You've already gotten some GREAT suggestions, but I felt like I should add my two cents...

You're just about my height and I was only about 12 lbs heavier than you at my highest. Judging from that perspective, I'd say the most difficult thing is to JUST GET STARTED. I've said this before, but when you have a whole bunch of weight to lose...well, sometimes it can feel like you've been given a tablespoon and told to dig a hole to China, or move Mt. Everest! (especially if you're losing at a healthy rate - averaging about 2 lbs a week).

One thing that puzzled me is your comments on the Dr. Phil diet (not sure what you mean by the "Oprah" diet - you must be referring to her 'boot camp'?) that it 'looks like it was made by super rich people.' Are you saying that after reading the book, or just because Dr. Phil and Oprah ARE 'super rich'? I've read the Dr. Phil book, and from what you've posted as your 'requirements' I would say that IF you're looking for a specific 'diet plan' this would probably suit your needs. You can easily go to the library and check out the book - it was a bestseller last year so most libraries should carry it. I also second the recommendation of Anne Fletcher's Thin for Life - check out the Maintainers' Forum and there are some posts from the reading group of the book earlier this year that are most informative.

(just wanted to interject here that the US Food Pyramid has been revamped - you might want to check it out at www.nutrition.gov - along with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans - some good stuff there!)

One thing I didn't see mentioned by you (that stuck out like a sore thumb to me!) was EXERCISE. This is a critical part of weight loss and (most importantly) maintaining your loss, not to mention your overall health - both physical and mental. Yesterday, I posted in a thread on General Chatter regarding celebrities - about someone who I wasn't impressed at ALL with a year ago but I'm TOTALLY impressed with NOW - Jack Osbourne. Check out the pictures on the post - especially the look in his eyes and his stance. Not only has he changed for the better physically about 1,203%, but you can see in his eyes, and his stance that he has changed INSIDE - he's no longer the drug-addled couch potato we saw on MTV not so long ago. I'm sure it wasn't easy for him to make the change - whether he was a 'super rich' celebrity or not, the desire, the drive to change one's life for the better ultimately has to come from within each one of us!

What that means to me is that instead of making excuses why you CAN'T do something, you find ways to 'CAN DO'. For example - you say you're in school from 9 am - 5 pm - I have a tight schedule as well - usually from 8 am - 5:30 pm, except on the days I have to work earlier and/or later. The key for me is planning - I get up early so I can hit the gym early; I eat a good breakfast before I leave for the day; I either pack a lunch or I know where I can get something healthy to eat (fortunately our cafeteria has a salad bar, along with designated 'healthy choices' and a sushi bar, plus there is a Safeway just down the block, so I'm pretty well covered!). Instead of looking at a situation in a negative light, look at it in a POSITIVE light, and you'll get there - IMO ATTITUDE is a key player in losing and keeping off weight!

And of course, you're here at 3FC, a veritable fount of useful info and support.

Everyone else has already given you such good responses, I'm a little worried that this is just going to be redundant.

I am another person on a non-plan weight loss plan. I watch my calories, choose healthy foods, drink tons of water, and exercise. That's it. No drugs, no plans, no clubs, no memberships. Eat less, move more. And it works. I started on April 26th and as of Saturday was down 40 pounds. I chose not to try any of the plans or low-carb diets or anything because I know that I, personally, would not be able to stick to that for my whole life. I NEVER want to gain back the weight I lose, so I knew I had to do it in a way that I could stick to forever. I've tried very hard to look at this, not as a diet, but as a lifestyle change. I was eating too much and neglecting my body's need to MOVE and exercise. That had to stop, and (most days) it has.

The thing is, you can make excuses about why this plan or that plan won't work for you, and stay the same weight you are, or you can figure out what WILL work for you, and lose the weight your own way. The guided plans work very well for a lot of people, and I don't mean to disparage them at all! Just realize that you don't NEED a plan. The bottom line is that you need to burn more calories than you take in. You can do that with or without a plan.

you said you love to cook. There are some great low-fat, low-calorie cookbooks out there. Go to the bookstore and pick up one or two, and come up with some nice, healthy recipes for yourself. If you measure out your ingredients exactly, you can easily have big, filling meals for a very reasonable amount of calories. One of my favorite recipes is a slow-cooker chicken with mushroom and onion cream sauce. It's only 215 calories for a single chicken breast, and it's filling and delicious. It's easy to find healthy recipes, especially if you love to cook and try new things. Buy an insulated lunch bag or box and start bringing your food with you to school. You can make your lunch and a couple of snacks the night before and bring it with you. Not only do you have your calories figured out in advance that way, you will probably save money. Write down EVERY SINGLE THING that goes into your mouth so that you aren't eating without acknowledging the calories in your food. Keep some healthy frozen meals in your freezer, so that if you don't have time to make a real meal you can have something healthy instead of stopping for fast food. Go to the gym on campus before or after classes and exercise a couple times a week. You really CAN do this, and you don't have to follow a plan. You just have to figure out something that works for YOUR life.

Now that we've all probably scared you half to death, just know that you CAN do this. You HAVE the power to do it, and when you are truly ready it WILL happen.

Ok - first I would like to say thank you to the posters. I am going to go and check out those books that were recommended, and I'm currently reading into the plans more deeply. I've checked out two of the diet plans so far.

However I have some general replies (not to any one person necessarily):

I am not making excuses. I was asking advice. I think you have misread my post. When I said I had a tight schedule, I didn't say I couldn't exercise! In fact, I use the University gym twice a week, cuz it's free. I am considering doing more than twice a week, but I'm trying to find some kind of guidelines for "good weight loss" routines or something. I don't even know what all these "excuses" are in reference to, unless it's money. If it's because I have to have a cheap "diet", well, that's not an excuse, it's a fact.

I am not trying to keep my old eating habits without changing. I never said that. If I gave that impression, I'm sorry, it's not true. I won't change everything about what I eat, but I will change a lot. In my post I never said anything about not changing, in fact, I said: I currently drink lots of diet sodas but I can drop those like a ton of bricks! I can drop a lot of bad habits, it's easy. It's easy because I tell myself it's easy, and I believe it.

I have not dismissed ANY plan. I am asking for ADVICE on those plans. I stated my First Impressions of them. A lot of you guys are really defensive over me saying that Dr. Phil diet seemed like it was a plan made by rich people. Please don't take something so seriously when it was meant to be a joke. That's why it had the after it.. All I meant was, I didn't know a lot about it other than it was made by some of the richest people on tv. That's all. It was meant to be funny... ha ha?

I understand this is not about Numbers (in relation to my weight). I actually have this in my original post that I am not concerned about the numbers. I have no weight goal set, I don't even own a scale or care to own a scale. In fact, in my original post I said: goal: steady and noticeable weight loss, that's all, I don't really care about being X weight by X date!

I understand this is a lifestyle change. I've said this in my original post: (I want to start off on the right foot with this new way of eating!). A lifestyle change still needs to include some of my original lifestyle, otherwise I'm just taking up someone else's lifestyle.

I said NOTHING bad about the food pyramid. The ones I've received from the doctor and such were outdated. I was really just mad about the doctor's attitude about the situation. Thanks to the poster who gave me the links to the updated ones. I am already using fitday, and guess what? I didn't discount the food pyramid. Thanks for suggesting fitday though, it is a very good site.

The point of my post was this: This is how I am. Which plan can help me without changing my entire lifestyle. Contrary to popular belief, I don't think it's necessary to change every aspect of your life to be thin. If this is the case, then I'm happy being Fat. Seriously. I am not giving up everything in my life to become thin. That's why I didn't even include the Ornish diet. That's just too far.

Also, with the negative attitude, I don't know where that came from at all. I believe I said a lot of positive things, and I think I have a great attitude.

I am going to research more of these plans on my own... I appreciate the advice given to me already.

I wish I had been more clear in my original post, because I think I came off on the wrong foot. I just wanted some info on the plans. I shouldn't have posted anything about me, I should have just asked for more info. Giving too much info has been used to make me seem like some excuse-mongering lazy bum who is content to sit at the tv and never do anything. I should have left my personal info to mystery in order to avoid that kind of misconception. You don't know me.

So anyway, I doubt I will be coming back to this site because I have already been judged. Some people read my post and immediately threw me into some pile of "People who refuse to change, who only make excuses" because you completely misread my entire post.

Again, I'm sorry for wasting anyone's time.. I do appreciate the posts made by those who actually bothered to read my post though. If the moderator wishes, you may delete my account. I'll find another forum where people don't immediately judge you - if I even need a forum. I can do this on my own, I'm confident in that.

Thanks, and good luck to you and yours, and I truly hope you accomplish your health goals.

(I will not be checking this forum again, so feel free to lock/delete/etc)

(I also sent this as a private message, so I hope you read at least one of them!)

Oi, don't leave because of what some strangers said on a message board! You said yourself that your post has been misinterpreted--happens all the time! I have been jumped on for saying certain things before, and yet I have been on here for months and have pretty steadily (though slowly!) been losing weight.

The only reason it seemed to me that you were making excuses is that you seemed to have come up with at least one reason to dismiss each of the plans you listed. A lot of people do that--we are all guilty of it at some point (WE, as in myself included). That's simply how it came across to me. I certainly don't think you're lazy (in my book, anyone who is willing to actually cook is a lot more ambitious than I am anyway ), and as everyone mentioned, you've made a great start simply by stating that you want to make a change and by coming here to 3FC.

On that note, 3FC is one of the greatest boards out there (for weight loss, of course). So often on other boards, people become argumentative and defensive rather than helpful and friendly. I know it seems some of the replies you got were somewhat harsh (even mine), but that was in response to how we read it. No one has judged you--you explained your side in your last post and cleared up any misconceptions. People here are great about understanding things like this, as we all know it is sometimes difficult to convey our true meaning using simply text and smilies Even with the it is sometimes difficult to read sarcasm and such.

So anyway, I sure hope you don't leave on account of one misinterpreted thread. There is so much help and information and support available here--if you'd like info on certain diets, try going to the threads for the diets you are interested in (there's one for Atkin's, South Beach, SugarBusters, Weight Watchers, Dr. Phil, and pretty much anything else you could imagine!). Even if a few people here are hard-headed enough not to understand your last post and realize you really are looking at this in a more positive way than first interpreted (which is unlikey, as 99.9% of the people here are INSANELY nice, and as overweight and obese people, who are we to be severely judgemental?), there are SO many other people here that if you posted in another thread, I bet hardly any of the same people would respond, as each thread sort of has its own following.

To sum up the novel I just wrote, I'd hate to see you leave completely over something as minor as a misreading/misunderstanding. There is so much support and knowledge to be gained here, and even many of the replies you received were helpful (in my opinion, anyway) in that they knew where you were coming from and made simple suggestions as to how you can realistically change your habits to reach your goals. We're here to help, not discourage, so don't go!

I'd also like to say that I hope you don't leave. I did completely misinterpret your post, and I feel bad about my previous response now that you've clarified. I really did read it as a list of why this and that wouldn't work and why you couldn't possibly change your habits. Now I know I really misunderstood, and I'm sorry. Jill is right, this is a great website with so much to offer. I hope you'll reconsider, I'd hate for you - or anyone! - to pass up a great source of support because of one thread.

I'm sorry if I offended or hurt your feelings. I read your original post completely wrong, and I apologize.

Misunderstandings happen. They happen more frequently in a venue where only words, not body language, are being exchanged. If a person doesn't truly understand that, then they are probably not going to end up being happy in a forum of only written language. It's all too easy to take a simple disagreement as a personal attack, even if it was not meant that way at all.

I didn't see anything in this thread that was over the line. The OP wasn't %100 percent clear. She did sound like she was making excuses. Maybe in a personal conversation with her it wouldn't have been like that, but we have to work with what we got. I don't think anyone should fill bad or guilty about what they wrote in this thread. She did get plenty of very good advice, just not in exactly the format she expected it to be in.

I do wish she were able to stick around and see all this forum has to offer, and to benefit from the collective knowlege and support of the people that are here. But some people simply don't have the correct mindset to benefit from a text based application. Saddly, I think that might be the case here.

Jeez- i didn't think anyone was being judgemental- I thought there was very good advice in every post and we were speaking not only from experience but from the heart.

Actually, the response given to our input seems pretty inline with what we all pointed out.

Creek Girl-I don't think that anyone was being out of line with you. I read your original post, and it also seemed to me like you were mentioning different plans, and then listing a reason that you couldn't do it. Please don't get offended here, but I am taking these quotes from your original post-to show you why some of those who answered your thread answered the way they did.

~I read this, and thought, okay...$5 a week is EXPENSIVE? On WW, you can choose what food you want to eat-there are no prepackaged foods, etc. and once you get to your goal weight-you are a "lifetime member" in a lot of places, meaning you don't have to pay any longer to attend meetings for life to keep off the weight.

~Here I felt that you were just lumping a bunch of diet plan companies together...and I also thought that Jenny Craig was nothing like WW, because on Jenny you eat prepackaged foods plus add fruits and veggies to them.

~Here it sounded like counting calories (which is probably one of your best options given your financial situation) was being dismissed in general for some unknown reason. I didn't get the "chainsaw" reference. I am also a calorie counter-come over to the calorie counting section of 3FC under the General Diet Plans section if you'd like-I can offer some structure if you need it.

I know that this was supposed to be funny, and I did get the sarcasm. But-on the other hand, I also know that it was much easier and cheaper for me to eat a zillion cheap white bread peanut butter sandwiches and cheap Little Debbie snack cakes and not exercise.

I think that this part of the list is really what gave posters the impression that you were finding a reason not to do every plan listed. If you didn't mean it this way, I understand-but it does come across this way in writing. Also-I think you really have to look deeper into the diet plans. The diabetic exchange, for instance, is not a "weight loss plan" that includes a specific exercise regime. It is a diet for diabetics. If you follow it-you WILL lose weight, but since it is a medical plan for those with a certain health condition-the exercise is pretty much advised to each patient by their doctor-which would be different for a 65 year old, 300 pound diabetic than it would be for a 25 year old, 170 pound diabetic with different abilities. If you followed the exchange program, you need to use common sense and figure out what exercise YOU can do. You can't dismiss a plan just because there isn't a laid out exercise routine.

I think honestly, that the calorie counting or the diabetic exchange programs would both work for you since you can cook, have to eat at the college during the day, and don't want to pay extra for fees at a diet center.

I would love to see you stay...but I also want to defend those who responded to your post. I understand why they responded the way that they did-because I interpreted your post the same way that they did.

Please stay with us-there is lots of support here.
Aphil

Hi Creek Girl!

I just wanted to say that I hope you're still with us. In the month or so that I've been "around" 3FC, I've found it to be a place with so much great information, great stories, and great support. I don't post that much or get into many "discussions", but I do cruise/lurk around ALOT and I've learned so much just from reading various threads.

Whether you stay with 3FC or not, I wish you all the best in your weight loss goals.

Whatever plan (or non-plan) you choose, you can do it!

I also sent you a PM and I hope that you stick around!

~Liz

I just want to add a plan that you may not be aware of that has helped me.
It is called ChangeOne.
Looks like it would fit in very well with what you have already learned about yourself.
I have lost around 77 lbs, and I love it. It isn't really counting calories, and it isnt a complete immediate change. You take one step at a time. I highly recommend it!
Let me know if you want to talk.

Hi Creek Girl -
I am sorry that I never got back to post here again until now.
I knew exactly where you were coming from because I was there myself recently - but I can see how posts can be misunderstood.
I hope you do come back to read this.
And decide to stay with 3FC.

k