I'm making solid progress with food choices and moving more and am wondering what else I can do to help with weight loss. The things I've managed to come up with are:

Increase water intake.
Sleep at least 8 hours every day.
Manage stress (by keeping my apartment clean and keeping up with homework.)

What other things help with both weight loss and improved health?

I will second:

The sleep (both enough sleep, and good quality sleep). I think this has some direct effect on my weight loss and on water retention, plus it affects my ability to exercise and eat well.

And the clean apartment too. I find it soooooooo much easier to go ahead and do my meal planning, shopping, or pre-cooking when the place is neat and clean. When everything is a mess I just want to do some kind of avoidance thing (like surfing for hours) instead of things that will be good for my health. Then I don't have the ingredients or leftovers I need for meals, so I eat something easy (often starchy) or I eat out (high sodium, low fiber).

Those seem to be the basics. Everything else is just added improvement. Maybe start researching new ways to manage stress? Yes a clean apartment and finished homework are essential, but what about learning something to help you cope with unexpected issues. Maybe meditation, or yoga, or a new hobbie. It keeps you busy, away from food, and centered, and gives you something else to fall back on in stressful times.

I definitely think lack of clutter helps me a lot. The more cluttered my house is, the more out of control I feel. The more out of control I feel, the more I'm likely to impulse eat and to skip exercising.

So for me keeping things clean and clutter free is a huge plus.

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Positive affirmations for yourself. We tend to view ourselves in a negative manner a lot of times, and really learning to love yourself is such a huge step in weight loss.

Make a conscious effort to stop negative thoughts about any part of you, whether it is a food choice, how you look, or what exercise you did (or didn't) do.

I'm with Fiberlover Positive affirmations and learning to truly love yourself. When I first started doing positive affirmations I felt silly, but now it's a part of my life, and not just for weight loss. Confidence and charisma all come from a strong sense of self. And when you respect yourself- Nothing can stop you.
Also, when I'm nice to me things seem easier. Even though I'm so much better off than I was this time last year I still find myself criticizing (in my head) the way I look or a poor food choice I made. Although some awareness and healthy self criticism is necessary to stay on track, the ability to forgive myself has been crucial on this journey.

I'm all for the sleep thing. I like to get 8-10 hours a night. I really notice it if I don't. Also important in the excercise arena is to not only do cardio workouts but to do strength training so you build muscle. Muscle burns tons of calories. Now, I'm not saying get bulky like a body builder, just do some simple weight bearing excercises to get those muscles tones and working for you.

I'm not a big "positive affirmation" person (although I do recognize that it works for others and I'm certainly not bashing it), but I will say that there are two things that work for me:

1 - eliminating negative language from my vocab. I can't. I screwed up. I failed. I cheated. It's too hard. All those things. When I removed all that kind of thinking and speaking from my vocabulary, it made a huge difference. I actually started doing it after I met a woman in my office building who was always complaining - and it was starting to wear on me to the point that I was going out of my way to avoid her. I realized that I had become the same way and made a conscious effort to not be negative for 48 hours, and at the end of that 48 hours I realized that I felt so much better about myself and my progress.

2 - I stopped thinking about what I was doing as "a diet" and started thinking about it as a regular part of my life. Now eating right and exercising is just one more thing I do as a responsible adult - like going to work in the morning and paying my bills and getting a doctor's checkup once a year.

Both of those changes of mindset really changed my life.

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plan plan plan and plan. Plans for meals/snacks out. Plan your WHOLE day in advance. just plan. and don't deviate from the plan for the first little while.

Remember that we don't have to change a single thing about ourselves to be worthy of love today. You are who and what you are right now for a variety of reasons, and your decisions to change some things in your life is just part of a progression toward taking better care of yourself.

If I treated my child and my pet the way I treated myself, I could have been arrested for child abuse and animal cruelty.

I deserve so much better, and today I am giving it to myself.

Ah well here is where we differ a bit cfmama, though generally I think we see eye to eye on many things.

My planning, so far, consists of always having a couple apples and granola bars with me in case of an emergency. The end.

For me half the fun is looking at my calories left for the day and coming up with something nutritious that sounds good to me and figuring out if I want more calories now or a midnight snack.

I do record everything in Daily Plate.
I do have access to computers wherever I am.

So those two things help.

2 things I've been thinking about lately...

1. Have more fun. This can be simple, like having a bath, calling a friend, dancing around the house.. FUN! I wrote down a list of things I find fun (sad that I needed to do this to figure WHAT was fun for me!), and I pick something from that list and do it!

2. Hobbies, doing what you love outside of work and all that required stuff. I realize this is something I am missing in my life, and I think that having this back in my life will really give me a bigger purpose, besides working and dieting.

Not too sure if this helps... just some things I have been thinking about lately to complete this process of having a life change.

-Aimee

Oh it all helps - I love hearing everyone's ideas and the thoughts it spawns in my head.

Well we couldn't agree on everything lol!

I think the reason that planning works for me is I run a daycare so I am INSANELY busy from 7 in the morning until 4:30 which is right when I have to cook dinner. So if I can just check my list, grab what I need to eat and do it, it becomes very easy. I have a tendency to really overeat on carbs and that is ALWAYS what I would reach for first. So by doing my menu, checking my macro's and getting a balance the night before, it helps me during the day. Your mileage totally may vary though back my friend

Yeah lifestyle is a big factor - I'm single, in school, and have a pretty flexible schedule. Busy. But flexible. When I get a job in a school I'll probably do more planning by packing a real lunch every day.