New here..and I need major help.

I really like the recipes on skinnytaste.com . Most of the ones I have tried were very yummy and my fiancé has requested them again and again

I was always one of those that hated the idea of counting calories. Part of the problem was that I am a lover of home cooked meals, but never knew how to add up the correct amount of calories per portion. That's what I really like about MFP. Just enter the recipe in and the number of people you're feeding and bam! it's all in there. I agree with another poster who suggested skinnytaste.com. Love the recipes there. I also am a huge fan of feastie.com. Loads of different bloggers post recipes there. You can do a search for healthy and get a lot of results for great tasting food, and even low cal desserts if you're willing to spend a little extra on some ingredients. As for exercise, I'm using couch 2 10k. You can get the app for free on your phone for the whole program and it's wonderful. It's essentially intervals of running and walking, and depending on how fast you start, day 1 week 1 you can still cover close to 2 miles in about 30 minutes. I'm on week 4-5 right now and am almost up to 3 miles total, burning about 350 calories a run. My boyfriend and I also like hitting up the gym in our apartment complex for the weights. Building muscle is essential to losing weight, imo since muscle mass increases your metabolism in a nutshell. Results aren't going to happen overnight, which is the most important thing to remember.

I also use another app called pact to help keep me on my goals as well. You download the app, agree to a "pact" to exercise however many days a week you choose, and give them credit card information. If you don't make your agreement, they charge you an amount chosen by you. If you do, they pay you based on the other app users who didn't make their goal. That app along with MFP have done me the most good.

Good luck, and feel free to friend me for support!

I really like the recipes on skinnytaste.com . Most of the ones I have tried were very yummy and my fiancé has requested them again and again

I second that! Skinnytaste.com is wonderful for nutrition and taste. I make most of my meals from that website. I also have the Biggest Loser 30 day jumpstart book and there is a lot of great things in that.

. I found "The Shred Diet" by Dr Ian Smith very helpful to me. Its only 6 weeks and was a wonderful starting off point for me. It seems very sensible, normal everyday foods, portion control, tells you how much to exercise every day, and you are eating all day long. You won't go hungry. The book is easy to get, Barnes and Noble, etc and is inexpensive. It has quite a few pages of 100 and 150 calorie snack ideas/recipes and several recipes for soups and shakes. After the 6 weeks, I had a very good idea of proper portions, and healty choices to make.

Me, too. That diet worked well for my husband and me!

Welcome and Good Luck!

One of my tricks is too use a sandwich plate for my meals rather than a large dinner plate. I honestly eat anything i want to eat. within the calorie range i have chosen.
It's easy to eat properly if you just use portion control.

I do my best to stay away from refined flour and sugar and processed foods

I do not eat "diet" foods they are not helpful in losing weight at all

we all know what a reasonable portion of something is

we all know that its not sensible to eat a large bag of potatos chips

someone told me once to watch how average weight people eat and to eat like that

I want to be an average weight person so i am eating like an average person not an obese person

you can pretty much use any recipe you like, it is easy to reduce the fat, sugar and salt in most recipes

I have a couple of recipes i have made over in my recipes section on here

stay strong and eat well