HOW have you gotten successful?

A complete lifestyle change, I exercise daily, Every month is a new Fitness challenge, I track my calories faithfully....and most of all I am accountable to myself

just part of it, I am not a big fan of exercise but i force myself to do some form of it a few times a week. also, don't let anyone fool you all calories are not created equal. I try to stay away from processed and sugary foods. I don't always succeed but I have cut way down. I try to eat lean proteins and fresh veggies as much as possible and lots of water.

I totally agree with you about the processed sugary stuff........POISON in my world!:sad: But now that I am breaking away from it........I realize that feeling better is way better than eating that stuff!:bigsmile:

Eat well and train like hell. That got me from fat to fit.

Then I started counting calories. All I will say about that is, eat at a calorie deficit, but a reasonable one (not too big). And continue to train like hell.

I always make sure I drink my water. Also, I've cut out alcohol (liquid fat), white bread, etc., sweet treats like cake, cookies, etc. I limit my carbs but don't cut them out completely. Also, I have not given up, just keep at it and don't give up!! I've been trying to lose 11.8 lbs since October and my weight goes up and down. The most I've lost is 10 lbs (and then this week it popped back up). I didn't let that stop me....don't give up, no matter what. If you mess up and go over your calories, don't let it get you down. Pick yourself up and keep going!!!!!

Thanks all...I would love some advice on my few days of diary.
I think I'm doing good....I'm drinking 100 oz of water a day. Lots of veggies. Not sure what else I can/should do...

diary looked pretty good to me, but I am no nutritionist. I would say keep up the good work with that and add in some kind of weight training 2-3 days a week. doesn't have to be a lot of weight but anything to help build muscle will help you out. Insanity/P90x/30ds etc. are all good workouts you can do at home that will give you a good cardio burn as well as help tone up the muscles. or even just push-ups, pull-ups, situps, lunges. you don't need to get fancy just work the muscles some.

I am doing squats, sit ups, reverse crunches and some weight lifting - does that not show on diary? It's not counted as cardio...strength training - so It doesn't count towards my work outs?

You can enter strength training under cardio as well. That way it will show the calories burned.

I had no IDEA! You just made my day!

Patience. I didn't lose weight fast but I am healthier then I was last year

What she said. Patience is not my strong suit, so I vent to friends when I need to. But I don't quit. I don't give up. I eat a lot. I lift a lot. And just hang in there...

For me personally....
I try my best to eat the most wholesome healthy foods possible. I used to eat out a lot. I have dropped almost 70 pounds(hoping to pass that this week) in 10 months. I started by walking and using MFP. After two months I started going to zumba. I also tried a weights/toning class and have stuck with those this whole time. In November I added running(ok, so a very very slow jog) and have run a few three 5k's, and a 15k and shooting for a half in a few weeks. I'm slow, very slow but I am accomplishing things I never imagined. Calorie counting has been the foundation to it all though. The times I have slacked I watched the scale go up a pound or two or stay the same.
I also have trainers who help keep me accountable. There are cheaper ones out there that can do a great job. My suggestion is look for a small business fitness place.
Best wishes in your journey.

Patience, persistence, consistency, commitment.. I eat good 80/20. I really started to see the scale move when I started lifting and cut out processed food.

Keeping the diary opened my eyes to the number of calories I was taking in a day. (That Cinnabon has 870 calories? Really?!) So setting a daily goal and staying under or near that goal most days has helped.

Note that I said "most". If I go out with friends now and then and blow past my goals for a given day, it doesn't mean I've failed. In fact, I'm probably more successful overall because I allow myself to have beer and pizza from time to time. I don't want to feel like I'm living in a constant state of deprivation.

Also, it was important for me to get of the mindset that, in order to reach my goals, I needed to make a long-term commitment to this effort. I couldn't allow myself to obsess over day-to-day fluctuations or even week-to-week progress, and I couldn't let myself get frustrated if I didn't get the results fast enough.

I started with MFP in November and had initially set a goal to be at my ideal weight by my next birthday in September. As I got into this, I came to realize that this was too ambitious of a target date. Now, the idea of a specific target date is gone. I'm estimating that if I stay the course, I'll be two-thirds of the way to my goal by September, and at my target weight sometime in early 2013. At this point, I don't worry about how much longer it's going to take - I just know that I *WILL* eventually get there, and that motivates me.

The other thing was to obliterate from my mind the idea that I could take days off from exercising. I plateaued a couple months in, and when I looked at my diary and my pedometer logs I saw that there were times when I'd go three, four, five days in a row without hitting my exercise goal of 10K steps. Once I decided that blowing off exercise was no longer an option, I got back on track.

I cut out all processed and fast foods...In the beginning I did alot of reps with light weights which did nothing for me...then I started lifting heavy with with low reps and wow what a difference. I keep my body guessing and change up my exercise routine about every 4 weeks...good luck...and most importantly...BELIEVE in YOURSELF!!!