I am just starting

HI there, you are going in the right direction!

Yo-yo was me too! MFP is a huge help. Carefully choose your food items in MFP, checking nutrition to match to what your eating. There are many entries that are not accurate. Cross reference with packaging and web sites if your not sure. You can easily, unknowing be 300 calories over in a day but your MFP reflects your right on target. Sabotaging your goals and distressing you efforts.

I am still working on my goals but some of the lessons I have learned may help you too.

Slow and steady...with realistic weekly and monthly goals. Use the time to reset your brain on eating habits that you can sustain for the rest of your life. Always think to yourself...can I do this forever? What will have to do to make this my habit. This is a mental game more than physical. When your head can grasp it, you will be successful. Food has such a hold on our culture. You will experience withdrawals and craving in the first few months. Be ready to combat it.

Don't burn yourself out with unrealistic and unsustainable actions. Do everything/goals in smaller steps. Initial mass changes will eventually frustrate you to the point of failure. Make sure you have a good solid handle of each change before adding another. Weather counting calories or carbs, get educated on all the different schools of thought. Choose what fits your life, not what someone else is doing. Know and understand what is in your food. It is a lot of work and takes time but affects your efforts going forward. Tweak your plan as you go...this is a constant learning endeavor.

For me, learning to manage my menus (advance planning of each day) and figuring out macro nutrients took several months. There is a magic formula for everyone but only you can figure out what is for your unique genetic makeup. It takes work! Understand the role of sodium and potassium for women, how soda, coffee and water affect you weight loss. I was addict to diet soda...convinced it played no role in my situation. Now, I may have it once a week...fat flushes out through your kidneys and uses water (I use crystal light) to carry it away. It wont bind to other fluids in the same way. I had to prove this to myself...no one was going to tell me otherwise. That was likely my hardest lesson of all. I still have to force myself/ consciously make the decision to drink the water but it is getting easier. I don't enjoy water...never been my thing, but I learned I must drink it for best results...it became one of my small goals.

I travel a lot for work and that added a layer of difficulty. Eating out took a long time to manage. Then I added exercise, just a little, at home or in the hotel room a couple days a week, low intensity. Initially, just forcing myself to actually do it was the goal, not the concept of getting anything out of it. Subjecting myself to the gym worries in the hotel fitness centers was horrific and mentally discouraging for me. Once light exercise was a habit, increasing length and intensity ONLY as I mastered something to the point it became easy. Listen to you body...it will tell you when your ready to ramp it up and you will actually get a sense of accomplishment.

Be realistic about your body composition too. My frame will never be a size 4 (Started at an 18-goal is 8-10) and my lower half will always be a size larger than my upper...embrace the reality of you shape and form...than make it the best shape and form you can for who you are. Don't forget your age either...have you had babies? Hips spread, hormones change through out your life. Menopause can reshape you. Even if you were a size 2 or 4 in your teens and 20's, consider where your body is in the life cycle now. What is realistic?

Your support system is yourself. This is your struggle and depending on anyone else is a mistake. Even husbands and others who love you will falter on their support. Don't be shocked if some or all of them get tired of discussing the topic with you. This is not about them...it is about you and it is OK to be shellfish about your health. No one else walks in your shoes or understands the triggers that make or break your accomplishments.

If you have not had a blood panel lately (like a CBC), do have a physical, get a copy of all your blood panels, study and understand your stats...use them to help further your health goal. If your HDL/LDL is out of balance, if your pushing thyroid concerns, if your glucose is headed in the wrong direction...use these very personal stats to aid in your goal to be a healthy weight. These a clues to how your food plan may be improved to work better for you.

Weather you use BMI as a guide or waist-to-height ratios (Margaret Ashwell, with the Oxford Brookes University), be realistic about your self. Goals are not just about pounds per week but about making life changes, one by one, that get you to the end result. No lasting result will ever be rushed. That sucks but it is reality.

Wishing you all the best!