I couldn't live without [[insert best thing that helps you lose]]
 

I couldn't live without MyFitnessPal. Before MFP, I was a terrible (TERRIBLE) tracker and couldn't be bothered with food journaling. Now I see it as a valuable tool and I love tracking my exercise. Cost: Free.

I also have the expensive Withings scale (that emails me things about how well I am acheiving my goal). I love being able to run reports on my weight between periods of time. But I am not sure it was worth the price.

I LOVE the 7-minute workout app. It's a great workout that you can do at home with just a step/chair and a wall. I do several in a row when I have time. It's really well-written (from a UX point of view) and it's FREE.

What about you? What have you downloaded, bought, etc that you love in your weight loss journey?

Steel-cut oats! I make oatmeal in the crockpot and portion out for breakfast for the week. Very satisfying and keeps me full until lunch.

Scales. I need to know what's going on with my weight from day to day. It motivates me, even when it goes up.

Looking back, i think the thing that has made such a difference to my weightloss experiences was back in 2005 when i bought The CSIROS Total WellBeing Diet book. It makes weightloss a positive experience, not a painful one.

Not only did it show me how to eat better with diversity and so on. It motivated me to update my knowledge of nutrition, giving me quite a few of the basic essentials and from there i went and learnt more about how calories are burned up via the glycogen process. It taught me about how to calculate my daily calorie needs and how to cut that back to enough to lose weight. And taught how to do it without having to track each calorie, i.e. just to know approximately how much is the right amount to eat.

This has stood me in good stead all this time. I just fine tune what i'm doing each time and hope that i will be able to transition to long term healthy eating and cure myself of all my bad eating habits for the long term. After the first time, I don't follow the meal plans in the book because a) i'm not a meat eater, and b) they don't expect you to follow the plans - its just to give you the ideas and c)following such delicious diet plans to the letter is too expensive.

Wine: I like a glass of wine (a cupful) in the late afternoon. It serves to tide me over til dinner an hour or so later and it doesn't fuel an appetite or binge and its naughty but a lot safer than lollies, cake, ice-cream etc.

My fitness journal. :write: I bought a weekly planner and use it to record my food, exercise, supplements, weekly weight, appointments, and various other events. I'm on my second book now and it's been an enormous part of my success ever since my reboot in March of 2012. :)

Wow, I love My Fitness Pal too. One of the things it does is talk to my Fitbit!!!!

So I track calories in My Fitness Pal and movement with my Fitbit. The two things share information though, so My Fitness Pal tells Fitbit what I've eaten and the Fitbit tells my Fitness Pal if I need to adjust my calories for the day. It's so cooooooool!!!!!!!

I like FitnessPal too. I just started using it! It is pretty easy to use, too!

My fitbit! I always hit over 10,000 steps with it. Keeps me accountable.

I could not do without my food scale. I simply can not judge food portions by eye.

I wouldn't have gotten this far without the book Eat Right 4 Your Type. It has helped me soooo much!!

Also MyFitnessPal is a god-send! I didn't use it when I did my re-gain and I know that was a huge part of the problem.

But mostly, I couldn't do this weight loss journey without the wonderful support of my fellow chicks!! This site has been the biggest help by far!!! :hug:

These forums.

I don't follow any particular plan, I just try to control my portions and do a bit of exercise, and the only thing that helps me hold myself accountable is coming here everyday. I see so many of you who are working hard and doing well, that it gives me the motivation to go on even during the bad days.

I use a free online calorie tracker, and that helps immensely. I'm also someone that HAS to use a scale all the time, or I'll delude myself into progress that isn't there.

the Mark's Daily Apple blog has been invaluable to me. There's so much good (and verifiable) information about WHY food does what it does to the body. He breaks down all the science and makes it easy to understand how I got where I am.

Tons and tons of measuring cups. :D I own 3 sets of measuring cups and several sets of spoons and other tools as well. Gotta watch those portions.

My Coach who believed in me and inspired me to reach my goal!

Roo2

I concur with MFP and Fitbit - I love that they work together and the monitoring on both costs nothing!

:)

BTW - if anyone is adding friends on MFP, feel free to add me: PghCLTGal

I'm with you on this!

I agree 100%