I am doing WW On-Line. Weight loss is slow, but it is helping me adjust to eating habits. I have calorie count in the past with great success, along with walking 30 minutes of brisk walking each day. Counting calories is work, but very effective. I decided to let WW do the work this time and I get to use the tools on line and get the feed back from WW.
Also, with my weight loss, it is very important to be accountable. I used on-line support with lots..........of success. This is my first time with 3FL, and this is going to work for my weight
loss journey.
And......knowing in your heart you must change your life style of eating for the rest of your life or you WILLregain the weight.
I try to eat lean protein and veggies and minimize the sugar I eat. I also try to replace whites with browns-- no more white bread or white rice!
I exercise at least three times a week.
I drink a ton of water.
I allow myself to eat whatever I want, but I watch portion sizing. For example, yesterday there was pizza at work and I wanted it!!! I took only one piece, ate a few bites, then scraped the toppings off and left most of the crust. Sometimes when I'm craving sweets I will eat half of a cookie, or a few bites of cake. I don't feel deprived in any way!
Good luck to you!
I've tried many different diets and found out that restriction isn't for me, lol. I calorie cycle, but I am not super strict with myself. I'd rather not deprive myself, which for me leads to giving up. I've made small changes like using tofu pasta substitute rather than pasta, or eating a piece of fruit when I want something sweet instead of cookies.
I eat my lower amount of calories M-W, my base amount of 1,200 Th & F, and on Saturday and Sunday I don't count at all. Not to say that I go hog wild and eat a big mac and large fries for every meal, I still eat the healthier foods I eat during the week, I just allow myself maybe half a serving more. Or, if I want a piece of cake I have it...just a smaller size than I use to have, and only one.
I don't exercise. I've tried and it's just not my thing. I'm sure I'd notice bigger changes if I did.
Weight Watchers and exercising 45 minutes a day 7 days a week. I say 6-7 days a week, but I usually end up exercising the 7th day. I can't do a diet where I cut out anything. Nothing can be off limits for me, or I will think about it all the time and binge on it. By eating small portions of anything I want, it stops me obsessing about certain foods.
I've lost 16.6 pounds in 9 weeks.
Last edited by fitwayoflife; 10-03-2011 at 02:43 PM.
I started by easing in substitutions for bad food I ate, such as swapping fried chicken for grilled chicken and french fries for a baked sweet potato. I also eased into exercise with aerobics videos at home, just doing as much as I could until I managed to finish an entire hour-long tape after a couple months.
I don't have a magic plan but everyday I take a multivitamin and try to drink a cup of hot tea (green usually, with lemon and honey), have a small salad at lunch and/or dinner, limit sugar and junk food, and walk 3+ miles. If I don't walk due to weather, etc then I try to do my aerobics video.
I don't deny myself anything but honestly, after easing into a healthy diet and exercise I enjoy I don't crave junk food anymore. I feel so good eating healthy food! I do have a sweet tooth though, so occasionally (usually during TOM :P) I'll have a bit of candy, chocolate, or cookies. I've learned to be satisfied with moderation and don't gorge on anything though.
I haven't spent any money on diet pills, exercise equipment, or gym membership... which is good, because buying new clothes while losing weight really stinks (though fitting into smaller sizes is fun)!
One more addition to my plan...once I was counting points. I found out pretty quick that my Mountain Dews had points! I would rather have food and pick my own treat with points.
So....There sits my 3 cases of Mountain Dews!
I stopped drinking sodas and quit eating junk food and I got rid of my sugar addiction....now, I do not crave sugar when it is around me nor do I want to buy it!
I originally got the idea for my plan from a Readers Digest article years ago. It had a picture of an Oreo cookie and the title said something like "Eat One 250 cal treat a Day and Still Lose Weight". Well, now I just had to read further! Basically, it said to figure the calories you should be eating in a day to lose (it gave web suggestions to figure this out) and then figure in ONE treat a day. Any treat, but it has to fit within 250 calories (or so). This treat can be anything for anyone I happen to like chocolate. Tall or Grande Starbucks Mocha Frappucino (no whip) 190-290 calories, 5 Oreos (250 cal), etc. And because I made room for that snack, the rest of the day I ate in moderation. Healthier foods have fewer calories, so I naturally ate more salads, apples, oranges, nuts, chicken, fish, etc. I didn't care. As long as I got my treat. Kinda sad now that I read this, but it works.
So, I calculated that I should be eating 1400 calories or so and started planning a treat into those calories every day. At the time, I lost 80 pnds in 6 months (and walked just about every day). Of course, we then moved to another state and all planning of meals came to a halt.
I'm back on it and even though it's a slower process this time, this works for ME! I can live with this. Moderation. Love it!
Lot's of great ideas in this thread. Heck in this whole forum. I love 3FC!
I am counting calories with livestrong.com/myplate. It tells me how many calories I can have a day & the caloric amount changes when I add my weight loss.
I don't have any forbidden foods, as I am doing this for the rest of my life. I obviously can't eat like I always have, that's how I got so overweight.
Oh, and I am also 'exercising' for 15 minutes a day Sat-Mon, and 40 minutes a day Tues-Fri. I used quotations on exercise, because I count any kind of sweaty activity as my exercise, be it housecleaning, child care, anything that makes me sweat.
I think that my plan is a little bit more exercise-oriented than most. I don't know exactly how I went from someone who had a hard time finding 30 minutes a day to work out to someone who does something active 90 minutes to 2 hours every day, but I did. Part of what motivated me is that I have a one-year-old shepherd/husky puppy that I rescued in the spring and if he doesn't get 5-6 miles of walking/running a day, he'll eat my house. That gets me out on the rainy days!
I use weight watchers online, but mostly as a record-keeping tool and not as a limitation. I have 36 points to spend and go over nearly every day, but I usually end up with 80 or so activity points by the end of the week and I rarely dip into them, just use the flex points. I am guessing that I am eating about 2000 calories per day and working out for about 600 calories' worth. When I get smaller I might have to eat less but for right now that's worth about a half-pound a week on average, which I'm actually happy with. I feel strong and healthy and not deprived. I feel like I could eat this way for the rest of my life. When I have tried to lose weight faster, I have failed. I have been over 230 lbs for twenty years. This week I'll probably get below that number, which feels great.
One of the things that ww has helped me with is seeing the impact of carb-heavy meals on my diet. Before ww I might have thought of my old standard breakfast of bagel, cream cheese, smoked salmon or turkey as being equivalent to my new breakfast, two scrambled eggs (one without the yolk), black beans, salsa. But the first has twice as many points and a lot more fat and carb than the second. I also can motivate myself and look back and see that the weeks where I worked out more or ate closer to plan, I lost more weight. It's really helpful to me to correlate the work with the results, you know?
I lost 160 (HOLY FKKN **** that still shocks me LOL) by boring calorie counting! I tried low-carb once, lost 40 and ate a cookie and gained 50 LOL It's all about what WORKS for you right?
I decided that I wasn't a person who could live with "I'm NEVER eating chocolate again" hahahah not even close! SO calorie counting let me still have some control over everything, yes I can chocolate however I have to COUNT it and no cheating !!! I can have pizza, but I have to count it!
Common sense dictates to cut out the white fake junk and eat healthier grains and fibre etc., so that was easy as I already did it! Always ate lots of fruit and veg, so that was easy. Cutting out the junk food, McDonald's, ice cream, that was harder LOL But again, once you get it into your head it's NOT off limits, it takes the insanity out of it. You quickly learn it's just not worth the bang for the buck, so to speak, and usually I made better choices.
I'm not on any particular plan. I stick to around 1,500 calories per day -- sometimes 1,250, sometimes right at 1,500. Usually around 1,400 at least. I didn't work exercise into my plan yet, but I joined a gym and started going yesterday. The plan for that is to work out there three times per week and continue doing Wii exercise at home or walking around the neighborhood.
As far as diet, I cut out soda, diet soda, iced tea, fried foods, ice cream, baked goods, chips, pretzels and most processed foods. My snacks are things like 1/2 a bell pepper with hummus or a little salad of cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes. For supper, I switched from eating red meat 4 or 5 times per week to making chicken (baked, broiled or roasted without skin) and doing two to three vegetarian meals per week. I'm focusing on a low-sodium diet (I have kidney disease), so I'm also experimenting with tweaking my old recipes to reduce the sodium content.
I follow a LOW GI plan - different again to most here!!! It's a life plan of whole foods, no processed food is the bottom line.
Works for me, I've lost 29 kilos or 64 pounds!
My Plan
