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i need help! my first week of my diet went well and i lost almost 4 lbs, but that was 2 months ago and after that things went down the drain and i haven't been able to get back on the horse and gained back the weight. i was at irish college for three weeks and i lost weight there. i haven't been on a scales so i don't know how much, but my parents told me they thought i lost weight and i feel slimmer and my clothes are looser, but now i'm back home and can't stop eating! even though i've dropped a few pounds i'm still overweight and i know i have to lose weight for my health, self esteem and appearance, but i just can't get back on my diet and aim to reach my goals. i don't feel good having all this excess fat, but i can't lose it! i just keep on over eating and can't muster up will power. please help, i need advice!

Find activities that you like doing, to keep your mind off of eating. Trust me, it works smile

Someone I really admire once said "Discipline is easy. It just means doing what you REALLY WANT." If it's more important to you to have a piece of cake today than to get into a smaller size next week or next month, then eat the cake. Just remember, you wanted it, and thought it was worth it. If the smaller size is what's important to you, you will keep it in mind and you will not eat that cake.

Make SMALL changes in your life, little by little. Start with the most basic thing ever: drink six glasses of water each day. Not soda, not coffee, not tea, not milk, not juice. Water. Six glass of clean, naked water. That alone should help flush some fats and toxins out of your body. Every week, make one extra change, and let that be the first one.

Second, promise yourself that you'll have three servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables every single day. A serving is 1 cup, or 1 piece of fruit (one-half of a banana, one-half cup of berries).

Third, promise yourself that you'll give yourself a gift of fitness, by engaging in just 15 minutes of exercise three days a week. STICK TO 15 minutes! Then every other week, add 5 minutes, until you're doing 45 minutes a day. Then add one extra day, so that you're exercising 4 days a week. After 12 weeks, you'll be up to 45 minutes a day -- that's three months -- and you will probably have lost ten to twenty pounds.

Then, promise yourself two servings of dairy foods every day. It's been shown that having dairy products can help your body burn fat more efficiently. A serving is 1 cup of milk, one-half cup of yogurt, one ounce of lower-fat cheese.

After that, promise yourself to eat two TEASPOONS of healthy oils each day. You need certain oils to help your body process and burn fats, so that you'll actually lose weight faster. Healthy oils are olive, safflower, sunflower, flaxseed, and canola. There are other oils that are good for you, but these five are the best ones for weight loss. They also taste good.

Next, start keeping track of how much fat and how much fiber are in the foods you're eating, by checking the product labels. Also, in restaurants, count on getting 30 to 100 extra grams of fat. Restaurants use more fat, sugar, and salt in their foods than you would at home, because those things make food taste more luxurious and will make you come back and eat there again. It's unhealthy, so try to avoid restaurant food other than salads.

Speaking of salads, order your salad dressing on the side. Instead of pouring it on, just dip your fork in the dressing and then get your bite of salad. You'll still taste the dressing, but you'll avoid most of the fat. If they have low-fat dressing, order that.

Non-processed foods are best. Fresh fruits and vegetables; whole grain breads and bagels and pasta; brown rice; beans and peas.

Lean meats will also help. Turkey, chicken, and fish have a lot less fat than beef and pork. A LOT less. Like, you could have three ounces of turkey or chicken, four ounces of fish, or two ounces of beef or pork -- for the same amount of calories and fats. Also, try Egg Beaters instead of regular eggs. Two servings of Egg Beaters (one-half cup, total) are the same size as two regular eggs, but contain only half the calories and almost no fat.

Beans, peas, corn, potatoes, and rice don't count as vegetables, because they're starchy. Count them as bread servings. But they're healthier for you than breads, so eat them when possible instead of bread.

Peanut butter doesn't count as beans or peas, even though technically the peanut is a pea. It counts as a serving of fat, and it's not a Healthy Oil (mentioned above). One tablespoon of peanut butter contains the same amount of fat as 2 teaspoons of butter or margarine.

Notice, these are all TINY, nitpicky little things. Even if you only do half of them, you should start seeing changes in your body within a month or two.

A healthy amount of weight to lose is one pound each week. Two is great. Three is pushing it. If you're losing faster than that, it's because you're depriving yourself too much, and eventually you'll fall off the wagon and start binge-eating again. Also, losing weight too fast doesn't give your skin time to shrink. Your skin will start to hang off of you in baggy wrinkles, which is kind of gross looking, so try to avoid that.