As much as I love this board at times it is information overload.

What is your ONE SMALL TIP that you were easily able to do.

Example. I use to eat sausage egg biscuit for breakfast all the time.

Now I switched to special K and it's very easy to do.

I just joined a gym so I'm taking Aqua aerobics and Zumba ....Love it

I'm not ready to calorie count yet. I have to work up to that.

So what small change was easy for you to do?

Cutting everything that my genetic ancestors would not recognize as food.

Eat lots of vegetables.

WATER!!!!!!! Make sure you drink enough water!!!

I gotta agree with the water comment. Like enough so that you're peeing at least once an hour.

Cut out sugar. Ok, not really easy but it works!

No fast food or no soda...

WATER, Yes! and, to find physical activity that you ENJOY. Its all well to say you'll run everyday but if you don't love it will you really do it consistently?

I'm with the water girls. DRINK WATER!

Cutting out fast food was the only major thing I did.

to be compassionate and forgiving with yourself.

we all fall prey at times to the negative self talk, to the "all or nothing" mentality, get frustrated when the pounds dont fly off as fast as we want, eat something crazy, dont workout for a week, etc.

each choice wont be perfect, but if i can forgive myself and not beat myself up so much, i can get back to my plan and my mission: healthy living for the rest of my life!

Exercise min 30 minutes a day

Fat free half and half for my coffee. I don't get hydrogenated oil or saturated fat, which is a good thing. I also use it when I make cream sauces for pasta dishes and it taste great.

Quite honestly, one small thing was not what *I* needed to change. My eating was out of control, I was overfeeding myself. I was abusing my body in a big, gigantic way. I was super morbidly obese, meaning I stood a good chance of dying from my weight. My life was on the line and I was terrified. I was done being fat. Had had enough of it. I was done taking chances. Things had to change - lots of them. Drinking water alone was not going to get the weight off and save my life. It was the combination of many things that got the weight off for me.

You asked what easy thing could I change - well, initially none of it was easy. I had decades of bad habits and changing habits is not so easy.

But I wasn't really looking for easy. It didn't matter anymore to me how *hard* changing my habits would be, it HAD to be easier than living in a super morbidly obese body.

Anyway, when I got into it, it was actually a lot easier than I thought! Who knew?

My biggest single tip would be - plan ahead. Map out your food schedule in advance, knowing where each and every lick, bite, taste, crumb or sip is coming from and of course have those foods on hand.

Don't ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER give up!