Help us get our diet and behavior right

unless you are intolerant or allergic to dairy there is no reason to cut it out. in fact there was a Danish study that showed if you have large amounts of low fat dairy calcium (the test subject ate like 1kg of low fat yogurt a day) it binds fat in your diet and it gets excreted rather then stored

is the apple or pear the only thing you plan to have for lunch? Usually people seem have more success if they allocate a certain number of cals for each meal so they keep grazing between meals.

go for a walk together at night where you get your heart rate up (not a romantic little stroll), go swimming, go riding a bike together, find something that you like

anyway, determine how many cals you use a day, eat/drink less then that and see what sort of exercise you might like and do it regularily :-)

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants


For more information about fitness and nutrition, I highly suggest checking out and joining this group. Make sure to read all the stickies:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/10118-eat-train-progress

Also a couple of tips/info:

MFP is designed for its users to eat back their exercise calories. The formula can be found on the goals page. Also rely more on body measurements versus the scale as it is very unreliable due to food intake and water retention.

In regards to goals for lbs/kgs lost per week:

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.


And if you don't have a food scale - get one ASAP. While measuring cups are better than eyeballing portions, weighing food portions is much more accurate.

I don't believe in benefits of soy or almond milk unless you can't tolerate lactose. Keep plain yogurts in, just regular ones, no fruits in it. Usually human body does not digest cow milk very well as it gets older, so if you have to have milk, use almond milk, or try camel or goat milk, they are easy to digest. I personally cut milk out completely, just use kefir or yogurts.

Don't go high on fruits, they are high in sugar. It is OK to have them everyday, but should use proper amount of servings.
Add more veggies!
No need for sport drinks. I don't use them unless I run more that 10K distance. You can add cut fruits in the water, lemon, mint, ginger, or whatever you like. I add even sliced cucumbers in the pitcher of water and drink it.

And most important -- stick to your plan!

Some people are going to disagree with me, and that's okay. Losing weight is all about calories in, calories out, so there's no real "right" way to do it if your *only* goal is to lose weight.

*DAIRY -- I removed milk from my diet as well. I replaced it with Almond milk. The main issue here is calories. One cup of 1% milk is something like 100 calories, whereas a cup of Almond milk (my brand is Silk) is 30 calories. So far, no problems. Soy and Almond milks are usually fortified to have the exact same nutrients as normal milk, so you're not missing anything.

*FRUIT -- use a food guide for the servings of fruit you're supposed to eat. The Canada Food Guide is one such guide, I don't know if you have a local equivalent.

*PLANNING EATING TIMES -- I think this is too restrictive. Follow a general guideline if you absolutely must, but don't put concrete plans on when you should or should not eat. I feel that puts too much pressure on you. Besides, you should experiment with when and what you eat; some people find multiple small meals per day a lot easier.

*EXERCISE -- You don't have to do it. 90 pounds lost here, no exercise involved. That said, if you do want to exercise, you just have to make the time. "I don't have much time" is never a valid excuse. All the time you spend browsing the internet or watching TV can be cut. Believe me, you have the time, you just need to identify what useless activities to cut.

*HATES THE TASTE OF WATER -- I'm the same, I also don't like the taste of water. I can, however, stomach a glass of water before I leave in the morning and a glass when I come home. Keep in mind that you can hydrate in other ways - a lot of vegetables and fruit have high water content.
There's nothing inherently unhealthy about diet drinks. Don't worry about "chemicals" and other nonsense - everything is made of chemicals. The problem with diet drinks comes from becoming desensitized to how sweet artificial sweeteners can be, leading to potential overeating of sweets if you can't control your urge to buy them in the first place.

*SPORTS DRINKS -- you probably shouldn't spend the money. They won't have any negative effects if you drink them, but you probably don't need Gatorade or anything similar if you're doing normal exercise. Gatorade is for athletes, first and foremost.

*VEGGIES -- It's always a good idea to eat more vegetables. Westerners eat too much meat as it is, so good on you for cutting down on meat. As far as "Hydrolized", do not be afraid of big words that you don't understand. Foods that contain hydrolized protein contain protein that are extracted from legumes and cereals. Basically, the protein is broken down into amino acids, which are then added to food to give it a savory flavor.

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Tips:
Overcount by rounding up the calories. For example, imagine that one of your veggie burgers is 280 calories. Count it as 300. Imagine that a piece of tuna you cook is 190 calories. Count it as 200. This will help you in the long run by having a small "extra" amount of calories, guaranteeing you lose weight.

Incorporate physical activity in your day slowly. Take the stairs, offer to run errands, stop using your car as much, etc.
Every little bit counts.

Buy very low-calorie foods and eat a lot of them. I have a ton of food per day, despite only eating 1450 calories. I do this by buying very low calorie food and eating a ton of it.

Understand how food works. Protein is good for making you feel full. Vegetables, while very nutrient rich, don't keep you full as long (these are examples). In general, eat a balanced diet.

Eat breakfast. Can't stress that enough.

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In response to your post above mine currently,
1: carbs are not bad. They are essential to your diet.

There is no such thing as an objectively "bad" food. For example, we often think of oil or fat as examples of things that you shouldn't eat, but they're actually good for you in small amounts. I recommend you spend some time talking to a dietitian or reading on the internet about nutrition.
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/carbs/simple-vs-complex-carbohydrates.html

2: Eating out is possible, just be smart about it
First, many restaurants have nutritional information available, you just have to find it. If there's no nutritional information available, you are in trouble but you can still deal with it. Sometimes I go out to lunch with my family, and when I do it I usually assume the meal is about 2000 calories, and subtract 300 calories from each day of the week. This way, I can "make up" for the food I ate throughout the week without feeling hungry.