The Scale Demon must leave

I have been trying to lose weight for a little over a year. Being overweight has plagued me for most of my life. I was bigger than other kids when I was a kid, and as a Teen I was in the "too fat to be pretty." club.
I spent from age 12 until about 17 coming up with CRAZY crash diets to drop four or five pounds only to gain them back and then some. I will not post the details of some of the "Diets"...lets simply say they didn't work for the long term.
Last year after several attempts to make weight loss stick after having my son, I finally decided to go with a "eat anything you want, but keep the portions under control" life style. I don't count it as a diet, I simply decided to stop eating a side of beef with a two liter of soda. I also took a bit from my house keeping guru "THE FLYLADY". I have taken weight loss and a healthier life style in baby steps. I want to lose weight, but I want to be healthy for the rest of my life. I can only achieve both through education and behavior modification.
In the past year I have learned some things that might help the rest of the world and hopefully will help me learn more to keep the weight off for good.
1. Skip the Mayonnaise. I realize you can weigh mayonnaise and keep the portions under control but at nearly 100 calories per serving its simply not worth it.

2. Smaller Portions are filling. I think too often we've been served ENORMOUS portions of food and think to ourselves "No way is a Cup of Cereal and Banana going to get me going for Breakfast." and surely it does and then some!

3. 20 minutes can be the difference between Binge, and satisfaction. When I am hungry or my blood sugar drops to where I feel like I might pass out I tend to over eat. A while back I decided to wait twenty minutes after a reasonably sized portion of food (that is weighed on scale) before getting seconds or desert. This rule has helped me realize my body doesn't need to be over stuffed, it needs time to catch up.

4. Working out probably will not help you lose weight, but it will certainly help the shape of the flabby body. This was a hard realization for me. Yes, you do burn calories, but more than likely those Carole's are eaten back. However, where my legs used to be flabby they have some sort of definition and my arms are actually toned. I can actually RUN.

5. Real weight loss and fitness does not happen in 30 days as many diet and exercise gadgets claim. Yes, you can lose weight and get shape fairly quickly, but if you do not learn the skills to maintain the lifestyle for a healthy body in that time then you've done it all for nothing. Its going to take several more years for me to learn everything I need to know to maintain my current life style.

6. You have to have mini goals. Big goals are wonderful but without some small mile stones along the way those larger goals can be nearly impossible to reach. In the past my mini goals have been "Run a Full Mile", "Lose 4lbs before summer," "Work out Three days a week". Each of these goals have gotten me further along in the over all idea. I cannot run a 5K without running a Mile, I cannot lose 40lbs without losing 4 more pounds, my over all fitness and stamina will suffer without working out.


Right now I have been trying to get 5 to 10lbs to move before summer getss here. Its just 25 days a way. No i want havea bikini body or even a swim suit body, but I'll be 5 to 10lbs lighter than I was last summer. I really need the scale to move as its been stuck on the same number for the past 3 weeks.