My wonderful, wonderful, amazing best friend emailed me today and is planning to make big changes in her life and would really like to lose weight–50lbs is the ultimate goal, but 20 lbs is what is her “real” goal, at least for right now. She’s an ex-swimmer, NOT a triathlete (even though she’s done one with me), and I think mostly just wants to watch her eating more and exercise more. I sent her my laundry list of food tips and exercise tips (esp. strength), but I thought I’d pose the question to you ladies–any tricks/tips/etc. that have helped you with weight loss? Any comments/thoughts greatly appreciated! She seems super-motivated right now and we’re emailing each other our food/training logs right now…but I was thinking just a few extra pieces of advice might help–and I only know so much! 
Here’s what worked for me (I lost 40 lbs in 9 months).
Whole foods. Lots of fresh fruits/veggies. Buy a lot and then make sure you eat them before they go bad.
Watch processed sugar. Even fat free strawberry yogurt has it. Have plain fat free yogurt with fresh berries instead.
Eat something 100 calories or so after working out (even the shorter workouts where you don’t need a recovery drink/meal). It helps you from being starving later.
Eat breakfast. Even if you aren’t hungry. Everyone always says this and it is so true. Even today I was in a hurry, wasn’t hungry and left the house. With 2 hours I was hitting a convenience store to find something. I settled on the healthiest things they had, but it’s about 2x the calories I would normally eat for breakfast.
When I started to lose weight I would allow myselft a day where after my workouts I could eat as I pleased. This normally meant pizza on Sundays only weighed myself once a week on Mondays. So eventually I got to the point where I wouldn’t want to eat pizza because I knew I was weighing myself Monday morning. Mind trick, but it worked.
Give up alcohol. In the past 7 years (since I turned 30), I found a pattern. I would workout and eat right during the week and lose a couple pounds. Then on the weekend I’ll still workout and eat right, but would also drink. I would gain those couple pounds right back. Alcohol seems to slow down my metabolism a lot and so it takes working out a lot more to counter it. Even when I was only drinking 2 beers a week, those 300 calories seemed to be ten fold.
I’ve never been good at at food diary, but it seems to work for a lot of people.
Get rid of all junkfood in the house. I have NO will power.
Since getting rid of processed foods and artificial sweeteners, I feel great. Next to giving up smoking years ago, giving up artificial sweeteners is one of the best things I have done for myself. Period.
nothing tastes as good as thin feels
sorry, I’m feeling anorexic today. Tell her to keep track of what she eats, don’t eat processed stuff, eat 400 calories every 3-4 hours combo of carb fat protein… exercise… that should do it.
nothing tastes as good as thin feels
WRONG! 
I enjoy feeling like a runway model far too much.
Yeah, we’re not discussing this. I just got back from a therapy appointment. I don’t need more of it 
I have found Calorie King, www.calorieking.com, to be very helpful in keeping track of calories in vs. calories out and keeping me accountable. For me, at least, I think the system overestimates what I burn for exercise, but they have a manual calorie override function that takes care of that. Some people are great at keeping their own food diary for weight loss, but having a computer program that makes it easier is worth the $7/month to me.
Eat big at breakfast OR lunch (mid size whichever is not so big) and smaller at dinner.
Resolve not to eat anything after 8pm.
If you feel hungry after that have a herbal tea (I like peppermint with a small spoon of honey).
Perhaps go for a 20-30min walk after dinner - helps digestion, keeps metabolism ticking a bit longer.
My weight just kept creeping up little by little over the past few years. I pulled the trigger and did an iron-distance in November, so don’t let me say that all that training had nothing to do with it, but during the first few months I was still eating like crazy.
Someone told me to start writing it down (I logged it online at fitday.com) and I was shocked. I started making some smarter decisions, getting a little more serious about the water intake and paying attention to what times I was eating and my moods. I quit eating to make myself feel better and went for high return-on-investment foods - things that make me feel good (or better, if needed) but don’t derail the whole train. I started going for healthier ice cream when ice cream was necessary (I still can’t replace with sorbet though…there are some things that just don’t fool my brain), being more adamant about the snacks (fruit in the morning, almonds in the afternoon - or something like that) and just paying attention.
Again, I was in a fairly heavy training pattern - but I dropped about 12 pounds in about 2 months - while increasing my muscle mass. As an example the other way - and why the changes we make should be those we choose to make for the rest of our lives - I went head-first off the freaking wagon after that race - have lost a lot of muscle, quit paying attention and logging food and though I only gained back about 7lbs, I’ve felt like crap for a month.
Tell her we’ll be behind her all the way and proud of her accomplishments at every step. Tell her to believe in her committments and that there’s nothing she can’t do!
It’s all easier said than done right. Move more, eat less etc.
The things that helps me the most and that I also struggle with, is just to be mindful. If I stop and think “do I really want to eat this?” (if it’s something none too healthy) I usually don’t. Too often though I’ll eat something then think “why in the hell did I eat that?”
I was in Starbucks this morning and the rice krispie treats were looking pretty good. I thought about it and decided to eat the plain yogurt and berries (thanks Maggs) I had in my car instead.
I think another important factor is to be prepared. Have healthy, filling stuff on hand at work and home so that the rice krispie treat, brownie etc. doesn’t end up down the hatch.
Good luck to your friend and to all of us who are fighting the weight fight.
Food logging.
Any of the web sites already listed should work.
Spend the equivalent to a college semester educating yourself about nutrition.
Awesome post!! I have a new dear friend that I am starting to mentor in the workout regime. She also wants to lose weight and is an ex-swimmer. I will send her this link! I think one of the coolest things we can do as active women is to get other women active too! Its totally empowering!
for sure! where do you live in CO? i just moved here!
Great replies! I am really tired of carrying around this extra dead weight. I won’t profess to help people keep it off, but a great free site to log is
Thanks for being so supportive here
nothing tastes as good as thin feels
WRONG!
Amen Sister!
nothing tastes as good as thin feels See, for me this rings true. I feel better when I can exert some self control (which is not often.) So thin actually feels better than tastes. For TC and others sturggling with disorders, maybe not so much.
I’ve lost about 23 pounds in the last 9 months. For me it didn’t start to fall off until I started to lift weights (in addition to regular cardio). Throughout the winter all I did was cardio 3x a week and weights 3x a week and it fell off. I honestly think the weights, for me, was the key to getting the flab to shed itself off da a$$. So, in addition to all of the great stuff people have said about food, encourage her to incorporate a weight workout; one that she enjoys.
I completely understand that the only way we as humans will give up something, delicious foods, is that they want something else , thinness speed or even longevity.
I am resisting the temptation of listing the foods that taste better than thin. For me, performance tastes way better than thin. If I don’t eat I don’t perform.
p90x
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I’m starting to use the mantra that Nothing tastes as good as fast feels. Seems a bit healthier to me