Hi everyone!

You know I really like this feature of the site. Though I already keep a blog, the mere thought that there are so many people here who are in the same boat as I am in the battle against the bulge make me want to chronicle my travails here.

I look forward to everyone's support and encouragement, and I will do my best to give back what I receive as well.

For starters, here are things that I've already been doing. This is an excerpt from my blog.

"Here are a few rules that I have decided I will start implementing moving forward. I think they are great for helping control my eating:

1) Place what you eat on a plate and never eat out of the jar or bag. By doing this, you can see exactly how much you are eating throughout the day.

2) Eat the low-calorie items off of your plate first, and then move on to the more calorie dense items. Start with salads, vegetables, then go to soups, and then the main part of the meal. The idea here is that you’ll likely be full or getting full by the time you reach the high calorie stuff, so you’ll eat less of it.

3) Stop drinking milk. If you cant do that, stop drinking whole milk and switch to 1 percent. Whole milk is pretty calorie dense, so this is important.

4) Cut out fruit juices and sodas. It goes without saying that sodas should go, but why juices? Well, because they are calorie dense. Instead of drinking fruit juice, try eating the fruit itself. I.e., eat an orange instead of drinking a glass of orange juice, and you’ll consume a heck of a lot less calories.

5) Take your lunch to work. I really need to start doing this, since I always seem to hit Burger King if I don’t.

6) If you are going to keep drinking fruit juice, dilute it with water. The key here is to not taste the full fruit juice first, or you’ll definitely taste that it is watered down. Start off my only watering it down by 10% and each week add another 10%. Before you know it, in 5 weeks you’re now drinking half water, half juice, and in my case that works out to about 10 lbs of calories per year!"

I hope these 6 tips can help you.

BTW,

My goal is to lost 10lbs in the next 2 months. I think that's realistic and doable. I don't really want to pressure myself too much and burn myself out. That would set me back far linger than just taking it slow and steady.

Cheers,

Carrina