I think there are plenty of diets out there that either flat out don't work or are dangerous to use. There's a right way and a wrong way to diet for sure.

As far as exercise, it's all good for burning calories, but if you're spending 45 minutes a day pulling and pushing on weights, you want it to be effective for more than the calorie burning aspect. A 45 minute workout on weights burns about two slices of bread but the muscle it builds could make your body naturally consumer more of the next slice of bread, as long as you're actually building muscle. But yeah, getting off the couch to do anything is better than sitting on the couch doing nothing.

For the weight I lost, my Myfitnesspal app said I should shoot for a 1600 net calorie goal. That's pretty low. And there's some gym junkies consuming like 4000 calories a day with a flat stomach. Once you have that muscle developed your body can handle way more calories. Those workout shakes would be as bad for me as a milkshake from Dairy Queen.

I've been following this thread closely and am invested in everyone's success, but Icc. . .you gotta give us a chance. We're all on board, but we're not all swingin' Mjolnir here. Some of us (me) have to ease on down, ease on down the roh-HOHD!

For me, I'm not going in this with the thought of improving the LOOKS of my body.  I am doing it to keep my heart healthy and to strengthen muscles.
If it slims me down and firms me up, yay, but my main goal is my heart health and strengthen muscles so that my lower back isn't quite as at risk to to go out of place and my joints do not ache as much.
And, for once in my life, I am going to be focusing, slightly, on strengthening my upper body because that is usually a weaker area for women.  We aren't usually born with the tendency towards upper body strength and build like men. 

I hate my arms.  I always HAVE.  I intend to improve those, and with strengthening my arms, I am hoping it helps my wrists and elbows from aching when I do my job.

This thread is awesome.  We can all encourage each other.

That was my goal too. I had been diagnosed with diabetes. And that was right after having my gall bladder removed. My health was really bad. I had gained 100lbs very suddenly when I quit drugs and my body was just falling apart, so the new diet and exercise was doctors orders. And when I look at myself in the mirror every day I still don't see a difference. But when people keep saying "Wow you lost weight" it does feel good. That's when I started taking progress pics.

I lost about 30 pounds three years ago eating only fish salad and water for a month. This time around I'm going to do the paleo diet which is similar but it allows other types of protein. It is hard for me because I love bread and sweets. But I have to get down because I've been feeling run down and weak for the last 6 months. I am presently 214 at 5' 9. I'm hoping to get down to 190 for the first step and eventually down to 175 - 180. It's tough because once I've gotten down, I stay to think its okay to eat like before.

Here we go, folks....

DAY 1


If you're in with me, write about your plans and/or progress today!


My starting weight: 265 lbs
My ideal weight for my height: 185 lbs
My goal: 220 lbs by August (15 lbs per month for three months)


My plan for today:

Breakfast: Two scrambled eggs.

Lunch: My homemade stew (garlic, onion, yellow pepper, spinach, tomato paste, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, ex virgin olive oil). Organic, choc full of nutrients, vegan, low carb, and low fat.

After work snack: A bowl of Apple Jacks (my one guilty intake of carbs and sugar, and should also cover some of the nutrients I'm not getting elsewhere)

Dinner: Two Foreman-grilled chicken breasts, either with soy sauce or a pineapple-honey sauce with diced red peppers. I'll see which I'm in the mood for. Time permitting, I might make a salad to go with it, but no dressing.

Other snacks (if needed): Fresh fruit: strawberries, grapes, pineapple


Everything will be cooked from scratch. Everything will be organic, low fat, low carb, low meat intake, non-red-meat intake.



I'm good with routine. I LIKE to eat the same thing every day, so I'm using that to my advantage here. My goal is to stick to pretty much this menu every day. If necessary, I can make it a little less spartan (the two eggs on bread and with ketchup, a granola bar along with my stew at lunch, etc), but I want to see if I can do it as written above. It's just a matter of consistent will-power. This should be enough to keep me properly nourished. My trouble always is that, while I have tremendous will-power in most things and can sustain a lot of pain without issue, for some reason, I have a very hard time with hunger. Some part of me instinctively panics that I don't have enough food to get through the day, even though I'm clearly overweight and know better. Food is also comfort to me -- something I fall back on when stressed or depressed. So this will be hard, but I've done things like this before. I just want to keep it up longer term this time; sustain it more. Even if, after a month or so, I'm back to eating regular dinners, if I can stick to the breakfast and lunch every day, that will be something. I've been doing the stew for lunch each work day for an entire school year now, but I fell off the wagon with breakfast, too often going to Dunkin Donuts instead.

Breakfast and lunch will be easy for me. I've done these before and am used to it. Dinner will be a challenge, but I'm going to try to eat slowly, take small bites, chew longer, and concentrate on feeling nourished by what I consume, rather than assuming by its size and feel that it isn't enough.

But I basically have three times during the day when I get REALLY hungry, and I'm hoping discipline can get me through them:

1. The first hour at work. It's my planning time, so there's little distraction, and it's been almost three hours since breakfast. I could do a snack here (maybe some baby carrots or diced cucumber), but I want to see if I can power through it instead. I want to teach myself not to fear hunger.

2. End of the work day. The distractions and pressing issues disappear. Suddenly, it's just me, and I'm ravenously hungry. I know from past experiences that this is a sugar low and that, no matter how much or little I eat, the cravings won't go away immediately. I've had days where I've stopped at Taco Bell on the way home and ingested 650 calories, only to feel gorged thirty minutes later and wondering why the heck I did that. I also know, on other days, I've powered through, and the hunger has gone away on its own in roughly the same amount of time it takes to stop somewhere, gorge myself, and realize after that I feel overly full. So I am NOT going to eat during this time.

3. Late night. This one will be the hardest, by far. I don't want to feel stressed before bed, and hunger=stress for me. I just have to beat this.


Oddly, I've learned that the more I eat, the hungrier I am at the next of these hungry times of day for me. It's like my body becomes spoiled and expects, not only not to be starving, but to feel completely full at all times. Like a spoiled child throwing tantrums, I have to push through it.

I suspect that the mental aspect will be the hardest hurdle for us all. A few things that I do is 1. stop eating after 7 And , 2. If I have to eat more, overeat on vegetables and fruit. No one ever got fat eating those two things.