So it's the end of April and I have just found the 3FC site less than a week ago. I need to change my mindset regarding weight loss and know that I can do it. I'm logging 1500 calories a day through subtracting my meal total to get an understanding of how much I'm taking in versus how much I am putting out. I also want to meditate for about 10-15 minutes per day to see the effect it has on me....let me know what you think of or if you have done something similar! I look forward to reading your replies

Your plan sounds a lot like my plan - I'm at 1500 cals a day as well. Good luck and welcome around!

I eat circa 1200 calories a day! And I am starting my food diary as well. And you would be amazed how much food 1200 calories is, when you are eating low fat (but I dont do starches only whole food and lean protein, veggies an fruits.)

Jenny, you sound a lot like me height and goals...we should definitely keep in touch because I need all of the support that I can get!

I keep a food journal too... it's been one of the most helpful tools in my weight loss journey.

Hooray! I keep track of my food, too...1400-1600 a day. I've found that tracking calories makes a huge difference in my weight loss.

Please update to let us know how the meditation is going. Sounds like a very therapeutic approach.

See you around the forums!

i keep a 'food journal'i write down everything i eat, every day. i keep between 1200-1400 calories a day.

Keeping a food journal is really a great thing to do. It's so easy to delude ourselves into thinking we gaven't eaten 'that much', but you can't really lie to a meals/calories tracker. Wekk, okay, you can, but it takes thinking to do so, so it's not really a complete lie.

I hope this will work for you. At first, it can be tedious to log everything, but it's just another habit to take, after all.

I think this is something I need to start doing- what do you guys find is the best way to do it? Do you use a website to keep track, or do you write it all down somewhere? And what do you write? Calories?

At first I used FitDay, but it's turned to be a little tedious for me -- almost every food there (such as brands, etc) is geared to the US market, and it was annoying when I had to look up for French brands all over the place to finally have to enter them manually anyway.

For the moment, I use a simple notebook, in which I track down (approximatively) what I eat at which meal. I include calories when I can, and if I can't, I do my best to question myself about my food choices, whether they were good, average, bad, really bad, etc (as well as whether I went overboard with the quantities). At first, I was afraid that I *would* go overboard and totally delude myself regarding that, but it seems that getting into thinking mode helps (that, and using small plates and bowls anyway ). If I need to become more stringent about that, I'll do it. For the moment, I know that if I want to do too much, too perfectly, too soon, I'll just fail, so I'm... working through trial and error until I'm used to it and can start devoting new resources to it again (if that makes sense).