Lessons learned...Eat the right stuff at the right time....

I think that one of the most important things I did was constantly evaluating how I felt and journaling my food intake, activity, stress/peace level. It made it very apparent how important what i ate and when was to how I felt each day. Tough to do but a great tool. Since we are all different some of what I did may not work for you but it is all based on either my own personal experience or on some sound research. (I am nerdy that way, I read the reports..sad really...but I digress)

My particular problem was not eating enough (busy lifestyle right, running here, constantly changing schedule..sound familiar?) I would blow off breakfast and lunch and sometimes not eat dinner until 10pm or later and by that point I was starving. Add to that the fact that I was tired by that point and I was choosing "quick" foods that came from a drive thru window or out of a box of some kind.To change that I began eating 5 or 6 times a day...super high quality calories... while still maintaining a modest calorie deficit. I eat the same breakfast everyday because I hate eating as soon as I get up but it is a necessity for metabolism.  A typical day might go something like this...

(8:00 am)1 bowl of High Fiber cereal (Kashi Island Vanilla in my case) w/fat free milk - 1 lowfat yougurt - 1 banana

I consume far more calories in the next two meals but they are extremely compact and portable.

(10:00 am) 1 Vanilla Bean Orgain(255cal), 1 or 2 bananas/apples/, Lrg Coffee (cream/sugar)

(12:00 am) 1 Vanilla Bean Orgain(255cal), 1 or 2 bananas/apples/salad,and/or 2tbsp Peanut/Almond Butter on Whole grain w natural fruit spread

(2:00 pm) 1 yogurt or snack and Lrg Coffee (cream/sugar)

(5:00 pm) Dinner with the family (I eat modestly from whatever is prepared about half or less what a normal portion might be)

(Bedtime) 3/4cup low-fat cottage cheese with 1/2 cup vanilla yougurt and 1/4 cup granola
(cottage cheese is a slow digesting protein source that will power any rebuilding your body does overnight)

www.drinkorgain.com

One of my not so secret weapons in losing the 100lbs is the product  called Orgain....you can find it at Wegmans or you can order it online. Comes in Chocolate or Vanilla is great alone or as a replacement for milk, and isn't really grainy. It was made by a Dr. who was being treated for cancer and wanted an all natural meal replacement. It is entirely made from plant materials and whey protein (Whey is the milk protein and is probably the best form of protein available..short of legumes..try to avoid soy protein because its effectiveness is limited when over processed or treated with heat - EVERYTHING that is heated is less healthy than in its raw form. That's one of the near absolute truths in nutrition)
I use Orgain as the core of my 2nd and 3rd meals during the day. Usually I supplement it with fruit (bananas and apples are high quality fruits that travel well so I pack them with me in the morning if i am going to be out 3 or 4 of ea.) or with some sort of vegetable, or my old standby 2 tbsp Almond butter w/ blueberry fruit spread on 2 slices of whole grain bread. The total of these two meals should be about 1/2 to 2/3 of my entire calorie intake for the day.  Just remember that you want the bulk of your calories to be eaten when you need the fuel...during the day...the later it gets the less you should eat.  So if you want a burger and fries have it for lunch rather than for dinner.  Gotta have that spaghetti with meatballs and sauce?  Sure thing but for lunch or an early dinner when you have an active evening planned.  There is a window of time (roughly 3-4 hours) for your body to either use the calories you consumed or to decide to store them for use later.  Stored means converted to fat and if you are lounging around unwinding after a busy day you can bet that's where those calories are going.

Side note- I dramatically restricted my Sodium intake when I began this process...notice I said Sodium and not "salt"   Simply leaving the salt shaker on the table isn't going to have a big affect on your health.  In fact table salt has Iodine added to it, a critical element for health that lacks in many peoples natural diet. If you should ever weigh yourself and find that your weight jumped by three or four pounds seemingly overnight chances are whatever you ate the day before had far too much sodium in it and has you retaining water, which accounts for the sudden weightloss.   I also eliminated...white, bleached flour from my diet in all forms until my metabolism kicked up. I think I am naturally Gluten sensitive because breads made me feel slow, sleepy and heavy.  I think many people have the same problem, and it's effects make starting and sticking to a weight loss plan even harder by keeping them sluggish and robbed of energy. There are EXCELLENT gluten-free options for nearly everything (my favorite is the chocolate cake!) The only way to know whether this will make a difference for you is to take about two-three weeks off of eating processed flour products and eat only whole grains but it was worth the sacrifice to learn how much more energy I felt I had.

One of my other problems was my crazy caffeine intake which was messing up my metabolism. I am sure you can relate. I traded down to 1/2 caff during the day and Decaf after 5pm..I also alternate 1 month on/1 month off of a thermogenic (available at GNC or your drug store) combining that with the reduction of the "cheap caffeine" in my system got the natural fat furnace moving again.

The last thing I would encourage anyone to do is to look into MUFA's (Mono unsaturated fatty acids ) This kind of fat actually keeps weight off, encourages weightloss and makes for some tasty gnosh! It's the stuff that makes avocados and nuts have such a high fat content...thing is the old rules about fat don't play with MUFA's at least that's what we have learned ...concentrating on getting these into my diet really paid dividends and it was nice to hear people tell me how bad these things were as I was losing weight while eating "unhealthy amounts" of the healthiest fat! BTW - Dark chocolate is a MUFA source...you can eat quite a bit of it and enjoy benefits...yes chocolate just make sure the cacao level is high enough and the ingredients in the chocolate are natural (sugar) not over processed (HFC- high fructose corn syrup- this stuff is FAT LOADED POISON!) Here's a great article if you want to know more...

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304--13086-0,00.html

and here's a diet that takes advantage of the power of MUFA's

http://flatbellydiet.prevention.com/

I am always willing to discuss what I have learned and what I am learning but these are some major cornerstones to what worked for me!  I wish you all the best health...now...get to it!  YOU CAN DO IT!