If I had a food habit do-over in life . . .

chocolate. i wish ihad been born with a hatred of chocolate then i never would have started eating 3 chocolate bars for breakfast. I don't anymore, but it's always in my head to buy chocolate.

If you're not enjoying the food your eating then don't eat it anyway!
I made a naan bread (as a treat as well!) in oven the other day and left it in too long. It was like toast! Not burnt, but crunchy. I had a taste and didn't like it so I didn't eat it. 4 months ago I'd have eaten it anyway!

As someone who lost 80+ pounds 9 years ago the healthy way, and who now needs to lose 100 pounds (Can I have a do-over on these last 6 years please!) I can share what habits I dropped that contributed to regaining all the weight.

-You must stay incredibly active. When I started slipping, going from 5 days a week workouts to 4, then 3, then . . . well you can guess that I haven't worked out consistantly for a while. I lost a lot of weight training for triathlons, then slagged off. You need to find something you really enjoy, that makes you sweat. Jillian Michaels said recently that she runs 3 miles a minimum of 3 days a week to maintain her weight loss, and that cardio was a key piece.

-Weigh yourself often. I started to avoid the scale when I knew I was starting to gain, but I stayed in denial. The pounds are still there, even if you don't admit it.

-Don't get a fat boyfriend or think you can eat like your naturally skinny friends, or eat the same as your zaftig pals. When I was at my thinnest, a loose size 6/140 pounds, I became friends with a woman who ate like a pig and never worked out and was a size 2. She drank, she ate, she hated the gym. For some crazy reason I would dig in with her, eating fried creamy cheesey concoctions I would never have considered. But she stayed skinny indulging constantly, so why couldn't I? WAH! WAH! WAH! I finally figured out the reason why, I'm not her, and my whole life I will have to remain ever vigilant if I want to keep my weight down. Sometimes I think that sucks and it isn't fair, but then again I have gorgeous thick hair a lustrous shade of chestnut brown, I have beautiful clear skin that naturally glows, huge bright blue eyes . . . so God did give me something.

Then I started dating a fat guy and started to pick up his bad habits and drop my healthy ones. He would alwyas push delicious but nutrition nightmare food on me and say, "A bite or two won't hurt." You know what, BLT's (Bites, Licks and Tastes) can be diet kryponite.

I maintained my loss for 3 years. During that time I did really well with one cheat day a week, usually a weekend, where I would indulge but not go nuts. The other 6 days I would still log my food and I kept up with the gym/running/roller blading. Lifting weights was a godsend, changed the shape of my body incredibly.

You have to really realize that you can never go back to how you used to eat. Sure, you can indulge a smidge here or there, but there really isn't that much wiggle room. The more I think about the whole dieting/maintaining, I look to the people who have maintained long-term, and the key is to truly change your eating habits and incorporate lots of activity. Kill your tv and set limits for the amount of timed you park yourself in front of the internet boob tube.