It's often the little things that can make the biggest difference...

What baby steps / small changes have you made that have impacted your weight loss the most? I believe it is much easier to make small changes and stick with them, so maybe we can give each other some little tips. My best baby steps include:

1) Eating fruit and veggies at every meal and every snack.

2) Leaving at least three bites of food on my plate at every meal.

3) Denying myself nothing as long as the portion is reasonable and within my calorie budget for the week.

4) Moving more at work, even if it's just fidgeting at my desk or standing while on the phone.

Thank you in advance for any little tippy-tips :-)

Little things can make a difference.  But in my case, I needed an overhaul of my living habits.

Little changes are only me wanting to avoid the reality of a need of making a bigger change, a more complete change. 

Fidgeting at my desk would make me and my cubicle neighbors stressed lol.

The biggest little thing I did was to start logging all my calories on here!!

Other things:

Always water-down juice
Choose vegetarian a few days a week
Canned soup and not the stuff from the lovely soup shop
Low cal hot choc instead of real choc
Breakfast at home not on the hop

I found that keeping healthy snacks on hand at work keeps me from going to the cafeteria or down the hall looking for cookies and chocolate.  I always have a piece of fruit, 100 cal packs, oatmeal or yogurt to tide me over.

I also found that sometimes eating a piece of fruit on the way home from work stops me from overeating at dinnertime.

~ i started to keep track an drink more water (still not up to where i need to be like 150oz a day) but im up to about 100oz

~ didnt deny myself of things. just like if i wanted cookies or something id buy the 100 cal packs so it was well within my calorie intake

~ learned to not give up over a few oz or lbs gain. relizing that theres no way u gain 2lbs overnight. and even when you do gain, ur still better off then when you started, so keep going!

switching to black coffee and forcing myself to get caffine free tea on half of my trips to the lunch room...

I was drinking atleast 6 cups of a coffee a day at work outta boredom so it was really adding up

1.    Counting my calories everyday.

2.    Making sure I have enough food at work for the week (lunch already portioned out in containers), meals and snacks already planned out each day.

3.    Eating fruit and veggies as snacks often, instead of crackers or other unnecessary snacks.

4.    Not snacking on the food I am cooking.

5.    I use a small plate, that way it looks like my whole plate is full and it's usually the serving size I need anyway! 

Can't think of anything else right now.

I agree, little steps can make a big difference.

the first 25-30 lbs I lost by adding a few little steps.  I purchased snack foods only in one-serving packages, and that really helped cut down on the snacking.  I started a step routine, just 3.5-5 minutes, twice a day.  I also cut out soft drinks, entirely, and went to just water.

It usually is a bunch of small steps that makes for continued success. 

Now I just concentrate on selecting foods from the World's Healthiest Foods list, staying within my calorie range of 1350-1550, and getting moderate exercise. 

1) exercising on most days - even if it's just a 30-minute walk around the block

2) watering down my daily wine with selzer and lemon. I had really just gotten into a habit of pouring that second wine every night, I didn't need it. So I just started this two weeks ago, and I'm now down to just 4 oz of wine per day. I am eating back the calories in healthy foods, so it's a wash calorie wise, and yet, I'm losing at a faster rate this week. Yeah!

3) getting a good night's sleep, and realizing when I don't, I'm going to be prone to stress-eating so choose low-cal healthy munchies and watch calorie counts extra carefully!!!

4) just this week: choosing baked mashed sweet potato instead of tofutti cuties or low-fat ice cream for dessert. Just as sweet, but more filling!

5) going grocery shopping on Monday morning - and building that into my schedule as an "appointment." I was really getting lazy about grocery shopping, because my hubby always offered to do it for me. But he doesn't shop for healthy foods like I do. This makes me have to think through what we're going to eat each week, and plan daily menus. As a result, I am cooking at home a lot more than I used to.

6) measure out portions instead of serving family style at the table. I do this for everyone in the family, not just me. People tend to eat it if it's in front of them.

I made small changes at first, and those grew to bigger changes and those grew to even bigger changes, and when I look back to a year ago I can't believe how much I have changed my life!

Will I ever go back to the way I was?  I don't think I would ever completely revert back to my old self, I just know too much about nutrition and I'm like a living calorie-count website I can guesstimate most calories in foods to within 100 cals! 

How can I sit there and eat a 1400 calorie meal when I KNOW that's more than half of what I should be eating in an entire day!  The guilt would be too much.

Heh bigtwinky... you're the equivalent of needing to jump right into the pool of cold water.  Me?  I have to get my toes wet, then my feet and ankles and work up that way!  :)  I've made lots of little changes that are adding up to HUGE changes! 

Little changes I've made include:

• drinking enough water.  I eased myself into it because a year ago, I couldn't stand the taste!
• Buying different snacks: from chips to Smartfood popcorn and now to Cheerios.  I had forgotten how yummy Cheerios are!
• Portion control: Slowly teaching myself what a proper portion was
• Reading the backs of labels.  Teeny change, HUGE difference in what goes into my shopping cart.  For example: 2 soft tortilla shells the same size... before, I didn't care; now, I opt for the one that's 90 calories less.  Tastes the same to me.  Another example: I avoided feta cheese for a long time, though I love it, because Feta cheese = BAD... well, checknig the serving size, it was 1/4 C crumbled cheese.  Well, 'cause the flavor is so strong, I use half a tablespoon... that half a tablespoon of regular feta cheese has far fewer calories than the 1 oz serving of low fat mozzerella I had been getting, and more personally satisfying to me!  :)  Little change, HUGE results! 

Granted, I've made some big changes too (adding exercise), but I think for me, the babysteps were the way I had to go.  I had to slowly change my thinking so I could avoid the fear that I wouldn't have enough to eat or that I would be eating nothing but lettuce and other dieting myths. 

I pretty much jumped right in myself.  I have found that for me, the baby step method leaves to much room for bad justification.  But there have been some steps I've taken that have definitely helped my weight loss.

-Giving up soda altogether.
-Limiting juice drinking, and adding water to my juice
-Eating more complex carbs
-Exercising every single day, even if it's just a 30 minute walk.
-Replacing most of my table sugar habit with Stevia
-Eating less meat, and choosing leaner meats, and substituting some low-fat vegitarian options at times 

Little things are great.  For me, eatinng breakfast was the biggie- I would go sometimes 6 or 7 hours without eating after I woke up.  When I started eating something in the morning,  the weight started dropping.  Cutting sugar out of my coffee and tea (which took some getting used to!) and drinking more water.  I tended to take baby steps that gradually built into an overall change in my life though.  I still have a few baby steps left to go, but doing good!

Crystal5190: I am going to follow your tip of having portioned-out, healthy foods at work. People constantly bring donuts, bagels, and candy to the office so I think this is a fabulous idea to help me eat healthier options.

Although I envy those who can make big changes right from the start, it isn't right for me, and many other people, depending on what your current walk of life is. I was anorexic for a year and a half, then went through a horrible, hungry-ALL-the-time binge-fest for about 6 months, and now I am working on eliminating my black-and-white thinking; thinking that I will be able to change my habits and lose weight overnight or never lose weight again. I still struggle everyday: after trotting to 7-11 at 11pm last night for a jalapeno stick and caramel cadbury egg, I fell asleep last night and woke up this morning with the intense urge to have coffee only today out of fear of gaining weight. I have eaten well today and it gets easier everytime I say "No!" to that snarky little voice in my head that will always encourage me to starve.

I stand firmly behind the belief that a lot of little changes can add up over time to very healthy habits. I'm not in a rush anymore... I rushed to lose weight for too long and was sick over it. Anytime I make my goals / expectations of myself too high, I sabotage myself. I just want to love myself and be comfortable living in my own skin for the rest of my life.

I don't think I'm truly taking baby steps, but I suppose I am.  I've struggled with my weight since I was about 7 or 8 years old, and I finally feel good about what I'm doing.  The only "diet" I haven't tried is watching what I eat!! 

It feels great knowing exactly what is going in my body every day.  I always bring "lunch" to work -- the quotes are because it's never truly a meal, it's stuff I snack on throughout the day.  Today, it was: 1 Light'n'Fit yogurt, 1 South Beach Diet granola bar (I love granola bars, which are normally almost like candy, but these are only 140 cals with tons of protein and a lot less sugar -- they fill you up and they're delicious!), 50 raw pea pods, and 1 banana.  Those foods, plus my travel mug of coffee with fat free Coffee Mate and Splenda, had me at less than 500 cals by the time I got home.  I should be eating more than that (I'll often bring 1 more serving of fruit than I did today, but I was running late!), but I was still careful when I got home, and had 1/2 cup of low-fat cottage cheese and 15 grapes, and my boyfriend is making some of his excellent chili with lean beef and pinto beans as I type -- smells yummy...

One of the strangest things for me to get used to is counting out the portions the way I do -- like the fact that I know I had 50 pea pods in the baggie!

I have found that I really have lost my taste for sweets, which is HUGE for me.  I do have some 45 cal sherbet swirl bars and those 100 cal Klondike sandwiches in the freezer, but it's rare that I even want one.  And when I do, the sherbet bars are usually more appealing!  The candy that sits on the table at work, the donuts and bagels that are always brought in -- I don't even feel tempted.

*cut sugar right out my tea - cold turkey.
*making myself drink more water
*keeping a blog which keeps me inspired
*weighing myself every morning and feeling good about going down, and not worrying if it jumps up a bit, and definitely not giving up if it does
*if I have a craving for something, then have it, but do some excersise to burn it off
*not giving up if I go over my limit - we're human and we make mistakes
*having a filling but healthy breakfast

I know they aren't much in the way of actually eating, but they've all helped me.

all these are such great things! It looks like there are some common cutbacks that are obviously working!

I'm drinking more water and mostly cut out pop. If I do want pop I get diet, but that's about once a week... maybe

I'm eating a bigger breakfast and that keeps me full longer and less likely to eat more later.

I use smaller plates for more realistic portions.

I also have been working out daily. Maybe once or twice a month I'll day a day off and not feel bad about it, but it's not too often that I do that. I workout about 40 min every day.

I'm still trying to conquer the office diet... donuts, candy, bagels. But hopefully with time, I'll get it! :)

in order of adding these to "my plan":

counting calories; ridding my house of junk food & pre-packaged foods; no added sugar (black coffee etc.); walking - aim is to get to 10,000 steps per day (only halfway there); 1 dessert a week max; avoiding tempting situations by substituting with activities i really enjoy (hiking, quiet times, visiting family); using super foods as the basis for my shopping list (such as from Worlds Healthiest Foods list but i've also added items i really enjoy & are healthy such as saskatoons); buying low-fat whenever available; substituting plain, low-fat yogurt for sour cream, dips, sauce base, etc.; deliberately adding more wild sockeye salmon to my diet (due to health reasons); and whenever i feel i'm about to give into cravings allowing myself to do so only after "a random act of kindness" (which for me means something like mowing my elderly neighbour's lawn) - by the way, once done, 9 times out of 10 the craving has passed - maybe because doing something for someone else with no strings attached is the most rewarding experience and tells gives me the reality of knowing i'm a good person with just a bit of weight to lose 

Thanks for this post!  Great tips from everyone.  (I really like the random act of kindness idea, rushme!)   Mine are:

1. Brush teeth just before - or chew gum while - cooking/baking so I don't sneak bites here and there.

2. Eat 200 calories every 3 hours, even if I'm NOT hungry!  This has helped keep my metabolism going strong and prevents binges.  I have 3 oz of protein (such as 1/2 precooked chicken breast) and 1/2 cup veggies (or one of those very convenient mini V8s (only 35 calories).  Then I add a 1/2 c brown rice w/ lunch and dinner.  I guess this might be more of a LARGE step than a small one. 

3. Great snacks around 100 calories: Apple, TLC Kashi granola bar (keep these in the glove compartment of my car, with V8s and water), 100-cal popcorn bags, Amy's low-cal canned soup, 1/2 grilled chicken wrapped in boston lettuce leaf, omega salmon burger (in frozen food section), garden veggie burger. 

4.  Park very far from the grocery store entrance to increase walking time, and inspire healthy purchases.  Also, I do a lot of shopping at the farmer's market, which increases walking/movement, increases the amount of fresh food I buy, and significantly decreases my grocery bill! Yay! :)

5. I spend lots of time on the computer for my work, so I've substituted my chair for one of those balls. I actually did it originally to relieve pain in my back, but I'm also moving more and using muscles to stay put! 

6. Stop eating at 3 hours before bed.  For me, 7:30 is my cutoff time.  This is an Oprah suggestion that actually works really well.  I had no idea how much of my calorie intake came just before bed. Now that it is a habit, I don't need to snack while watching tv. 

I hope these help! Thanks!

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Helen~ I like what you said about breaking a binge by putting a piece of gum in your mouth... I'm going to try that next time I can't seem to stop putting food in my mouth. I've heard that cinnamon is a good gum choice because it perks your brain up and can even help to stabilize blood sugar.

It also sounds like you are developing the sense of eye-balling the correct food portions. That's great and something I am working on as well.