I tend to forget. I've been trying for the past month to go without refined or artificial sugars and dairy products, but more than anything else... I just get busy and forget.

When you're working around 20 hours a week at a job, plus school full-time, sometimes dieting isn't exactly top in my brain.


I know a lot of you guys are busy as well... what do y'all do to keep it all fresh in your mind? Starting tomorrow I'm planning out my entire day's meal, and am joining a (ok... THE) local gym that I can go to after school and before work (most days I start at 4 PM for work). But... I was wondering if you guys have any tips?

By forgetting, I mean... I'm doing so good, then somebody will have some sugary treat they're passing around (completely out of the blue and unexpected), I don't think, I grab one, and have already chewed and swallowed and then I realize what I've just done.

So... hopefully this could be a good resource thread (even just a way for people to find ways to stay motivated with whatever) for more people than just me.

Just throw out some ideas that you guys have found helpful!

I set things up in a no-fail zone. I shop once a week and come home and chop veggies and put them into snack size ziploc bags. After dinner is cooked, I pack my lunch for the next day before we eat...this cuts down on leftovers and seconds, but it makes it easy to grab and dash in the morning. I find if I have my lunch and snacks at work I'm less tempted to enjoy treats or make trips to the vending machine. I keep only healthy items in the kitchen...so even if I do have a late night snack attack, I'm not tempted by chips (my weakness), and I will have fresh fruit or yogurt instead. I keep healthy cereal and skim milk on hand as well as organic cereal bars so that if I wake up late, I can grab a quick breakfast.

I spend a lot of spare time reviewing what I've eaten, what I'm going to eat, doing maths to work out my current weekly loss rate, how many weeks it'll take to goal, how much I could have achieved in X number of weeks, and so on.

At the beginning of the month I make and bag and freeze individual meals so that, day to day, I don't necessarily have to plan to the nth degree from scratch but I know how many calories are in my normal breakfasts, and I know how many in the freezer meals. Not to the last calorie, although when I log it, I do make sure I log it to the last calorie but I know for my 3 meals roughly how many calories (and carbs) that will be, I just have to budget for any healthy snacks.

So how I do it is by being fairly obsessive about playing with my statistics, meticulous about logging it, and organized in the pre-planning of meals.

You are absolutely right, though, that it's so easy to forget, and forgetting is the way to failure, certainly in my case. When I lost a lot of weight a few years ago, my healthy way of eating had become so established that I didn't have to think about it, it felt like second nature, it felt like I was eating normally, without restraint. However, I forgot that I had to still concentrate on this normality, and gradually normality became "Without Any Restraint", and I regained 89lbs.

So congratulations on identifying the problem now!