Okay...so now that you know more about me, it's time to get down to brass tacks. I've tried a few "fad diets" (I thought I was going to die after one day on Atkins!) but the diet that has always worked for me, as long as I stick to it, has been good ol' calorie counting and exercise. I'm starting out with 2000 calories a day and 30+ minutes of cardio 4-5 times a week. Those numbers will need a bit of tweaking, but I feel it's a good starting point.

I'm not avoiding any particular foods or food groups, just eating whatever I want and counting the calories in a food diary. When I hit 2000 I stop eating for the day. I'm trying to stick mainly to fresh and wholesome foods, but I will have the occasional can of soda or bowl of ice cream, I just weigh everything single thing to the gram and figure the calories accordingly.

The cardio is on either my exercise bike or treadmill. They both have heart rate based workout programs which I find very useful. The treadmill even has a wireless heart rate monitor chest strap that sends its signal to the console so I don't have to hang on to a pulse sensor. Pretty nifty, huh? I'm currently working out at 110 - 115 bpm and am looking to increase that in the near future. I had pneumonia in the beginning of the year so I don't want to overdo it right off the bat.

The only thing I'm missing now is strength training. I'm trying to figure out what I should do for that, so if anyone has any links to good sites please let me know!