Here are some tips that really helped me lose weight.
1. Cut out soda and sugared drinks from your diet. They add hidden calories to your diet since most people forget to think about what they drink when they try to keep track of their calorie intake. Drink water instead, not only is it calorie-free, but it boosts your metabolism too. And if you put sugar into your tea or coffee, try to ween yourself off of it. Put in half a teaspoon less; you probably will hardly taste the difference. Then when you get used to that, decrease the amount you put in again by half a teaspoon. Eventually, you will not need to put in sugar at all.
2. Take out all that microwaveable/ready-made/pre-packaged foods from your diet. That stuff just lays around the house just begging you to eat it, and since they are so quick and easy to make, you hardly think twice. Instead, with the exception of occasionally going out to eat, try to make most of your food from its raw materials. Instead of buying frozen chicken nuggets in a bag, buy boneless chicken breast, some milk, flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs and make them yourself. Since it takes much more effort to make it from scratch, you will not be doing things like eating out of boredom and the like. Another benefit of making food yourself from scratch: you can customize it to your liking in a way that just does not work with pre-made foods.
3. Use a food log and activity log to keep track of your nutrition, caloric input, and caloric output. By keeping track, you can see where you need to make either minor adjustments or big changes to help in your weightloss goal. Also, that sense of accountability that will spawn from having a visible and tangible record, as opposed to one just in your head, will help you stick better to any changes that you need to make. There is no room for excuses when you use a log.
