I remember when my love for food was so abundant. I am the kind of lady who would rather wear old clothes and bargain shop just to fulfill my love for food (plenty at home, large variety, and going out to eat). When working on a better me (toning up and losing the extra weight) I found that I worked out and I would tone up but the weight didn't drop. So then I decided that the foods I was eating wasn't helping me. When talking about food, it is about how it is prepared and cooked but also the portion size. I found I could have scrambled eggs, bacon, hash brown, and two white chocolate raspberry pancakes I would feel full. When friends or coworkers would say they had a piece of toast and a boiled egg or two pieces of breakfast meat and an egg I would feel bad for them. How would they be able to concentrate with eating such a small portion? I would feel starving! I increased the amount of water because I have heard from multiple people that that is a VERY important key to weight loss. Drinking more water helped to curb my appetite and feel full. I ate less because I didn't feel like I needed to eat as much. This didn't happen over night though… I worked on my weightloss for months! Recently I took all sugar out of my diet and I realized that I ate bigger portions because the food tasted so GOOD! I didn't eat bigger portions because I was still hungry. Now I eat a cup of oatmeal with a banana and I feel satisfied I'm not running to the kitchen looking for more food to fill up on. It took all this time to realize that people who were thinner than me were so because they were eating correct portions and not because they were starving themselves. I was overeating and you can still overeat on even health food. You must find a balance! I used to make oatmeal with lots of sugar, butter, and vanilla extract. You can make small changes instead of two spoons of sugar do 1 and a half and keep working down the amount of sugar. Instead of flavoring with sugar I use blueberries, bananas, and nuts. Losing weight is changing your lifestyle not just making temporary changes to make weight for your DietBet (even though it feels good to win!) Take it one day at a time and stay encouraged by the little positive changes that will eventually make a big difference!!!