Anonymous wrote:OP here - officially down 17 pounds now! 42 to go, and going strong. I'm walking 3-4 miles most evenings and focusing on healthy, filling foods like oatmeal and huge salads. I still so appreciate you guys helping me get started!! Thanks guys!

That is awesome OP!

Congratulations!!!

PP here. The bag is a great idea! I spent about an hour looking at pictures from the past 10 years of me at many, many different weights and thinking about how much happier I am when I'm at a reasonable weight. Look forward to hearing about your 20 pound loss!

Hi PP! OP here. Congratulations on losing 15 pounds - it's a huge difference already, isn't it?? I have a bag that I fill with stones for each week's loss (so it has 17 pounds of stones in it now) and it's SO FREAKING HEAVY. It's a reality check. Definitely keep checking back in please!! I'll come back at 20 pounds. Really looking forward to that milestone!

Well done! That's awesome progress!

I just finished reading the thread and find it really motivating. Your weight loss/gain story sounds a lot like mine. I'm also 38, 5'3" and need to lose about 60 pounds. I started dieting right after Christmas and am down about 15 pounds.

Please continue checking in. This is so motivating!

OP here - officially down 17 pounds now! 42 to go, and going strong. I'm walking 3-4 miles most evenings and focusing on healthy, filling foods like oatmeal and huge salads. I still so appreciate you guys helping me get started!! Thanks guys!

Awesome, OP! Congratulations!

OP here - As long as some spammer has bumped this up, I figured I'd update: I'm now down 8.5 pounds and feeling really good! I'm not doing perfect but I'm doing really well and I'm sticking with it. No quick fix this time, just slow and steady progress to get me where I want to be. Thanks again for everyone's help and support!

Hey I've found a source here. It's a weight loss success story of a woman. Maybe we can learn something from her: http://www.quickflatabs.com/

OP here, just want to share that I lost 3.5 pounds the first week and am still going strong in week 2. I want to truly thank you all for your support and advice. I know it's early, but for me it's been hard work even just these 9 days and I've stuck with it even though there have already been so many temptations. Just making dinner for my kids is so hard, but night after night I choose to skip snacking on it and stick with my meal plan. I feel great. Thank you again for everything!

YEs, OP, great decision on the tuna! I'm a vegetarian who totally couldn't do vegan. I'd fall over. Other good protein snacks/lunches for me are hummus and whole wheat pita (or carrots & cukes), lentil soup or lentil stew. Also trail mix, but a little goes a long way in the calorie department. Trader joes has a few ready made ones that we like.

Definitely snack regularly to help from fading by the end of the day.

Good luck!!

Good job OP! I really think that adding some lean protein sources to your diet will be a very good idea - it will keep you fuller longer and hopefully help you avoid a "crash".

I have found that my biggest challenges re: diet are in the evening. I can do great all day, but if I let myself get to hungry by around 6 pm, I will eat WAY too much bad crap at dinner. Making sure I snack on some protein before I get to this point helps me make the right choices.

In any case, hope you continue to do well!!

Okay guys, I changed snack from a veggie plate to a can of tuna or salmon (mashed up with mustard) and an apple and some red pepper chopped into the tuna. That should keep me more full and stop cravings / snacking when I'm getting dinner ready. I added the broccoli to the late-night salad I eat when the kids are in bed to make sure I keep that serving of veggies in the diet. Thank you all again; I think this will help with the hunger levels without compromising too much on the foods I want to be eating. Plus there's some healthy oils in the fish that it can't hurt to be eating. Now, off to read my Beck diet book and update my online journal, then bed. Thanks again everyone!