How to Lose the Weight You Want Without Dieting

Last year, I was at my doctor's office for a normal yearly check up. I had some blood work taken and was called the next day. The nurse on the other end of my phone said my cholesterol was high and my thyroid numbers were a little off. I was asked to come back in 6 months for a re-test.

After that conversation, I made a decision that changed my life forever. Not only was my weight affecting my self esteem and overall mood, it was now officially affecting my health. I was on a mission to lose weight. That phone call was a wake up call for me. I had been overweight for about 9 years and it was just because I was lazy and totally in love with junk food. I had been on every kind of diet known to man, but nothing ever seemed to work for me. I would try it for a week or two and eventually give up because I was hungry or just ready to get back to the junk food.

After watching a program about weight loss, I came up with my own idea. My idea stemmed from the ideas on the program. The program was for the participants to lose a certain amount of weight or have their fat bikini picture shown on television. Well, since I didn't have a local television station willing to air my fat bikini picture, I decided on a way that would work for me. I came up with a goal of 20 pounds even though I had much more than 20 pounds to lose. The goal seemed small and not so impossible. I told everyone in my family and most of my friends my plan to lose 20 pounds by the summer. I figured if everyone I knew was going to hold me accountable, maybe I'd hold myself accountable for once, too.

I started changing my eating habits on March 20, 2006, with a start weight of 192 pounds. My goal was to get to 172 pounds by July, 2006. I researched some different healthy lifestyle and dieting websites and found that I should reduce my calories by at least 1,000 a day. My goal became about 1,600 calories each day.