Continuing Is Easier Than Starting

It's not staying on a food plan that is so hard. It's starting and stopping and starting and stopping.

The key is to stick with it. It's toughing it out through the hard times--figuring out what to eat when you're already hungry, getting a really healthy choice when you eat out so that you stay within your limits, or walking away from something that smells or looks really tempting--that builds your stamina & drive and ability to make the healthy choices. It's kind of like marriage. You can't appreciate it fully until you've worked through some challenges. . . if you always just jump (fall off the diet wagon, etc.), you don't get the same kind of deep satisfaction and communion.


Things I know help me stick with a food plan:

• Writing down what I eat before I eat it
• Knowing what my limits are for the day (so I know how thing how things fit)
• Packing my lunch
• Eating a variety of food
• Exercising most days (it makes me feel longer and leaner)

What advice would you add to someone who needs to lose a lot of weight?