40 year old women and older who has lost 40 or more lbs - HOW THE HECK DID YOU DO IT???

I'm a month away from turning 60. I'm 5'6.5" and started trying to lose weight somewhere around late spring of 2014 when I weighed an all-time high of 230 pounds. I ate less calories than I had been eating, but was still eating in an unhealthy way, consuming very little protein, lots of pasta, just unhealthy. I spent a great deal of time being in a state of gnawing hunger that would cause me to not be able to go to or stay asleep - hunger would wake me up, then I would get up at 3 in the morning and eat. I "dieted" some days, not others, so my weight loss was slow, and I felt bad physically, but I managed to lose 21 pounds.

I found MFP in mid-April and everything changed. I have logged in every day and logged everything I have consumed since then. I started reading the Success Stories thread every single morning, and now have several other threads that I find motivational bookmarked and read those too. I bought a food scale a couple of weeks after starting here, and started using it religiously about a month later - took me a while to get into that habit, but now I weigh almost everything - no more measuring spoons and cups. I found that I am rubbish at estimating portion sizes, although I am getting better.

I started walking in the pool in July, but had to curtail that after a couple of weeks due to hurting my knees. I then started walking around my neighborhood at the beginning of August for 30 or so minutes a day, and was doing that faithfully, except for a few days with hurt knees and my other chronic health issues, until a week ago when I was semi-attacked by a big dog in the neighborhood. The dog didn't bite me, but charged me and head-butted me - no injuries, but it has really freaked me out so I'm taking a short break. Other than that, I have done no exercise of any kind, so my weight loss is basically by lowering my calories alone.

As of Thursday, I'm down a total of 51 pounds, 30 of those since starting MFP. I have 44 pounds left to my goal, but I'll decide if I want to go that low when I get closer. I am rarely hungry - I get hungry around meal times, which is what it should be - no more ravenous hunger. As I've progressed in this, I find that it is just as important to me to meet my nutritional requirements as it is to lose weight, so I structure my menu around that fact. I have IBS and can't eat many vegetables (no salads), so I eat a lot of baked chicken, sandwiches, greek yogurt, avocados and make sure I get my fiber and calcium in, and I take a multi-vitamin every day. I count EVERYTHING, even one Altoid, Tums and my multi-vitamin. I drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water a day, and, when I want a treat, such as fast food or sweets, I either plan or adjust my daily menu around them so they fit into my calories and macros/micros. I still eat fast food, but I don't get sides or soft drinks anymore - I get unsweetened iced tea and just a sandwich. I get a donut about once a week, and eat ice cream about once a week too.

As so many people here say, if I can do it, anybody can do it. I had given up completely, so this is actually still kind of a surprise to me that I have lost this much weight. But, at this point, I have no doubts I will succeed in reaching my final goal. And then the hard part begins - maintaining.

Good luck to all! You can do it!!!

I had a health issue happen, where it was either lose weight or go on medication. I chose lose weight.

So learning what worked and what I am supposed to be doing for calories on MFP helped me, tracking helps me when I do it, but I've been tracking long enough now to learn about how much I should be eating or not eating.

I drink a lot of water - avoid colas any kind of colas unless I have a headache and then the doc said tylenol and a coke (ick) and that solves it, and stay hydrated, avoid salts, sugars and processed foods as much as possible. Do I still have them? sometimes but not like when I was gaining weight.

I eat now when I am hungry or I start to feel on edge because sometimes my stomach doesn't send the pangs out or the empty feeling out but what does is my mood/feeling which isn't originating in my stomach. When I feel edgy it's either too much sugar, so I check and see if I've had too much sugar, if not am I hydrated enough? if I am then I check and see if I'm menstrual or premenstrual if I am I take that into account, eat just a couple of tablespoons of protein food with a veg, wait and see if it's really hunger and my mood has changed or if it's pms/menses. If it's hunger what happens is my stomach will actually then I dunno wake up and be like okay that's what it is and my mood is mildly satiated until I prepare a balanced meal.
If it's hunger than I eat something balanced and a full meal until I feel comfortable, I don't over eat or binge. I don't get that feeling of dis ease within my body or from being too full anymore.

I also prayed for help because I couldn't stop over eating especially when I was emotional, on my own. I posted "Is it about the void? Fill it with something else" on my fridge. I started to recognize when I was mindlessly eating, or if I was eating because something in my brain was bothering me like being angry at someone, being uncomfortable with what someone had told me, or acted towards me, I started paying attention to what was going into my body.

I got active - I walk, I lift mild free weights, I sometimes belly dance or do yoga or dance, I sometimes do tai chi or cardio workouts.

I eat a lot less, I realized it's okay to eat a lot less, because before I was slowly killing myself with food and my body reacted by giving me a major health signal. Which was confirmed by doctors.

I write notes to myself weekly or when I have time but especially weekly in the beginning about "Why I want to lose weight?" and was honest since no one but me was going to see them anyways.

I read on here about setting mini goals instead of one big one, so I do those on my weight loss ticker and when I hit one I am so darn proud of myself. Reaching a goal also releases good chemicals in the brain, and who can't use good chemicals?

I continue to ask for help from the deity I pray to. I also bless my food that it may be of the highest vibration to me, and recognize where it came from. The earth grew it or sustained it at one point, I thank the earth, I thank the plant or animal that gave it to me. I moved spirituality into my eating.

Oh but I also got educated about carbs/proteins/fats like I'm sure anyone who has tried to lose weight or gain health in the past has done, so I had to 'learn' how to eat healthy, and not just crap.

Oh and I'm not in a rush, I'm just consistently losing.

44 and 40 lbs lost so far.