Hey is that Z_Z MOMMY moniker have anything to do with ZZ TOP??? ;+D I like them Suthin' Rockers too...........;+D
The thing I would like to really encourage you is to shift your focus from calorie counting low fat low that low this and that and start researching more and focusing on the quality and not quantity of what you eat. With the above also comes the shift of focus/mindset from maintaining weightloss to plain ole being HEALTHY. Like I say in my post in the FAQs "obesity is not an issue in and of itself. It is a HEALTH issue. If you really wanna succeed you will hafta do a lifestyle makeover.
The MC is a walk in the park compared to all the experimenting that you will hafta do till you find your groove. There is just a crapload of unhealthy low carb and low fats proccessed prepared foods out there. The first step is to cut out proccesed food. Now go to the freezer and throw out the frozen tater tots and fish sticks. Fess up now I know they're in there ;+D. They gotta go along with all the so called "low fat" "low carb" chips and diet sodas. Drink diluted fruit juice and every now and then add some fizzy yuppy water for an extra treat. Primarily and extremely important for health/weight maintenace is to drink half you body weight in ounces of pure water daily. Research and read up on artificial sweeteners like Aspartame. You will be shocked at the havoc that poison can play on your innerds.
As I tell folks over and over that becoming vegetarion guarantees diddly squat and more so if you're still gonna be using a lot of the so called proccesed "vegetarian" foods as a mainstay. The main focus is B_A_L_A_N_C_E. Lean as much as possible towards raw vegetarian.
One of the biggest and most overlooked factors in healthy diets is the inclussion of healthy fats or EFAs (Essential Fatty Acids) If you are a vegetarian you'll hafta be a food combining wizard to get a balanced doze of EFAs from your food sources so to me it's is innevitable that you will hafta supplement with healthy oils. I have tried Flax seed oil in the past. Then learned that you really need it to mix with other oils to get a balance of omega 6 and 3s so I tried Udos Oils but that is pretty durn expensive. A while ago I had read about hemp oil containing the proper balance but umtill fairly recent the stuff was hard to find and when you did find it it was expensive. Now I can find it at the health food store and it's even cheaper than the Flax oil. The healthy fats help burn the bad ones so in any kind of healthy but more so when dealing weight issues I consider it a must do. You might hafta mail order on the internet if the Piggly Wiggly doesn't carry it ;+D
Prolly the one single best invesment anyone can make when persuing a healthy lifestyle will be to get a vegetable juicer and juice veggies every day. There are all kindsa very tasty and healthy combos and I bet you find that even your yung'uns will like enough to keep asking for it.
Being in Bama we know the Suthin' folks likes their fried foods so I would sugest that if'n you gonna have some keep it limited and use a healthy oil like virgin coconut oil. It's finger lickin gud nad gud fer ya.
You're gonna hafta be patient. There just ain't no shortcuts or quick fixes. One important thing that you hafta to understand is that one of the prime reasons that any form of fasting are not weight loss diet is that all forms of fasting will slow the metabolism making your follow up an integral part of succeding when using fasting to jump start a lifestyle weight loss change. Exercise is the best way to bring the metabolism back online and it is of prime importance to help keep any weight loss after a fast. Of course all the stuff I mention above is also important. The fast is the easy part and any sucess is totally and completely predicated on what you do after.
There is just tons of info of nutrition on the internet so start reseaching and educatin'. On the same vien there are also a crapload of different theories out there that could drive you nuts. Don't go nuts and just pick the one that resonates for you and dive in with a vengence. No guarantees there either though. If you're lucky one of the first things you'll try will work for you but like I said befo. It's gonna take lots of experimentation before you find your goove. I know many of the southin' ladies to be one resilient no nonsense bunch but so show your Bama colors get in there a kick some butt!! and Git'er Dooooone!! ;+D