No magic wands

MY PHILOSOPHY ON WEIGHT LOSS

Seventy million Americans are overweight, and I was one of those obese souls.

At 340 pounds, I classified myself as pleasingly plump, but my doctors preferred the term morbidly obese. They urged me to have “the surgery,” but I turned a deaf ear to the skinny people in their white coats.

Finally at midlife, I took off my rose-colored glasses and realized I had a problem, a rather large one at that. I was all too aware that diets don’t work, and in the end most people wind up heavier for their efforts. It was my problem and I had to solve it.

700,000 CALORIES AND COUNTING

I purchased many weight-loss programs over the years, but never put them into action. So I went into my closet of good intentions and began teaching myself how to incorporate healthy food and exercising to burn off what I ate. I became my own trainer and nutritionist, lost 200 pounds and burned more than 700,000 calories to accomplish that feat.

Eating healthfully and working out does work. Who knew?

I will never regret my decision to change my life. There have been many bumps in the road but in the end I am glad that I learned from the available healthy tools that weight loss is about teaching your self better eating and exercise habits.

CALORIES IN, CALORIES OUT

Weight loss comes down to a simple math equation: Calories in, calories out.

Few weight-loss options seem to have lasting results, which has led to the circus of snake-oil salesmen hawking their flim-flam solutions that seldom work. The quick fixes don’t work, and with every passing year more and more people are becoming heavier and heavier.

Save your money on the quick-fix solutions and use the money for all the cute clothes that you will soon be able to buy.

I hope you find the power within yourself to make your wishes come true for a better life.