No formal diet plan, just trying to cook at home more (with lowfat ingredients), and eat out less. When I had to eat out, I either:

* went to Subway and got one of the subs with 6 grams of fat or less (meat + veggies + mustard, no cheese, no mayo, no oil) and baked potato chips (1.5 g fat, 120 cal)

* went to Panda Express and got orange chicken with WHITE rice, not FRIED rice... ate about 2/3 of the chicken, threw the rest out

* went to Boston Market and got turkey with no gravy + corn + garlic potatoes

* Ate sushi at a Japanese restaurant

Also, I haven't drank soda at all... just water... I was confusing Subway employees every time I ordered chips and sandwich, but no soft drink... I think they know me already :-)

When I cook at home, I use lowfat meat like lean chicken breast, extra lean turkey, or extra lean ground beef. I also use olive oil SPRAY when frying instead of pouring oil on the frying pan... I also started using light cream cheese instead of regular (not fat-free though, because I really don't like the fat-free one), lowfat sour cream, lowfat mayo (lowfat sour cream and mayo seemed to work so far since I use them in such small quantities anyway that I did not notice any huge taste difference). When using eggs, I substitute 2 egg whites for 1 egg. Also, I make salads with fat free french dressing - it tastes very similar to the regular one.

I do eat pieces of cake and cookies OCCASIONALLY. The key is to eat them rarely (like once or twice a week), and only eat one piece.

And I really try not to overeat - I'm trying to eat because I'm hungry, not because I like the process/taste of eating. But I never try to eat too little to the point that I'm starving - if I'm too hungry, I know I'll go crazy when I finally see the food and overeat.

I think it's OK to eat something fattening once in a while if I feel like IT'S REALLY WORTH IT. The key is before eating to think for a second whether I like it enough for it to be really worth it....

I lost 5 pounds in March :-) Note that I do not excercise - I'm just sooo lazy... I should really try to force myself to excercise - but I just really hate excercising...

Hi Sunsmile!

sounds like you've developed a plan that works for you, that's great!!

I've tried to do my own thing several times, my most successful was similar to what you're doing. And if I ever went out to eat at a restraunt I ordered the dinner salad with honey mustard dressing - lots of places even have a fat free version of it!

Ditto on the exercise - I'm terrible at it - but I'm trying to get into it - need to get that heart pumping!!

What are your overall goals? Do you have a lot of weight to lose?

I have about 80 lbs I want to lose, but I'm expecting it to take a while - I've never been able to keep it off when I lost weight quickly. So this time I'm in it for the long haul!!

Take care!

Roo
234/224/140

Hi KangaRoo,

I've never had weight problems before, but in the past 2 years somehow I gained 20 pounds going from 120 lbs to 140 lbs (I'm 5'5" tall, and I'm 23 years old)... It just happened because I graduated from college, and started working full-time as a computer programmer, so at my job I just sit all day and don't move much - I just walk from my car to the building :-) Also, at work I go out to lunch every day, and you know how the restaurants have those huge portions...

Anyway, even though even at 140 lbs I'm not considered too overweight, I saw a trend - if I keep gaining 10 lbs a year, I'd weigh 200 lbs by the time I'm 30!!! Also, 20 lbs of new weight went all into my stomach area and thighs instead of being regularly distributed (yeah, I know that most other people have the same problem).... And it really sucked how my clothes size changed from size 6 to size 10, so I had to buy new clothes... So I got determined to lose weight before it's too late... So after 3 months of eating out less and cooking at home more I'm back to 130 lbs, and I have 10 more lbs to lose.