[Lydia227]

Focus upon becoming FIT instead of becoming THIN

My experience has been that after I discovered the joy of a really good workout and made that my priority, my food selections became much healthier. I began to eat to improve the quality of my workouts. Together these allowed me to become slimmer.

I also want to add the importance of strength training. I think sometimes that is overlooked as well. In my case, I could do cardio like it was nobody's business but it was the weight training that really made a difference in how my shape has changed.

[futuresurferchick]

Like many of you, I used to eat something unhealthy and then think "well I've screwed it up now so I might as well just give up." But eventually I realized that whenever that happened, the fact was that eventually I was gonna have to get back on the weight loss wagon. Be it that day, be it a year from then, whatever... since I could never give up the dream completely, I was always gonna eventually make another effort to lose weight. So now, when I eat something off my plan I just think "you're gonna have to get back on the wagon eventually so you might as well just do it now!"

[swultragirl]

These are fantastic. Thank you!

I think my advice would be to find what works for you; we're all different, and we all lose weight our own way. That might mean a total lifestyle makeover or a series of little changes. Try something, and if it doesn't work for you try something else! You'll figure out what works best for you.

[JerseyGyrl]

Diets (an eating plan you go on to lose weight & go off after you've lost what you want to lose) do NOT work! If you want to be successful, your eating plan MUST be a total lifestyle change.