It sounds like you are being SO hard on yourself right now!!

Look, you decided you want to change. You've already made a plan and you have some great goals in mind. That is such an achievement! The fact is, now the real work happens and you just go day by day and take happiness from the small victories. Try not to worry so much about every little detail and give yourself room to begin slowly. You can do it! You want to do it! So give yourself some credit for being able to stick it out and don't be so quick to get down on yourself.
Honestly, I think that beating ourselves up is one of the reasons that many of us are here. We do things that we feel bad about, or things were done to us, and we eat!! So being really hard on yourself and being so rigid that it would be almost impossible to live up to your ideas is just more of the same negative thinking, right?
We need to turn our perspective around...I work on this hard all the time because I can be so negative, too...we are great for being here and deciding that we need work!!

So let's all just take a breath, and make our next decision. Is it time to excercise? Should I have carrots and hate it enough to feel like I want to give up our should I have one hershey's kiss and move on with my day? It's going to be okay, you are going to do great, give yourself some love!

Your body is used to having way more calories than that, so it's not surprising that you are feeling this way. Look at the differences in the foods you're eating as well as the calories. Did you eat salad with five cucumber slices before? Probably not, they got in the way of the croutons right? (That's how I felt about them) But you are paying attention to what's going and you're conscious of the how you feel, pretty huge victories for Day One! I'm trying to make changes I know I can live with, not just survive for a while, you'll get there, and you'll find oodles of support and advice here. Here's to Day Two!

Day 1 is down and I'm about to head off to bed And I didn't drink one soda today! (That was my biggest fear!)

Thank you ladies for your support!

Every day is a learning experience! It's great that you are writing down what you eat, it will help you plan for tomorrow! Congratulations on getting through the day without the soda!

It's great that you didn't have that soda. And your meals look healthy enough too so well done. It's good that you have a mini goal to aim for, the sheer amount of numbers at the 'end' of the scale makes this journey look a bit daunting. It's normal to feel a bit discouraged because this is going to be it for the rest of your life!!!! A horrible feeling that isn't it?
I would suggest to you that you start to think about rewards for pounds lost. 2lbs = a small treat like a mocha with a friend or lunch out (watching what you eat of course) maybe 5lbs for a movie outing or a nail job etc. It's hard to suggest because I don't know what you like, however you do need to treat yourself for being good. It reinforces the determination.
Good luck

Hi Ladies

I just wanted to tell Jacque don't be so hard on yourself!

My mom always says, You didn't gain it overnight and you won't lose it overnight...

Just take one day at a time and focussing on just being as healthy as you can.

I always work on one bad habit at a time... and it helps to gradually move into weight loss.

Take it slow Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Jacque!! Fancy meeting you here, lovie!!! *hugs*

I agree with the ladies above, you're being a tad to hard on yourself right now. Your colorie intake is certainly less than what it used to be (enter a typical day pre-diet into fitday.com and see what you come up with! ).

As long as the calories you eat daily is under the estimated amount your body uses, you will lose weight. The AHA suggests that you multiply your current weight by 15 to see how many calories your body burns daily with moderate activity. As long as you are under that, you are doing just fine!

Drink tons of water, pay attention to what you eat and what the ingredients are on the foods you buy, and you will be sexy for your re-marriage in no time!

Thanks girls! (Tara, how you doin girl??!)

I'm feeling pretty good in day 4!! Wow! Day 4! I've never reached day 4 before

Yay for feeling good! That's the first sign that you are on the right track!

Your meal looks a lot healthier than what I eat. You are counting cals and that's good, but, you also need to do exercise. That way, you can eat more cals, as long as you burn them off.
Just 'food' for thought

Way to go on getting started. I know how hard it is to go from "no holds barred" to complete control. But it does get easier. I agree, you need to go a little easier on yourself. There can be a LOT of leeway in a do-it-yourself plan. I eat between 1400-1700 calories a day, and I pretty much always have an ounce or so of dark chocolate and still stay in bounds.

One thing you can do for sure - up your veggies. EG, no need to measure five slices of cucumber. An eight inch cucumber has 39 calories, so you could eat the whole thing if you wanted to (I can't imagine that you would, though!). But you can add celery, radishes, carrots, snow peas, sweet peppers, tons of other salad veggies. I do this with salad, and with soup. I bought some frozen stir-fry mix (lots of different veggies, plus water chestnuts). It has about 30 calories per cup. When I make a soup (usually a nearly fat-free broth-type soup), if I'm extra hungry I add a couple of cups of my veggie mix and I'm just stuffed at the end. Plus, soups & salads like this take forever to eat, so it gives you time to get full while you're still eating, if you know what I mean.

You can do it! You just need to find what works for YOU.
Sue

Thanks again Ladies I can already tell all teh support on this site is going to help me

Hi Suechef,

I think I am going to try your system of counting calories and upping my exercise. I am new to this site so I don't know if I will be able to find you again. I just wanted to let you know that I love your tricks and I believe that there are lots of things we can eat that are low in calories. e.g. celery.I just wonder if even in doing that one can go overboard. Sometimes I can eat 2 bunches. Thanks for listening.

SueChef,
Thank you for your ideas in fact last night I bought some frozen stir fry