Hi everyone, I'm a long time lurker, came in to say hi!
I would love to know how you started your first week in a new "lifestyle" diet change?

What are the first things you did?

I started with going thru the fridge and cabinets and throwing out all the junk food. Then went to the grocery store and got fresh veggies, fruit and lean meats. That was over 4 years ago and the junk food has never returned.

Hello and welcome.

The first thing I did, when I was first starting at my heaviest, was promise myself to "stop being a pig." I stopped eating seconds at meals. I started cooking more vegetables. I stopped eating bread AND a cocktail AND a first course AND an entree AND a glass of wine AND a dessert at restaurants. I stopped taking advantage of every eating opportunity just because it was there - passed up the pastries that appear every wednesday at work, and so on.

(I also started going to the gym. In those days I was aiming for three times a week and managing more like two times a week. I find exercising helps keep me on track because I don't want to "waste" a good workout by overeating.)

These small, informal changes were effective for me because of how overweight I was - I was 275 pounds at that time. Eventually I had to become more rigorous about calorie counting as I got trimmer, but that simple approach was good enough for my first 50 pounds.

You haven't said where you are starting your process from, and it does make a difference. Early on, if your body is big enough, it is very forgiving, and you can lose weight with very minimal changes. If you are not in a giant hurry, and willing to give the process the time and attention it deserves, you do not need to make drastic changes to your life all in one day. For someone
as fat as I was when I started, I recommend: start simply, cutting out the behaviors that made you fat, and let the details fall into place as you gather steam.

Good luck and good strength! You can do it.

I've always associated getting fat and bad food as an addiction and half the time we forget how much of it we consume and that we are often secret eaters in denial of our food in take. With that in mind count your calories for a week and see where your problem areas are. Swap high calorie sauces with greek yoghurt and oil with fat free spray and then take it from there. Oh and I find swapping sweets and chocolate for dark chocolate is also a good thing.

And also look at what your problem with food is - for example if you are a comfort eater and pick between meals look at doing some hypnosis as that is how my hubby started to lose weight.

It takes a lifetime to accumulate good habits, so don't try to make a lot of changes all at once. Choose one thing that you think you can do and after it becomes a habit choose another. It could be simple like stop putting sugar in your coffee everyday. That will take 2 months to make it be a solid habit. At that point you can add something else, like stop eating from the bread basket at restaurants, that too becomes a habit. Other habits to incorporate slowly and one by one are:

- bulk up on veggies at meals, cut back on the starches.
- Choose the grilled version instead of the fried version
- Don't put croutons in your salad
- vow to eat some raw veggies and fruit every day
- start eating appropriate portions
- give up sodas, even the diet ones
- add some healthy green teas
- pass on the desserts if they are mediocre, hold out for the really good ones which come around less often.

At the same time, add more activity to your day. This does NOT only mean exercise. People mistake a healthy lifestyle for working out in the gym every day. Not so! Healthy people do a heck of a lot more activities than sedantary people. These include:

- take the stairs instead of the elevators
- walk during your lunch break
- park your car far away from the entrance
- get off a subway stop early and walk the rest of the way
- get up in the morning and stretch
- do lunges during the commercial breaks
- take a walk after dinner
- find hobbies and activities that involve movement. Join a hiking club, take a dance class, just make sure your weekends involve an activity of some sort and get the whole family involved.

I started by eliminating junk food from my own diet. This was hard when my whole family is junk food junkies and that stuff comes in the house without a whole lot of control. I knew I couldn't change my husband (been there, tried that) so I had a talk with my family.

I stopped buying it. If they wanted a an apple, I was their gal. A cookie, go talk to dad.

I suggested to my husband that if he felt compelled to bring junk in to the house, to make sure it was stuff that I was not interested in (Chips Ahoy vs Oreos, BBQ flavor instead of Sour Cream and Onion potato chips). They had lots of choices.

Then I laid down the ultimatum. All items were to be stored above or below my eye level. If it was placed in my sight, or left out on a table or counter, it would go in the trash.

Then I had to follow through, which is hard when you don't want to waste. A lot of stuff went in the trash, down the garbage disposal or whatever it took. didn't just toss it, I'd empty it in to the trash or down the sink and then throw away the container. I did not want to find myself digging in the trash for that bag of chips I just thew away.

I bought a Bodybugg (and now I use Fitbit) and started seriously counting calories. Everything that went in my mouth was counted. I was seriously shocked at how many calories I could put away! I found myself eating less and using my device to burn more calories.

My biggest and most useful tool, however, is that I weigh myself every single day! This is not for everyone, but for me, it keeps me accountable. I find that when I slack off on weighing, I gain. If I'm consistent, even with those ups and downs, I tend to stay focused and on track.

I started with my husband, which has been a huge help because we encourage each other. We both knew that there was no way we could give up pizza, ice cream, candy ect., so we didn't. We decided to strictly count our calories and we use an app to track what we eat. Even if you have the healthiest diet on earth you will gain weight if you eat too much of anything. That was primarily my problem.

After really examining my eating habits I was just eating too much. Now that I track what I eat closely I am eating more normally. I do my best to log everything and I haven't been disappointed so far.

Good luck to you.

-PT-

For the first 14-16 months all I did was cut down on the amount of sweets I bought while shopping and stop eating after 7pm. I lost my first 80-ish pounds that way. (Of course I had a lot to lose to begin with.) Then I started eating better and cut down on sweets even more. Soon after I'd lost enough that I suddenly wanted to buckle down more and work harder. I started walking daily and then in October bought a scale and started counting calories too. Since I started weighing myself daily and counting calories my losses have become more focused and bigger, because they help keep me on track.

Two things to remind yourself... Start with small easily sustainable changes in your habits. If you start with a ton of immediate big changes it's easy to become overwhelmed and just give up. Second, what works for someone else may not work for you. Our bodies and eating habits and the reasons behind the overeating are different for everyone. It might take some work, but sift through the advice you find on the forum and find what will work for you and will be easy to do for the rest of your life.

I would have given alot of the advice you've already received. So I'll add: start a journal because I have found writing my feelings, my fears, my hopes, and my general thoughts on just about everything has be an invaluable tool. Many times I have been able to read back over what I wrote just a day or two previously and see the flaw in my thinking.

And keeping a journal is sooooo cathartic.

Plus it will keep your hands and mind busy during some inevitable rough patches.

Log your daily food/caloric intake on myfitnesspal.com to get a real look at what you're eating. You will be in for a surprise and can adjust accordingly. Once you get calories under control incorporate exercise. That's how I started, with calorie counting and moderate exercise. Now I am a runner.

Good luck.

In those 4 years, did eating healthy cost you more or less money?

I started by cutting out sugar, potatoes, rice, and bread. I was dx'd as T2 diabetic and wanted to get my blood sugar under control. (My last A1c was 5.3- whoo hoo!! - officially out of the diabetic range) After a couple of months I took out gluten. I've just learned to eat differently.

It costs me more to eat healthy. But it's worth it. It's ridiculous how much better you'll feel eating fresh foods!

I really do well with numbers... I first started counting calories with the Livestrong daily plate thing, and then switched to LoseIt... but I would get a few days and then lose interest or have that day where I had no calories left and be starving and just get so discouraged.

I figured out the missing link... I run my behind off at work on the three days a week that I'm on shift. Enter the Fitbit, which I use the calorie tracking setting set low at the start of a day where I earn more based on my activity. Best thing ever.

Sometimes I come home from work after having had breakfast, lunch, a small snack, and I still have over 1000 calories available for dinner. Even eating up to that full limit, I am still losing weight.

I've started using the treadmill I got for my birthday, and I keep registering for 5K's to provide motivation (plus I love races!)

I don't buy the gluten free bakery goodies (they are sooo good) in the cafeteria anymore, and have started bringing my lunch.

I still go down to the cafeteria, but I grab either the steamed veggies for the entree du jour, or a small bowl of soup, or salad bar to round out what I bring for lunch. (The mental break of getting off my floor for 5 minutes is huge for me at lunch.)

On my non-work days, I try to hit the treadmill to make sure I get 10K steps and I eat within the calories allotted if I don't hit that goal. Logging my food keeps me honest and aware, and I have to consciously choose what I want to be eating.

I also cook recipes from SkinnyTaste and actually got her cookbook for Christmas. YUM. Good food, with calories already calculated out for you (you have to tweak if you sub ingredients of course) makes a whole world of difference.

Good luck!!

I started by cutting out soda, that was nearly a year ago. Then I started reducing portions by a little bit without changing what I was eating. Then I started following Weight Watchers, and eventually added in exercise. Each change didn't have any sort of set time limit, and I just stuck with it until I felt comfortable adding more. I'm the type of person who will feel overwhelmed trying to change too much of my life at once, and that is likely to make me fail. The slow changes have really helped make this go around stick much better than past attempts.