My name is Cassie... and I'm in this for the long haul

Hi. I am 29 years old and live in Brisbane, Australia.

My best friend introduced me to the ideal of calorie counting when she bought an iPhone last year. She raved about the control and confidence that it gave her over her food intake. I decided that if I were ever to buy an iPhone myself that I would give it ago.

... and I did! I'm nearly four weeks in and am seeing some good results.

I started at 70 kg. I have been exercising fairly regularly since I was 21 and have gotten down to 65 kg in the past just with exercise but without a lot of effort I tend to sit at the very top my BMI "healthy" weight range for my height of 164cm. I have never gone on a diet before, but I tend to eat healthy fresh foods and the occasional indulgent food over junk food.

My goal is 60 kg. I want to reach that goal over the space of the next year (but I'll probably be very happy with 61-62 kg!)

Myfitnesspal recommended I restrict myself to 1400 calories per day to reach my goal in 13 weeks. I saw a great loss after the first 10 days: 1.5kgs. I was also hungry for most of those 10 days!

Unfortunately my weight seemed to flatline for a few weeks. I dropped my calorie intake down to 1300 per day and stopped eating all my exercise (I think of them as "bonus") calories. After two weeks with no change I've seen a small loss again on the scales. I'm down to 67.5 kg. This is what I want to see: weight coming off in small but steady amounts. I just hope it continues to do so!

I've overshot my calorie intake only 1 day so far and that was intentional - I went out for a birthday banquet at a great Thai restaurant determined not to think about the calorie content. I did end up going on a 2 hour walk the following day to try and make up for my indulgence!

But it doesn't matter if I don't see a drop in weight for another 2 weeks, another 4 weeks, another 2 months... I'm not giving this up. I can eat knowing that when I go to sleep at night I haven't been naughty by eating a bar of chocolate (I do this quite often now when I've had a very light lunch/dinner!) because I was under my daily calorie goal. No more guilt about food

So, yeah, I'm not doing this as a 13 week diet. I'm going to be tracking for a long, long time.

Good health awaits us all!
Cassie