Good luck, and congrats thus far.

Mr. Griffin's doctor told him to try to eat at least two pounds of vegetables a day, which helped with weight loss. You can pretty much eat any raw vegetable you want (maybe not avocados) in unlimited quantities guilt free. 2 pounds of carrots is only 350 calories, for example, and carrots are quite calorically dense for a vegetable. Lots of water and fiber there, lots of chewing satisfaction, you don't have room or time for crap food, and I find it's kind of a game to see how many veggies you can eat. Your mileage may vary.

Also, exercise. When I first had a gym membership, I lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks or so because I went to work out (cardio and weights) every day. I went every day because I liked the gym and because it had a hot tub and sauna that I really liked--the use of the amenities were my treats for working out. I really need to find a gym like my old one where I am now.

Finally, quality matters. If you've been craving, say, chocolate for days or longer, go get one really good piece of it. You'll enjoy it more (and consume fewer calories) than if you try to stave off the craving with half a pack of Hershey's Kisses.

However, sounds like you're doing well. Congrats and good luck. I'll be doing the same thing myself once I finish nursing the Grifflet in a few months--he's pulling about 1000 calories a day off me and it's hard to keep up.

For long-term weight loss, the only thing that's worked for me is to keep track of roughly how many calories I eat in a day and to weigh myself every week or so. If you have a specific goal weight in mind, about.com has a nice tool that calculates how many calories you should consume per day in order to meet it.

I'm not a dietician, and I know intelligent people who think that counting calories isn't healthy, but I lost about thirty pounds and have kept most of it off for three years.

I can't add anything to what you are already doing, except to say well done!

My experience is that calorie/food intake is the critical factor. What I try to do when I'm feeling a bit peckish is to have a glass of water to see if that takes away the craving - on the basis that I often mistake thirst for hunger. Or maybe make a cup of tea / herbal tea, without milk or sugar, for a bit of flavor, but no calories.

It's all about eating less and moving more. If you are solely concerned about weight loss, you can eat anything you want, just so you keep your calories under maintenance for the day. You should also check out the eatstopeat.com website. It's a bit controversial people think you need to eat a ton more calories than you really do. I mean think about it, did our ancestors really need to eat 6 small meals a day?

I come from a family with a history of eating disorders (I've never had any, thankfully), so I've always been *very* resistant to dieting. I've never eaten much in the way of fast food or processed food, but I LOVE fancy pastries and scones, and definitely have a sweet tooth. While I've always been active, I'm about 50-60 pounds above my "target" weight for my height, and have been since high school.

About a year and a half ago, I decided that I was going to start getting serious about making changes to lose some weight. Given the family history, I would spend a year exercising more regularly, and see if that made a difference. Although it definitely improved my core fitness and my endurance, I saw little to no impact on the scale. In September, after a convo with my doctor, I started counting calories, and keeping my workouts roughly the same. I've lost 13 pounds so far, which isn't a ton (I've got ~50 to lose), but is still 10% of my body weight!

For me, my goal has been about slowly changing my lifestyle so that the changes really STICK. With that in mind, this is how I've found success:

1. Make exercise social. I'm not a fan of exercising just to exercise, but if I can do it with friends, or do it in a way where I get other benefits (such as seeing beautiful places, meeting new people, etc.) it's much more likely to stick. While I do run once or twice a week on my own, I now do the following:

Mon, Wed, Fri - Rowing at 5am on an intermediate team. Guarantees an hour of solid exercise, and once you're in the boat, there's no backing out! It took a while to get used to getting up at 4:30, but now it means that I get my workout done before I go to work, and I'm not trying to work out in the evenings when I'm already exhausted and hungry.

Sat/Sun - Go hiking, go trailrunning with friends, go snowshoeing, go do trail maintenance, help my mom with gardening, etc. This is usually a high-intensity thing, or an all-day thing.

One other day a week: Go for a run or a walk on my own.

With my family history, exercise used to be about self-punishment and moral virtue -- if I could sweat and grunt and persevere for an hour, I didn't have to like it, but I could consider myself virtuous. This sucked, and made me feel guilty when I didn't go. Doing stuff with friends now makes it so that I WANT to go out, and if I don't, I miss out on a good time.

2. Count calories. I started using MyFitnessPal.com (free! woot!) in September, and it REALLY helped me figure out where I was consuming the most calories, and slowly restructure my diet so I'm eating smaller portions.

A good example: in order to get my day to a good start, I need to eat a good breakfast. It used to be that after rowing, I'd eat two eggs, two pieces of buttered toast, and a cup of coffee. My daily calorie allowance is around 1600 cals, up to 2000 with exercise. That breakfast runs 700-800 cals, easy. That's half my food for the day! Now I eat one egg, one piece of buttered toast, and a cup of coffee.

I'm not anally retentive about counting out what I eat (like, I don't take measuring cups to the cafeteria at work), but I do weigh and measure things out at home, so I'm learning what portions look like. I'm trying to learn what it "feels like" to eat an appropriate amount each day, and it seems to be working. I'm eating less, but not necessarily missing the food.

3. For sweets, test your cravings. I've been playing this game with myself lately -- when I want something sweet, I distract myself for 10-15 minutes with something else. If I'm still craving it, I can indulge. If not, I don't. This worked unbelievably well at the grocery store last week, where I passed by a thing of raw cookie dough next to the eggs. All I could think about was EATING COOKIE DOUGH. I decided to go do my other shopping, and if I still wanted the cookie dough, I could come back for it. Ten minutes later, I was in the checkout line, and realized on my way to the car that I'd forgotten about the cookie dough. Victory!

In the cases where I DO indulge, I try a variation of the trick: try taking half the amount I would before, and then give myself 10-15 mins after I've eaten it to figure out whether I want more. (Knowing the calorie value of sweets ahead of time also helps here.)

Anyway, these are the things that seem to be working for me. Nothing revolutionary, for sure, but effective. Good luck!