How can I lose weight?

How can I lose weight is a question often asked and there are so many answers, enough to make your head spin and lead to serious confusion. This may well in itself lead to an extra slice of chocolate cake.
There are some simple steps anyone can take, the first one is making the decision to shed the weight, assess how much weight you wish to shed, it may only be 20 pounds or it may be 100, the steps are the same.

Make the decision, I will lose 30 pounds by Chrismas [this is my aim]
Consult your doctor to make sure there are no underlying health problems such as diabetes, thyroid problems, heart problems etc

Inform yourself, find out what your biggest issue is when it comes to your weight, why you want to lose weight.

Take a good and honest look at what you eat, write a journal of every food item you put into your mouth, every soft drink, coffee, small snack. By being very honest with yourself you will easily establish what food habit has to be eliminated. For example I got into the bad habit of eating a pastry with my daily espresso, it is only small, but I found out it contained 30 grams of fat and a lot of sugar too, another habit is munching while watching TV, my favorite here is toast with nutbutter and honey often followed by a piece of chocolate. By eliminating these 2 snacks I cut probably 500 to 600 calories out of my daily allowance.

Exercise: 20 minutes a day at least 5 days a week, walk or swim or cycle, it doesn't matter, it is best to alternate and exercise in an enjoyable way. Exercise must be fun.

Keep motivated, often people get discouraged after 2 weeks, too many changes and maybe the results don't come up to expectations. A good way to stay motivated is to start your own weight loss group, maybe some friends with whom you could take daily walks with or maybe join a salsa class, it make exercise more fun and on the days when you feel a little lazy there is someone to urge you along.

How can I lose weight is not the catch phrase anymore, change it now to: I am on my way to lose weight in a healthy and effective way