So, I decided to start a thread so I can answer all of your questions in one shot! I started on January 9th, 2005. In the beginning, I did a lot of reading on fitness, healthy lifestyles, and losing weight. I joined fitday.com and logged what I ate and all the exercise that I did every day. In time, it became easier for me to control what I ate, so I stopped it....didn't want to become crazy about calorie counting!! I went out and bought myself some exercise DVD's. I exercised 5-6 times a week, mostly giving myself time off on Saturdays and Sundays. It was really hard at first...my face would get beet-red and I would get killer headaches. But, I stuck with it.
For breakfast, I would have a bowl of cereal and then a couple of hours later I would have a low-fat or fat-free yogurt. For lunch, I would eat a sandwich or a bowl of soup with a peice of wheat bread, or a Lean Cuisine. My fiance usually always cooks dinner, so I made him start to cook more healthy things. If he was going to make something that I considered fattening or unhealthy, I would just eat a lean cuisine. If he wants to fry something, like fish, he would just broil mine. I make sure I eat a big salad before dinner. For a snack, if I want a snack, I'll eat fruit or Quaker rice snacks. The caramel corn ones are the best! I don't totally deprive myself though. We still order pizza once or twice a week and I always get mushrooms on mine. The pizza never affected my weight. I've treated myself to ice-cream twice since January. And I've had chinese food twice since January.
The big thing though was just that I got moving instead of laying on the couch all the time. I stopped snacking constantly. I don't eat fried things anymore, no fast-food, absolutely no junk-food. No candy, candy-bars, I rarely eat cheese anymore (I used to be a cheese-aholic), I only drink diet soda/diet drinks. I do eat nuts (peanuts) though...they may have a lot of fat in them, but it's good fat that your body needs.
I also looked at it as a lifestyle change and not a diet. I did it this way, instead of following a specific diet, because I know that in order for me to lose the weight and keep it off, I had to teach myself how to eat. And it worked.
It is possible to lose the weight without weight-loss surgery or a fad diet. It is possible to lose the weight without cutting entire food groups or nutrients out of your diet. It can be done....you just have to really WANT to do it for YOURSELF.
Now, I'm in no way saying that this is going to work for everyone. We all have different body types, therefore we all lose weight at different paces. I just wasn't meant to be fat and my body let me know it!
