Hi, my name is Rebekah and I have been on Alli for almost 4 months and have lost 42 pounds. It has been a journey. I think what works best for me is to make sure that I eat at my meal times and I give myself a snack in the afternoon (I work until 6 or 7 pm so I need something to keep me going) and anotherr snack in the evening if I want one. Some of things that I might have for breakfst is instant oatmeal w/ skim milk, raisin toast w/ ricotta cheese, 1 poached egg w/ low fat english muffin. If I am rally hungry I might add a yogurt or a piece of fruit to go with any of those. I usually just have the one thing because I am not a big eater when I fist wake up.
For lunch I love the smart ones entries. They do all the calculating for you and then again I'll add some carrots and celery or fruit or yogurt if I have not had any yet that day. Or i may have a sandwich with chicken or tuna. Subway is good too but I usually save that for dinner if I want to eat take out.
For dinner it is what ever I want with in the scope of my diet. I substitute lots of things to make my meals low fat and I measure portions all the time. For example. I like pasta so I make my own sauce. Mostly from stuff that I grew in the garden and put up myself. I brown lean burger and then drain and rinse it before adding it to my sauce and since that is the only thing contributing fat to my sauce by rincing it first I really lower the fat grams. When it comes time to eat I measure out 1 cup of pasta and 1 cup of sauce and I am good to go. I do this with almost everything an it seems to work for me. I use low fat or no fat substitues all the time.
For my snacks I have pretzels, special k crackers, yogurt, fruit, low fat cheese sticks, 94% fat free microwave popcorn ( which my family says tastes like paper but do not have a problem bumming off of me when I eat it ) I like it, Special K bars, well you get the idea. For my afternoon snack I allow about 250- 280 calories give or take but in the evening I try to stay with in the 125 range which makes the fat free popcorn great because a whole bag is only 105 calories and I never even finish it in one sitting.
You need to rember that you will have your ups and downs. The last two weigh ins I lost no weight but this week I have started kup again and lost 3 pounds. I have been able to take off 42 pounds because I have been losing 2-3 pounds a week instead of trying to lose it all at once. And by changing my eating habits. I have also tryed other things that took away your appetite and lost the weight but in the end when I am no longer taking whatever it was that supressed my appetite I gained it all back. What I am doing right now is learning anew way to eat and I actually like what I am doing. So when I reach my finally goal I ill be able to maintain because I will still be eating the same amd be happy with my choices.
I would suggest setting small goals first. Start with 1-2 pounds a week. They all add up. Then lenghten that. I am doing 1-2 pounds a week but added that I want to hit a total of 50 pounds by Thanksgiviing. That may sound like a lot to you but I have already lost 42 so 8 more by Thanksgiving is doable for me at this time. You might do say 10 pounds by Christmas that gives you ample time to lose at a healthy rate of 1-2 pounds a week with a couple of extra weeks thrown in there. Any way that is how I do it. But you know if I only hit say 48 pounds by Thanksgiving I'll be happy with that too.
You also want to remember the only way this will work for you is to eat right not neccesarily less you need the good calories to function. And exercise. the excess fat will come off so much better when you get moving.
Good luck and I hope this helped.
my start weight was 224
my current weight is 182
my weekly goal is 1-2 pounds
my first major goal is 160
my ultimate goal is 145