Hey! Thanks for visiting my dairy!

As for weight watchers I totally recommend it. It makes "dieting" easy. They offer two different plans that you can follow the core plan (LovelyLadyHumps is on this one) or the flex plan which is what I follow. I am not that familiar with the core plan, so you might ask lovely about it... as for the flex plan you are alotted X amount of points per day and all foods have a point value. The amount of points you get is based on your weight. I myself am around 150 and get 22 points a day. With the program you get tons of material on choosing the right foods as well as a "points finder" that allows you to find the amount of points from everything you eat. Along with your daily points you are allowed 35 "flex points" throughout the week so that you can have that piece of cake or somthing you are craving without feeling terrible. Just the other day I had an 11 point snack attack... which I just threw into the flex colum!

That's pretty much a run-down of the flex plan. If you are looking to join they offer it both online and locally. If you want more info you can always check out their website. I like it because they promote the food pyramid and you don't really feel like you are on a diet because you can pretty much eat the foods you want, you just have to stay within your alotted points... And someday's you'll go over and somedays you be on target and others you'll undershoot.

I've been doing it on and off for years, but I always come back to it. My mom did it religiously for about 6-8 months and lost over 50lbs so it does work. I myself just started back to it and lost 5lbs last month... It was a great feeling after not loosing but 1-3 lbs per month before then.... But check it out and let me know what you think!

Cheers,
MissDFITT

Yogurt is so worth eating. It is a good source of protein, AND calcium. I usually buy the lowest cal yogurt I can find (fat free stuff). One small container is 35-40 cals. If you want, you can buy the bigger containers and have a portion of it (maybe half a cup) and throw in some berries and some fibre source or granola (I always use Fibre One Honey Oat Clusters) for a great low cal breakfast.

Yogurt also has probiotics, which is just a fancy way of saying good bacteria. It helps your digestive system in a big way. Watch the low fat yogurt, though, because many have no fat but then add HFCS. I get the plain and add honey or peanut butter and jelly.

Greek yogurt has more protein, but I haven't seen it in the big containers, yet. Trader Joe's has a no fat honey greek yogurt that has actual honey in it. very good.

I gotta say I never have, and never will be, concerned with HFCS in my foods. I don't find that they would really make that severe an effect on whether or not I lose weight IMO.

HFCS is a diet killer. It has calories, but your body doesn't register them as being eaten. You can eat HFCS all day and not get full. If you at the same amount of calories with plain sugar you would be full and not go looking for more food. So you eat a FF yogurt with HFCS and when you're done you are looking for something else. Eat the same thing honey and you're satisfied. That's the big thing about it.

interesting. i didn't know that about HFCS, although i try not to eat it anyway. And I guess I'll keep the yogurt in my diet. I'm happy its good because I love it.

Today didn't go so well. I think I had 3000 calories total, but I stopped counting after a while. I tried a new thing today. I realized I like eating a lot at one time, so I thought I'd try eating fewer, but larger meals. It was great. I loved it. And it worked, until about 9:00 tonight, which happens frequently. So I think I just need to leave 400 calories or so that I can eat late at night. So thats what I'm going to try tomorrow. but I did do my strength training and cardio, so thats good.

Oops. I didn't write at all yesterday. I'll just fix that problem by writing a lot now. Get ready, here it comes.

I'm doing much better with feeling okay about myself, how I look, what I've eaten, etc. However, being okay with feeling like this has allowed me to eat more than usual, and feel okay with it, which is keeping me from weight loss. My "plan" as my boyfriend and I call it, is going very well. But we realized there are some problems. In it, all I had to do was exercise every day, and write down what I had done along with what I had eaten for that day. But that didn't account for what to do if I start eating too much, which is what's happening. I don't know what to do. I don't want to go back to a calorie goal, because thats what made me feel bad if I went over it. We came up with some weight and body fat % goals last night. I posted them in the birthday challenge. The problem is that the plan I'm doing now is supposed to identify what needs to change in what I'm doing. But by having goals I'm trying to meet that is saying that what I'm doing currently will get me to them. So I don't know if I change the plan or what? I guess what I like most about it is just that it got my boyfriend on board with helping me, and I love having someone to talk to about it.

My friend gave me her "Making the Cut" book by Jillian Michaels. I think I'd like to try it. It's 30 days. So I guess that could be my new plan because it includes everything I'm already doing: writing down what I eat, and what exercise I do. Anyone know anything about it? Think I should try it?

I have a feeling that this post may not have made a whole lot of sense, but I don't feel like rereading and editing it, so if anyone doesn't understand something just ask, and I'll clarify.

thanks for reading.

I looked into that WW thing and joined a forum for it to try to better understand it. I never ended up getting it, but I stayed on the forum for support and what not with my calorie intake and mild work out plan. But the mods kept telling me "You have to do WW" and crap and I told them no I'm sorry I don't get it. About a month down the road they Banded me from there forum so now I'm here! I love reading stuff on here. Keep up the good work, sorry I got on this rant I just weighed my self today and I'm so happy with it...I have a Diary to if you want to look at it! I'm new so not alot of people talk to me...

Hey Limited,
Thanks for reading my diary. Of course I'll read yours. I've been thinking of joining WW for some time now, but for some reason I haven't done it. Maybe I will eventually, if I can't seem to make anything else work. From tomorrow I have one week until I go see a bunch of old friends. I always crank up the effort when something is coming up, so i'll probably lose some weight this week. But I want to be able to lose when I don't have something to lose for. I want to be able to lose for me.

I just thought that I would confirm that yoghurt is a great source of protein and calcium. I have one or two fat free yoghurts every day.

If a problem is nibbling while you are cooking and thus introducing extra snacks - one solution is to have a piece of sugar free chewing gum to see you through that danger spell. It is only 5 calories and may save you from having something that is over a hundred calories which you didnt really want.

Technically, this is a diary. So I can pour my heart out here, right. I am crying as I sit here writing this. This emotional outburst comes from being close to my period, which has only happened the past couple months, and I don't understand why because I was previously symptom free, but thats not what I'm here to talk about.
I have just thrown away any and all food that I thought would be possible for me to snack on. It's all i've been doing lately and it's got to stop somehow. I just threw away a lot of money, but I don't know what else to do. I can't have it in my house until I learn to control my eating. All I have currently are fruits and vegetables, eggs, sliced turkey, chicken, ground turkey, and some condiments. Thats not much, and I'm sure I'll get bored of it quickly, but maybe that will keep me from eating too much. After an entire weekend of pigging out, not studying, and not exercising, when I went to the gym this evening I couldn't even do half the workout I could last week. How sad is that? Every time I start a new plan I am motivated for a day or two, but then it goes down the drain. Do I have to come up with some new way to motivate myself every 3 days? Sometimes I wake up extremely motivated, but halfway through the day that changes. I really want to lose weight. I really want to look and feel good. I'm going on a trip out west this fall and I want to be in good shape for hiking, and rock climbing. I want to gain control of my life and my eating and exercising. I want to build good habits that I can continue for life. But I can't seem to say no once I start eating. I can't live my whole life eating only vegetables, chicken, turkey, and eggs. I don't know what to do. I thought I knew how to lose weight. I thought I was good at it. I used to be good at it. But not anymore, it seems. Please help if you can.

It seems to me that you do the majority of your eating at night. You are "good" all day, then at night you get the munchies or snack or whatever. Is this right? If that's the case then one thing you should do is eat more during the day. Eat a good big breakfast, good big lunch and a small dinner. Don't wait till evening to get your food in, because that's when you are the weakest in self control. Also, plan on not eating after a certain time. Drink water at night, but nothing with calories. If you are hungry going to bed, think about how much you'll be looking forward to that big breakfast. Go to sleep early rather then stay up snacking.

What do you think?

Trops,
Thanks for the quick reply. You're right, I do mostly eat at night because thats when I'm home. I'd love to go to bed earlier than I usually do. Now I have an excuse! One day last week I tried eating more for breakfast and lunch and fewer snacks, and I really enjoyed it. I think eventually thats what will work for me. I'll try it again. I also like the idea of going to bed thinking about breakfast- its my favorite meal. i'll implement all your ideas tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. A new day, another chance to succeed! Thanks again.

Great, and give yourself a time limit for no eating. Think, after 7 or whatever, no food, just water. Then when you call your boyfriend you'll have some goon news to tell him. (and probably some curses at Trops )

Haha. Don't worry, I won't curse at you. I'm all motivated to try everything you suggested today. So far so good, but I've only been up for an hour and a half.