Two pounds per month. Three pounds, tops. That's how much weight I have been losing since becoming an exercise freak!

If I think about how much I work out and how hard I try to stick to my diet each month...no way is it worth two stinkin' pounds!

But if I think of the big picture, it's definitely worth it. I am more physically fit than I have ever been in my life. I feel younger than I have in ten years. And over the past 20 months, I have lost 40 pounds. Since I've put on a bunch of muscle mass, I'm sure I've lost more than 40 pounds of fat.

It's so worth it.

In case you are new to my website...I've listed what I am doing below. It's simple, which does not mean it's easy!!! The number 1 thing it takes is to make a commitment to yourself to stick with a diet forever. You're worth it!

• I excercise 6 days a week for 1+ hours, mostly cardio workouts. I always have 1 day of rest per week from exercise.
• I eat 1200-1400 calories per day, which is my BMR level of calories. On the 1 day a week that I don't exercise, that's all I eat. You can calculate your BMR here.
• On days that I excerise, I go to caloriesperhour.com and calculate how many calories I burned in my workout. I add that number to 1200, and that's how many calories I get that day. Only add real workouts in this count...don’t count every day stuff like doing dishes, or walking the dog.
• The type of food I eat is like the South Beach diet, phase 2. If you are a sugar/carb addict, you might want to start with Phase 1 of the South Beach diet. Phase 1 is designed to break the carb addiction.
• I use lots of tricks and mental strategies and goal setting to help me stay on track for both excercise and diet.