but you see you are doing it perfectly! because you are taking it slow and not restricting yourself from the the yum yums you will not break and go back! I think what your doing is absolutely perfect and I give you a long distance high five! well done :)

I love this whole idea. It is one that I myself am following. I will not eliminate anything from my diet but I will make thought-out choices. I think your doing great and look foward to seeing your progress here on mfp. No matter how long it takes!! I also will be doing the slow but steady way!!-Paula

I agree 100 percent. I think its my path to success as well :D

Thanks for the positive supportive comments.

This is what I'm doing! Logically, I can't just deny myself things that I love so much, such as chocolate and burgers. Moderation is key!

It's the best way to do it. NEVER eliminate because for most people it doesn't work and you will end up binging. If you can find healthier replacements do it, if not just do it slowly. I find that instead of oven chips I keep potatoes (usually sweet potatoes) then if I REALLY want chips I have to prepare them myself. You've obviously found what works for you. Well done!!

well said, :-)

Its funny, because we went completely the other way, we cut out everything. No pop, no chips, no candy. No nothing that wasnt whole and healthy. This was about 10 days before christmas. We took the withdrawal, and it was a bit hard, and then moved on. Christmas was the first day we really let ourselves have some of the old demons back. But made ourselves log every single piece.

The end run, was that we found the next day that we hated how we felt on the old food. For the previous 9 days, we were felling steadily better... Some times in leaps and bounds as the old wastes, and waists werd washed away with water, and greens, and clean food.

I am not trying to knock any method at getting back to a more healthy center. There is no one path. Just your path. However, much like quitting anything habitual, its the withdrawal one has to shake. Once beaten, its much smoother sailing. Our object lesson in the christmas eating holiday, just served to reinforce it to us quite concretely. The best proof, is one experienced directly.

Now that we are over 30 days into our new lives, we have our chocolate, we have our dessert, we have our snacks. However, we earn them through exercise, and we choose much better ones. I made sliders with homemade pretzel buns and fries a few nights ago... It was absolutely delicious. And yet, never even bumped against our net calories. I also steadfastly refused to give up coffee with unrefined sugar and real cream. Its my treat, and its real food. I almost bit the head off the Herbal Magic lady when she suggested i use some synthetic low fat creamer. I digress.

The point is don't overly fear the big change, it is easy to be successful with them too. Just be aware that its the initial withdrawal from garbage food that makes it hard. Not maintaining it.

I am so glad to read this. This is exactly my approach. If I did it any other way, I would have failed long ago, just like all those other times. I've lost 23 pounds in a little over 6 months. Some people lose that amount in 3 months. I don't care. Slow and steady is my motto.

Good for you for sticking to what's right for you!

Well said and well done! Kudos to you for doing it your way. I completely agree with your line of thinking because it's totally logical, sustainable, and it works. Drastic changes usually end up being short-term accomplishments but gradual modifications result in long-term success.

With you 100%! I am following this approach as well. Making better choices when I can and planning ahead when I know I'm going to have something not so great. I have never been a big fan of vegetables, but try to have them more often. Mostly I am trying to slowly change my eating habits (better choices as well as smaller amounts) as in the past when I have drastically changed them, even for months at a time, I couldn't stick it out indefinitely. My hope is that by slowly modifying and by continuing to track I can maintain once I've lost the weight I want to lose. So far it's working. I've lost 26 pounds in 3 1/2 months.

Good for you and congrats on your gains (losses lol). Once upon a time I also lost approx. 50 pounds (gained it back :-( ). However, I didn't go Spartan on food, and kept some of my bad eating habits (pizza at night for example). I did "watch" myself more by eating less of everything, and eating healthier foods as often as I could force myself. I was also working out with weights (have always since many years ago), but I think they key was what I called the in-between activities that got me off the couch...playing basketball or other things outside with daughter and neighborhood kids. I'm starting new effort now and know how to go about it. This time, just because I have the time and the support (wife's cooking), I will focus much more on eating the healthy foods, and eating more often during the day. My "in-between" activity will initially be shoveling snow (see calorie burn count...really good). I've (and others) are already seeing my fat start to go, even though I still weigh the same. My weight lifting keeps my weight up, until I really start burning fat. I'm shooting for 70 pounds, or 17% (or lower) body fat. I'm ready ! :-)

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