For those of us just begining

I don't know about the rest of you or where you are in this journey but I've decided not to sit around and wait. I'm just at the begining of my uphill climb as most of you know. So here is what i've done and i'm willing to forward it on to anyone who wants it. The most wonderful person sent me the requirments for my insurance company and it got me thinking that the program i'm going into is run by my insurance company and i don't want them to play any "tricks" on me and i'm not in the mood for their "games". So i have put my schooling to work and came up with an Excel program. Now according to my insurance company (and you, or i, can change the program around for yours) i need to prove that i'm eating 500-1000 calories less a day then what i was eating before i join thier program, so i have a worksheet of what i'm eating now and then another worksheet of what i'm eating once i start the program and on this second worksheet i have a place for the person at the program to sign proving i did that. I have a whole seprate worksheet for fitness which also has a place for someone to sign. Like my belly dance instructor or someone at a gym or at the pool or whatever, just to prove you did it. for my insurance i have to do 60-90 minutes of exersice 5-7 days a week....which seems like a lot.....but whatever. Now for the hard part.....keeping motivated for the next 12-18 months

Congratulations on your great start. Have you tried fitday? You can keep up with everything you eat, the exercise, etc. You can also print out reports or bring it up on the computer for the insurance company to see. The best part is a lot of the food and exercise is already in there so you don't have to guess as to the calories, carbs, fat & protein. I enter everything I eat every day and it keeps me on the straight and narrow.

I did use fitday.com for awhile but now i use sparkpeople.com, pretty much the same thing