No, the group is not moderated.  

Well, stick around, get to know us - and maybe you'll feel comfortable
over time to begin discussing your food issues.   Being able to
discuss and deal with those will really help with weight loss.
Especially if those are a hinderance for you.

One thing discussed here recently is how someone really needs to have
the right mindset to lose weight.   If your mind isn't ready, then you
will struggle.  

ANother thing to consider is your past failures.  Could it be that you
cut calories too low in an effort to lose weight quickly, and then
within a few weeks the hunger catches up with you and you binge and
give up.   This happens to alot of people.  

Step 1.   Get the idea of finding a "diet" out of your mind.  Around
here we use the term "WOE" or WOL.. meaning Way of Eating or Way of
Life.    Think of it this way.   Your old eating habits are what made
you overweight to begin with.   You must permanently alter those
eating habits.   If you go on a temporary "diet" to lose weight, then
the diet is over, you go back to your old eating habits.  What's gonna
happen?  Well, the same thing that has already happened - you'll gain
weight again.

So, the trick is to find a permanent new way of eating that you are
happy with and you can live with FOREVER.   You will spend a period of
time in "weight loss" mode where you eat less, exercise more.  Then
you reach goal and you will alter that way of eating to eat just a
little bit more and go into "maintenance" mode.   This is your
permanent WOE.

That being said - another thing to consider is finding out your
trigger foods and trigger emotions.   What causes you to binge or over
eat?   What foods might make you want more food?  What emotions might
drive you to eating?

This is where journalling comes in.   Keeping a food log as well as an
emotional log will help you find triggers.  Once you know your
triggers you can begin to recognize when they are coming on and how to
learn to avoid them.

The next step.   www.fitday.com   Log you food and liquid intake for a
few days.   See where you are at now.   See where you need to go from
there.   Write down every morsel of food you put into your mouth.
Don't "diet" just yet.   Find out what you are eating now.   From
there you can look at what you are eating and make some simple changes
to alter your eating habits and make new ones.  

The next step:  EXERCISE.    www.stumptuous.com/weights.html
Read it, learn it, love it.  :)

Welcome Erica.

Not too many in the group are on specific diet plans.  Most of us simply
try to keep the calories down to a level that results in weight loss, eat
healthy and exercise.  Many in the group recommend 10 x current weight for
their daily calorie intake.

Did you cut your calories too low on your previous weight loss attempts?
This often results in giving up before reaching your goal.  It's often
easier to change a few things in your current diet instead of trying to
change everything at once.  Take a look at your current food intake.  Give
up any junk foods, drink water instead of other liquids which might be
adding empty calories, watch portion sizes and get some exercise.  Walking
is a great exercise.

Hope to see you posting often.  You'll find lots of support and information
here.  Just keep posting!

Beverly

All specialty diets fail the way you describe.  It's not you,
it's the fact that they are boring or stressful, and even
if a person sticks with them for up to a year, once the
weight is lost the person goes back to the old way of eating
and puts the weight back on.

Start an exercise program and learn to eat right: lots
of veg/fruit/whole grains, legumes (dried beans/split peas/lentils),
and some animal products.  Limit fat.

Forget South Beach, it is just another specialty diet like the
ones that failed before.

p.s. don't make two meals, one for you and one for DH.  Skinny
does not mean healthy.  Get him to work out with you and eat
like you.  Decades from now you will both be glad.

Welcome Erica!

Keeping my eye on calories (keeping below 2000 / day), and exercising (now
over 1 hour a day), is working very well for me.  It's a very simple diet.
All these complicated count this, eat that, double this, half that, turn
sideways, spin around diets confuse me.

Dan - 305/288/220

Hi Erica, welcome.  This isn't always an easy place to be because people
will tell you stuff you don't want to hear, but we have phenomenal success
at losing fat.  We know how to do it and can tell you!  (Over and over
until you're ready to hear it, if you stick around.)  :-)

Do you suppose the third sentence might be related to the second sentence
in some way?

I really recommend a small book called "Fattitudes" for facing the issues
that help you choose to be fat straight on.

I also believe that we choose to be fat when we decide not to do what it
takes to stop being fat.  I don't intend to judge people for choosing to
be fat - it's a perfectly reasonable choice to make in a lot of cases and
I'm not the best one to decide for anyone else (but me and my kids.)

But if you choose to stop being fat you'll need to:

1. Eat less
2. Exercise more
3. Repeat
4. Forever.

When you decide you want to stop being fat you then start working on how
to put those four steps into your life.  It takes some experimenting and
it's definitely a learning process, but it leads inevitably to better
health for the rest of your life.  There's no time frame on this, there's
no punishment on this, it's just a process of progress, not perfection.

I've gone from a size 22 to a size 16 in the past year.  I'm still losing
fat.  I hope you'll start on this journey with us - we're all at different
places but there are many voices and you'll be helped by different people
at different times.

BTW, go reread everything Jayjay said.  I absolutely ADORE Mistress Krista
and she's the real deal.  Everything on her site is gospel truth.

Wendy
244/189/170