I am SICK AND TIRED of playing around. For years I have been kind of living this lifestyle that is damaging to me. A foot in one world. A foot in the other. I cannot do it anymore. Yes … I am taking a serious and aggressive approach to losing weight!!
It all started three weeks ago with a new friend. We were talking about the fact that I have been drinking breakfast smoothies and stay hungry the rest of the day. He asked me to try the “Eat like a King at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper at supper” approach. (Okay … I am not doing the pauper thing yet). He encouraged me to eat a big breakfast, full of protein, fruit, and grains. Get all of the metabolism pumping. Then, for lunch, something reasonable. And for supper I am doing something else reasonable, too. He dared me to try it for a month.
Then, at the deacon soup supper at EBC, Diana and I were talking to ANOTHER friend and she told us about the MyFitnessPal app for my iPhone. (They have a really cool website too.) It helps me manage calories and FULL nutritional info on the foods I eat, exercise, and the amount of water I drink in a day. It has an elaborate database with all kinds of foods. I can scan the barcode of snacks and foods I eat and it automatically enters the nutritional info. I can build recipes with the exact ingredients I put into a meal and it will combine them and calculate the nutrition based on the number of servings it makes.
There is another thing it does that I like that explains why I have been unable to lose weight to this point. It has fast-food information from all of the restaurants I frequent (or USED to frequent) and I have discovered that all of these grilled chicken salads and sandwiches I would eat, thinking they were good for me, are just as bad as the fried stuff!! Well, maybe they are a little better, but from a calorie and sodium standpoint, they are AWFUL!! You can find some good things at Wendy’s and Chick-fil-a, but those are the only two I have found so far that have acceptable foods.
And two and a half weeks in, I have lost 9 pounds. But I have a long way to go. Pray for me!
The Random Thinker 
You can do this!! I will be one of your many cheerleaders. I am trying to do the same. I am trying not to eat out and cook at home. I take my lunch to school too. You know what you’re eating when you make it yourself. :-).
Good luck David :). You can do it! The only issue I have with those apps is scanning the barcodes of processed foods. Lots of the healthiest foods don’t have barcodes- fruits, veggies, nuts, etc. I do think eating a healthy breakfast helps, especially a breakfast that includes protein. If you want to do smoothies, you can blend greens and fruits in them too, along with protein powder (healthy, high-quality protein- of course) or Greek yogurt. And nothing wrong with the occasional splurge too- just occasional.
Congrats on your 9 lbs. Sounds like you’re already on the right track!