Ok, who hasn’t started dozens of weight loss programs, goals that didn’t quite get there, and wish they had a plan that worked?  Probably a vast majority of us have.

I decided in February of 2017 that I was the biggest I ever wanted to  ever be and it was time to get control of my weight.

I had an account at  https://www.sparkpeople.com/ that I had just ignored for a while and decided to take control of my diet.  The program helped me find out what calories I needed to stay under and how long it would take to reach my goal.  I decided to set a goal of 150 pounds, slightly larger than I was when I got married.

The pictures above was put together July 2018, at that time I had lost 80 Pounds.  I am writing this Blog second week of September, I am now down to 181 pounds, so I have now lost a total of 86 pounds. only 31 more pounds to go to reach my goal weight.

I started this diet in a size 24 jeans, last weekend I bought three pairs of size 14 Skinny jeans.

1. First thing that is very important is to write down everything you eat and the portion size.  Since I had a defined calorie count to stay under, I would go to the internet and define how many calories my meal was.  By keeping my portions down in size, I could eat pretty much anything I wanted, but the calories determined the size of the meal.  SparkPeople has an electronic food and calorie tracker but I am a little old fashion and write it all down on a legal pad.
2. Second thing I do is weight myself every day.  That tells me a couple of things. First, did the meals I ate yesterday help or hinder my progress?  Should I eat normally today or maybe a little lighter? Second, when I did drop a pound I could track it and write it down.  I try to weigh myself first thing in the morning when I first wake up.
3. Plate size is important, try and eat your meals on a pie or dessert plate. (Small).  The smaller the plate, the smaller the portion.  Psychologically a full plate makes you think you are getting a lot of food.  I always try and eat on the plate on the left.
4. I try and keep my portions small for several reasons, the most important is  I am trying to shrink my stomach so I want less food to feel satisfied.  People spend thousands of dollars to have stomach surgery so a little food goes a long way. I figured I could do the same thing and save the money on surgery by fooling my stomach into shrinking.

In the beginning I would get really hungry at meal times (still do sometimes).. so I would eat my small portion and wait, drink two big glasses or more of water and wait some more.  If after 20 – 30 minutes I am still not feeling satisfied or like I have had enough to eat, I find a healthy snack.  Celery stick, carrot stick, grapes, are great low calorie snack foods and only cost a tiny bit of calories. Again, portion is the key, two sticks, five or six grapes at a time, then drink more water and wait.  One of the keys is waiting for the food to settle in your stomach.  You would be surprised how many times you are actually done, but habit makes you eat.

Most of the meals I cook now, I add calorie friendly vegetables with it. So if I need something extra, I can have a couple more ounces of carrots, green beans, brussel sprouts, etc. and not hurt the total calories for the day.  I recommend you write down your favorite foods first, and find out how many calories they have.  that will help you plan how much of your favorites you can eat.

I weigh or measure all of my food if I can. If I am out I try to determine the calories of a meal by googling it with my phone. Some Restaurants now have their calories right on the menu. That is so helpful, I can modify how much of something I eat  depending on the total calories of the dish. Example, an 8 oz. burger might be 800 calories.  100 calories per oz.  Cut off two or three oz. size  and package the rest for later.  Once you know how many calories a dish has, you can determine how much of it you are going to eat.

Don’t deny yourself a little desert, just make it “Little”.  I was baking up a storm on this diet. Pies, cakes, cookies. I let my family eat the bulk of it.  But if I wanted pie, I cut 1 oz. of pie.  Bite of cookie, 1 oz. of cake.. You get the idea. Candy?  Halloween snack size. Most of the bars are between 70 -85 calories each. Eat one a day, max.  Like nuts?  My husband buys me the 100 calorie snack pack of nuts and dried fruit. Eat only one a day max.  Oz of cheese runs from 70 to 150 calories depending on the type.

It has been a year and a half for me, the SparkPeople website told me it would take close to two years to lose the weight and get down to the size I want to be, so I am very close to my original goal and time tables.  I will post more later on my diet.