Venting.

There is a lot to be said about starting small. I've being counting calories with My Fitness Pal for about five weeks (11.6kg lost), and it's that that finally clicked for me.

However it's the latest in a series of small steps I've taken over the past couple of years. In rough order here's the sort of things I've done to get to this point where I'm finally losing weight. Your mileage may vary, of course.

  • No more soft drinks/soda etc. I went to the sugar-free varieties at first, then gave those up (they're still bad for you!)
  • No booze on weeknights.
  • No chocolate bars. Although for a long time I'd still have dark chocoalte at the weekends - stopped that too now.
  • No snacking after dinner. Maybe a tea/coffee or milk.
  • Get off my train one stop earlier and walking the rest of the way to work.
  • Use a standing desk for half the day at work.
  • Taking a home-made lunch to work every day. No takeaway.
  • Snacking only on fruits/veggies
  • Black coffee only! Then with no sugar, then no sugar and decaf.
  • Exericse. Start off really slow - walks around the block, take the dog out. Couch to 5k (I gave up at this because I did it before counting calories). Then I added gym into the mix. Two days per week at first, then three, now five.
  • Counting calories with MFP. One 'cheat' meal per week (but still maintaining a caloric deficit for the day).
  • Strictly limited booze - liquor is quicker!

I went cold turkey on alcohol when I started on MFP, as I didn't want to 'waste' the calories. I said when I lost 10kg I'd buy some Scotch, but now I'm there I may wait until 15kg.

Anyway, some or none of these may work for you, but anything will help. Small steps! If nothing else, I'd recommend you start logging your food with MFP so you get a clear picture of what's going into your body. Feel free to add me as a friend on there, same username as here. For the longest time I lied to myself thinking I was eating healthy, but was actually having too many treats and things that were stopping me losing weight.

Good luck! And keep reading /r/loseit, and possibly /r/GetMotivated and /r/getdisciplined too.

/r/loseit Thread