I'm now approaching month 4 of careful food journaling and daily calorie goals and hovering around 30 lbs lost with another 100+ to go to meet my goal. I have to wonder though for those of you who are further along the road than I am, what did you wish you knew when you started?

My coworkers have advised me things like keeping healthy snacks on hand at work and shopping at the thrift store when you shrink our of your current clothes. I've figured out for my self that even if no foods are forbidden on my diet I still probably shouldn't eat some of them. Also to do at least a little excercise every other day minimum becuase I was sick then out of town for a week and now I feel like I have to completely start over from the begining with my excercise routine. I have and use a food scale obsessively and I'm debating getting a body bug.

But back to the main point. Is there anything you wish you knew at the begining? Any advice you'ld like to share?

I wish I'd known how good I felt moving around more, I'd have gotten off my lazy butt and done so a lot sooner!

I wish I knew that nuts were getting on my way of losing.

I wish I knew how hard it is to ignore that slice of pizza.

Seriously though everyone has posted such great information already - I'm still reading!
So far it has been learning how IMPORTANT a really good multi-vitamin is.

I wish I knew I could LIVE without diet coke and snacks

I wish I knew that I didn't have to lose 120 lbs. all at ONCE, I could do it in small chunks

I wish I knew I didn't have to RADICALLY change EVERYTHING at once, which led to failure time and time again. I wish I'd known that small, sustainable steps, even if the scales moves slowly, is priceless

Having lost over 100 pounds before, I wish I knew how easy it was going to be for me to gain it back and how much I was going to regret not putting on the breaks at any point in my regain. It takes constant vigilance - not perfection, but vigilance.

I DID view it as a lifestyle change not a diet. I swore everything I was doing I was going to do for the rest of my life. I knew in my heart I had figured out the key to success. But having not addressed my emotional eating problem, I just couldn't maintain the lifestyle when faced with stressful life circumstances that led me back to food as my primary coping mechanism. If at some point I could have just stopped myself and said, "you can turn this around and save yourself a decade of heartache." It just didn't matter to me as much in the moment as much as the need to eat to relieve stress.

Losing weight is easy. Maintaining it is the hard part.

I don't wish that I knew anything more than what I started with...sounds weird and all *but* I wouldn't trade the way & timing that I learned different techniques. It's been a journey and a life altering one at that

See if you asked me what I wish I knew waaaaay back when, before I started, that would be another story. I'd have a whole slew of things to list off.

But the question was, what do I wish I knew WHEN I STARTED. This time, having wanted "it" so badly, everything kind of fell into place. I pretty much knew what needed to be done and was willing to do so. That willingness made all the difference "this time" over previous short-lived attemtpts.

Sure, I've learned TONS along the way, and thankfully - I still am. All learning/tweaking that came along during the course of the journey has been most enjoyable and pleasurable.

So, I'm with RomanceDiva, I can't imagine anything that I wish I would have known from the onset. This has been an incredible learning experience (one that goes beyond the knowledge of food and nutrition) and a life transformation. I've enjoyed every single minute of discovery.

I agree with Robin and RomanceDiva! Variations on this question have been posted before and I'm always stumped trying to come up with something that I know now that would have been particularly useful when I weighed 300 lbs and was just starting my journey. But my life and my needs were different then and it was a matter of adjusting along the way.

On the other hand those little tips that you mention are all excellent.

sigh...don't we all just wish we'd figured it out a bit SOONER???

I wish I'd known that when I got to goal, I'd want lots of photos/measurements to compare my new self with! I seriously didn't take measurements until halfway through, and I wish I knew just how big a difference I'd made in inches.

Oh yeah. But come to think of it, I probably always knew it, I just wasn't always willing to put forth the effort.

Okay. That's a good one. I also didn't take measurements till halfway through. I would have loved to known how many yards I lost.

I wish I'd known the benefits of high intensity exercise. I wish I'd had a heart rate monitor earlier. I wish I'd known that I could give up carbs in the evening. I wish I'd known how to avoid crushing myself with guilt and regret. I wish I'd known how to make it easy for myself.

But mostly, I wish I'd known that it was really possible.

I disagree with the thrift store clothes. For me the new, fun, cute clothes are sooooo motivating. I went shopping last weekend and there were a TON of clothes stores I could shop at now. It was very exciting and motivating.... it made me want to keep going so that I don't have to buy the largest sizes at those stores anymore.

Well I certainly KNEW exercise was important, but I wish I'd STARTED DOING IT earlier!!