I'm Ready To Lose Weight. How Should I Start?

February 1, 2009 -- Question: I'm ready to lose weight. How should I start?

Answer: All right, you're ready to lose weight, so what do you need to do? First of all, you're going to sit down and you're going to write out a plan, because one of the things about weight loss [is] it takes time, it takes effort -- it's not, hey, I'm working full time, I have a family at home and now let me devote eight hours a day to weight loss. That is just simply not going to happen.

So, as we're writing out this plan, we're going to start with: What am I willing to take on, and at the same time, what am I willing to give up. Because if somebody's going to be successful with it, they need to be able to devote the time.

For instance, one of the most important things -- writing down what we do, and not waiting until we go to bed to do that, writing down throughout the day what is it I'm eating. Perhaps it's going to require some rearrangement of what's in the kitchen; that means you have to have time to go to the grocery store.

And third, if you're going to be successful, you're going to have to move your body, and that means fitting some physical activity into the day as well.