The Mechanics

Ok, now that you've read through the high level stuff, let's get down to brass tacks:

The reality is, you're going to want to make some changes to your daily routine, but how much you do depends on how much you want to lose and how quickly you want to lose it. There's nothing wrong with going at a slower pace, but I would just advise that you adjust your diet enough that you're seeing enough consistent enough gains that you stick with it. Remember, as long as you're still logging food, odds are you're still losing weight.

I've already mentioned that you'll need a pedometer or fitness tracker. That needs to become a permanent extension of your body. You don't need to be a gym rat (in fact, you should have already cancelled your gym membership by now), but it's hard to be completely sedentary and still run calorie deficits. Or, put another way, a little bit of activity will give you a lot more wiggle room in your diet every day. A 10,000 step minimum should be your minimum on any day. If you can hit 15,000, you get a gold star. If you can break 20,000, you'll be dropping pounds at record speed.

You should always look for opportunities to fit more walking into your daily routine. I have two dogs who love to walk, so they've been loving my new plan. I used to just give them 10 minute quick walks in the morning and evening. They still get a quick morning walk, but I usually give them one 30-40 minute walk in the afternoon. Some days I'll give them a full hour of walking or more if I have the time.

If your life is super packed from morning to night, you'll have to find some opportunities elsewhere. Go for a walk on your lunch break or after you put the kids to bed. Unlike doing heavy workouts late at night, walking shouldn't keep you up but your mileage may vary. If you can can complete some errands by walking instead of driving, do that. Point is, all the steps you accrue every day count, and you should always look for opportunities to rack up your step total.

Every time you get up to do something, you're burning more calories than if you were sitting around, so get busy doing all the chores you should be doing around the house. They all count. They also take your mind away from being bored and eating. Try not to sit still any more than is necessary.

As far as food, I've said before that you're free to eat whatever the hell you want, but just make sure it goes in the log. I like to be pretty precise, so I carry a mini pocket scale in my work bag. You don't have to, but weighing food on your scale helps prevent yourself from fudging numbers ("Oh, I really only had one serving of potato chips" when you actually had closer to three).

If you're not honest with your food log, it's going to kind of distort your numbers and usually for the worse, causing some disappointment on the scale and maybe resulting in getting discouraged and giving up. So, be honest. I'd rather have you bomb out with a 3,500 calorie day in your food log one day than fool yourself into thinking you ate less than you did and give up. When you get better at knowing how many calories are in a particular serving of your favorite food, you won't need the scale as often.

Again, you're free to eat whatever you want, but I'm telling you, the goal is to get to full so you're going to want to start adding in foods that'll fill you up and not rack up your calorie totals. Most of these foods are in your grocery store's produce department and deli counter. I consider the produce section my business center. I eat lots of fruit and some vegetables because they almost calorie cost free. I know it's hard to get excited about fruit, but once you get used to eating it, it will become indispensable.

Also, I'm a big fan of diet soda. I know there are a bunch of studies that say you gain weight with it, but that's all a bunch of crap. I don't even add them to my food log because they cost zero. I think those studies are based on Super Size Value Meal with a Diet Coke phenomenon. That's not what you're doing, so disregard those studies and drink as much of it as you want.

Also, have as much coffee as you want, but you should try and get used to drinking it without sugar. I drink mine iced and with creamer, so this way I'm also upping my water intake. You can keep the sugar as long as it goes in your log, but if you have several cups a day like me, it's easy to put away another 100 calories that you'll probably wish you had in your dinner budget. It only took me a few days to get over not having the sugar. Just sayin'.

As I've said before, calorie counting becomes easy because you eat a lot of the same stuff every day. I literally have the same breakfast every day. It is:

-1 Cup Cheerios (100 calories)
-1/2 Cup Skim Milk (45 calories)
-1 banana sliced on my cereal (109 calories)
-2 eggs, fried or hard boiled (140 calories)

So, there you have it - an awesome complete breakfast for about 400 calories. I'll pack a couple pieces of fruit for morning and afternoon snacks and keep some almonds at my desk if I need an additional snack.

My typical lunch goes like this:

1 Serving of Joseph's Lavash Wrap bread (50 calories)
6oz cold cuts - usually some combination of roast beef, ham or turkey (200-300 calories)
1 slice of cheese (80 calories)
1 tablespoon of light mayo (35 calories)
An assortment of onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, mushrooms or whatever other veggies I have to throw on there (calories? LoL -basically nothing. I usually don't even bother counting.)

Add all that together and you have a mountain of a sandwich that'll fill up any man for about 450 calories. Between that and breakfast, you're at 900 calories. Add in some fruits and/or nuts as snacks, and you can head home having eaten only 1300 calories or less with 700 to play with for dinner and dessert. That's if your target is 2000. If your target is a little higher, no big deal - you'll still see great results in no time.