What is the one thing you'd share with people new to CICO?

I've been successfully using CICO and part of this forum for almost three months. Early on, I experienced that CICO worked as long as I am honest about my calorie counts, and as long as I only saw myself as responsible for my success or failure.

Many new users seem to jump in quickly with their frustrations, doubts, and anxiety about CICO. Since there's no way to reach out to all of them with any one piece of advice (many don't seem to make it the Quick Start Guide), what one thing would you share with them about your own success if you knew they were going to read all the comments in this post?

For me, it would be to base their plan on four Ses:

• Slow. Understand it will take you a year or two of your life to become a new person, and that it's not just physical; a lot of difficult emotional and spiritual work lies ahead, too. Plan accordingly, with mini-goals in the interim if necessary. We've become accustomed to promises of 90-day fixes; forget them. They're marketing schemes.
• Safe. Make sure you're getting all the nutrients you need. In general, don't go below 1,500 calories a day if you're a man or 1,200 if you're a woman, unless you're under a doctor's supervision. Don't risk issues down the line with your bone density, gallbladder, kidneys, nails/hair, not to mention emotional health.
• Simple. It truly is as simple as Calories In, Calories Out. You'll learn over time to make those daily calories count and to make the highest percentage of them of high quality, of foods you love or come to love.
• Sustainable. If you veer into feelings of deprivation or rebellion against your own program, or if you ever introduce anything new to your plan that you can't see yourself doing every day for the rest of your life, you are on the wrong track. Every small change you introduce must be sustainable.

It's a huge relief to finally know that my CICO is right for me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I now trust the downward trend over time, so I know I'll meet my goal weight sometime next year, and I'm fine with that. As someone who was obese and couldn't control myself, if I can have achieved this, anyone truly can.

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