I'm a mess!

It is hard to do. But you can do this. Are you planning your meals. Look for alternatives for foods you already enjoy. This is a wonderful time of year to enjoy fruit. We are here for you.

are you planning something into your day that you enjoy? like for me.. i love the trader joes raspberry or orange chocolate sticks.. it's 150 calories for the normal serving size.. but when you just have 1/2 of a serving - it doesn't make such a big dent into the rest of the day. it is so much fun for me to go to the cupboard where i keep them (aka - hide them from the rest of the family), and just take the two out and enjoy them without feeling guilty. i have to plan that treat into my calories for the day, though.. it's not so hard to stay on the wagon when you aren't feeling deprived of *everything*.

and like eve said... there are healthier alternatives to just about all the "bad" foods we enjoy.. if you like hot dogs - hebrew national lite beef franks only have 45 calories each! having a hamburger for dinner made with lean hamburger and one of the plain hamburger buns isn't that bad either.. especially if you choose a vegetable for side instead of fries or chips. and fruit is great! a cup of watermelon doesn't have that many calories (64, i think?).

i love pasta, but traditional spaghetti is a killer for me on calories.. instead i make it into a casserole.. have the noodles and sauce, throw in some veggies, some lean meat/poultry, and melt a little bit of cheese on top.. significantly less calories than a plate of spaghetti.

if you are at a dead end for what to eat, the boards here are awesome for finding ideas!

I used to have the mind set that when I wanted to lose weight, I had to give up every food I liked for stuff I didn't like--and the outcome was---I'd last 2 days and then binge bad. When I started on this site, I decided to eat normal and log the calories and see how terrible it was to eat my favorite foods. I actually was amazed that I didn't go over by 1000 calories, AND I only looked at calories--nothing else. That was key in the beginning. As I became more conscious of how many calories my favorite foods had in them, I started making a few changes. Fruits became more appealing, not because I had to eat them, but because I wanted to eat them--actually started craving them. Hard to believe that someone could not be a big fruit lover, but I have to make myself eat them sometimes. Try to replace one high calorie food with one low calorie food a day--take it slow. Eventually your body tells you what it is craving and eventually it might actually be something HEALTHY