Approach to dieting?

Well I want to loose some weight and inches, but I am curious at how I should approach weight loss and dieting. I eat pretty healthy but I tend to go overboard on chocolate and/or bread when I have even one piece. Should I just reduce calories and eat the same stuff w/ discretion, or should I try to eat super super healthy?

It's really up to you! Can you manage to cut back on chocolate and bread, but still keep them in your diet in reasonable quantities? Or do you just know you're going to overdo it if you even touch them. Personally, I eat a lot of the same stuff (I had pizza for dinner and it was good.) As long as you can keep within your calorie goals and eat relatively healthy (i.e. 100-200 calories of chocolate in a day, not 600), it will be easier long-term if you can learn to eat those yummy foods in moderation. As long as you know you'll be able to moderate!

Especially at first, I found it really helpful just to focus on the number of cals, not where they were coming from--that was too much at first. Then after weighing and measuring for a few weeks, I started tweaking the kinds of foods I ate/eat. I'm still eating most of what I would have, but I've added fiber and protein. I still have a treat once a day; I couldn't do it without it. I figure it into my cals, and that works great. I try to make at least 4/5ths of my daily intake really clean, then the other 1/5th (which is a lot, 20%) can be less so--maybe processed food, and of course my dessert! I aim for about 1500-1600/day, so I'm getting at least 1200+ clean cals and it really does seem to keep me from getting hungry, too.

Good luck!

You have the right idea Jacquelin, you should try to eat super healthy.   To me super healthy means lots of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, healthy fats etc. but in the form of whole foods.  That means real cooked whole grains, not whole grain breads.  That means no Lean Cuisines but actually cooked from raw foods.  That's what you should shoot for but make it a long term goal as I know how hard it can be to go from where you are to where you should be. You should also count calories for a while until it becomes intuitive and use the tools provided here at CC to figure out where you are at and what you need to do to get where you want to go.  It helps. 

When it comes to chocolate in particular, have you ever tried Carob powder?   It tastes a lot like chocolate, is naturally really high in fibre and it's own sugar and mixes well and can go into just about any recipe. I make protein shakes with it and combined with a banana and some soy milk I swear it tastes like a chocolate milkshake that's actually good for you.   I also use cocoa once in a while, real cocoa, sweetened with stevia instead of sugar and that is good too.  Once in a while I eat chocolate, but usually pure milk chocolate as opposed to anything with added nuts or stuff like that.  You'll find that if you eat healthy most of the time, a little indulgence here or there won't make any difference.

Original Post by cosmographer:

It's really up to you! Can you manage to cut back on chocolate and bread, but still keep them in your diet in reasonable quantities? Or do you just know you're going to overdo it if you even touch them. Personally, I eat a lot of the same stuff (I had pizza for dinner and it was good.) As long as you can keep within your calorie goals and eat relatively healthy (i.e. 100-200 calories of chocolate in a day, not 600), it will be easier long-term if you can learn to eat those yummy foods in moderation. As long as you know you'll be able to moderate!

Also, try not to eat so much junk (eg. chocolate, cupcakes etc.) and sacrifice healthy foods in order to not overshoot your daily caloric intake. You will lack essential nutrients. ;)

I have found this one question really helpful to me. "Would you rather eat a whole lot of some healthy food and be satisfied or a very small amount of some junk food and still be hungry?" That usually stops me from the chocolate in the cabinet. Good Luck!

Thank you so much everyone! All these replies were really helpful!