Dieting sucks.

Whoa.  Slow down there.  A sensible weight loss is one to two pounds per week.  If you loose it fast you aren't as likely to keep it off.

Diet shouldn't be a short term thing, nor should it be torture.  To achieve true and lasting weight loss, you need to change your thinking about food, and it needs to include both a lifestyle and mental change.

Certainly cutting back on portions is a huge help.  Even using a smaller plate so you can't put as much food ON it is a huge mental help. 
But, what is junk food?  Sorry, but to me, chocolate is one of the essential food groups, and if I never ever let myself have any, eventually I'm gonna dive head first into a bag of super size fast breaks and not come out until every singe one is allllll gone, including wrappers licked squeaky clean.

I never eat until I'm full.  I stop when I am no longer hungry.  I tend to graze more so than eat meals.  By that I mean that I have several mini meals throughout the day.  I try to keep my "snacks" high protein and low carb, but by golly, if I am craving something salty, I might just eat some sun chips, or a handful of  dry roasted peanuts, so that way, even tho I'm eating junk food, I'm on the healthier end of junk.  And even though fruit is healthy and good for us, it's also higher on the glycemic index so I'm careful with that.

While I truly wish you luck, I also hope you'll diet in a healthier way.

Junk food for me is cake, ice cream, chips, cookies, donuts. I eat candy but it's not a big deal for me like the above listed is.

So 5 lbs was too much in one week? How do I get that to change? All I did was cut out the mt.dews,dr.peppers, and the above. I still eat lunch and supper. I'm not a breakfast fan. Never have been. And as for the exercise I've just added 1 extra walk in. So here's my exercise schedule as of now.

In the morning after everything is taken care of the dogs,Samantha, and I go for a bike ride. I do that in the morning because it's the coolest time of day for the dogs to run like that. After lunch we go for a 2 mile walk. And then again after supper. 

ETA: I like fruit so is that bad eating a lot of it? 

Yeah, five pounds really is too much in a week.  What they really recommend is one to two pounds per week.

I'm not a breakfast fan either, but I do make sure that I eat something in the morning, just to fuel the body.

And no, fruit isn't bad at all.  I'm careful with fruit because I have a diabetic husband and I eat as I feed him and watch the sugars.  That's all.

And have some ice cream if you are craving it.  But have ONE scoop instead of three.

Honestly?  With just cutting things out, you've had an incredible weight loss and that's great.  But, slow and steady is just more condusive to actually keeping the weight off.  At one point, my size EIGHTEENS were getting snug, and I was going into plus sizes.  And while I picked up about ten pounds last year, it's gone away and the size EIGHTS fit again.  The gain was due to being to busy to eat the way I normally eat...the grazing plan.  The loss? That was just flat adding in more exercise.  For many, many years, I could pretty well eat what I wanted and just increase my exercise a bit.....but age and injuries started ganging up on me, and I literally gained over sixty pounds.  But, most of it has stayed off simply because I lost it slow and steady.

I just lost 70 lbs over this past year.  I know how hard it is.

I did want to mention to you to make sure you are eating enough.  If you are walking 4 miles a day plus biking you want to make she you are taking in at least the minimum for your height/weight or you won't keep losing. 

I love those 100 calorie packs.  They've got them in almost everything now-Pringles, cookies, you name it.  I can give you some snack ideas if you let me know what you like. 

You probably won't continue to lose 5 pounds a week -- typically you lose more the first week (and part of that is water weight - particularly if you have cut down on salty stuff like pop!)

Have a substitute that you can say 'yes' to if you get the munchies.  You might want to experiment with making stuff like lemon slushies (crush ice in the blender, add fresh lemon and a little sweetener or whatever you use).  If you get a major craving for ice cream you CAN eat a slushie.  I've made them out of lemon, orange juice, or other fruits. 

Fruit is good and it's part of any *good* diet.  But just don't run amok on it -- and be careful because often the fruit that 'calls' to you may be the really high sugar things. 

The biggest deal for me is keeping busy.  when I go on a 'diet' I often find myself so obsessed by food that it's all I can think of.  The best thing I've done for myself is, with the help of my husband, expand my "things to do" so that I keep so busy that food has become simply something to survive, rather than an 'event'.  If a slice of chocolate cake is the best part of your day ... then you don't have enough to keep your mind busy.

You have a two year old -- so time for YOU is probably precious.  And in the past it may have involved sneaking some yummy thing.  So maybe you could change that -- making time for a hobby that's something precious to you, etc. -- it might work better to take your mind off food.  Just something from the "me" files.

I think it's important to eat stuff that you would normally eat because it's supposed to be a lifestyle and if what you are eating isn't what you "normallly" would then it won't last.  I still eat everything I've always eaten just in moderation.  The only things I did completely cut out or drastically limit were things that I liked so much that I couldn't eat in moderation-even when trying very hard and buying only single serving bags.

I think five pounds in the FIRST week is fine. Last time I cut my calories, I lost 4 pounds each of the first two weeks, and then slowed to 1-3 pounds a week.

I'm doing Weight Watchers.  A lot of people lose 5 pounds the first and even the second week, and even may keep losing 3 or 4 pounds the next few weeks.  But that slows down and they discourage more than 2 pounds a week after the first 10% of your starting weight is lost.  Really, it's hard to lose more than that anyway if you stick to the plan and make sure you use your daily activity points.

I didn't know when to say "no" or listen to my hunger signals.  I grew up very, very poor, and we often didn't get enough to eat.  I've still got the mentality that abundant food is "special" - and eating out is "special" - and I have a lot of emotional ties to eating and not denying myself anything, now.  WW helped me learn strategies for coping with that.  I do Core, so I eat enough to satisfy me from a list of foods (lots of nice, sensible, healthy foods), and anything else has to be counted like the regular WW plan.

My biggest change was sitting down and thinking about when I eat, and why, and then planning ahead.  I even plan my snacks.  I know I'll be hungry for protein in the mornings when I come in from doing chores, so I eat a moderately big breakfast with eggs and ham or Canadian bacon, fat free dairy, and lots of veggies and a piece of fruit. 

I know I'll be hungry for something carby to help me "unwind" when I come in from training the dogs, so I spend my "points" on high-fiber English muffins, whole grain bread toast, whole grain crackers, or a mini bagel with low fat cream cheese.  Sometimes if I'm really hungry I'll have something Core, like a bowl of grits or oatmeal, and of course I always grab some veggies or fruit. 

I know I'll be hungry for something light later in the afternoon, so I plan a soup, or a salad, or a steamed veggie, or a bowl of canned fruit, or plate of mixed fruit.  At night for a bedtime snack, I have fruit, a cup of half gourmet flavored coffee and half skim milk, and if I'm really snackish I'll have some air-popped popcorn, a bowl of cereal with skim milk, or a hard boiled egg.

In addition to this I have my three square meals a day.  I've noticed since I started this, that I've reversed my order of eating - I have a big breakfast (I was a card-carrying breakfast hater my whole life), then a moderate lunch, and then a very light dinner.  I've noticed that I am much more alert in the morning now - I get up literally two hours earlier, and actually have a brain before noon.  I sleep better, too. 

I don't drink anything (other than the coffee) but plain water or seltzer water.  Every time I give in to the sweet craving and start drinking diet drinks, I get to craving other sweet stuff.  I'm sensitive to most artificial sweetener anyway - everything but splenda is a big no-no and splenda does weird things to my digestion if I get too much (this is distinct from the very severe problems I get from too much alcohol sugar liek malitol or sorbitol - [8-O]).  I've learned just falling behind on my water can screw things up dramatically.  When you are losing weight, your body needs water to process what's leaving. 

Ditto on the fiber in the fruits and veggies (legumes too).  It's not just good for you - these things literally work to remove fat as you consume more energy than you put in.  I try to make sure I eat berries every day, in addition to taking an antioxidant - as we know with the dogs, we use up antioxidant stores when we process fat.  All of this helps get rid of the fat without feeling starved or exhausted all the time.

I like how the plan is laid out very specifically.  If I follow it, I lose weight.   If I start fudging, I don't lose much.  I can then go back and say, well, look, I got behind on my 6 waters a day - or I didn't eat 5 servings of fruits and veggies.   It keeps me accountable and that's huge.  I don't feel like I'm on a diet.  I feel like I joined a big family who helped me get my life back.  Sorry for the corniness, but I'm just gobsmacked at how well this is working.

I've lost 40 pounds in a little over six months.  I still have a very long way to go, but in two more pounds my BMI will drop from "obese" to "overweight" - I'm so pleased with that, not to mention fitting into stuff I haven't worn since I got pregnant with my seven year old son!

glenmar

Whoa.  Slow down there.  A sensible weight loss is one to two pounds per week.  If you loose it fast you aren't as likely to keep it off.

Depends how much you got to lose though.  The first week of two you'll lose more, then it should level out.  Don't feel disheartened when this happens

Give yourself a pat on the back!  That's GREAT! 

Don't deny yourself anything though, it will only make it harder to stick to your new plan.  Teach yourself moderation.  Making yourself stop when full is the BEST thing you can do.

When you feel like a snack, do you take a drink of water?  A lot of the time we mistake thirst for hunger and often a drink WILL satisy you.  If it fails, try DOING something as opposed to sitting there thinking about the treat you wish you could have.  Teach you dog a new trick or wash some dishes or go for a walk - ANYTHING.   

DH has lost about 75 lbs this past year, but he did it by increasing exercise, and following this plan where he eats certain things at certain times of the day -- like, carbs on in the morning or for lunch, increase protein to 100 g/day and drink LOTS of water.  Also limit high-sugar fruits and eat whole grains instead of white.  Protein shake before bed to fuel the metabolism overnight.  Those few basic things, along with eating healthier desserts (frozen yogurt, sugar free jello, etc) has helped him find an eating plan that he can basically stick with forever if he wants.  And the past month or so he has been "cheating" and having carbs with dinner or something and has still maintained nicely.  He still has 20lbs to go but he had finals and exams for school so he allowed himself to not obsess over it and was able to stay within 5 lbs of his lowest weight.  He doesn't deny himself, but he has really bad portion control so I have to be careful what I buy for me -- cookies for me means I get 2-3 and then he gets a craving and will eat the entire bag on me.  So I portion EVERYTHING out that might be bad -- usually he won't get up to get another baggie, but if they are in front of him they are fair game!

So good luck -- its definitely do-able!!

 I like fruits but the only fruit we actually keep in the house is apples. I eat 2 at the most a day. Samantha loves them also. Sometimes we have bananas and grapes but not very often. What is a high sugar fruit?

We wasnt poor growing up but we didnt eat out but once or twice a week. And when we did eat out it was always McDonalds. ECK. I hate that place. So now that I am grow and can eat out as much as I want I do and eat like crazy too where ever I eat. I really would rather eat out than at home. But I have been cutting out my eating out and so far in the past week I have at at Subway and a Hometown Pizza. Hometown Pizza has a buffet and I think I did good there. I got me a  couple slices of pizza and when I wasnt hungry anymore I didnt get back up and get more just cause I could. I stopped!!! 

I don't remember exactly what was high sugar fruit, but I remember being surprised that bananas were.  watermelon is, I think as are cherries and grapes.  I think they recommended less than 5 servings of the high sugar a week. 

I know grapefruit was pushed a lot but we don't like it.  apples are good, oranges and maybe cantelope were the best low-sugar fruits.    We're picky so I probably just didnt' pay attention to the ones we didn't like

The reason to avoid high sugar ones, even though its natural sugar so better than processed sugar is the effect on your body sugar -- you dont want huge glycemic changes throughout the day since it usually makes you hungrier.