If you could tell someone just starting their journey to their goal weight and better health (or maybe those who are struggling), what would you MOST recommend from your experience so far? What are some of the things you have found (both food and nonfood) that you have found to be beneficial to you in your journey. If this is a repeat of a previous thread, I apologize. I don't remember one quite like this.

I look forward to hearing from each of you!!

After yo-yo dieting for 20 years, my biggest advice would be to find something you like and that you can do for the rest of your life. Starting a diet (no matter how good the diet is) with the intention of stopping at some point in the future and eating "normally" again is a plan for disaster. My other advice would be to plan healthy meals/snacks - I don't think it's possible to eat healthy "by accident" in the US.

I agree 100%- I has got to be FOREVER!

Well beyond making whatever you do sustainable, my suggestions would be:

1) Work towards improvement, not perfection
2) (related to above) You are a work in a progress and the more you improve, the better you will do. My dietary and exercise habits have evolved so much since I started and I imagine yours will too.
3) Exercise is critical, both cardio and weights
4) Portion control - use salad plates instead of dinner plates

That is all I can think of on the top of my head.

I treat exercise the same as I do other daily activities. Just like taking a shower, taking medication, etc., don't plan to get around to it, make it a requirement of your day.

Don't beat yourself up over mistakes. As soon as you recognize the mistake, get right back on plan!

As far as exercise, find something you enjoy. Don't walk on the treadmill if it bores you. You have to love it or you won't do it.

Hmmm. Tough one. Because MY big "secret" occured in my brain. I always knew that "dieting" was a temporary fix and therefore I had to be WILLING to make a permenant change. I always knew that in order to lose and then maintain weightloss I would have to add exercise to my life. Forever. That's a long time. Until I was ready to face up to that, weightloss really could not occur for me. So it really and truly was just a matter of being fed up enough, miserable enough and WILLING to change my lifestyle. It was about WANTING to lose the weight so badly that I no longer cared about doing without the food.

HAving said that, I knew I had to set myself up for success. So I implemented somethings to help me along the way. I recognized my weaknesses and did my best to counteract them.

A few things that have helped me so far:

-Planning, planning and then planning some more. I NEED to know what's on the menu and to know that I have healthy, TASTY food coming my way. This also involves keeping a well stocked house. In the beginning it meant emptying the house of all junk. My 3 teenagers and 1 DH no longer let me do this as much. Oh well.
-In the beginning - no eating out. And now, just a rarity.
-Drinking lots of water. It keeps me hydrated, keeps my mouth busy, keeps me full. It satisfies me.
-Looking at this as what I am going to GAIN, not LOSE by giving up the high calorie/high quantity of foods
-Keeping a journal. Especially in the beginning, this was VITAL. Whenever I would want to breakdown and eat something - I would turn to my journal and read/write the reasons why I am doing this.
-It's really important to be honest with yourself. So I think for me, calorie counting is the only way to go. Just cutting back didn't work for me. Neither did just elminiating the junk. I NEED to set limits and tracking those pesky little calories keeps me honest with exactly what's going into my body. For me it is the ONLY way. Those little suckers really, really add up.
-When getting off track, it is mucho, mucho important to put it past you and get right back on the band wagon. Slip ups are bound to happen and luckily we don't have to be perfect. There IS room for error. The less errors though......
-I think someone's already said this, make exercise like brushing your teeth and doing the laundry - you don't HAVE to like it, you just HAVE to do it. Not doing it was NOT an option for me.
-I had to put my weightloss front and center, something very difficult for women and mothers. I had to really, really focus on it. ALthough it might have been selfish, in the long run - it benefits everyone and everything around you. There is not one person in the family who will not benefit from my being healthier and HAPPIER.
-Yes, it's calories in vs. calories out, but I knew I had to make those calories nutrient rich. For so many reasons. Fiber keeps you fuller longer as does protein. That's a GOOD thing. I like volume (recognizing my weaknesses), so for me vegetables makes perfect sense. So I eat lots and lots and lots of them.
-Yes, everything in moderation. BUT in the beginning, that wouldn't have worked for ME. I had to completely and totally do without. I didn't know from moderation. That's why I was 287 lbs. I had to totally and completely give up the sugar, flour, pasta, chocolate, bread, rice, cakes, cookies and stuff. Not even the 100 calorie packs. Not even brown rice. Just inviting those into my diet was an invitation to start the cravings going. Plus it just put me in the wrong frame of mind. Frame of mind is very, very important to me. And most importantly - I overeat them. I just don't have much control with them, it's a weakness of mine. So therefore I had to elminiate it. Even in the beginning when I refused to touch any of the stuff, it didn't matter to me. I did NOT feel deprived. I felt EXCITED that I was taking such good care of myself and an end to my unhealthy, inactive life was in the near future.
-Don't be afraid of the scale. It's just a tool. Don't be disappointed if it doesn't move in the right direction sometimes. IF you eat right and exercise you most DEFINITELY WILL lose the weight. Especially when starting out at such high weights. It's a given. It is the one advantage the morbidly obese have. So when I had a slow week, I really, really had to tell myself this.
-But you must be HONEST with yourself. Really, really honest. You can't expect the scale to magically move down, if you haven't eaten right and exericsed. It just doesn't work that way.

Well that's it for now. I'm sure there's more. But it's just not coming to me.

I can sure answer this one!
don't look at food as "good" or "bad".. look at it as energy..
if you take in too much food "energy" in a day.. it is much easier (for me anyway) mentally to recover from that- than to get into that "I was bad" mindset.. and then give up the day (or the diet!)..

1) Love yourself enough to NOT eat yourself into oblivion every time stress or anger or sadness hits. Find other coping strategies like journalling or even cleaning the bathroom or taking off walking out the door.

2) Realize that losing weight means that you CAN eat whatever you want IF you plan it into your calorie plan and you don't go over your calories for the day. (Note: My Godiva Cheesecake "entree" was great and fit into my daily calorie count but left me STARVING by bedtime. A one-time experiment!)

3) Weight loss happens when you have your head in the right place and you really want to be smaller, fitter, wear nicer clothes and are willing to do what it takes (eat less, exercise more) to get there.

4) Measure foods, don't eyeball the amounts! One cup can easily "become" THREE CUPS when you are in the process of losing weight IF you don't measure!

5) Just 'cause your teenage son eats FOUR CHEESEBURGERS and fries and a chocolate milkshake and stays skinny doesn't mean that YOU can do the same...and never gain weight!

6) Fitday works! It is also FREE!! www.Fitday.com

7) Weigh as often as will keep you honest. I avoided the scale for probably twenty years and have the added pounds to show for it!

8) Read as much as you can and find a plan that works for YOU. Have confidence in yourself that you can create a plan that will work. Not everyone needs to hire a trainer or spend a lot of $$$$ on packaged food plans to lose the weight.

9) If you've tried something for awhile and gotten no results, don't be afraid to try something different.

10) Measure yourself every couple weeks. Even if the scale doesn't show a loss, you MAY find that you have lost INCHES!

11) Read all the successes here on this site!

12) Believe that you are a worthy person and that you deserve to have a happy, THINNER, FITTER life!

WOW!! These are FABULOUS! I have enjoyed reading every one so far!! Hope to hear even more!

Love all the tips so far. My addition would be to always, always have a bottle of water and an on plan snack with you. This has saved my behind from the drive through more than I care to share!

I agree with taking snacks with you. I keep snacks at work. Also, when DH and I plan to be somewhere for multiple hours, we take a few snacks with us so that we can eat our snack instead of trying to eat whatever is available.

Planning is very important overall. Planning meals, planning snacks, planning exercise.

Ideas and thoughts are the most powerful thing to me. It all starts with the mind...

I can't be "off the wagon". I'm driving it!

--Progress, not perfection!

“I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” -Thomas Edison

--Persistence!