Food thoughts
I have now lost 28 lbs and am within striking distance of being "merely" overweight. I do give a lot of credit to the nutrition counselor and her little company.
First, it helps for someone to review your food log every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—and it keeps you maintaining the food log.
Second, cheating a little bit shows up by stopping weight loss. Surprise!
Third, there are times when it seems having a counselor seems absolutely essential. For example, after a week of closely following the diet, you find out that you not only didn’t lose any weight, you’ve gained 2 lbs. That’s when a counselor can say, "That happens. Make sure your food log is accurate, and let’s look at what we can do." What we did at various times for me were:
- Reduce amount of beef consumed. I moved to chicken and fish.
- Reduce snacking.
- Make sure I eat a carb at each meal.
- Exercise—my weight loss stopped finally when I was trying to do it by food alone.
Most of all, by seeing the counselor regularly I don’t have the experience I’ve had when trying to lose weight on my own: after a month or so, having a very careful 7-10 days of eating, with no weight loss at all and in fact a gain of a pound or two, would have made me (stupidly) abandon the effort. I would go get a big steak, have a big meal, and forget about losing fat. Now I have a new attitude.
Part of it is, as I’ve perhaps mentioned, that I paid a hefty fee to participate in the program. It gradually came to me that, having paid that fee, if I didn’t lose weight, it would amount to a scam: pay a lot of money, don’t get what you paid for. That motivated me strongly to lose this weight so I do not get scammed. I won’t let them cheat ME!! I’m going to lose the full 75 lbs! 
And in case you’re wondering, I have already enrolled in and paid for the maintenance program I’ll follow once I reach target weight.
