Loose weight/firm up & FEEL GOOD about ME !!!

Just watch what you eat....drink lost of water...do a workout dvd ( like 30 day shred) and walk all you can. Keeping it moving is key : )

Good luck.

KAYE! We are in the same age group with the same amount to lose.

Here is what worked for me (i swear #5 saved my life)... It's been long and slow and I'm just starting to get impatient, but I'm also pretty darn close to my goal and I'm confident that this is a pretty healthy approach.

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.

3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issues. Oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress.
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.
You don't have to be perfect you just have to do better.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me I did the math to find out the calories needed to maintain my goal weight and my current weight and I gave myself a range with 1200 as my rock bottom, lose 1 lb/wk as my target and maintain my goal weight as the top of my range. As long as I keep within in this range I'll lose. I tend to naturally zig zag my calories 3-4 at very close to my target and then a higher calorie day closer to the top of my range.

As long as I stayed under maintain my current weight calories I won't gain. So no need to throw in the towel, just pick-up where I left off.

6)
Watch your sugar. (Calcium makes your muscles relax and sugar prevents the absorption of calcium. Eat too much sugar and you'll always be stressed.)

It will also increase your appetite and make it harder to keep to your calorie goals.
It takes between 2-3 weeks to adjust to lower levels of sugar. So hang tough for 3-4 weeks and see how you feel. Really hard to stay with in the MFP target, but
a) you'll see how much sugar is hiding in things that are sold as *real food* (Yogurt has a ton, Nutrigrain bars are sold as a healthy option, but they have 11 types of sugar)
and
b) check it against the baseline of what you were eating when you first started tracking, before you worried about losing. by just being aware you are probably doing a lot better because hopefully you are taking in less calories and a lower percent of those calories are sugar

7)
Food is our friend not the enemy it is here to nourish and nurture us.
Make a list of foods you like (even "bad" foods) then go back and circle all the healthiest options on the list and make sure you work some of these into your diet. Make eating healthy food a pleasure not a chore.

Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as achievable. I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.)

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.

After seeing all my Mom's health problems that I wasn't that tough and it's easier to lose the weight now than it was to deal with that later.


SORRY I'M SO LONG WINDED.
Good Luck

I agree with another post.. I zig zag my calories too... some days I go over by a 100 or 200 and others I"m under by that much. It seems to work better. Also I noticed that if I work out every day I stall out. I usually work out 4-5 days a week and I stay on track.

Also, I don't restrict myself. If I want something I eat it and I either work it off or go over for the day. It has helped tremendously. But I noticed since I started working out, I'm less likely to snack all the time! And I mix up my workouts too.. Never do just one thing. Zumba more often than not but I'll add in a walk and P90 X video some days too!