today was my first day on the plan. well, we went out to dinner and i ended up eating stuff thats not on my plan. I just like food so much and i feel like i've spent my whole life on a diet. I want to lose weight but i can talk myself into eating things i know i shouldn't. I'm sure once i lose some weight it will be easier to stick to the plan, but right now it seems so hopeless. Plus i have so much to lose... it seems unacheivable and i hate that its going to take 8 months to get there

oh plus we went shopping and there was so much cute clothing that wouldnt look good on me.. you think that would be incentive to stay on the plan but it just made me feel sad and i turn to food for comfort.

Its all in your perpective. 8 months Vs THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.....Hmmm? Sounds like a drop in the Ol' bucket to me! Not that any weight loss journey is temporary, you'll have to take care of yourself for the rest of your life, but you planned on doing that anyway. Right? You can do this. I can honestly say the hardest part of this change for me was getting past the craving/addiction. It goes away. Give yourself two weeks, thats about what it took for me to stop "needing" the sugar and fats. Now they taste bad or make me ill. What makes me or anybody else succeeding any different from you? NOTHING. ((((((BIG HUG!)))))

miss bbcake--you can do this--it's hard and don't let anyone tell you it's not because it is--but only you can make it work. All of us here are proof that the plan works if you follow it. The incentives are high--once you lose some initially and then once you get to change sizes it will get easier--you just need to find your motivation. When you go out to eat think about how much better you will feel afterwards if you make good choices--I haven't found a place yet that doesn't offer a grilled chicken salad of some sort--and the beauty of it is there is no GUILT later and guilt makes us turn to comfort and for many of us our comfort is food. I still love food that's not good for me but now I have a bite off someone else's plate instead of the entire portion--usually all you need is a taste. Believe me--I wish someone else could control my eating but the one thing I have learned is that it is up to me and I am the only person truly miserable when I mess up. Hang in there--it gets easier every day but remember you are worth it.

I think many of us give way too much weight to one meal of bad choices (myself included!). It is great to stay POP, but if you happen to go off just hop right back on. A few extra calories (even several hundred extra) in one meal is going to make no difference at all in your weight loss. Use it as motivation to stay perfectly on plan for the rest of the week.

I have a tendency to let one bad meal turn into one bad day then one bad week, etc. until I have really done some damage. What you ate last night will not prevent you from losing weight this week if you stick to plan the rest of the time.

I understand what you say about being on a diet your entire life. I have been on one for the last 6 years except when I was pregnant. It gets very OLD! However, if I am honest with myself, I have been on a diet but not sticking to it perfectly much of the time (otherwise I would have not gotten so fat!), so you feel deprived but not accomplishing anything.

I have decided if I am going to be on a diet I am going to be on a diet, not kinda on a diet, so I can lose the weight as quickly as possible. I think you will find as you get further into the plan that it is easy to eat out with a little planning, and certainly better than beating yourself up over one bad day.

you guys are right. i have an all or nothing attitude, which i need to get over.. you are right about things not tasting the same.. the fries really didnt even taste that great. i could taste the grease- it reminded me of mini donuts, kind of a weird combo!

First off, don't think of LAWL as a diet, this is really a way that you can eat for the rest of your life. It's just limited right now because you are in the weight loss phase. You have to go into something new with a positive attitude or you are just basically setting yourself up to fail. I would suggest planning out your meals a week at a time for a while until you get the hang of it. Break your foods down into your portions as soon as you get home from the grocery store. My fridge and cupboards are full of debbie portion size baggies. I just grab and go. Make sure your family is behind you and ready to support you 100%. If you can't help getting the bad stuff when you go out to eat, then don't go out for a few weeks if at all possible until your mindset changes a little bit. Next, take baby steps. A lot of us here make smaller goals. Pick out a reward at 10 lb. intervals. A manicure, pedicure, new shirt. Nothing food related. Make a bigger reward for say 25 lbs. or 50 lbs. That way the end result won't seem so daunting. You can do it, but you are the only person that is going to make you do it. You are worth the effort don't you think????

you have to look at this as the proper way to eat, not a diet. if you look at this as something you have to do for the next 8 months and then you could go back to the way you were eating, it is not worth putting yourself through it. I started this journey almost 11 months ago and i have still not reached my goal weight. i have come to see that this is going to have to be a way of life for me forever. That is not such a bad thing- i feel so much healthier now and i have come to accept that i used food as comfort and i have to replace that with something else. i don't know what i am really trying to say here, just that i think you need to look at your motivation and realize that this is not a short term fix, it has to become a way of life. you have to close that chapter of your life where you ate for comfort and look at food as fuel only- you have to change that relationship you had with it, like breaking up. you will mourn it for a while, but you will realize soon enough that it was a toxic relationship.

ok miss bb here's the facts....you didn't gain this weight over night and you won't lose it overnight. Don't make this all or nothing. Work on your mindset and stay focused on the end goal but don't let that intimidate you! I've said it before if I can do this anyone can. Talk about loving food! I won't tell you some of the things I've done! LOL It is easy to get down on yourself and think you can't do this but you CAN! And when you need a good swift kick in the behind to get you motivated come see us....(I personally can tell you these ladies are good at keeping others motivated) I'm in a place right now that I'm so busy with all the kids coming and going around here (my DH and I are foster parents) that I tend not to eat or make excuses for eating badly. I keep losing and gaining the same 5 pounds.....but I know for a fact that this plan works..i've lost over 40 pounds on it! So hang with it and you will get to where you are on plan and losing weight. Also let me say...don't let those people at the COD put you down. If you don't lose 2 pounds a week don't worry about it....we've got your back...and we all know you CAN do this!