Hey Sarah,
Have you thought about some mini targets, rather than being overwhelmed by the the overall target? Things like - every 5 pounds you buy yourself a bath bomb, then at 10% you do something special, etc? My goals are: pre second baby weight, pre first baby weight, the weight I was at my wedding, and the weight I was throughout my 20s!
Sometimes I think I spend my entire life on one diet or another - the second I stop, I start gaining weight. I've lost a fair bit, but I really want to make it down to goal so am starting again.
Here are some thoughts...hope they help!
- Paleo - didn't work for me, but works for some. Great if you eat meat etc. I found it filling, and I could usually work around it on restaurants. No calorie counting, which makes it easier.
- Weight Watchers - worked for me a couple of times, then stopped. I find you have to be able to plan everything, and know in advance what you're doing. It's a lot like calorie counting, but you can do a no count version I think. You do have to spend a fair bit of time on planning for WW, but it definitely does work. However, I always felt hungry on WW - perhaps because I was pretty much free to spend my limited points however I wanted - never felt very healthy, either!
- Slimming World - Definitely feels like the healthiest plan I've tried. Once you get your head around it, there's only limited counting of syns and you can then eat freely from defined foods. You can feed the whole familly on this, too, without any problem (although kids obviously need full cream milk, etc). I lost a couple of stone on this after having a baby and it feels more like a lifestyle shift than a diet. I definitely found it easier than WW, and was also less hungry. However, my syns crept up before I reached goal, which is why I'm currently doing extante.
- Extante / other VLCD - I'm only on day five, so I can't say anything about effectiveness. But, it's certainly simple, and I'm not struggling with running after my two kids now that the ketosis seems to have kicked in. There is something liberating about not cooking, even though I'm a foodie. Also, because it's extreme, I am finding it easier to follow. It's not a plan for life, however, so I would go back to SW after this.
- Cabbage soup diet - I used to use this as a one week kick start for calorie counting. It was pretty extreme and hard, but then it made simple calorie counting a lot easier to stick to by comparison. It's a bit old fashioned but it definitely works as a kick start.
Anyone have any others?