the inside.

I really agree! I won't tell anyone else what to avoid, but I know that for me, I feel 100% better and look better too, when I stick with real food. No crap.
Whatever you decide to avoid...replace it with a healthy alternative!

It isn't really a will power issue at all, processed foods zap my energy and make me want to overeat. Good food makes me feel so much better. Lately I have cut out breads too, and replaced them with brown rice and oats. Not because they are bad, especially my beloved whole grain...but they trigger cravings in me somehow.

MFP helps me to keep track of calories and moderate all the GOOD foods I am eating. I go fairly high calorie, lots of nuts, avocado, coconut oil, veggies, fruit, eggs, tofu, etc etc. If I go too low calorie I lose control, and I want to keep my metabolism burning. If I go too high I won't lose. But it is really easy to keep the balance with a healthy diet. At 52 years old, losing weight this easily and feeling this good is a huge reward and incentive.

My MFP ticker is in kilos, but actually I have lost 30 pounds so far and it's FUN!

Good luck!!

...since I'm on a diet now...

Stop dieting. Diets are temporary. This needs to be a permanent lifestyle change. Don't eliminate your favorite foods. Just make sure you eat within your calorie goals and that you make healthy choices most of the time. :flowerforyou:

I stay away from everything without a point. So I wouldn't eat anything that doesn't do anything for me. My food needs to be either full of nutrients or I have to love it. For example I don't like but also don't mind cottage cheese and cream (i know I'm weird), cottage cheese is good so I eat it cream isn't so I don't. Also crisps and chocolate, both very yummy and 'bad' I can live without crisps, so I do. I can't live without chocolate so I eat some pretty much every day (in moderation of course)

Staying away from certain foods because other people (as long as it's not your doctor) say so is not a good idea, eat what you can't live without and stay away from things that you don't care about and that doesn't do anything for you

The key is to really listen to yourself! Don't eat things because you think you should like it. Like cream on cake for example. I ate that for years... Until I noticed I like the cake better without (and it's less calories that way, so win win)

I only want to stay away from meat because I haven't eat it regularly since I became vegetarian when I was eleven. Since then, I added fish back in.

Unfortunately, as a pregnant woman, I have to keep away from anything that risks listeriosis, salmonella etc (soft cheese, raw eggs). Also, having just found out I probably have gestational diabetes, there will be a long list of foods to try to keep away from soon too.