Plan, Plan and plan.

I never set a time frame goal and I don't set mini-goals. Since the beginning ive said that my overall goal was to get to 140, but I've recently decided that I am just going to keep going until March 1 and see how much I can lose in a year. It wont be too much past my 140 goal. I'm assuming I'll end up somewhere in the 130's.

I've also changed things up a couple times during my journey. I started out with South Beach and no exercise, just concentrated on my eating. After a few months of that I added in exercise 2 days a week for an hour at a time. In October I switched over to calorie counting and working out 6 days/week for 45mins-an hour at a time.

Doing all of the above has helped me. I didn't just throw myself into everything at once and then get burnt out over a month or 2. As the weight has come off, my energy has increased 10 fold. So its been easier to increase my workouts along the way.

Remember, the way you start this journey is not necessarily the way you will end it. You will learn things about yourself along the way. You will see what works and what doesn't. You will find that you may need to mix things up to keep yourself going.

The one thing that has remained completely consistent for me is planning out all of my meals at least a day in advance. Sometimes I'll do a week so I know what to get at the grocery store.

I also recommend studying nutrition to learn which foods will give you the biggest bang for your calories.

Good luck!