I hope you don't mind me starting this thread! What I'm wondering is, are there little things that really make big differences in your weight loss, for me, if I don't eat past 7pm I see changes in the scale. Does drinking lots of water make a difference for you, eating certain things for breakfast, etc. I think any tips we can share with eachother may help, because I know I always need any help I can get!!

-Aimee

Planing my day that works for me. I do it in the morrin and I try to stick to.
Also this site. I would not be where I am today if it had not been the people here.....

Aimee - for me it's water. If I fall behind on my water intake everything else seems to follow suit. The first thing to go is the exercise and if I don't exercise the food is right out the window as well. It took me a while to figure out that it's a chain reaction but I'm happy I know where the weak link is.

~Dee

I think for me it's exercise. I can mess up a meal or two and be okay as long as I've been working my butt. But when I allow myself to be lazy the scale doesn't budge.

-Lala

A big issue for me is breakfast. I need to have a good, solid, healthy breakfast every day or things go wrong!

A big thing for me is keeping a food journal. I'm more likely to eat healthier if I write down what I eat. Thank you to all who have mentioned fitday.com! I've been using this to record my food since yesterday, and I really like it.

FITDAY!! I swear by it. I have so much fun recording my inputs that I end up staying on track.

~jess~

I agree. Fitday keeps me on track more than anything else. I use it early in the day to sort of plan out my meals, then adjust it later if i don't exactly stick to what I'd planned out. Also exercise. I am having trouble with that one lately. Having guests from out of town really gets you out of your normal routine, I find.

I've heard some people say that it helps them if they let their largest meal of the day be breakfast. I don't know how well it works, as I've never tried it, but it sounds like a neat idea, anyway.

really just watching my portions. and for a while there, logging in my foods. i don't deter much from eating the same things all the time, so i pretty much know where my calories are. But yes, fitday is a great website. and it's free. it ROCKS!!!

I second watching portion sizes. Its crazy what I used to think was a "portion." I also know that if I keep exercising, I'm less likely to indulge in overeating. I don't want to work that hard exercising and then ruin it by shoveling in bad food choices.

WATER, WATER, WATER, I notice that the more water I drink the less I eat at each meal. It makes me feel full. I also exercise as much as I can. When I exercise I dont want to eat bad foods because it just means all the exercise I just did wasnt worth it.

The most important for me is to get enough sleep.

If I sleep well, I will exercise; if I exercise I will eat well and drink lots of water. If I exercise and eat well, I tend to sleep well......

For me its getting enough fiber and protein. For me it really keeps me in check, I dont have cravings if I eat plenty of protein and fiber. I tried Fitday but it drives me crazy because I cook, and its so hard for me to find stuff on there to keep it accurate. I would have to put every ingredient in there and then thing about how many servings of each I may have had. Drives me absolutely batty. The only time I use fitday now is if I *think* I am having a bad day, I will log it in to Fitday and generally its not as bad as I think. If I get desperate enough I will start using it again, but as for now, I just dont have the patience.

Also, I have to exercise, some how if I dont then when I weigh if there is no change I wont be so hard on myself. However, if I dont exercise and I see no change I will blame myself.

Eating the same high-protein breakfast every morning, and planning out when/how much I'm going to eat (but not what I eat, just the time and number of calories). Also, setting mini-goals and giving myself mini-challenges that I can accomplish that day (number of steps, grams of protein, how far I can walk/jog); I like to test my limits.

Tracking what I eat keeps me on track - I may want a Cadbury cream egg right now... but do I really want to have to record it in my Fitday, and look at it later? Nope! Drinking a lot of water helps, too, as well as planning out my days, especially days where I work and go to school, so I'm out of the house for 12+ hours, and packing lunch and dinner. And making sure my fridge is full of fresh cut vegetables and lots of fruit for when I need a snack.