I've been having a lot of success losing weight.

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Hi myLotters, About 2 months ago, I decided to start losing weight. I'm 5'2, and I weighed about 152 lbs then. I felt unattractive and unhealthy. I considered some of the fad diets (like leptin regulations or Atkins)... but I quickly realized I didn't want to alter my eating habits forever. I wanted to be able to eat a piece of candy and not feel like I've ruined everything! I created an Excel spreadsheet, and entered in every food I ate during the day, and it's caloric value. The spreadsheet automatically totals my calories for the days, and it told me how much I was above or below my goal (1400 calories to lose a pound a week). It was amazing - forcing me to account everything I ate completely changed my eating habits! Every time I wanted to eat something bad, I'd think about how I'd have to type it into my spreadsheet, and I would reconsider. I've also started eating high fiber foods - they fill you up, and keep you full for longer than other types of food because they take a long time to go through the body. Fiber is undigestible, so it passes through the body without contributing any calories, and actually cleans out your system on the way. It's win-win! Finally, I started a modest exercise program, with a heavy emphasis on weight training. Lots of people trying to lose weight (especially women) make the mistake of doing all cardio when they workout. The problem is, dieting and cardio reduce the amount of muscle mass you have... which lowers your metabolism. The more muscles you have, the higher your metabolism goes! I do a half hour to 45 minutes of weightlifting combined with some cardio, and it's been fantastic. All in all, in 7 weeks I've lost 15 pounds, and I look great! The scale numbers don't really reflect the change in my body, since I've also converted fat to muscle. I eat food I like, my arms and legs look very toned, and I'm getting an awesome hourglass figure! WHOO HOO!