Track

How to get back into a mindset of eating more healthfully to lose weight?

Well I finally acknowledged that I need to reduce calories to around 1000 per day.  Facing that fact is daunting but oh well, that's the way it is.

How can I stay full on fewer calories?  

  1. For more fiber, fill up on vegetables and fruits.  

  2. For staying full longer, choose protein over carbohydrates.  

  3. For less bloat, choice more vegan and organic, avoid dairy and GMOs.  

  4. For more nutrition, take supplements and have more raw food.
  5. In the beginning, use homeopathic appetite suppressants to help reduce hunger.

To help with the filling up on more vegetables and fruit part of the equation, I decided I need to buy a good variable speed blender. 

So that, sorted.  Now I just have to start tracking what I eat to be more conscious of keeping the calorie counts low.

p.s. America's Test Kitchens likes Vitamix best, but for half the price advises the Breville Hemisphere Control is good too, and much quieter to protect hearing.

Redux

Alright, its time to get back to business.  I need to have a plan and this is it.  I'll base it on the Weight Watchers plan, without joining Weight Watchers.

Keeping it simple:

-most importantly, undressed, high-nutrition vegetables and fruits are free, no calories counted, unlimited portions.  No excuse to ever be hungry.
-every day the calorie limit is 880-1040 counted calories.
-every week there is an optional, additional 1960 calories over the daily limit, to be used throughout the week or even all in one day!
-aim to drink 6 cups of water per day or more.
-aim to be vegan when reasonable.
-aim to plan 7 meals to grocery shop every week.
-any and all exercise will increase weekly weight loss.
-aim to lose 1+ lb per week.

I need a little notebook that will fit in my purse, to keep track of everything I eat and drink.

I am going to have two jars and fill one with one stone for every pound I aim to lose.  As I lose weight I'll move the stones from the before jar to the after jar.

Recording current weight and measurements.  I am going to get down to a sexy, attractive weight again where I feel confident and more valuable.  Even as offensive and superficial as it sounds there is the truth that people remark that women who are thin are in a better "league".

My one year of goals must be adjusted - redone.  Goal weight is 127-145 lbs.   Stopping when I feel satisfied that I can maintain that weight comfortably for all of my life.  Remember: 115-121 lbs is 18-23% body fat.

- - - - - - - One Year of Goals - - - - - - - - - - - -
January 2014 = 197 lbs.
March 2014 = One quarter (-13 lbs) = 184 lbs.
May 2014 -One third (-17.3 lbs) = 180 lbs.
June 2014= First -10% (-20 lbs.) = 177 lbs.
July 2014 = One half (-26 lbs) = 171 lbs.
September 2014 = Two thirds (-34.7 lbs) = 162 lbs.
October 2014 = Second -10% (-18 lbs.) = 159 lbs.
October 2014 = -Three quarters (-39 lbs) = 158 lbs
January 2015 = -Four quarters (-52 lbs) = 145 lbs.
January 2015 = Third -10% (-16 lbs) = 143 lbs.
May 2015 = Fourth -10% (-14 lbs) = 129 lbs.
July 2015 = Fifth -10% (-13) = 116 lbs.

- - - - - - - One Year by Month - - - - - - - - - - - -
January 2014 = 196 lbs or 14 stone.
February 2014 = 191 lbs or 13 stone 9 lbs.
March 2014 = 186 lbs or 13 stone 4 lbs.
April 2014 = 182 lbs or 13 stone.
May 2014 = 178 lbs or 12 stone 10 lbs.
June 2014 = 173 lbs or 12stone 5 lbs.
July 2014 = 169 lbs or 12 stone 1 lb.
August 2014 = 165 lbs or 11 stone 11 lbs.
September 2014 = 160 lbs or 11 stone 6 lbs.
October 2014 = 156 lbs or 11 stone 2 lbs.
November 2014 = 152 lbs or 10 stone 12 lbs.
December 2014 = 147 lbs or 10 stone 7 lbs.
January 2015 = 143 lbs or 10 stone 3 lbs.
February 2014 = 139 lbs or 9 stone 13 lbs.
March 2015 = 134 lbs or 9 stone 8 lbs.
April 2015 = 130 lbs or 9 stone 4 lbs.
May 2015 = 126 lbs or 9 stone.
June 2015 = 121 lbs or 8 stone 9 lbs.
July 2015 = 116 lbs or 8 stone 4 lbs.

KEY:

Obese = 188+ lbs. (My BMI obese is 175+ lbs.)

Overweight = 155-187 lbs. (My BMI overweight is 145-174 lbs.)

Average Large = 134-154 lbs. (My BMI normal large is 132-144 lbs.)

Average Medium = 124-133 lbs. (My BMI normal medium is 120-131 lbs.)

Average Small = 112-123 lbs. (My BMI normal small is 108-119 lbs.)

Unprecedented

Well Tuesday is my Weight Watchers meeting.  With a Weight Watchers Meeting starting weight of 174.2  and my weigh-in on Tuesday of 169 that equals an unprecedented 5.2 lbs lose!!!!!

I have never lost that much in one week before.   I'm very happy.  It's so encouraging to love a program as much as I love this Weight Watchers program and to be so successful too.  Very encouraging.

So encouraging that I bought their 10 minute resistance band exercise video, so first thing in the morning i can start out with that 10 minute exercise.  Then walk and run at lunch.  When I think about exercise I think running to lose weight but my boss who is very slim suggested I work out with weights that is what she does everyday at lunch.

She's right.  So I'm starting with the resistance band exercise and walking (and running) to not stress out my muscles too much.  But even the 1/2 hour walk everyday helps.  So adding more walking and gentle running should hopefully prevent against weight gain like has happened in past when I've started some new exercise program.  Gentle is the way, at least for me, for now.

Unprecedented weight loss.

Oh and its Thursday today and my scale says I weigh 164 lbs which is the first time I reached that weight on my scale too.  So the needle really is going in the right direction.  Yes I am excited again.

To compare with Omron scale results in past:  weight is 166.2 lbs, BMI of 28.5    Body fat is 45.5%  Muscle is 22.5%, I need 1445 calories to maintain my current weight, Visceral fat is 9.
Measurements:
Bust 44.75"
Rib 35"
Waist 37.5"
Hip 40.5"
Bicep right 13"
Thigh right 22.25"

HSGDplan

My goal is to reduce my daily calorie consumption from 1500 calories a day to 1200 calories a day so that I will be able to stop plateauing and start losing weight.

 I found a copy of the 30-day Healthy Skinny Girl Diet plan and here it is:

Because of Dr Fuhrman I know how to fill up with lots of nutritious food -- eating lots of vegetables, especially dark green vegetables, and fruit, beans, etc.  So I do not have to worry about malnutrition for certain.  And I may not have to worry about feeling hungry, I hope.  We'll see. 

I reserve the right on any day to eat up to 1200 calories just because I want to; but I'll try to keep it down to the daily limit or else exercise enough to be able to subtract calories to equal the daily limit.

I have a do-able exercise plan, too (this in addition to one daily walk in the evening):  

* First thing every morning do 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, and walk around the block.  

* Tuesday through Thursday lunchtime walk or run for 45 minutes at the track.

* Three to five nights a week follow 1 exercise dvd of my choice.

Week Two

Dec 10. This is the weekend of the first week transitioning into the Dr Fuhrman 6-week Holiday Challenge.

I didn't throw out all junk food and start out clean. I live with other people, its their house, and they would not appreciate such a clean out. That's not the way I like to do things anyway.  I'm transitioning into the program, taking this first week to clarify the important points that I should strive for.

When I start exercising I don't expect to do all the exercises perfectly, I expect to start out struggling and then slowly get better.  That's how I expect to transition into Dr Fuhrman's diet too.   Start out where I am and figure out how to better follow Dr Fuhrman's plan.

Dr Fuhrman advises "the simple formula is explained in Eat to Live.  
breakfast - fresh fruit
lunch - salad and soup and one fruit
dinner - salad or raw veggies with dip, steamed greens with mushrooms* and onions, fresh fruit.
nuts and seeds in the dressings and dips.
You can prepare all the food you need on Wednesday nights and Sundays.  You only need to pick a few simple recipes ans make one soup a week and two salad dressings a week."
*On the PBS show Dr Fuhrman advised all we need is 10 grams of cooked mushroom per day for benefit, this is one cooked mushroom per day.

One thing I did this week was buy ingrediants I've never tried:  kale, brussels sprouts, Braggs amino acids, and nutritional yeast.  I printed off a bunch of Dr Fuhrman salad dressing recipes and will make one or more of those this weekend.

I'll also make chili or soup this weekend, and some refried beans and hummus too.  Just to prepare for the week ahead.

Each week I'll try a new dark green vegetable.  I'm scared of dark green vegetables, scared to try them.  It makes no sense but oh well, now is the time to face my fear.  Romaine, Arugala (rocket), Watercress, Endive, Mustard greens, Bok choy, Spinach, Kohlrabi.   Cruciferous vegetables include cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, asparagus.

I weigh 170.5 lbs today.  I am so relieved to be below the half way point and starting on the second half now.  I feel encouraged for the future too.

- - - - - - - - - - -UPDATE- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dec 12. First day of week two, weigh 172 lbs.  grrrrrrr  But waist is smaller! YAY
Neck 13.5"
Bust 43.5"
Rib 37"
Waist 39"
Hips 41"
Bicep12.75" right
Thigh 22.75" right

Week One

Every month  I seem to crave a new challenge to keep up the momentum, or revive my motivation to watch more carefully what I eat, to strengthen my resolve, to continue to eat less and exercise more.

Starting today and for the next 6 weeks, I'm going to follow the Dr Fuhrman Eat to Live plan of eating mostly fruit and vegetables that are either raw, or juiced, or steamed, as well as eating beans, nuts and seeds everyday.

I am looking forward to it, imagining it will feel like a spa.  That's how I'm going to think of it anyway.  It's not so different from how I've been eating on the gluten-free vegan plan; except I've been getting sloppy with that.  (This past weekend I craved pizza and cheesy nachos like crazy as well as diet Coke.  Too much fat, too much salt.)  In fact it's the plan I always imagined would be the most healthful way to eat.  So it will be interesting to see how good it is.  Fingers crossed.

Weight: 177.5 lbs  (This weight might just be a fluke. I weighed 174 the day before and after.)

Bust:  44.5"

Waist:  41.5"

Hips:  43.5"

Bicep:  13.5" right

Thigh:  22.5" right

I am committed to my health and I am taking Dr Fuhrman's Holiday Challenge!  This year, as I celebrate  the holidays and enjoy the company of my friends and family, I will make food choices to support my health.

For the next 6 weeks I promise to:

eat a large salad everyday,

eat a generous serving of steamed greens with mushrooms and onions,
satisfy my sweet tooth with 3 fruits a day,
have at least one fulfulling serving of beans each day.

For the next 6 weeks I promise to:
avoid white flour,
avoid sugar and artificial sweetners,
use oils sparingly.

I will resist peer pressure and tempting toxic food that would derail me from my health goals.
I will not compromise my health to please others.
I will set an example of health-mindedness for those around me.

Stones

Well I am very pleased that I am down to 173 today.  That means according to my BMI, I am finally, finally, finally below obesity.  I am only overweight. That is wonderful!

Next milestone will be to reach 171, that will be my half way point, minus 50 pounds out of a total 100 pound weight loss goal.

The next milestone after that will be to reach 169 because then I'll finally be under 170; and it was my goal for August 2011.

And the next milestone after that is 165 the goal for September 2011.

And the milestone after that is 161 the goal for October 2011.

And the milestone after that is 159 becuase then I'll finally be under 160.

And the milestone after that is 156 because that is the goal for November 2011.

Goal weight for December 2011 is 151 pounds.  Please dear God help me get back on track to meeting my monthly goals of the original 2-year plan before January 2012.

The next milestone in 2012 will be to reach less than 144 pounds in February 2012, then I will no longer be overweight, but within AVERAGE weight!  That will be very exciting!!

Tuck

Well today feels significant becuase I have tucked my shirt into my new skinny jeans and am wearing a beaded American Indian-style belt.  This is probably the first time I've worn my shirt tucked in since 1996.  I feel well proud of myself.

According to my 2-year plan this is where I should have been for the past few months:
March 2011 = 191 lbs
April 2011 = 186 lbs  ++
May 2011 = 182 lbs
June 2011 = 178 lbs
July 2011 = 174 lbs
August 2011 = 169 lbs  ++
September 2011 = 165 lbs
October 2011 = 161 lbs

I weigh 177 today.  That is a relief too, that I have made it under 180, that my weight is headed down again. So I am where I should have been in June, but oh well.  I'm trying to make up for it.  When I reach 173 lbs I'll be able to celebrate being merely Overweight instead of Obese according to my BMI.  Then I will be super, super happy.

The other significant thing is that when I started the weight loss in August 2010 I weighed 221 and wore a 42DD bra.  Ok?  Well now I weigh 177 and I wear a 42DD bra.  It is so frustrating.  I refuse to buy any new bras in this size.  I have two size 40DD bras jsut waiting for me to lose enough weight  to be able to wear them.   Maybe pretty soon. Maybe when I get down to 173, fingers crossed.

I have to say, though, that walking around in my skinny jeans with shirt tucked in, it feels like I'm finally myself again.  I feel thoroughly and utterly myself.

Alter

I was thinking about my new altar and I heard myself say the word altar, and realized its sounds the same as the word alter.  That is when I realized that an altar is all about reminding yourself to replace old bad habits with new better habits.  An altar is altering your state of mind from thinking about the profane day to day stuff to thinking about the eternal sacred.

This whole 2-year plan to become fit, to finding new goals for my future, is about altering the way I live day to day to align more closely with how I want to live. 

My new altar is personally for me, all about altering my life. 

Towards that goal, I currently weigh 178, that was my goal to reach by June 2011.   My goal was to be 165 by Septemeber 2011. And my goal is to be 161 in October 2011.  So I have a ways to go. 

Now I'm trying as well as possible to lose more than 1 pound a week, until I catch up to the goals I set originally for the 2-year plan.  Towards that end, I have been exercising everyday and that was not enough, so I have also had to alter my diet.  I am eating just once a day now.  I have water, tea, soy latte,  kombucha, and a probiotic drink that I can have all day, but I only chew one meal a day.   A normal meal that features a protein, vegetables, oil and a starches,  and a normal dessert of fruit.

So that is the plan I'm currently following for as long as it will work towards helping me catch up to the original goal weights I'd established at the begininning.  Fingers crossed this keeps working at least until I'm down to 159 or so, or even longer.

By the way, I purchased new skinny jeans this week, and they have altered the way I see myself and the way other people see me too. Everyone keeps remarking on how I am looking slimmer than ever, but the truth is I really haven't lost very much.  My bra and tops still fit almost the same. Becuase I am an apple shape, I gain weight on my torso, arms and breasts first, and lose it there last too.  Oh well, the main thing is just to lose it, eventually it will come off where I want it to come off.

Thinking

I’ve been thinking a lot about this question:  what was I thinking in June, July and August when I was essentially not losing weight?  I still weigh 181 instead of the 165 where I should be according to my modest weight loss goal chart. This is what I realized:

I was thinking I’m afraid of change. 

I was feeling like I didn’t have much control over my life.

I was worried that maybe it’s a mistake to get a divorce; or if ironic fate would have it that I’d have spent all this energy on divorce and end up sad, alone and regretful. 

I was scared for the future, not knowing what would happen; not entirely convinced that things would get better after divorce. 

I was feeling harried and hassled emotionally by people around me who were trying to influence me to stay with him.

I was worried if things wouldn’t work out the way I hoped, then I would be left in the same boat as when married.

I was feeling like I didn’t have much control over my life.

I was thinking I’m afraid of  change. 

That’s it.

I guess I just felt out of control and scared.


But I decided that the only way for me to have control is to take it.  Just take control over my life. Bend myself to my will and my life will feel less scarey anyway.  It might not turn out the way I want still, but I’ll feel more empowered anway.  And I think it was that feeling out of control, having no power over the outcome that kept my laces untied so I kept tripping myself up.

So I decided I have to keep tying my laces.  Everyday, to stop tripping I need to tie my laces by:

1.        Have ice water when I wake up. 

2.        Do 7-minute  sit-ups every morning. 

3.       Do 20+minute meditation everyday (still doing only about every other day.)

4.       Walk dog everyday (which I do now anyway). 

5.        Brush my teeth everyday (which I’m still having to remind myself to do.)

6.       Alternate doing push-ups and elliptical or bike one day and yoga the next.

7.       Eat carefully every single meal, every single snack.

8.       Have ice water throughout day.

9.       When I need running shoes or whatever to go running or whatever, then buy them, don’t put it off as an excuse to not run.

10.   Imagine myself as a fashion model or athlete who depends on my body for my living; really try to think of my body as a precious object that I need to manage and maintain carefully as a way of uplifting my mood and helping me feel empowered.

So that’s what I was thinking and those are my new conclusions.

Wheat

At the beginning of this month my Mom showed me an article in the Woman's World Weekly that promised a lose of up to 8-11 pounds in one week by going wheat-free!   I had just stayed with a good friend who has always been slim and she advised that gluten and cheese were the two most fattening foods she knows of.  So the prospect of losing 8-11 pounds in one week was too attractive to not try.  

I have been following the wheat-free, gluten-free diet for 2 weeks and have lost 7 pounds!  Starting weight was 188, now 181 pounds.  So not the promised headline results but still.  That's terrific!  I am going to keep doing this until it stops working.  But I hope it keeps working until I get down to the goal weight of 165 lbs. which is where I should be according to my modest weight loss progress chart. 

All I'm doing to change is eating lots of veggies and fruit and proteins.  Eating almost no dairy and greatly reduced carbs.  I still let myself have chocolate because that's my favorite treat, and have purchased special gluten-free wheat replacers for when I crave bread foods but eating lots of rice and bean dishes, lots of tofu.

This week I did make myself a wheat-free pizza and used only parmesan cheese as the cheese. However even that small amount of dairy caused a 2 pound weight gain over night.  So that makes me feel as if dairy really is something I need to avoid just as much or even moreseo than the wheat.  Dairy-free and wheat-free is what I need to strive for.

Fingers crossed I can get down to the goal weight of 165 pounds in 2 more weeks if I start adding vigorous cardio exercise everyday, minus one Sunday of rest each week.

Swimsuit

My activity plan currently is to do about an hour of yoga a day, and 35 min of meditation, for 5 days per week.  I want to do this for flexibility, increased body awareness, and to increase my level of fitness generally.

It helps for short periods of time to have exercise buddies.  A woman at work is going to the YMCA on her lunch hour for cardio, stretching and strengthening exercise.  She is doing this to decrease muscle aches and pains.  She is not also dieting and so even though she has been faithfully exercising since January she has not lost a discernable amount of weight.

On the other hand, from past experience I also found no discernable weight loss from exercising;   but I have been careful about eating less since August 2010, and I have been successfully losing weight even though I have not been excercing anymore than my daily walks with my dog and a few months in the beginning of doing 1 hour of yoga 1-2 times per week.

So this confirms my belief that you need to diet to lose weight, and exercise will increase general fitness, but  exercise alone is not as likely to lead to weight loss.

So anyway, I decided becuase the YMCA will let me have a month to month pass I will try exercising with my work buddy 4 times a week:  Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  Just to add a little more cardio and strength exercises.  I will commit to this for only one month at first, just becuase it's summer and I really am anxious to look a little less blubbery in summer clothes and my swimsuit.  I really, really want to feel comfortable in a swimsuit.  I'm not saying i want to feel gorgeous, just comfortable.

I'm not trying to push along the fat loss more than -1 lb a week, because I won't exercise that consistently or that hard.  But I just like every month to have a different thing to focus on.  Last month was an herbal detox, this month it will be exercising with a buddy, to help motivate her and me both.

"Anything worth doing, is worth doing slowly." --Mae West.

Frustration

Ok well Memorial Day weekend brought a lovely blue sky day and warm, even hot weather, 87F.  It felt hot because of the humidity.  The humidity for some reason always makes me feel so fat.  Even when I was slimmer it made me feel fat.

So my motivation to exercise more is stronger and yet at the same time I feel heavier and its harder to move.  So that's frustrating.

In addition when I saw my acupuncturist on Friday like I do every Friday she could tell I haven't been going to the bathroom as often as usual.  Every 3 days or so I told her.  She reassured me that was natural, because as a person loses weight not only does their stomach have to get used to smaller amounts of food but so does the intestines.

This is an issue I was concerned about when starting this weight loss journey.  I know in the past I'd become so successful at eating less in a very short period of time that my body sort of rebelled.  I wouldn't be able to go to the bathroom for 5 days or more sometimes.  I hated that, it really made me feel uncomfortable and distracted.  I do think exercise will help with this issue too.

So anyway as long as I'm writing about ugly body functions I might as well mention my other concern with losing weight any more quickly than my 1 lb per week goal.

Right now I'm struggling with how much exercise I should add.  Is yoga enough or should I do more to increase fat loss?  If I want to get slim as faster than my original plan then as I want to all I have to do, is add daily exercise 2 times a day and perhaps eat even less than the 1200-1500 calories a day that I eat now.

The problem with that is I have so much weight to lose and I'm not as young as I was.  I am quite seriously worried that losing weight any faster than I'm doing it now could induce a heart attack.  I really want to be careful and patient and gentle with myself.  The whole point of losing weight is to feel more control, more healthy and more at ease in the world, more loving to myself.  So if I start a hard discipline of lots of exercise I'm afraid I'll put all those goals at risk.

Ok frustration ended, I'm going to be content with an hour of yoga 5 times a week.  I won't do more than that.  I will however enjoy riding my bike, walking and swimming and being outside more.   Just the natural things people do to have fun in summer.  Because at last summer is really here! 

Why

For the plan that I'm sketching out,  I started with not having a calorie limit. I wanted simply to reduce my appetite.  I found that to be extemely difficult to maintain losing weight though -- I would just plateau gaining and losing 2-4 pounds week after week.

So I decided I needed to have a calorie limit and toyed with the numbers 1500 or 1800 because it would be easy to follow.

But I remember learning how during WW2 in Britain everyone was on food stamps from 1939 - 1954, and there were still many food shortages through the 1970s.  When I figured out the number of calories one would be eating if they were able to get all of their food rations each week, it averaged out to be 1200 calories per day.

I remember another WW2 story of a woman in Italy who held up her fist and said "one fistful of food a day, that's all you need to survive."  A fistful  it turns out, is the same size of what the stomach can comfortably hold.


So I came up with the notion that if I want to weigh 120 pounds eventually, I'll have to limit the number of calories I eat per day.  The most important factor to figuring out how many calories I need to eat to maintain a certain weight is the BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator.

When I put in my height, desired weight of 120 pounds, age and gender, the calculator tells me I need to eat 1243 calories per day to maintain that weight without any exercise.

So that has become my daily target.  To train myself to eat approximately 1200 calories per day, in an effort to get myself used to eating that much food, to learning what I need to do to meet that goal each day.

Wish me luck.

Balancing

I guess I haven't really said what I'm doing to lose the weight.  What plan am I following?  Well I have a lifetime of dieting experience to draw from.  I lifetime of learning approximate calories of food, one serving of celery is 5 calories or even minus a few a calories, whereas a Dairy Queen banana split is closer to 500 calories.   Exercise alone does not help me lose weight, dieting alone does help me lose weight, dieting and exercise does help me lose weight faster.  Protein staves off hunger, simple carbohydrates are what I crave but cause me to feel more hungry more often throughout the day.

So the plan I'm following is ever changing and evolving in reaction to successful and failed experiments.

In August I wanted change, it was easy to eat next to nothing.  I wasn't hungry for food, I was hungry for change.  I was lustful for life.  Food did not meet that craving, food was an impediment to meeting my lust. So in August and September it was easy to drop 10-20 pounds without even noticing how I did it.  I just ate very little.

But my appetite for food came back and then I plateaued, and plateaued, and plateaued for a month or three, it seemed.  I'd have a big emotional week or two of anticipation and then when that time passed I'd have a dramatic drop of 5 pounds overnight.

During the time of plateauing I was having Subway sandwiches often for lunch but eventually noticed I was craving food more often during the rest of the day.  So then I switched to just vegetables and proteins for lunch and found I didn't have those same cravings anymore.

Originally the goal was simply to eat less, and exercise more.  But exercise became stress. So I changed the goal to simply eating less.  Learning how to reduce my appetite is still the goal I struggle with.

This is the general plan I follow:

Breakfast:  fruit or vegetables

Lunch:  vegetables or vegetables and protein

Dinner:  anything I want

Dessert: 1 serving of anything I want.

But the goal also is to keep the calories for the day to be around 1200.  So 300 calories per meal on average.  Of course lunch tends to be light in calories and dinner heavy.  That is what I find most satisfying.  Some days the order of these meals is switched around, often I'll have my dessert at lunch. That is what currently works for me.

I drink lots of water. One glass when I wake up. One glass when I go to bed, and about a pitcher (2 quarts) of water or tea and water during the weekdays.  On weekends I drink less water because thats when I go shopping or visiting, its just a different schedule.

Weights

So the overall plan is to lose 100 pounds over 2 years or on average 1 pound per week.

I started at 220 pounds in August 2010 and will reach 120 pounds by August 2012. So time to break this down into mini goals. I've divided this two ways, pounds per week, and each -10% taking the same amount of time even though they are different pounds per week. So this just gives me a general guideline.

- - - - - - - Two Years of Goals - - - - - - - - - - - - 

August 2010 = 220 lbs.

 December 2010 = First -10% (-22 lbs) = 198 lbs.

 February 2011 = -One quarter (-25 lbs) = 195 lbs.

 April 2011 = -One third (-33.3 lbs) = 187 lbs.
April 2011 = Second -10% (-20 lbs) = 178 lbs.

August 2011 = -One half (-50 lbs) = 170 lbs.
August 2011 = Third -10% (-18 lbs) = 160 lbs.

 December 2011 = -Two thirds (-66.6 lbs) = 153 lbs.
December 2011 = Fourth -10% (-16 lbs) = 144 lbs.

 February 2012 = -Three quarters (-75 lbs) = 145 lbs

April 2012 = Fifth -10% (-14 lbs) = 130 lbs.

August 2012 = -Four quarters (-100 lbs) = 120 lbs.
August 2012 = Sixth -10% (-13 lbs) = 117 lbs.


- - - - - - - Two Years by Month - - - - - - - - - - - -
August 2010 = 220 lbs or 15 stone 10 lbs.
September 2010 = 216 lbs or 15 stone 6 lbs.
October 2010 = 212 lbs or 15 stone 2 lbs.
November 2010 = 208 lbs or 14 stone 12 lbs.
December 2010 = 203 lbs or 14 stone 7 lbs. ++
January 2011 = 199 lbs or 14 stone 3 lbs.
February 2011 = 195 lbs or 13 stone 13 lbs.
March 2011 = 191 lbs or 13 stone 9 lbs.
April 2011 = 186 lbs or 13 stone 4 lbs. ++
May 2011 = 182 lbs or 13 stone.
June 2011 = 178 lbs or 12 stone 10 lbs.
July 2011 = 174 lbs or 12 stone 6 lbs.
August 2011 = 169 lbs or 12 stone 1 lbs. ++
September 2011 = 165 lbs or 11 stone 11 lbs.
October 2011 = 161 lbs or 11 stone 7 lbs.
November 2011 = 156 lbs or 11 stone 2 lbs.
December 2011 = 151 lbs or 10 stone 11 lbs. ++
January 2012 = 147 lbs or 10 stone 7 lbs.
February 2012 = 143 lbs or 10 stone 3 lbs.
March 2012 = 139 lbs or 9 stone 13 lbs.
April 2012 = 134 lbs or 9 stone 8 lbs. ++
May 2012 = 130 lbs or 9 stone 4 lbs.
June 2012 = 126 lbs or 9 stone.
July 2012 = 122 lbs or 8 stone 10 lbs.
August 2012 = 118 lbs or 8 stone 6 lbs. ++
September 2012 = 114 lbs or 8 stone 2 lbs.

KEY: 

Obese = 188+ lbs.  (My BMI obese is 175+ lbs.)

Overweight = 155-187 lbs.  (My BMI overweight is 145-174 lbs.) 

Average Large = 134-154 lbs.  (My BMI normal large is 132-144 lbs.)

Average Medium = 124-133 lbs.  (My BMI normal medium is 120-131 lbs.)

Average Small = 112-123 lbs.  (My BMI normal small is 108-119 lbs.)

Renovation

To do:
1.  Plan better eating management.
2.  Plan an exercise routine.
3.  Plan a meditation routine.

Goals to work towards:
1. To lose fat and become better looking, slimmer, as well as to feel healthier.
2. To establish a short-term plan because long-term goals are too overwhelming; I'll want to keep changing and adjusting the plans anyway.
3. To lose fat consistently and as fast as possible but without stressing about it; so keep it easy too.

Start doing today:
1. Exercise for 20+ minutes, 3-5 times a week.
2. Everyday have fruit for 1 meal, veg for 1 meal, anything for 1 meal, and anything for dessert.
3. Keep track by writing down everything I eat.
4. Meditate for 10+ minutes 3-5 times a week.

Eating:
1. One meal of unlimited servings of fruit per day
2. One meal of unlimited servings of vegetables per day.  Vegetables do not include grains, but does include proteins and up to 1/4  C dressing.
3. One meal of whatever I want to eat per day.
4. One dessert of whatever I want to eat per day; includes anything but limited to 1 serving size.
5. Four or more cups of water per day and up to 4 cups of tea, coffee, hot chocolate with milk and sugar per day.  Does not include soda.
6. Once a month write down everything I eat for one full week, just to stay accountable.

Exercise:
1. One short walk everyday.
2. Exercise for 20+ minutes 3-5 times a week, such as yoga, elliptical, walking, etc.

Meditation:
1. Meditate for 10+ minutes 3-5 times a week.