by Carol Wise

Created on: April 20, 2010

It is sad how many people believe they must buy the latest fad diet or exercise routine in order to lose weight. Unfortunately I was one who bought into this belief, at least partially for years. I also don’t feel I am worth the expense of these diets and routines so I didn’t buy them. Okay, I also was raising four children and didn’t really have any extra money to spend on myself, even if I had thought I was worth it.

Then too I had noticed over the years that while I had lost weight on several “diets”, I had also always regained the weight and more along with it. So I swore to never diet again. That had only gotten me to be extremely morbidly obese. Can I add here that I also have always hated organized exercise and am not fond of sweating. Not to mention my knees were bad due to an injury and over compensation by the other knee.

Forced into an early retirement by generally poor health and my obesity as well as a flair up of the old injury, I found myself on a limited fixed income, barely able to move around my own house.

So just how does one lose weight, when they are on a fixed income, without room for costly expenses? For me it involved a great deal of thinking. Well, at least that is cheap. I thought about all the things I had done in the past to lose weight, what had worked, what hadn’t and why it hadn’t. Then I had to look at what I was eating, when I ate and the types of food I ate. I had a whole lot of bad habits. I was honest with myself and I knew that trying to make major changes in how I ate wasn’t going to work. I might go years with out eating some food but as soon as I tell myself I can’t have something, now I suddenly have to have it.

So I decided to have no taboos, no diet, to take small steps to change the way I was eating and what I was eating. To eat healthier and to eat fresher foods, those less processed. At first the changes were indeed very small. Maybe opting for tacos or tostadas instead of a burrito ( corn tortilla having more fiber and less fat) but these changes added up over the months and before a year was up I had lost more then a hundred pounds. Sometimes it was just a matter of using less cheese and more tomatoes and lettuce. I certainly had no plans to starve.

I read more labels and opted for foods with less added sugars and fats. It didn’t cost any more and often cost less because the product might be a lesser known name. When you aren’t buying junk food,

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