So yesterday I posted about my eating plan - which was basically to learn to eat smaller portions by eating a reasonable amount of food when I'm hungry (about 1 cups worth) and then waiting an hour to eat more.

After checking out the Daily Plate (which I love!) and reading lots of other people's stories I decided to try to add a calorie goal as well. I just punched the numbers into DailyPlate and let it tell me what my goal should be.

So now I'm tracking calories on Daily Plate and am loving it. I'm already starting to see where I can make better choices. I learned for myself why people have told me my beloved Thai Jasmine rice is something to cut back on. And it's so inspiring to see how exercise makes a difference. I used to think... man, who cares if I walk for 1/2 an hour and burn 250 calories. 250 calories is nothing! But seeing it adjust my daily caloric intake shows me that it's not nothing!

Anyhow I'm very greatful, already, for all the information on this forum. I'm glad I kind of eased into the calorie counting - I've been on my "smaller portion" eating plan for 3 weeks and now that I succeeded there, this seems like a good, logical next step.

This is such good news!!! It feels great when you can find a way to 'live' with food in healthful manner. Sounds like you are on your way!!

I also love the Daily Plate. It sounds like you are putting together a wonderful plan for yourself. I can't wait to "see" you get more slender and healthy.

Congrats... it really makes a difference to see all of your calories and nutritional intake in front of you. I, myself, have been doing my Fitday for a couple weeks now. It is really making me accountable... even if I slip up on my eating I am still acknowledging that I ate it.

Yeah it's exciting. Just got to keep it up now, heh. But so far it hasn't been a huge sacrifice, in fact I'm enjoying my food more.

I went shopping last night and basically avoided all the aisles in the middle of the store and "shopped around the edges." I realized that by sticking to the perimeter of the store I avoided most processed foods. I never noticed that about my store before.

I came home with heavy bags full of fruits, organic milk, sliced turkey and swiss cheese and pita pockets. When I did by something packaged (like cream of chicken soup for a recipe) I looked carefully at any labels trying to choose between brands that had healthier choices and for the first time in my life it was actually fun to consult labels. I looked at it like a treasure hunt.

The main thing I've noticed so far is that it seems you can eat a lot more whole foods than processed to get to the same calorie goal. Like I have this cheap noodle dish that you add water to and microwave in my cupboard. I looked at it yesterday and noticed it was 240 calories. It's pretty small and I realized I could have two pieces of bacon and two eggs for less than that. Then I did a double take. It's 240 calories but there are TWO servings in that tiny little package. Instead for 480 calories I could have a six inch sub with meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, olives, onions and jalapenos. No question which I'd rather eat!

Oh and Rhonda you'll get to actually see the difference someday, heh. I took "before" pictures the same day I weighed in for my starting weight. I just am not ready to post them until I get my first "after" picture to put it next to.

I noticed that same thing this morning when looking at a package of pop tarts... wow are those things fattening, who knew?!

Sounds like you are on your way! I recently re-committed and am doing some things differently this time around. Counting calories, logging my food and journaling are a few of them. I'm hoping it makes a difference too.