I agree with SusanB, I read the maintainers threads and learned a lot at the beginning that helps me still today (it hasn't been 2 months yet?). Learning that what I'm doing now is for the rest of my life and not just the time it takes to loose the weight was probably paramount to my current success. I realized how in the past attempts there was never a plan for when I got to my goal and I never got to goal. There were no mile markers along the way to keep me grounded in my process. So it's important to have a plan and plan ahead. Prepare as much as you can for outings because they can get you. As well one meal off plan is not the end of the plan.
PLAN AHEAD for your day at work and home, PLAN AHEAD for your outings, PLAN AHEAD for your maintenance!!! If you fail to plan you plan to fail. At the beginning I set a "crisis"goal. What will I allow myself to gain after goal before it's crisis time and I have to buckle down-hit it hard.
I eat skinny cow and weight watchers ice cream only 140 calories when I need a treat or if I just want to include it in my calorie count for the week. My calories are healthy so my weight loss will be healthy.
Last edited by jigglefree; 02-25-2010 at 12:35 PM.
The thing I latched onto is that "It's going to take time." That was too vague for me. I needed a timeline. ONE YEAR. I'm giving this one year, no ifs, ands, or buts. I will not give up eating and dieting this way for one full year.
That's my fail-safe. It makes plateaus much more manageable.
I would say, break your goal down into small steps. Sometimes when you are looking at trying to lose 100lbs it can be hard to face. But if you tell yourself, well I only need to lose 5lbs this month or 7lbs to get to how much I weighted when I got married, it makes it easier. Look at the loss 10lbs or 10% at a time.
Remember reaching those small goals will get you to the larger one and make the journey so much more enjoyable.
Don't be on a diet. Have a lifestyle change. It's easier. Diets are restrictive a lifestyle change is a choice. You chose to have the apple rather than the candy bar. You never "can't have that" you "don't want that". Made all the difference in the world to me.
Yes, yes, yes on this! Right on.
Also, I'd say, when you fall down simply choose to get right back up and keep going. Because it will happen but you can't let a slip up destroy your progress and future plans.
Any plan you can't stick to is not a good plan, no matter how much you think you should be able to stick to it or how good it sounds in theory or how well it worked for someone else. There's a plan out there that will leave you physically and emotionally satisfied and allow you to lose weight. Experiment until you find it.
Keep an open mind. Too many people have all these rules for what does or doesn't work for them, what they can or can't do, that go back to a failed (or briefly successful) diet when they were 15. You are a completely different person this time. You are stronger than you know. Your tastes have changed over time. Try new things!
I weigh every. single. day. I know a lot of people recommend once a week or once a month, but I can't do that. I get off track that way. Everyday for me.
I track every single thing I put in my mouth. If I absentmindedly lick the knife after making my kids a peanutbutter sandwich, I take a good faith guess on how much I licked off the knife and log it in. I use The Daily Plate to track my calories - I like it better than Fit Day, myself.
Fake it 'til you make it. It sounds silly, but in the begining, I would sometimes pretend I'd been doing this forever and that I was totally confident that I would reach my goals, even if I was having a really bad day. If I wanted to eat something bad for me, I would tell myself that I didn't want it. It helped.
