by Suzi George

Created on: May 02, 2009   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

Because diet is usually a four letter word, I hope to change that to healthy eating pattern and make it seem less threatening. I can speak from personal experience, I used to weigh almost three hundred pounds. I am a five foot nine inch woman, however, that was considered morbidly obese. I had developed obesity induced blood pressure, my knees hurt and I couldn't enjoy time with my five young children because I was so tired. Hopefully I will be able to offer people of all body types suggestions for taking the weight off and keeping off not to look pretty but to be healthy.

Step one: Choose your style. There are so many different eating styles out there it's difficult to choose the right one. I tried low fat, low calorie and finally, low carb. For my particular situation, low carb worked for me. The one thing I can tell you that rarely if ever works is diet pills. They are dangerous and ineffective. You must put yourself in a mindset which brings me to...

Step two: Eat to live, don't live to eat. We tend to live in society of all you can eat buffet. However, we don't need all of the calories, carbs or fat we put in our mouths each day.

Step three: Get up and move. Exercising is key to being healthy. Your heart will love you for it.

Step four: If you smoke or drink excessively, stop. These things are toxic to your body and will only put weight on or make it difficult to lose.

Step five: Set realistic goals. Don't set yourself up for failure by expecting to lose all the weight right away. Celebrate the successes, move past the failures. Binge eating is not good for you but if you want a piece of cake or bowl of ice cream, eat it. The difference is, instead of a having the largest portion, control that portion. Use that as a test of your will power by saying to yourself "I'm only going to have five bites" and then put it away. If you can satisfy your craving and yet maintain your willpower, you will succeed.

Step six: Do not weigh yourself everyday. Pick a day of the week and do it then and only then.

Step seven: When you decide to start eating healthy, include your spouse or significant other and your family. Tell them it's a lifestyle change and even the most finicky of eaters will start to enjoy the change. Keep in mind, however, that very young children must have a certain amount of fat and carbs so don't restrict them too much. Encouraging them to eat healthy is easy when you do it too. When I started my eating change, my children wanted to try my steamed broccoli

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