NikiChicken Member

I am down almost 107 and have 11 more remaining to go to goal. I was never in a big hurry to lose plus my metabolism moves at the pace of a snail, so it has taken me 4 years to get here. However, because it's taken so long, I'm pretty confident I can maintain, since I'm really basically doing that already! I absolutely…

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I eat and drink exactly the same things as before, just not in the same quantities.

You will probably just have to make an educated guess. Look up side salad and grilled chicken. Read the options carefully for size, preparation, etc. and pick the one most similar to what you ate. Will it be perfect? No, but it will give you a reasonable idea of what you ate and, more importantly (in my opinion),…

I really think it depends on the person. At least that has been my experience. I was diagnosed T2 diabetic in 2009. For ME, the biggest factors have been weight and activity level. It seems like it doesn't matter to my blood glucose level what I eat, however my activity will always determine if my glucose will be high or…

I think you are a little in my head as well! I have gone from a size 24 to a 10 and I love my collarbones, shoulders and hips as well! Also, like you, the inner changes are even more profound with a whole lot more self-confidence (I even willing presented a 20-minute leadership lecture to a roomful of people 2 weeks ago!).…

This could be a post all on its own! I'll try to answer this briefly though. Tracking my food is easy *now*. It wasn't when I first started, but that is/was the one thing that I have always been good about and I would say that is probably the single most important reason for my success so far. When I first started, I…

Wow. Thank you all so much for your support and kind words! I am overwhelmed! As I said yesterday, I started this post because *I* needed to say the words and hear them myself. I never expected the reaction I've received. Honestly, I didn't think anyone would read the post because it was so long! I am truly touched.

Aww, thanks for the kind workds everyone. I really posted this so I could say these things to myself in a public forum and I thought if I needed to hear them, there are probably others who needed to hear them as well!

Your diet definitely counts for much, much more than working out in the weight loss game. Are you tracking and logging your food consumption? Also, is your fitness routine sustainable? If you don't see yourself exercising like this forever, don't do it now for the sole purpose of losing weight. You'll burn yourself out.…

Use the recipe builder to enter your recipes. It takes a bit of time in the beginning, but over time, it becomes quicker and quicker. Plus, over time, you will get more and more recipes saved and won't have to do this - instead you'll be able to just choose the correct recipe. If you force yourself to log all of your food…

Do the "eat right and everything" first. Diet pills are not magic and will not make weight loss fast or easy, much to the belief of many. I am not saying that diet pills don't have a use, but I am saying that they shouldn't be your first option. I am not saying this from a lack of experience with diet pills. I am weaning…

This is why I always preface my "moderation" advice with "if you don't have a medical reason..." because I know there are many, many people who do have medical reasons for eating something or not eating something. Back to the OP's question though, I don't really get any advice and I really haven't anywhere along my weight…

+1 If you are in for the long haul, which is my guess since you are asking this question, you have to figure out what you can sustain forever even when you are feeling unmotivated and focus on building those particular habits.

I used to have that problem. I couldn't stand to throw food away, but then I got over it. If I don't enjoy what I am eating and it's not "worth" the calories I'd spend on it, I absolutely get rid of it! If it's something I can give away (cookies, candy, unopened packaged food, etc.) and I know someone who would want it and…

I'm not a huge dessert person, but I always have Dreyer's slow-churned ice cream (100 calories for a 1/2 cup of vanilla) and/or sherbet on hand at home for when I do want something sweet. I also keep very high-quality dark chocolate in my desk drawer at work. A little bit of very good, very dark (72% cacao) chocolate goes…

I think this is a very, very important part of the equation. I truly enjoy eating (fortunately I like the highly nutritious food as much as the less nutritional choices, but I digress). It would be a very sad world indeed if I didn't truly enjoy the food I was eating. It would also be a sure fire way to cause me to fall…

I get it too. I know there are certain trigger foods for me - foods that if I start, I have a hard time stopping. So, for those foods, if I really want them, I buy a single serving. For instance, I will never buy a dozen bagels or a large bag of potato chips. Once I eat one serving, I have a very difficult time stopping.…

This is me. I eat *everything* in moderation. I eat a diet made of mostly nutritious choices, but find room for all the other things I enjoy as well. I have learned that the minute I try to ban something from my diet, that's all I want and I start obsessing and feeling deprived and end up binging. When I stopped looking at…

I'm coming in late and have not read any responses other than the first, but the first is what I agree with. There are no "bad" foods. There are foods with less nutrition or more nutrition, there are foods that are very dense in calories, there are foods that we need very little off and there are foods that make us feel…

I have to concur. Once I got out of the "diet" mentality, I had so much more success and things became so much easier. I have heard the argument that it's always a diet because that's what you eat and, yes, that is true. However, the connotation of the word "diet" is that it is a short-term measure to lose weight and once…

This is me too. If I really want something, I eat that something and simply log it. I end up eating far less calories that way than trying to find a substitution!

I either eat one or two and log them, or if I think I can't stop at 1 or 2, I don't eat any. I also keep snacks at my desk so if I really, truly am *hungry* I have something to eat other than the chocolate. I also keep chocolate at my desk, so if there isn't any sitting around in the office and I want a piece, I have it.…

I do a combination of things: 1) I eat some of the leftovers in appropriate portions; 2) what I know I can't eat before it will go bad, but I don't want to get rid of, I freeze in appropriate portions for later; and 3) I pitch it. I really have absolutely no aversion to throwing away food these days.

Then quit "dieting" and learn how to eat in order to lose weight and keep it off. Seriously. The dieting mentality is the problem. Whatever you do to lose weight is what you need to do for the rest of your life. If you are doing something only to lose weight thinking that you only have to do that until you get to goal, you…

I'm definitely a "foodie" that absolutely loves to eat good food. I've lost 103 pounds. How I have learned to do this: 1. I had to get it into my head that this is not a "diet." It's a diet in the definition that this is how I eat, but not in the common definition that I am punishing myself to lose weight and once I get…

I can't remember the last time I "completed" my diary. I think the 5-week prediction is silly and I don't post my diary to my news feed, so I don't ever use the feature.

I joined MFP, started counting calories and exercising and my A1C went from diabetic to normal. I've had a normal A1C for over 2 years now. You'll have to play with your diet to get it right for you, but exercise has a much bigger effect on my blood glucose than anything I eat. I can eat "perfectly" and not exercise and…

I weigh twice a day. I realize that is a little extreme, however I use it as information and now completely understand how certain foods, exercise and time of month affect my weight. Because of that, the fluctuations of the scale don't bother me at all. It's all just information. If you take away the emotion tied to the…

Nope, because now that I am so long into this (almost 4 years), I *do* feel full. It just takes much less food to get me there. In the beginning, I didn't ever feel full, but now that I am used to a much smaller serving of food, I absolutely get that full feeling. Stick with it long enough and your body *will* adjust and…