Looking for top 5 tips from all of you successful people...

bump for later...

1) stick with it
2) stick with it
3) stick with it
4) stick with it
5) stick with it

Good one!

already lots of good words here.

1) get enough sleep. schedule it. turn off the phone. tell the family that you have to do this. if you aren't well rested you have more trouble being disciplined. this is a big one for me, all my screw ups are when I'm tired.

2) if you give in to urges and eat something that isn't great for your health and weight loss, don't consider the WHOLE DAY a loss, otherwise you'll just scarf and say you'll start tomorrow. instead, tell yourself you're allowing that indulgence but starting NOW you'll be stricter with yourself. don't throw out a whole day's work for one slip.

3) consider yourself on a calorie budget. if you only have $10 will you blow it on something you don't care about or will you spend it on something you really love and will do you the most good? so cut out "empty" calories - foods with no nutritional value. sugars and alcohol for starters.

4) simple carbs lead to more simple carbs. craving oreos? fine. eat something complex first - protein and a veg - even just a string cheese and your favorite veggie snack - bell pepper, for me. then wait 20 minutes. still want oreos? okay. get one. a single oreo. get away from all noise and distractions, and ENJOY it. taste every bite. pay attention to it. really INDULGE. that one oreo will be more satisfying than a whole box in front of the TV.

5) make exercise fun. if you hate running, don't do it. you won't stick with it if you hate it. instead, dance. or bike. or go goof off at the playground. We're talking lifestyle change, not torture. Love dancing? make going out part of your exercise routine - drink water and dance your heart out. I have a friend who wears her HRM to the club. always wanted to get good at gymnastics? consider it time to learn. take a class, or just tumble about in the yard and accept the bruises as part of the learning process. See a girl hula hooping in the park and wish you knew how? walk up and ask her to give you a 5 minute lesson. Most people love to share their hobbies. I did this with slack lining this summer and despite crashing and burning all over the place, I had a blast. Also - incorporate 5 minute (or whatever) workouts. short little bursts of movement. every hour get up and do 5 push ups against your desk. short little things. they add up quick. and they feel GOOD.

STAY POSITIVE. you can do this. and you can enjoy the process.

I love your tip of plan the meals ahead of time!! I will definetly try.

1. Do not EVER again for a single second feel guilty about food/what you've eaten, yesterday, last month or even one meal ago. Food tastes good and guilt doesn't burn calories anyway.
2. Two words: Portion size!
3. Exercise. Move that body. There's gotta be *something* out there that'll get you hooked. It doesn't have to be an expensive gym membership/piece of equipment.
4. Do it for YOU. Because YOU want to be healthy and fit.
5. ENJOY IT! Exercise should feel good. Yeah, it's sweat and work and burning muscles, but look at the amazing things your body is doing! There are people here running 5Ks and marathons and doing Warrior Dashes and PUSH UPS!

Eating healthier feels good to me. My body is less bloated, I have more energy, and I love fresh fruits and veggies anyway so I get to stock up on them. Plus - my crock pot and I are becoming buddies. Not besties yet - that's a stretch - but my horizons in the culinary field are broadening. That's actually pretty fun.

Lap up the compliments when they come! Maybe they'll be a long time coming for WHATEVER reason (maybe people are shy about commenting, who knows?) but I LOVE it when people comment on my new, leaner body.

1. Wean yourself OFF dont try and substitute in 'diet' foods.
Soda is highly addictive, no way around it, its hard to give it up. A lot of people try and take the easy way out by swapping to diet soda or zero calorie sodas. Those wont help anything because the artificial sweeteners make you more hungry and more likely to binge on heavy sugar items. But cutting yourself off from soda entirely can easily set you up for failure later if you 'break' this and then just give up. Figure out how much soda you are drinking and start limiting it. If you are drinking 2-3 a day, cut back to one a day. Once you see that you can survive on one a day, go to one every other day, one a week, one a month... once in a while. The less you drink of soda the more you should drink of water or tea (unsweetened tea!). A lot of the issue with soda addiction is that when you get really thirsty you crave a soda like nothing else, but if you are drinking water all the time those 'thirsty must have soda' cravings will significantly go down and just turn into 'this meal would be really good with a soda' cravings which are much easier to overcome or limit. Same with a lot of 'diet' foods out there, they are just substitutes for the real thing that is never as good and will eventually make you cave and go back to the real thing.

2. Stock your house healthy! If the majority of your food is good food you will eat less junk. So when going to the store, if it comes in a cardboard box, you probably do not need it. If it comes in a plastic bottle or aluminum can, you probably dont need it either. Spend the majority of your money and time OUT of the freezer section, the canned food aisle, the boxed food aisle etc in fact, aside from frozen veggies, fruits etc, stay away from the frozen section altogether. Out of sight out of mind, if you walk down the freezer aisle and see corn dogs you will want them and get them and eat them, if you dont walk down that aisle at all... you wont even think about those corn dogs, they wont go into your freezer and you wont eat them. Spend more time in the vegetable section, really looking around at what they have and think about what you could do with it. It will help you get good ideas for the week for some meals. Spent time in the meat section and see what is available and on special for more dinner ideas.

3. You CAN eat bad things you just need to not binge on bad things or eat them when you are really hungry. If you are going out to dinner with friends and know your options are pretty much all going to be bad, change your dish around some. Instead of fries get a side of vegetables and eat the vegetables first then have some of the bad food until you are full. Pack the remainder into a take away and save it for later as a treat. You dont have to eat everything all at once. If you are someone who worries about wasting food (I do) go through your 'likes' at the restaurant and think about which ones can be kept and reheated and choose based on that. That way you wont be tempted to finish a whole giant bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries because you know it wont be good reheated.

4. Fill the majority of your day with good foods and good choices. If you know you are going to have a bad night out dinner, eat a healthy breakfast, a healthy lunch, limit how bad the dinner is going to be, skip the dessert and the very next morning get back to a good breakfast. Trying to cut yourself off entirely for forever is never going to work, instead its better to make the right choices the majority of the time and limit just HOW bad the bad choices end up being. You can go to Mcds and 'value meal' and get a burger, fries and a soda and ruin your calories for the day, or you can go to Mcds and get a burger, with a side of small fries or apples and caramel (or just a burger) and water or tea to drink. You can still 'have' your mcds now and again but you dont have to have a full big mac with a large fry and a large coke. Odds are you arent even tasting or enjoying half of that meal just mindlessly eating it. Limit how much you eat out and how much fast food you eat over all. Restaurants soak things in salt and sugar and hide all sorts of fun fats in food that we never see on the menu but it shows up on our body. The more time you spend out of fast food places and restaurants and spend eating just the non processed foods at home, the more time your taste buds will have to adjust to lower sodium, lower sugar meals, and the more your food tastes and cravings will change. There are a lot of restaurants I cannot eat at anymore because the salt level is out of control (applebees in particular...)

5. Food is NOT that hard to make, so no excuses. The are dozens of recipes I have found that require almost no effort, and take less time to prep than driving through the drive through. The only difference is the cook time, but you dont have to do much of anything during the cook time, and with crock pots you dont even have to wait as they can cook while you are gone. So there is no excuse for fast food, its not faster, its not better for you and its certainly not cheaper its just lazier. I also make a note of looking at a fast foods nutritional menu online before I go there so I wont be duped by their menu and many times I will just not go there anymore at all. Sometimes its easier to stay blind and say 'it cant be THAT bad" than it is to look it up and realize its 3xs worse than you ever imagined.

6. There are lots of times and places to shove in a little extra effort or exercise, the more we try, the better we feel and the more we are able to do it.

I realize its 6 but I felt like I dwelt too much on food choice and needed to throw in something about exercise as well. I based my 'diet' off of what I felt I could live with the rest of my life. I feel the way I eat now may not make me lose weight super fast or show results immediately but I am losing weight, and once all the weight is gone, other than upping my calories a bit more (which is almost a reward if you think about it), the way I eat and the things I do, will not change at all. I can handle eating this way for the rest of my life and I dont ever feel like I am on a diet, I am just learning how to eat and pick my battles, which is something everyone deals with every day for the rest of their lives as well. I am equipping myself to best handle the war and not just a single battle

1. Log everything you eat and drink.
2. Try your best to stay within your calories but don''t panic if you don't, just try and make up for it the next day.
3. Remember you can always eat more if you exercise. I would always be over calls if i didn't eat my exercise calls.
4. Don't deny yourself everything. This should be a change for life, and strict diets where you deny yourself things that you love cannot work forever.
5. Get moving! The exercise will make you feel great, burn the calls and can suppress your appetite.
Good luck!

Wow I love this post! Very helpful today!

Stew, eat back your exercise calories? Really?

I think I would feel odd doing that.

Is this about not going below your minimum calorie intake and therefore not slowing your metabolism?

I've set my activity level to sedentary as I'm an office worker, but I do make sure I get in some high intensity workouts 5 days a week (two days derby training, three days gym, two walking/gardening etc days). So on those days my deficit can be quite high.

You are already set at a calorie deficit before exercising...I actually lost more weight when I increased my intake, not decreased. It works! Almost 70 pounds in less than 9 months...

I agree because I was losing at least two punds a week and I was eating at least half of my excercise calories back. I was stressed this week and didn't get to, so i actually gained a pound. It gave me more energy to work out.

Bump..

bump!

1. Schedule my workouts in a calendar.
2. Plan my meals for the day at least - if not for the week. Includes looking up menus at restaurants I may visit.
3. Make lunches (freeze of refrigerate) every Sunday.
4. Log EVERYTHING I eat.
5. Shop with a list.

bump

Thanks for all the tips everyone!

Fabulous topic and thanks for asking for everyone's top 5 - I'm def keeping this for future reference!!

My own No 1 tip is log "everything" - I find it helps me make healthier choices. :happy:

Good luck x

make friends with people you like interacting with on MFP.

stick to it.

do your best, and forgive yourself when you falter

keep trying on clothing that is just one size below where you are

add more exercise, and limit alcohol. (for me, even if I can "afford" a drink, calorically, if I do, I have a hard time losing.)

Keep your sense of humor and wits about you, dont fall for crazy claims

avoid trolls on the threads