Fruit you! ... but yeah, you're right. Drinking a shitton of apple juice isn't really the best thing to do, hah.
Also, I've learned that one of the best ways to avoid eating/drinking/gobbling whatever it is that we're trying to cut back on is to not always have it in readily accessible. That way, we're less likely to consume it for the sake of habit, and more likely to only have it when we actually care to go to the store or something. For example, I almost never eat chocolate, and having it frozen in the freezer didn't have any effect on me. However, ever since my dad opened up a bunch & left the open bag in the fridge (they're still wrapped on their own but there's mini ones), I've pretty much gotten back into the habit of grabbing one ever time I open the fridge because it's just that easy.
I got a really nasty stomach bug back at the beginning of July, one that forced me onto a liquid diet for about a week. When I came out of that, I'd lost about 8 or 9 pounds, and decided to really re-evaluate my eating, and got serious about exercise. As of the end of August, I'm on the verge of being down 40 pounds. One of my big problems was that I used food for both celebration and stress relief, so I had something of a psychological dependency on the stuff. I found other things that made me happy(exercise has actually been a big factor for me there, surprisingly enough). I think being on the liquid diet helped me get over the "need" to have certain things like soda or junk food. But I wouldn't recommend getting a stomach virus as the greatest of all weight loss solutions. A couple of things that have really worked for me: o Cheat Days. One of the reason a lot of people fail on diets is because they try to quit everything cold turkey, and it's a hard thing to do. Having a cheat day not only lets you have a little bit of the stuff you like, but it keeps you body from adapting to the new regiment and keeps your metabolism active. o Exercise Goals. I've got asthma pretty bad, in a city that tends to have ozone alerts every other day, it seems like. So when I first started hitting the gym, I set realistic expectations for my cardio, and made sure I reached those goals, then slowly started raising them. I'm up to 50 minutes on the elliptical machine and stationary bike, and hope to get them up to 90 minutes in the long run. o Portion Sizes. One of my big problems was that I live with my fiancee, and it's not easy to cook meals that were portioned right for just two people. I didn't want to waste money, so I'd eat everything. Thankfully, I came up with the idea of taking leftovers to work with me for lunch, which actually both saved money AND let me eat a little healthier there. Everyone's going to be a little different, but hopefully this helps some folks out there.
