My call to alert to lose baby weight: my peers thought I was pregnant a second time! Like my infant I decided to proceed with baby steps: slowly but with a clear intent. First step: wake up half an hour sooner and walk around my neighborhood.

Second step: go the “milky way” : I had to buy twice a week yoghurts and milk for my daughter, I started buying liquid low fat yoghurts and small milk cartons for myself, for mid-morning breaks and late office hours- goodbye cheese bits from vending machine.

Step three: Do it the fun way: I was always stressed, so I turned it positively: power walking to the cafeteria burnt calories and…saved time; House chores were done always with loud, funky music-it setting up a quick pace and almost always leaving me in a good mood.

That was enough to get rid of 1.5 kg in 2 weeks. Uplifting as it was, I moved further. My next step was changing food habits at home ; soup was re-introduced on the menu ( again an easy step in line my child needs). Lots of vegetables and water versus the usual meat and carbs dinner, cleansed my body while giving me a filling of hunger fulfillment much needed after grueling office hours.

Soup is not an acquired taste but turning into traditional recipe books, I discovered a wide range of cold and warm soups -with veggies and even fruit which were both easy to do as well as very palatable. By the time I had lost 4 kilos I was very proud of myself..but also feeling my weight had reached a plateau.

My last – and still ongoing step, was entering a “Power group” . Basically together with a few neighbours, I extended the power walk to the cafeteria to a power walk to the beach every evening: the four us give mutual support and every evening we trot down to the seaside ( 2km) do a bit of stretching exercises and walk back.

We are registering our progression in a log – so far we have reduced our initial time by 10 minutes … more calories burning ! Setting into a routine of exercise – even if mild as ours- is difficult as in the back of our minds a lot of excuses – house chores, children, unfinished emails – pop up, but thta’s what they really are , excuses.

As a group we push for each other, and don’t let anyone to be a dropout. Peer pressure and buddying are helping me a lot. Hope it can help you too.

I wanted to lose around 60 or so pounds, so I started the Atkins diet. In the first two weeks of the diet I had lost about 6 pounds.

To be successful on this diet I had to cut out my carbs such as, bread, soda’s, potato’s, milk, and things like that, but had to eat a lot of meats and veggies.

I also walked every night as well as bike riding whenever possible. The diet got a little difficult when you had cravings for bread and milks and deserts.

But having the strength and will power to stick to the diet helped a lot. Over the years I have tried many diet programs such as prescription diet pills, over the counter diet pills, diet shakes and diet food plans, but none seemed to work as well as the Atkins Diet.

I am now at 190 pounds and feel a lot better with more energy than I had before and I feel a lot healthier. I would recommend this diet to anyone that is serious about wanting to lose the weight.

Most of my adult life I have tried to lose weight. I learned a great deal about nutrition and exercise but with a very active family I had problems ever sticking to achieving my goals.

I have not gone on fad diets and really did not eat poorly. What I did was to eat too much. Funny, even if the food is “good for you” if you eat too much, you still gain weight!!

Finally, I became bed-ridden due to excruciating pain from hip bursitis and a bad back the summer of 2004.

I could only eat what was brought to me as I could not go up and down the stairs. All the weight I had lost up till then was regained. Afterwards I knew I had to lose the weight to get mobile and stay that way.

I joined Ediets and found a specialized community of people in a section of the group who also had similar health struggles and who were losing weight. I have gradually lost weight. I have also gotten a good pain specialist so that I am now able to walk 1-2 miles without being totally energy depleted for several days.

My “diet” consists of eating a well balanced meal that includes few processed foods. I eat 4-5 times a day. I drink lots of water with a bit of cranberry juice added to it (7 parts water to 1 part unsweetened juice).

I force my self to do daily stretching exercises and walking several times a week. I use hand weights of 1-5 pounds and do random exercises with them. I hope that this was helpful.