Doing It Your Way?

[disneyrun]

Have you ever dieted your way? Have you made up your own plan and stuck with it? Tell me all about it. I need to lose some weight and I'm considering just making up my own way of doing things so I'd love input. Were you successful or did you find it too hard to stay on plan without any accountability? Or if you had accountability what was it? Did you try it and find it wasn't for you and something like Weight Watchers was better? Whew - lots of questions. I'm really interested in your thoughts. This WISH community seems great. Thanks in advance for sharing with me.

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

I've found that if I log everything I consume it is most helpful. You can use the fitday.com or sparkpeople site to get some sort of analysis on the foods you are eating and the calories involved.

The basic plan is always calories in must be less than calories out. If you can get some sort of handle on that it is possible.

Some of the long-standing formal plans do work and have great guidance. The trick is to figure out anything you can to make healthy choices, while increasing your movement, and it is tricky since it has to be something you want to do.

If one way does not work, never give up. Keep at it until you find a way to make healthy choices and a plan that can get you there.

It can be done!

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

I'm doing it my way as well. I figured out how many calories I need to eat to be my ideal weight. Then I cut it by 200 to help lose te weight. I also log my food intake on fitday.com. It helps to see what's going in and in what proportions. I have a tendency to go heavy on the carbs and fore go proteins, so watching the pie chart on that site helps to keep me focused.

I did really well when I followed the above last year. Of course, I stopped tracking my food intake and stopped excercising, so I'm back with all the original pounds and then some.

 

[poohssmum]

I'm doing things on my own too. My accountability comes from writing everything down. I have a little notebook where I keep track of what I've eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack. I also log my exercise, and I make note of anything else that happened that day to either keep me on track, or not

 

[C_leen]

Hi-

It sounds like you've been around the diet games, so you know what works for you & what does not. I am just living my life now & not dieting. Since I want to be healthy & look half decent, I can't eat like I once did. Every time I try it, I gain weight beyond what I feel is comfortable for me.

I have done WW in the past & freaked all day over points to the level that I couldn't eat... Then I did South Beach for over a year. The very thought of Phase I makes me ill. But, all in all, the South Beach Phase II & III are an excellent way to eat healthy. I can't eat small meals every few hours, as it just makes me focus on food and when I can eat next, so those diets are out for me.

So I started exercising. I started with the elliptical & walking the TM, now I am spinning and doing to couch to 5k plan. My stamina has greatly increased in the last 2 months. Once I started hauling my overweight body around, then I decided to cut back on portions. Basically I read the labels of what I eat & count or measure the food out. I cut back on bread & meat too & tried to increase fruit & veggies. My cereal bowl looks awfully empty now that I measure the serving out. I actually try to eat a larger dinner meal now so I am less likely to feel the need to snack at night (my major downfall time). When I cannot curb the snack at night, I have been eating charms blow pops. I suck on them to savor the 50 calories, then I chew the gum like a fiend! I also like WW ice cream sundaes which are 150 cal or so. At work I drink tea - mostly herbal. I already drank diet soda, but I don't have it every day now... Of course I suck down water of any kind with any flavor.

This is really my life now. It is not a diet. I haven't been keeping a calorie count or a food journal carefully. I have been documenting my work outs, and I jot down any 'bad' snacks or binges and why I think it happened. This is working for me. I am learning from my food errors, I am building muscle & my body is changing, & the scale is slowly reflecting my efforts. I wish you the best of luck to motivate yourself & keep it going every day!

 

[disneyrun]

Thank you everyone. I really appreciate your input. I'm trying to decide the best way for me and the things I have read on the WISH board have helped me very much.

 

[Bolo_Grubb]

one of the things I do when trying to loose weight, is to never eat after a certain time in the evening.

For me and my schedule that time is 7pm. It really seems to help me if I do this. This is generally 2 to 3 hours before I go to bed.

 

[DawnM]

Ok, I am a person who really struggles to lose, even if I am being "good" on a particular diet.

This has somewhat forced me to find what works for me.

The time that I have lost the most weight without depravation, was when I designed my own plan.

I cut out all processed foods and replaced them with other things. I use rice cakes or Ezekial 4:9 bread instead of bread. I limit my "breads" servings to 2-3 per day.

I eat as many veggies as I can possibly eat without gagging! LOL! I use spaghetti squash or Italian blend frozen veggies to put my spaghetti sause on instead of pasta, etc...

I make sure I get at least 2 fruits in to satisfy my sweet tooth so I won't turn to sugar for sweetness.

I basically follow the old, old WW plan of 2 breads/starches, 2 to 3 milk servings, 4-5 oz. lean protein, lots of veggies and 2-3 fruits. If I do that without adding extra stuff (what they used to call bonus calories), I lose. Once I add in those extras, I stop losing.

It is hard and I am trying to find my way back, but I do know what works.

Dawn

 

[fofinia]

One thing I've done on my own is a modified low carb/south beach thing.

What I did was at every meal I had protein and vegetables. I didn't measure but I didn't go over board. Try to keep my protein lean. I would eat as many veggies as I needed to be full. and if I wanted fruit I'll have it. Only once or twice a day. No bread, pasta, potatoes or sugar. Except once a day. Middle of the afternoon- that's my headachy need some sugar time. I would allow myself one funsize candy bar. Usually my dinner would be whatever meat and veggies I made for the family served over salad. Pasta sauce with meat even served over salad. (Not for everyone!)

I was consistent and lost 2lbs a week. I only did it for 1 month. but I lost 11lbs. I'm doing it again now. After doing WW for 1 year it's nice to not write things down and stress about what I'm going to eat and how many calories or points do I have left. I lost 25lbs doing WW, but now I've plateauing for 6 months. So hoping this will change it up a bit.

I'm consistently down 2lbs the last few days. That in itself is a big accomplishment for me. So I'm motivated to keep going!

Good luck!!!