I need some help! =)

I always get carried away in the winter and eat too much fast food. I don't eat a *lot* I just eat a lot of the wrong foods. I'd like to lose weight, so that I'm able to fit into my old jeans and have a nice looking body. Right now i've got the stretch marks on my thighs and cellulite on my tush...and i sure hate the way my tummy overlaps my jeans that i actually fit into still.

Tips? Support?

My info:

5'3 - 128 lbs

goal- 115 lbs

My current diet:

breakfast --i usually skip it, but if I do have breakfast, I will have a bowl of cereal (cocoa puffs, marshmallow alphabets) with regular milk, and a medium coffee with 2 sugars and half & half. (on the weekends I usually have a bagel for breakfast w/cream cheese)

Lunch --this varies, I almost always have fast food though! But not a whole lot..i'll run to BK and get a whopper jr (NOT the meal) or to mcdonalds for a cheeseburger., or tbell for a bean burrito with extra cheese. When i'm not having fast food, I typically have a sandwich like boars head turkey w/ranch dressing on wheat toast, and a bag of chips

dinner --Meatloaf and noodles, chicken with potatoes and veggies, the typical all american meals. And at least 3 times a week I have pasta w/sauce and load it with Romano cheese (italian here!)

snacking---that's a downfall for me. My snacks consist of coffee throughout the day, starbucks or dunkin donuts run about 2-3 times a week for lattes and a donut, chocolate, ice cream, potato chips...the bulk of my snacking is done late night, 9pm and after. I will sometimes even cook a second dinner at 10pm, like a ramen noodles meal.

Would love some help without having to see a nutritionist, or joining weight watchers. I'm a starving artist here

let's look at what you posted:

"breakfast --i usually skip it, but if I do have breakfast, I will have a bowl of cereal (cocoa puffs, marshmallow alphabets) with regular milk, and a medium coffee with 2 sugars and half & half. (on the weekends I usually have a bagel for breakfast w/cream cheese)"

ALWAYS have breakfast, but not what you've posted here. sugary cereal, cream cheese, regular sugar....cut it all out. try this: english muffin with low sugar jam and a banana. or some low fat cheese or chicken bacon on the muffin. have your coffee but use 1 sugar twin instead of 2 sugars.

"Lunch --this varies, I almost always have fast food though! But not a whole lot..i'll run to BK and get a whopper jr (NOT the meal) or to mcdonalds for a cheeseburger., or tbell for a bean burrito with extra cheese. When i'm not having fast food, I typically have a sandwich like boars head turkey w/ranch dressing on wheat toast, and a bag of chips"

bag of chips, fast food....not good. pack a sandwich and a piece of fruit or even a light microwavable lunch.

"dinner --Meatloaf and noodles, chicken with potatoes and veggies, the typical all american meals. And at least 3 times a week I have pasta w/sauce and load it with Romano cheese (italian here!)"

lots of cheese, starches, etc. you're loading up calories from lunch and supper. try a small portion of pasta and have a salad to go with it....grill the chicken, small potato and small portion of veggies.

"snacking---that's a downfall for me. My snacks consist of coffee throughout the day, starbucks or dunkin donuts run about 2-3 times a week for lattes and a donut, chocolate, ice cream, potato chips...the bulk of my snacking is done late night, 9pm and after. I will sometimes even cook a second dinner at 10pm, like a ramen noodles meal."

it's easy to see here where all the excess calories are coming from. have a piece of fruit, granola bar, some popcorn as a snack. cut out the lattes or limit them (make them low or non fat).

are you a starving artist or just spending a lot of money on take out?
there's a lot of room in what you've posted in terms of healthier eating....hope I gave you some ideas....good luck!

Welcome Lost!

Your eating habits look identical to mine of 4 months ago.

Because I couldn't possibly say I would give up fast food to lose weight, I made a chart of the nutritional information of my favorite fast food places so that I could see what i was eating. I would recommend signing up with sparkpeople.com or fitday.com and keeping a food journal. I think you'll find that you are eating a ton more calories than you want to, and will naturally find ways of cutting calories that work for you.

If you use fitday.com, I would also recommend becoming familiar with dietfacts.com. Dietfacts has nutritional info that will port directly in to fitday.