If You've Changed Your Diet For The Better ...

We did it slowly over many years. We started with the easiest thing - no high fructose corn syrup. After about six months of that, we gave up artificial sweeteners. Then soda altogether. Stopped eating fast food. Joined a CSA to add more vegetables to our diet, stopped eating industrial meat, started making meals that were focused on the vegetables instead of the meat, started gardening to grow more of our own food, joined an egg share to get pastured eggs, then got our own laying hens for eggs. 

Pick one thing at a time then add more good habits.  Leave room for indulgences. Be reasonable about it or whatever you're doing won't last. 

  I registered with MyFitnessPal and kept track of everything and did walking as much as I could.

Start slow and eat for quality. I think starting the day with some protein is important for me. I usually eat Greek yogurt and granola. Pay attention to portion sizes, but do not deny yourself everything - that is too extreme. IMHO
Try out different cooking methods and seasonings - switch from vegetable oil to olive oil - add seasonings and flavors other than salt. Every little change leads to the next one.

I started almost 2 years ago. First thing I did was cut out soda and replaced it with water. Cold turkey. After awhile I started craving the water and soda tastes horrible to me-like sugary flat syrup.  Next thing I did was cut out fast food. That was harder, but doable. It's actually all doable it just depends on how much you want to change. Let's face it-soda and fast food is not good for our bodies.

After that I cut out processed foods. This of course took time. I didn't do it all overnight. I'd make a list of dinners to make for the week from fresh ingredients (veggies, meat, herbs, olive oil, vinegars,) and I stopped using anything in a can unless it was canned tomatoes or beans or bottled salad dressing. I cut out basically all the stuff the coupons are for-and started shopping for what's referred to as "whole" food. I switched from shopping at our local Giant to only using Trader Joes and Whole Foods. By keeping careful track of the list of dinners and needed ingredients I actually came out even doing this!

Dropped 35 pounds just doing these two things.

Last thing I did was watch the video " Forks over Knives". DH watched it with me and we decided to give vegan eating a try, We dropped meat and diary from our diet. Now this is not what most people do, but we did after watching that video and learning what those two things do to your body. DH lost 20 pounds. I lost 8-I'm in the middle of menopause so it's coming off slower.

I do eat dessert. I still eat sugar, only not the over processed bleached white kind.

For us it's not about the scale. It's that we are healthier than we've been in years. My cholesterol is 187, and that's after only being vegan for two months. But again, you don't have to go vegan. Just start with little steps.  Do what's right for you.

Debbie in MD.

I use My Fitness Pal and track my food. Doing that opened my eyes. I try to stick to 1800 calories a day. It makes me really think about what I am eating. I rarely drink soda. I still occasionally have sweets for special occasions. Oh and I bought a food scale to help me with portion control. Everyone is different. I do what I call "learn to eat to my lifestyle" I have to plan for work dinners; we eat out 2x a week (fast food). I have lost 20 pounds. good luck.

Well I stopped with as much processed foods as was reasonable, but I am a person who believes everything in moderation. Right now I rejoined WW to drop about 35 lbs...same 35 lbs I lost after my 3rd kid but I had a thyroid issue and getting older made it harder to lose so it all crept back on.

What I really like now is I am eating a ton of fruit and veggies. WW is teaching me to significantly reduce my carbs. I was always low fat but low carbs which usually means it has sugar I never really considered.

With their calculator you learn things with high carbs cost pts and you only get some many pts a day so you choose wisely. Fruits and Veggies are 0 pts so you can eat as much as you want..thus you learn to eat healthier..and I am hoping it's for the long run.

So all you My Fitness Pal people, have you tried Spark People? I just wondered how the two compared. I'm really trying to make some improvements to my health and trying to figure out what I need to do. I gained a LOT of weight during chemo (which people are always shocked to hear--they think everyone is vomiting and unable to eat but it had the opposite effect on me!). Anyway, I'm starting to get my strength back and I really need to lose this weight that's dragging me down. I'm looking at a couple of things and just wondered how these two apps compare to each other.

Another one that recommends WW. Lost 60# and have maintained since 1998. I try not to eat processed foods, eat tons of fruits and veggies. Best plan is Simply Filling, just a great way to eat without counting points.

All my life I've never been over 109 pounds. Until sometime in 2008, that is. I gained a few pounds a year until some of my clothes stopped fitting and I was getting uncomfortable in my own skin (ie: my thighs were trying to touch each other!). I got on a scale and saw that I was 131 lbs! No one saw the problem but me, even my doctor thought I was insane. She said I was within normal weight but I couldn't convince her that the trend in increasing weight was my problem.

Anyway, I saw Travis Stork on Dr. Phil , thought he made sense and went out and bought his book, "The Doctor's Diet." I started the diet right away before realizing how different it was from what I was currently doing. Wasn't sure if I could do it cold turkey and almost thought about quitting. I decided that I could at least do it temporarily and quit if I couldn't handle it. The diet consists of lean protein, fruits and vegetables, no sugar or other simple carbs, and no processed foods.

I started the diet, and after a few days I realized that I didn't miss not having sugar. My palate changed so quickly that I preferred the natural flavors over processed. In 4 days I had dropped 4.6 lbs. I couldn't believe it. After a few months on the doctor's diet I tried eating a piece of milk chocolate and didn't even swallow the bite. It was way too sweet for me. I had a little splurge at a restaurant and it weighed me down and made me feel blah. I tried eating a few pepperoni off my kids' pizza and it hurt my stomach. I think I'm stuck eating healthy now!

It's easy squeazy to eat this way, and now DH is trying to get on board. It's taking him a little longer. Can't seem to go cold turkey.

I'm down to 117 pounds now. I can't decide if I'm going to lose more because I look in the mirror and can't see where it's going to come off. I'm sure I looked normal at 106-109. I wasn't a waif. I may try a few more pounds and see what that looks like. Then I'll go on the maintenance plan.

Other nurses at work ask me how I lost the weight as though they're interested and then say "oh," all deflated when I tell them I cut out sugar and white flour. It's really not an ordeal. It's hard to convince people. I have the occasional square of dark chocolate here and there. I'm perfectly happy with that.

But anyway, that's my story. Good luck on your journey. It's worth it!

I've been following the Diabetic Diet since August of last year. No, I'm not diabetic.

Weigh-in is on Friday but I'll tell you that the size 14 slacks I bought a month ago are loose already. I think I may have hit 60 pounds if not VERY close to it.

Honestly, it's a strict diet; however, I DO NOT deprive myself of anything. I eat most, if not all of the foods that I love. I eat candy. HOWEVER, instead of eating HUGE portions, I eat very small portions. Instead of eating 10 candies, I eat 1 piece-and that's not every day. I eat rice, fruits, meat, tons of vegetables. I eat bread (low calorie), etc. I cut out the high fatty, fried foods us Latins love to eat, but I do eat Latin food. I CANNOT do pre-packaged lean cuisine or weight watchers stuff--that's just not how I eat or what I eat. I've also never been interested in processed food. It has made me very aware of what I'm eating; before the diet, I used to sort of graze mindlessly and eat "whatever." Now, since my daily portions are so regimented, I'm VERY conscious of what I eat.

Oh, and drink tons and TONS of water.

My diet coach (loosely said) is my sister's friend who is a Type 1 diabetic. She taught us the way to eat and it's been great.

I went cold turkey and did a Whole30 (no sugar, grains, legumes, dairy). I wanted to kill people the first 2 weeks but I felt like a million bucks. I've added a little dairy back in but have remained "clean" on everything else.

My Fitness Pal was truly life changing for me. It made me understand how much calories have to do with dieting. Before, I only had to lose 5 lbs here and there and I did all the fad diets and lost quickly. WHen I had to lose more weight, I did the MFP andit was great. It really changed my attitude about a lot of stuff. Good luck to you!

I'm doing it a little at a time. During the months of April and May as my MIL and nephew were getting sicker and sicker, I ate more and more. MY SIL was staying with us at the time helping care of MIL and we both experienced the same thing. Grief eating. And drinking. OMG we never stopped snacking, and got to where were drinking a bottle of wine every night near the end, sometimes more. It was such an emotional time but we packed on the pounds and fast. Then they both passed away within a week of each other - there was no end in sight for the pain, and therefore the grief eating just kept on.
DH piled it on too because he will typically eat whatever is in the house - which was a lot of junk food at the time.
SIL went home and back to her life and here we were here trying to figure out how to move forward. Cut out the drinking right off the bat, but not the food. We decided in May that we both wanted to lose weight before our vacation which starts next week. He cold turkey stopped everything processed, sugar, soda, flour...I mean really. I couldn't do it like that, I don't have the will power. I stopped drinking soda all evening long and I allow myself one coke at lunch each day. I no longer keep chips, little debbie cakes and the typical junk food in the house. I drink water all day long, except the coke at lunch, might have juice for a change-up at home at night but mostly water. 
We eat a lot of fresh fruit - I already grow a nice garden so we have tons of fresh veggies anyway, but what I don't grow I only buy fresh now. We got chickens last year, so our eggs are already healthier.

As of last weekend, I had lost 11 lbs of grief weight! I was so happy! Just in small steps, changing up small things slowly. I have found myself hungry a LOT. But now I'm finding that when we do go out to eat, I can't eat nearly as much as I did before, which is an awesome feeling. I am just simply making better choices and it is showing pretty quickly. I think the coke was a huge factor. 

So I would just take small steps - I knew that if I tried to do it like DH is doing it, I would fall flat on my face, binge eat and then give it up all together.  DH, BTW, has dropped 16 lbs (although he is going to the gym every night to do cardio, and I only go once or twice a week). I am really proud of his determination and success so far!

Good luck OP, it's not easy, but it IS do-able!!

Edited**put DH's weight loss wrong, corrected now.