Starting up again - looking for new ideas!

Why did you fail to sustain your weight loss last time? I think you should think hard about what caused the weight to regain and make sure whatever choices you make to lose weight this time are sustainable long-term.

Quick advice:
- It's ok to start slow and build. What I did was weigh and log EVERYTHING for a week before I cut anything, just to see where my patterns were. That let me see what times of the day I was eating, and gave me ideas for what to cut down on. Then, I picked one thing to change, and gave myself a couple weeks to get used to it. Then, changed something else. Start slow and create a foundation to build on. It takes longer, but you'll feel better the entire time instead of being hungry and desperately craving favorite foods. You don't have to cut out foods, simply cut down on HOW MUCH you eat of them.

- Exercise IS NOT required for weight loss. It's good for many other things, and if you can exercise, make sure to add it. But don't rely on it for weight loss. Focus on calories in for now, and if you're not exercising, add that in slowly when you can. It will help you get you body healthy, and learning to lift will help you tone muscles, which will make your body composition better, but if you don't relearn eating habits, it's not going to help that much.

- Don't rely on others for your motivation. External motivation and support is great, but sporadic. You're not going to have someone call you up 2-3 times a day to offer encouragement unless you pay them. So you need to learn to motivate yourself. The way to do that is to take a good, honest look at why YOU want to lose weight. It doesn't have to be 'to get healthy' either. Find that reason and make it your motivation. Mine was I didn't like that I looked fat in my wedding pictures. And since it's on my work desk, that means I was constantly looking at it. Now that I've lost weight, it's also a reminder of where I was and to not let myself get there again. So find your own reason and motivation, and you'll always be able to pick yourself back up when make mistakes.

- And you WILL make mistakes. Days you go over by accident, celebrations and holidays, sick days, etc. EVERYONE has off days. It doesn't make you a failure and won't sabotage your progress unless you let it. When you make a mistake, learn from it, log it, and start fresh next meal/day. It's a lesson that's hard for a lot of people to learn, including me, but once you internalize it, things become MUCH easier!

I eat almost exactly what I ate before, but in different proportions: smaller portions of the calorie-dense foods and bigger portions of the calorie-light foods. If steak is on the menu, I have a 4 oz. serving and three vegetables on the plate with it. And of course, a smaller total each day as well, because, you know, CICO. Any way I can create a calorie deficit without misery is OK by me, but nothing substitutes for a calorie deficit one way or another. I think I'm not unusual in finding that the only way to create a reliable calorie deficit is to log, and preferably pre-log, everything I eat every day, no exceptions. After I've done this long enough and reach a maintenance weight, I expect to be able to relax the calorie-counting as long as I watch the scale, so I can return to calorie-counting as many days as necessary to erase any gain that shows up on the scale. None of this "I accidentally gained back 100 lbs." for me, I truly hope!