JohnR41

In my opinion, you can't deal with this problem by taking a piecemeal approach. All the things you mentioned, like smaller portions and cutting out sugar, etc., were good moves but you obviously need to do more. You need to completely overhaul your diet from top to bottom.

Here are a few ideas: 1) eliminate all baked goods. This includes items like pizza and most breads on the market. The exception might be any bread made without flour. But even then, bread should be limited to about one slice per day.

2) Eliminate ALL processed foods: This includes baked goods above but goes way beyond that. Anything that's processed will work against you. There's no way of getting around it. This includes things like fruit juice and commercial dressings. Olive oil and vinegar in small measured amounts is the exception.

3) A high protein diet is counterproductive. Figure out what your protein requirement is and stick to it. For your height of 5' 3" you should have about a 3oz. portion of white meat chicken or other low fat meat per meal. Fish could be 4 to 6 oz..There are little dietetic scales for this purpose that weigh foods up to 16 ounces. And they only cost a couple of dollars.

4) I believe fat should be measured too. It should be good fat like olive oil and/or nuts. This is important to maintain good health. You need some fat but not too much. If you add olive oil to a soup (not canned soup) or salad it should be about one or two teaspoons. For nuts you need to look at the ingredient label on the package. Certain nuts can be very high in fat so you might want to avoid those. You can compare the fat content when you're shopping.

5) Eat plenty of fresh vegetables ( but avoid white potatoes), natural whole grains within limits (not in baked goods), fresh fruit (3 to 4 half cup servings per day), legumes, nuts and seeds.

Note: Vegetables (other than white potatoes) are the key. You can't say that you don't like vegetables and expect to be sucessful. If meat and fat are both measured in small amounts, what's left? A wide variety of different colored vegetables are the only items left that can be eaten in unlimited amounts.