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Here are some of my thoughts on weight loss. By full disclosure I have lost 35+ pounds twice doing Weight Watchers and 22+ pounds twice on two separate fasts. So, you’re trying to lose weight? Well, I have the two most important things you need to know right here. No kidding. I don’t care what weight loss plan you pick; Atkins, Weight Watchers, Paleo, Primal, South Beach, Sugar Busters, or Aunt Martha’s family plan. If you don’t do these two things you will either fail or not be as successful as you could be. And I’m going to stop with the teasing and give you these two magical things right now. Are you ready? Here they are. First, Honesty and second is the phrase “With proper diet and exercise.†That’s it. That’s all there is to it. Be honest about your plan and include proper diet and exercise. Simple. What? You don’t get it? Okay, I’ll explain each a little more fully. Honesty Be honest with yourself about your plan. This means no cheating, measure things correctly and accurately, no bending the rules, eat the correct portions, and no excuses for why you just can’t today. Period. If you’re not fed up with the state your body is in to the point that your weight is making you angry then the personal discipline needed to stick to whatever diet you’ve chosen will be more difficult. No one is going to help you with this, and no one else can either. You’ve got to do it. You’ve got to say no to that temptation food, whatever it is. If you can’t be honest with yourself when no one else is looking about your diet you will eventually stop doing it and gain the weight back. No one else is going to care as much as you do. No one else is going to be at all interested or even know if you’re pants are too tight because your ever expanding frontier just annexed a tiramisu. No one else will lament your weight gain except maybe Jennie Craig and she’ll be with you only because you’re not buying her food and for no other reason. If you want to lose the weight, it is time to jerk a knot in that person you see in the mirror every morning. Stare him or her straight in the eye and say ‘No More’. Stare at that reflection until the person in the mirror actually believes you mean business this time, and then get about the business of planning your lifestyle change. With Proper Diet and Exercise The next time you’re lounging on the sofa with a box of bonbons and that magical weight loss commercial comes on tune your ears for this phrase. If you don’t hear it, search the text on the screen, that really tiny mouse print text that hangs out at the bottom of the screen. You’ll either hear it in really fast lawyer speak or it will be in that tiny print. Then, watch for it in every single other commercial or program talking about weight loss. It’s in every one of them. Why is that do you think? Well, the answer is at once simple and so complicated that most of us reject it out of hand. This phrase is in with every single weight loss plan advertised because, are you ready? THERE IS NO MAGICAL SOLUTION TO LOOSING WEIGHT. There it is. The solution to losing weight is simple first grade math. Burn more calories than you eat each day. Period, and the best way to do that is to have a proper diet coupled with good exercise. That word ‘proper’ really is the important one too. If your diet is moon pies all day long, I don’t believe you can out exercise the fat content of your diet. Likewise, if your diet cuts you caloric intake to 100 calories a day (you will die by the way at this level it’s dramatic license to make a point) but you leave out any exercise you will flounder in either slow or nonexistent weight loss because your body isn’t burning up what you’re taking in or is just coping. The bad news is that real healthy weight loss takes time, about two and a half pounds a week on average. We are impatient and want a pill or magic solution to melt the pounds off, and that just doesn’t exist outside of fiction. The good news is that there is an excellent method for weight loss out there for every body type, fitness level, and willpower. The internet is full of good sites (including Nerdfitness) where you can find loads of people who can walk you through exactly what you need for your particular situation, and most of them will do it for free too! If you’re on the weight loss path just remember to be honest with yourself and couple that honesty with proper diet and exercise and you’ll do fine.