tomsawyerv

Yep. You always weight more during that time. I don't know why you're letting it frustrate you, since you're aware of it. I just accept that around that time, you're going to be a little heavier. You said yourself it drops right off after. Don't let your attitude that the scale is the only thing that matters sabotage you.

I know for me, "eating clean" (which I consider doing my best to cut out highly processed foods and unnatural chemicals) is a matter of wanting to be healthy, not simply to lose weight. If you just want to be thin, sure, go ahead and eat 1400 calories of Cheetos every day.

I always use avocado instead of mayo on sandwiches.

When I get my chocolate cravings, I take about a tbsp of dark chocolate chips (usually around 25ish) and I poke the chips into raspberries. It's only about 90 calories, and it soothes my cravings without devouring a huge amount of calories.

Wonderful, thank you to you both. I tried a bit of Googling, but it's so hard to decipher what is reasonable and what is crazy fad sometimes.

I think it really depends on your eating habits and how you respond to certain things. A cheat day can help a lot of people if they have a tendency for getting stressed about the program, breaking and binging on way too much. If you have a cheat day, where you can enjoy a few guilty pleasures (without going way over your…

I don't really have one of these anymore but back when I wasn't eating very healthily, I'd have to say chili cheese anything.

I think preparing ahead is a big helper. I found these Tupperware lunch boxes that are my new best friend. They basically look like big Lunchables containers which makes my inner child happy. If you can prepare something ahead of the time that's able to be stuck in the fridge, then you just grab it the next day and run.

I imagine this diet works not for whatever ridiculous reasons they claim, but because eliminating those items forces you to scrutinize your food so carefully, you end up doing what most of us on MFP are doing. It's just an extreme version.

I love making quiche in muffin pans, which helps with portion control, and you can make a batch over the weekend, refrigerate and then heat them up in the morning if you're pressed for time. You can find recipes all over on the internet, and tweak them to your particular taste and diet.

If you're a grad student, check your college campus for a gym. Even my podunk community college had a pretty rad gym that students could use for free.