Hi Kim, it is nice to meet you and welcome to 3fc!The word "diet" to me is a dirty word because the connotation is that you do something for a time and then quit. That cannot happen for someone who needs to lose weight. YOU HAVE TO COMMIT TO A TOTAL LIFE CHANGE. Now though that sounds daunting, it really isn't but it does take commitment, to changing how you think about yourself, how you think about food, how you eat, ie, do you tend to binge or over eat when you are bored, angry, depressed, etc. You have to break bad habits like eating in front of the tv or while reading, in the car, or on a bus. You need to commit to getting some exercise everyday. I firmly believe if you want to lose and keep it off that exercise is so very important and setting yourself up a routine is the best way. Don't try to do too much with exercise though. Start out slow just so that you can enjoy it and then increase in intensity and length. Though I don't agree with him about everything, I do think Dr Phil's new book has great insights and if you can get it and read it.
I found that an ordinary fat and cal counting worked for me. I did put a LOT of work into it by making myself a months worth of menus and following them, but once I did that, I now can know exactly everyday what to eat, how much etc. I also exercise everyday and rarely miss. Sometimes, I am busy and only get 20 minutes in doing strengthy training, but I try to do SOMETHING everyday. If you would like to see a couple sample menus to get an idea, just personal message me and I will send them to you. They are 1800 calories/410 fat calories so if you need to lose a lot less than I they may need to be tweaked a bit to fit into your personal program.
If you need encouragement, go to
www.freewebs.com\trexnonny/ and look at all the stuff. I hope it will encourage you to take this step and help you to realize you CAN DO THIS! I would also encourage you to find a group in the support section if you haven't already to draw on when you are having trouble or when things are good and you want to crow. Check out Time for Serious Fun on Support. There is a lot to do there and the thread is specifically set up to help you have FUN yes FUN losing weight!
Faye