Two posts in one day! That hasn't happened in a while.

Here's this week's Wednesday Weigh-in:

Do you do better with a structured plan or do you prefer some flexibility in your plan with eating and exercise? What is your idea of a structured and flexible plan? Is there a plan that you can compare it to?

After much reading and research, I devised my plan for myself. From what I see, it's very close to a Weight-Watchers plan. I would have liked to have gone to WW but with the amount of weight that I have to lose, it would have cost me a flipping fortune. The support I needed, I found online. The regular weigh-in, I get at my doctor's office. Neither of these things cost me a dime.

My plan is structured to a point. I keep track of what I eat and what I do (exercise-wise) on Fitday. I limit the amount of calories I take in on a given day. I have goals in fitday as far as total amount of fat, amount of saturated fat and cholesterol. You could definitely call my plan "low fat" because I eat a lot of carbs, fruit, veg, whole grains. I eat lean meat, the only dairy I eat is yogurt (I drink soy milk and have cut cheese almost completely out) and very little bread. The cool thing about what I do is that I don't get hungry because I eat a lot of food in a day but it's good food, healthy, whole food.

The first few months on the program, I didn't allow myself any treats at all. I knew that I had to be really tough to get the crap out of my system If I really need some cheese or bread or chocolate, I get it outside my house and that works for me. I don't deprive myself of anything in particular, I just limit the number of times in a month that I allow myself to have certain things and I definitely have limits on the sizes of portions. Now, 10 months into it, Saturdays are break days. If I'm going to have a treat, it's going to happen on Saturday. I'm not as hard on myself as I used to be because I've figured out (finally, it only took 36 years!) how to balance stuff. Also, if I fall off the wagon, I don't stay off, I get back on.

I allow myself less flexibility with the exercise. I exercise 5-6 days a week because I have to. I actually enjoy it now, my body needs it and I miss it when stuff comes up (Family emergencies, illness) that prevents me from doing it. I never thought that this would happen.

I know that this is working for me because it's customized to fit my life. Because this program is forever and not just until I get to a certain goal weight, I had to keep it flexible or I'd never stick to it.