What has worked for you?

Planning ahead works the best for me. Best of luck to you!!!

I have found so much truth to a healthy lifestyle being "80% diet and 20% exercise"!!

I run during the week :] love it! And I have found my own version of carb cycling worked amazing for me. 80g carbs for 3 days then 175 one day. repeat. repeat. repeat. :]

Working Out is my key. I don't loose unless I do. I try and get in 2 hours a day. I know that not everyone can do that but anything is better than nothing.:happy:

I don't work out more than a few minutes a day but I'm still losing 5pounds a week, without ever being left hungry. And I go out to eat 2-3x a week and go out drinking at least 1x too.

What has worked for me is water. I take my weight and divide by 15. The number that equals is the goal amount of water u need to get to everyday (in cups). My number is 20. I also don't drink more than 100-150cal in beverages a day. Like an hour ago I drank 1serving of my juice instead of whole bottle like normal and then I had milk n my cereal this morning so between the two drinks I've had 113cal n beverages today. I take multivitamins and always make sure mfp says my calcium, iron, vitamin a & c is over 100% and eat as much potassium as possible and low sodium which I struggle with salt.

I make sure every meal fills me, and that I eat a snack bertween meals. I choose healthy snacks. If I'm really hungry and know I have 3hrs till my meal, ill eat a baked potatoe and put a 1/4cup of cottage cheese on it. Carrots is a good filling snack for me, especially late nights where I shouldn't be eating at all. Or a light string cheese is one I like too, 60cal.

I don't cook with oil or salt. I season everything with garlic, onion, maybe parsley, pepper, red pepper flakes.

I eat all the reduced fat, sugar free, fat free, low sodium stuff and it fills me just the same as full flavor but half the cal.

I try to stay away from white flour as much as possible and eat wheat flours and whole grain items instead.

I eat a small salad a lot before dinner and wait 15min b4 I start eating dinner, and eat slower, so that the salad has time to fill ur hunger a bit and u won't eat as much.

Egg whites if I want egg and no yolks.

A lot of days I'm left with several hundred calories to spare so if I planned my days ahead of time and choose higher cal snacks, etc then id be ok, however planning doesn't work for me. Like Friday I planned everything and then went over my calories when plans changed. It upset me cuz I woulda been fine if I wouldn't have had the higher cal snacks. But if I know in advance I'm going out then its easy for me to stay under cal cuz I can choose lower cal snacks and meals throughout rest of day.

A commitment to myself to do this is the absolute best thing that has worked for me Everything else is a journey & you can tweak. Good luck!

Great Post! Thank you

For me personally, the best thing has been watching what I eat. I started this journey in Oct 2010 and I've lost 30 lbs. All I do is eat1200-1400 calories per day (good calories) and do 30 minutes of cardio 3x per week. I have one cheat day (Saturday). I don't drink soda or alcohol. I eat fish 2-3 per week and I have vegetables for dinner every night. I drink 64 oz. of water daily and ALWAYS eat breakfast. I don't deprive myself from things like chips, chocolate, candy, cookies, etc...I just do so in moderation.

I'm a firm believer that losing weight is 85-90% food intake...after the weight is lost then the fitness is what helps firm and tone your body. So really it's all about discipline, self control and consitancy...don't get discouraged and be honest with yourself.