2 Weeks into my diet

I recently made a post about this on my blog so I'll copy and paste it here...

Excuse me if these are all over the place.

Cut out juice and soda: we’ve all heard this before, I’m sure. You won’t believe how much it works until you’ve tried it, though. Though I lost 16 pounds while on the Special K Challenge, I truly believe a lot of it had to do with dropping all the sugary beverages I consumed. It’s amazing how many calories you add on when you drink juice or soda with every meal.
Drink more water: another old one. I replaced water with all the juice and soda I drank at every meal, and started carrying a liter of water around with me every day. I pushed myself to drink at least 2 liters a day, unless I worked out that day, then I drank up to 3. A lot of people complain that drinking a lot of water sends you to the bathroom a lot and they just don’t have the time to do that. Well, here’s one of three things: First off, water flushes out the toxins in your body and keeps you fuller longer. It is super helpful if you hope to stave off hunger. Secondly, you’re body gets used to it and once that happens, you end up going to the bathroom less. I go to the bathroom as much as I did before I started drinking this much water. Why? When you first start your body doesn’t know what to do with all that water, so it flushes it out. Once your body gets used to it, you won’t have to use the bathroom as much. The third thing? If you don’t have time to use that bathroom much in the beginning, you just don’t have the time to lose weight. Simple.
Cut out all the processed junk out of your life: processed? My trainer once said processed is anything that comes in a box, never expires, and has so many ingredients on the label, many of which most people can’t identify. You want to try to eat as many things that contain ONE ingredients as possible. For example, what’s in an apple? An apple. What’s in an egg? An egg. Once you start eliminating all the ingredients that are suspicious, you’ll start seeing the weight fall right off.
Smaller portions, more meals: simple right? More simple than you think. I eat six times a day. Breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. Of course, these portions are much smaller than the ones I used when I ate three times a day. Eating every 2-3 hours, I was never hungry and never felt the need to binge because I kept my metabolism going.
Eat more on workout days: Eat more? Yes. Sometimes not eating enough can prevent one from weight loss. My trainer used to encourage me to eat a slice of pizza (just one!) one days I went to see her. The calories you burn off need to be made up for.
Ask for help: when I lost the first 16lbs on my own, I was still very clueless about nutrition and weight loss. After seeing Aja, my trainer, for 7 months she taught us so much about weight loss that I can pretty much plan my meals and workouts on my own. Now, I’m not suggesting that everyone go out and get a trainer. Do your research. There’s no reason you have to spend money on meal plans and a gym membership if you can’t. The internet has so many resources, just look.
Engage your Abs: ALL THE TIME! I mean, suck in that gut! Of course, make sure you can do that and breathe. You’d be amazed how well this works for fighting belly fat and flattening out your tummy.
Cardio AND Strength Training: A common misconception about weight loss is that all you need to do is cardio exercises like walking and running and the weight will fall right off. If this were true I would have dropped 40 pounds a long time ago. Aja taught us that it is important to build muscle for weight loss, since muscle is metabolically active. What does that mean? A person who has muscle on their body can sit in the same place all day and burn calories. A person who has a lot of fat on their body will still burn calories, but not nearly as much as the person with muscle. Thus, having muscle can actually help you lose weight.
Circuit Training: Aja did circuit training each time we met. It’s simply rotating between certain workouts for 1 minute. Rather than focusing on reps, we would try to do as many crunches, push ups, burpees, or anything like that for one minute. It has been very effective.
Interval cardio: Interval cardio has to be the best thing I’ve ever learned. IC is simply doing any cardio exercise, but instead of going at once pace for 40 minutes, you go at a moderate pace for about one minute, then go as fast as you can for one minute, and repeat. Why? When you go at once pace for any length of time, your body only burns calories while you work out. Interval cardio allows you to burn calories even after you’ve stopped working out. Pretty cool, huh? I was able to push past a few plateau’s with this technique. I love it!
Balance: Meeting with Aja to do circuit training twice a week, it was my responsibility to do cardio on my own. So, I dragged mysef every morning to the gym and did 30 minutes of interval cardio for four morning out of the week. I dropped weight really easy when I did this and the ciircuits with Aja.
Make working out fun: there’s no reason that working out can’t be enjoyable. If you’re not into doing the whole treadmill and weights thing, try out dance classes, spinning, or any other combination of fitness techniques. A lot of my friends like hiking. Pick something that is right for you.
Start small: starting with a 5K marathon will only make you HATE working out. Start small and work your way up.
Check your progress: Aja not only checked our weight each month, she checked our body fat percentage (using heart rate monitors), and our measurements. There were months that my weight stayed the same but my arm, leg, chest, and thigh circumfrence decreased. It’s not always about the number on the scale.
Don’t give up: it’s easy to get frustrated and give up. Begin your journey equipped with inspiration. Create a list of reasons as to why you’re doing it. Make it visible. Put it in a place where you’ll be reminded often. Whenever I felt like giving up, I reminded myself that I had a wedding coming up, or that I didn’t want to go on another vacation and not be proud to wear a bikini. Now, I’ve created a collage of women I admire and use that for inspiration.