flu, congratulations on your milestone this is awesome.

green tea + 4 to 6 balanced nutritional meals per day + at least 10K walking steps per day + plenty of water in between + good night sleep.

This combination seems to work for me. Being a vegetarian feel there are lot less tempting treats. Over the years my food habits have changed and have settled on a few concepts – low glycemic foods, avoid night shade vegetables (with some exceptions – sweet potato, japanese eggplant and poblano pepper), no soda/processed food, no salt, minimal bread/pasta/grains, no health/meal replacement bars 🙂

One of the changes that has made the most impact is adapting to multiple smaller meals every 2-3 hours. The first meal within 20 minutes of waking up; and the last meal 2-3 hours before bedtime. This required some getting used to, and over time found I had less cravings to grab the 100 calorie snacks. Something I read a while back that has stuck in my mind is often times we mistake cravings for hunger, when in fact our body is just thirsty for water.

Few years ago I stumbled across Zion market at Mercury, and this changed my world. The variety of produce is exceptional and now I regularly seek out ethnic markets. Often times I barely know what the produce is, and usually a fellow shopper is helpful with a recipe. One recent find was tofu + okra leaves + coriander + garlic = an absolute surprise.

As for exercise brisk paced 60-90 minute walks a day on varying terrain works best for me. Have tried running, and gym but always come back to my walks. Have a few different routes to switch scenery/difficulty and anything that requires less tracking/logging suits my personality.

All this said I have some guilty pleasure food, and luckily Costco does not carry a lot of appealing vegetarian food on their shelves!

Best wishes for finding the right routine that works, and one you enjoy.