I wish I had known, because I wanted to start something like this a while back and wanted someone to sorta do it with. XP Ah well, maybe tomorrow I'll start up and we'll sorta check in on one another's progress. :3

Anyways, I actually took a full-semester class on nutritional health, and though I do believe that my professor may have been a little too heavy on stuff that's difficult to back up data-wise, I did learn a few important doodads about making a healthy diet and sticking to it/making it a bit more effective.

Number one most important is everything in moderation. It won't blow your diet if you have some chocolate, but it probably will if you have an entire candy bar every day. Conversely, try to get decent amounts of everything. If you're lacking veggies, for example, find one that you like (or a recipe you like making out of them) and try to use it more often.

Perhaps the tip I hear most often is eat a little bit somewhat frequently, rather than large meals intermittently. This actually keeps your metabolism running at full blast for a decent time. Having six small meals will burn better than two large meals, for example, even if they're the same amount of food total, since the fireplace is still burning when you add wood rather than having to restart the darn thing every time.

Another big one is that berries are your friends. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries--well, strawberries are technically swollen stem, but you get the point. Whenever you want some candy or somesuch, try substituting out a handful of blueberries. Even though they're still loaded with sugar, berries are about a bazillion times more healthy for you. They're like little candy vitamins. XP

Corn syrup is in literally everything ever and is also your arch nemesis. Manufacturers put a lot of corn syrup in everything because people like it. It's in places you wouldn't even think to look, adding calories to just about everything. There's some argument to the effect of corn syrup also being chemically different and thus worse for you than sugar; though there's definitely chemical differences between the two (it gets pretty pronounced in cooking stuff), I'm not totally ready to verify it yet. Still, there's no doubting that it's everywhere, and it's probably better for you if you look for it and make sure you cut out as much as possible since added sugar is just bad in all cases. Also, drink sugar-sweetened sodas if you must, since not only do you step over the corn syrup thing, they taste better anyways. :3

You mentioned water above, and I think it's important to note that water is definitely your friend. Plain old water does all manner of nice things for your body, but water does taste different between locales. Try using a tap filter attachment, or if you have a refrigerator with a filtered water setting, use it. There are also those Brita pitchers that filter water for you and all of that. If all else fails, another good way to get water into you without too much extra sugar is tea that you make yourself. You can control the amount of sugar in it (if any), and you can control how it tastes. Plus people seem to talk about it helping with weight loss a lot. Try to look for a tea that's decaf or a low caffeine variety, since caffeine is a diuretic and can end up throwing away water that you would otherwise use. Actually, I hear that if you heat a bit more water for your tea than you need, brew the tea for about 30-45 seconds in the extra water, then throw away that extra liquid and brew as normal, it will reduce the caffeine in your tea a bit. The jury is apparently still out on how much, as far as I can tell, but hey, anything that might help. :3

Also, good luck! If you need support ya know where to find me~ c:

My best tip is to find something that gets you moving. It doesn't have to be a sport, just something the moves you body. For the nerd sect DDR was popular for a while, nowadays Wii's Just Dance, or the XBox's Kinect will get you up in shaking. If you happen to live in a good area for it nature hikes and wildlife spotting can do the trick for furries. Personally I got a job in retail, that gets you moving more than you'd think, but that's hit and miss (register rarely moves, backroom is constant motion).

Watch what you drink too. Sodas need to be cut right out if you're trying to lose weight. If you can switch to soy milk, and drink juices in moderation. If you need flavor to your drinks try unsweetened tea, or flavored waters. The flavored waters can be a minefield though, stuff like Vitamin Water and Sobe Life Water are more like sports drinks than flavored water, so they have lots of bad sugars in them.

When I was dieting for the Air Force, a good thing I did was eat a lot more dark greens, stay away from soft drinks, (if you drink 1 can a day of soda, it will make you gain ten pounds in that year) and cut down on breads. I did a diet like that for 2 months and almost lost 25 pounds. You can do it.

no fast food, make sure to have 3 square meals a day (its good for the metabolism) preferably low calorie, but it all works better if you get a little exercise in daily.

While i was in the states, i gained like 10 lbs :I the thing that helped me the most to lose said 10 lbs, was exercising to counter my calorie intake. owo) 9

Turkey taco salads = love. Lettuce, ground lowfat turkey, salsa, tomatos. <3 Really just being aware of what you're eating makes a huuuge difference. Plenty of veggies, healthy meats like fish and lean beef, limiting dairy n stuff.