Hi, I have been studying externally for three years and was horrified when I weighed myself and found that I had put on 14 pounds :eek: In the past I have been able to loose weight just by exercising but I haven't lost anything in two months of consistent exercise, although I'm definately firmer.I have been exercising consistently since the beginning of December working out about 5/6 times a week to exercise dvd's.
Therefore I have decided that I need to incorporate a 'clean' diet but have no idea where to start. I love salads, vegetables and chicken but hate things like tuna and cottage cheese. I know that I also need to modify my portion sizes. I was wondering if there was a website or something that can help me get my diet sorted.
Also, I lift 5lb dumbells during my workouts(dvds) but was wondering if I should also include weights seperately and at a higher weight.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

There are alot of websites that can give you 'direction' into what you should set your goals on as to meal plans, etc. Just because you don't like tuna or cottage cheese doesn't mean you can't eat healthy. There are alternatives to that.

Portions are key to a successful diet plan. Things like salads for example, if you are dumping 5 or 6 tbsp's of a cream based dressing on it, it's no better then a hamburger from a fast food chain. You have to pay attention to what the contents (nutritionally) of each item you are intaking. Chicken is very good, so are things like fish (not sure if you don't like any fish or just don't like tuna, etc). Lean meats are good as you want to make sure you are meeting your body's daily needs. There are a ton of nutrition calculators on the net, do a search for some and you'll get some more ideas.

As to your cardio routine, how vigorous is it? Are you hitting your target heart rate zone? There's quite a few questions I could ask as there's a bunch of components to everything you do.

Keep in mind, just having a drive to do some cardio or put yourself into some sort of healthy intake plan already puts you ahead of the game. You'll succeed, you just need to find out what's right for you.....

Thanks for your response Taz, I shall google it and see what I come up with.