HI MFP

i've been dieting since...God it feels like since i was born

I'm 5'6 and weight 180

now my problem is that it's real hard for me to lose weight and i mean REAL HARD...
i'm starting to think that it might be because of the way my diet is.

For one...i eat healthy...white meat only...try to stay away from processed foods...
i do eat the exact same food for long periods of time
like EVERY MORNING i have silk very vanilla milk with 2 cups of Kashi cereal ( it's been 6 or more months since this has been my breakfast)\
Then for lunch i mostly have a medium sized veggie salad with no cheese with ranch dressing or one of t hose sandwich thins arnold bread with deli meat...no cheese added just salsa

When it comes to dinner though, i mix it up a bit, i either have homemade pasta with mixed vegetables or plaintains and chicken with vegetables or potatoes with chicken or groud turkey with vegetables or i used to eat bulgur (wheat) a lot with chicken and vegetables.

This is honestly what i've mostly eaten for months...i had a friend try it with me and she's lost close to 10 pounds now and i a merely 4 pounds which i think might be less cuz my scale just gives me different #s 24/7

Snacks vary but 90 times out of 100 it'll be 2 apples per day
I always make sure my diet have plenty of fiber to speed up my metabolism... is it possible for my body to just be used to what i'm eating thus why i'm not losing weight?

should i try using diet pills? i've been considering that a lot lately...or sign up for those weight management doctors even though it's quite expensive.

I'm starting to want to give up hope.... my mom says...well yo u're tall enough and 180 pounds should not look too bad on you but it's all about how you see yourself and i'm not happy when i look at myself in a mirror and i want to change that but it's like my body is preventing it from happenning.

Hmm, well, while what you eat sounds healthy, you still need to watch calories. If there's no deficit, you won't loose. If there's very little, you won't lose a noticeable amount. I'm not sure what kinda of Kashi you're eating, but even the GoLean packs a bit of a calorific punch if you're eating 2 cups, especially with vanilla soy milk, which is also usually pretty high. Try cutting down to 1 cup, or 1 1/4c, and adding some chopped apple, and switching to light soy milk.

The rest of your diet sounds pretty good to me. You really can eat whatever you like, whenever you like, as long as you keep the deficit. I usually leave myself a couple hundred calories to enjoy some chocolate or ice cream at the end of the day, and it doesn't seem to be affecting my weight loss at all. It might not be a bad idea to invest some time researching treats that will be light in calories, and your daughter will enjoy. Maybe consider buying some splenda and start baking yourself? You can usually shave loads of calories off anything commercially bought, without compromising too much in terms of flavour and texture.

Do you exercise at all? If not, that might just be the boost your body needs. I find even with a calorie deficit, I don't lose as quickly as I'd like without an intense workout regimen. Exercise also has this wonderful habit of taking that 4lbs you actually lost, and making it look more like 10, through toning and such.

Diet pills don't really work. At all. And I don't think you need a weight management program, you're strong enough to do this yourself

what kind of a workout are you doing?

Have you ever considered meeting with a nutritionist? Even one time can help. When I went I sat down and went through what I eat and got feedback on my habits. When all was said and done turned out I was eating healthy but I was still eating too much. It then came down to either cutting back on what I was eating or exercising more to offset it.

start by weighing and measuring everything you eat and record it on MFP. Take a look at the nutrients as well as the calories. See where you need to make changes

some possible changes might be the ranch dressing, vanilla soy milk, pasta as well as portion size

Use all the tools on MFP to learn more about healthy eating

Add more exercise and drink a lot of water
And stay away from diet pills

As others have mentioned the food choices sound good but take a look at portion size and calories. I've been doing Yoga with a few Pilates mixed in, and although Yoga doesn't burn a lot of calories, it does decrease appetite. And it makes you feel great! I also treat myself to xocai healthy chocolate as my treat. It seems to be very satisfying and I don't crave any sweets, although I do eat a few occasionally. Stay away from the diet pills, they are nothing but trouble in the long run
Water is a great drink to be sure you have enough of However I did read that your kidney's will have trouble if you try to drink more than a quart an hour. So just use commonsense and follow the guidelines on the site.

We're all here for your support so take heart, look at the details of what you've been doing and shake it up a little!