JJ, You have my sympathy, dieting is no fun. That's why I don't diet. I eat what I want, I just have to ask myself, "do I really want that and all that it will mean on my body later?"

I lost 50 pounds without dieting. I just adjusted my lifestyle and added healthier eating habits. I have a salad for dinner one or two nights a week. I eat smaller portions and I don't consume as much sugar. Cutting out the sugar was hard. I was addicted. It takes some getting used to, but the cravings do go away.

Chick has it right. One of the things I did to change my lifestyle was walk. I take my dog for a walk every evening, just before dark. Can I forget? Are you kidding, he started looking forward to the walks and now tells me when it's time. I can't look at his happy little face and tell him no.

One of the other things I've done to change my lifestyle is write down everything I eat. Yep. Everything. That's what the BWS diet has done for me. It makes me more conscious of what I'm putting in my mouth. I ask myself before I eat, do I want it? Then I have to write it down. In the BWS forum, everyone sees what I've eaten.

Women in the menapausal years have a more difficult time losing weight. I won't kid you there. I struggle with it every day. It takes longer and requires more effort, but you can lose weight. Remember, it didn't go on overnight, it won't come off overnight.

One of the things that has helped is having small min-goals of 5 pounds or 10 pounds. Once you make your goal, don't focus on losing the next 5 or 10, focus on keeping that 5 or 10 off. You have to learn how to maintain a weightloss, not just lose the weight. It really is a lifestyle change. Anybody can lose weight if they try hard enough and most diets have short-term success. However, keeping it off is another matter. It goes on real easy. Really easy. It's much harder to take off.

We're here to support you. You're going to have to figure out what works for you and adjust your lifestyle to accomodate it.

There's no secret formula. It's a matter of simple logic. What goes in has to go somewhere. You get to control what goes in.