Need to lose weight s/o

I'm in the same boat as you. I need something that I can live with for the rest of my life. I know how to eat "healthy" but I am not eating salads forever. I am also lazy so things need to be easy. I don't eat fast food but I do eat out a lot. I haven't had a donut in months, I am trying not to eat toast or bagels. Weekends and dinners are where I lose it. I also only had one alcoholic drink since before Christmas. I tend to have a problem with portion size but will I need to measure and count for the rest of my life? Sometimes it is so overwhelming! I wonder if I really need to restrict my calories for a while to get things moving. Sorry for my rant. I'm just hating myself right now

Try Weight Watchers. It is working for me. I am about 6 weeks in and I am finding it pretty easy to adjust my regular family meals to fit within the program. I love their app which I think makes it really easy to stay on track.

First of all, congratulations on kicking diet Coke!  It took me quite a while to do the same!  I still crave it sometimes but I almost always can talk myself out of having any.  

Secondly, and this should have been first - congratulations on wanting to be healthier and for reaching out about it!!  

As my skinny person body slowly gained 60 pounds over 17 years, I often said I wanted to lose weight and made short term attempts at doing so.  For me, health is a huge motivator (you can read my sky high triglycerides thread from today if you want details), and once I got really motivated and knew I wanted to eat WFPB (whole foods plant based) I started doing tons of reading online.  Bought a bunch of vegan cookbooks and found, downloaded and printed a ton of recipes.  I need to compile them into a binder and prioritize by the order in which I want to try them. 

I am getting pretty good at serving or being around food that is not good for me and not eating it.  I think of the healthy person I want to be and of my future as I age further.  I want to be vibrant and active and independent for as long as I possibly can be, and that is my biggest motivator of all.  

This is a great place for moral support and practical tips and info.  Don't be afraid to keep this convo going!  And best of luck to you!!!  (((HUGS)))  I'm finding that a little bit of success really fuels my motivation to keep on eating this way.  I've also learned that when I've chosen (it's always a conscious decision) to have a bit of cheese as in a couple of bites of DH's pizza or whatever, NOT TO BEAT MYSELF UP ABOUT IT.  Same with if the scale shows an increase.  Accept it, think about why and what behaviours I need to change to avoid in the future, and move forward.
  

I’ve started intermittent fasting since Jan 7th

Today one of my clients said, you are fading away, which was amazing for me

I’ve found it so easy and I can’t imagine ever going back to any other type of diet

You can eat whatever you want and still lose weight. You just can't eat everything all at once. Check out my favorite weight loss coach and try her free course. Www.pnp411.com

My DD and I just joined WW together. Having each other as motivators really helps. My husband didn't join but he is on the bandwagon and has me help him choose foods that won't take him over what we set for his points (I added 5 points to mine since he is a male). Just joined the 1st of February and went to our first meeting earlier this week. I feel I really need the accountability that WW offers as well as the pointers on changing my food/activity lifestyle. I paired the WW with a FitBit and find that the hourly reminders really motivates me to get up and move (behind a desk all day at work - but we have a wonderful maze of hallways that many of us walk daily for our steps) and then at home I find myself eagerly jumping on my elliptical to make sure I hit my daily steps goal before bed.

This morning I had my husband take a photo of me - a profile shot in a bikini. OMG that was certainly a motivator!! I emailed it to myself to keep there as a reminder - of course deleted it from my phone as I certainly don't want to traumatize anyone that might be scrolling through the pics on my phone some day (my grandsons like to do this)

Todays technology really helps as well - my DD and I text & snapchat screenshots of our WW points (on the app) and our FitBit steps (on the app) to each other several times a day.

Good luck with whatever decision you make for weight loss. For us this isn't a "diet" - we are focusing on changing our bad habits and finding a healthier lifestyle.

I have a hard time eating healthy on the way to work and was thinking about shakes. Anyone have one they love?

I think to start with, get into some healthy habits.
Start with strictly 3 meals per day and NO snacking.
Finish your evening meal and don't eat a single thing until breakfast...that gets you started on some intermittent fasting. If you finish eating at 8 and don't eat again until that's 12 hours...and you'll learn that it won't kill you! Hunger isn't something to be scared of.
Then try just having a morning a coffee and delaying breakfast a little so the fasting time is longer is longer.

I think that's doable as a first step, 3 normal meals (watch portion sizes) NO snacks in between at all and fast overnight. I think you'll find you lose weight from that change alone as you'll be cutting out a lot of sugar with no snacks.
Once you get used to that, and you're motivated by weight loss, then make some more changes - focus of better meal choices...start by reducing your carbohydrate intake. Less bread, less carb veggies such as potato and sweet potato. Dinner should be a piece of meat about the size of your palm and a generous serving of vegetables (no potato, no pasta, no rice etc). No cream or cheese sauces.
Increase your protein take and reduce carbs and you'll feel fuller for longer and you won't have the cravings associated with the blood sugar crash after carbs.
Commit to this for at least a month. Then see what you've learned and what fits into your lifestyle and then look into that sort of diet more...maybe wholefoods suits you, maybe intermittent fasting, or perhaps a weight watchers type plan fits in better with your family.

Get an app like 'my fitness pal' or 'lose it' and start logging all your food and you'll see where your excess calories are, and then work on replacing or cutting those out.

Personally I think if people go in too hard and decide to change all of their diet all at once and try to go from crap food to paleo in a few weeks, they are mostly going to fail.

During your eating window, do you eat whatever you want or stick to healthier options?

I've tried IF off and on and I just need to stick with it.  Way to go!