I started this weight loss journey a year ago March 5. I started with the Weight Watchers online system. After about 2 months a friend told me about myfitnesspal.com. What a gift from heaven! I would like to share some of the things I have learned during my 41 pound weight loss journey.

Yesterday someone at church remarked about my loss and asked if I was done. Nope, I've got another 35 lbs to go, and God willing, I will make it. She remarked that I have worked very hard to make this happen. Nope, I really didn't. Instead of finding a "diet" I found a new lifestyle. Yes, I have to count my calories, and yes, I have to exercise, but that is a very small price to pay for the weight I've lost. Have I had to give up some of the foods I love? No, not really. I just have to have them in small quantities.

As a matter of fact, I call my diet The See's Candy Diet. For those of you who don't live in a part of the country that sells See's Candy, replace the name with one that works for you. In particular, I'm very fond of their candy called the Bordeaux. So I buy a pound or two at a time. If I have saved enough calories at the end of the day, I reward myself with one. They are 85 calories each. I take that one piece of candy and cut it into four parts. Then I savor each piece slowly. Of course, I've always read that one shouldn't reward oneself with food, but this works for me. I seem to be a minimum deprivation personality type. So this keeps me on the straight and narrow.

My other favorite treat is mini drumsticks. They are 130 calories each and I can have one. I used to love to eat one of the regular sized ones at the ball park and when I was done, I just wanted to have another. So even though when I'm finished with the small one and I think, boy, another would taste so good, I don't eat anymore. I guess that is something that I've learned. I can eat the smaller amount and still want more, but I don't have to have it. That way I can have what I want and still not blow my diet.

I was in a waiting room at a doctor's office the other week and was reading an article by a woman who had decided that diets don't work. She said she had been on every diet imaginable and none of them worked for her. So she did some research and learned that even when a diet produces weight loss, most dieters can't keep the weight off. So that is when she decided to just not diet anymore and to learn to love herself as a fatty. While I agree that learning to accept ourselves and to love ourselves is important, she still got it all wrong. I can love myself even though I know that I have character defects that I wish I didn't have. That doesn't mean that I should stop working to rid myself of those defects. I feel bad for her that she can't figure out a way to make healthy eating a part of her lifestyle.

What I have learned most, is that this is a journey for a lifetime. It may take me two years to lose all the weight I would like to lose, but what would my life have been like if I wasn't following this diet? Do I get impatient about it taking so long? You bet, but at least I may not have as much baggy skin when I'm done. By doing it slowly my body has a chance to "shrink" back into its former size.

So my advice to all my Mad Hatter Friends, is to take it slow and enjoy the journey of a lifetime.