When people find out that I have recently lost 159 pounds in fourteen months they often ask how I was able to stick to my program so successfully. They usually are also very surprised when I tell them about my method, because it had very little to do with will power and everything to do with setting goals and priorities.

The following is a quote from chapter five of my upcoming book, No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds without Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups or Surgery and How You Can Too! which will be available from Amazon.com and other stores in late summer or early fall of 2015 :

“The secret to following any dream is to make it a priority. My father was right when he said that I pursued my dream to lose weight like Olympic athletes pursue gold medals. For the first time in my life, I wanted to have all the benefits of slenderness more than the things I would have to give up in order to have them. I knew that if I lost enough weight I would be able to wear prettier clothes, find a better job, and maybe even get married someday, and I wanted all these things with a passion big enough to move heaven and earth to make those dreams possible.

One of the things people often say when they hear about my weight loss is ‘Wow! You must have a lot of will power.’ I smile when they say this, because actually will power is only a small part of it. Walking away from wrong foods and filling your refrigerator and cupboards with the right foods has a lot more to do with focusing on what you want most than resisting what you are not supposed to have. I found that the more I imagined how I would look as a thin person and the things I wanted to do when I reached that goal, the easier it was to eat the right things.”

I should also mention here that this same passion motivated me to exercise every single day no matter what! I loved the process of reshaping myself! It was extremely exciting and I really did want to reach my goal much more than I wanted anything else. I was also very curious to see how I would look as a thin person. The last time I was thin I was in the 1980s when I was in high school, so I had no idea how I would look as a mature adult with a nice figure. Watching myself shrink was really fascinating and I have to say I really do like how my figure has turned out, but it has taken some time to get used to being “the new me.”

I particularly like the fact that I look a great deal like my mom and a lot of people commented on the resemblance shortly after I reached my weight-loss goal. At that time Mom and I were wearing our hair in almost the same style, which made our resemblance even more striking. One day when I was exercising at the gym, I was using free weights and was looking in a mirror with the idea of checking my form when for a split second I found myself looking at this short, slim brunette and asking “What’s Mom doing here?” Then I realized I was looking at me! I only remember that happening once, but it was an unforgettable moment!

Even now when I am maintaining my weight, I find good habits and setting priorities to still be really important. I have worked so hard to get my new figure, the last thing in the world I want to do is lose it! I still like high-calorie foods, but not enough to undo all my hard work, so I very seldom eat them.

Now for those of you who still believe will power is the best way to lose weight, I will confess that I have experimented with diets based on will power in the past, but they never worked for me. Every time I saw something I should not eat, but desperately wanted, I would try to pull myself away from the “bad food” and persuade myself not to eat it. That never lasted very long! You see what I used to think of as “will power” could better be described as “won’t power.” I would say to myself, “I won’t eat this and I won’t eat that even though I desperately want to and really don’t know why I am putting myself through all this misery.”

Of course, Sooner or later I would end up eating whatever it was I wanted to eat. You see, if you don’t have big dreams and exciting goals to work toward, all a “will power” plan works out to be is a deprivation program and who wants to feel deprived? I can tell you, I didn’t! That’s one of the reasons I stayed overweight for thirty-two years!  It wasn’t until I came up with an entirely new approach that I was finally successful in making my weight-loss dreams come true.

So are you ready to try a new approach to weight loss? All you need to start is a pen, some paper and your wild imagination! Just try the following steps and you will be well on your way:

1. Imagine “the new you” when you reach your weight-loss goal. What size do you want to wear? How will you look? Who will be surprised and amazed when they see you at your new size?  Let your imagination soar and write down a full description of yourself as you wish to be.
2. List some things you want to do when you reach your new size. They can be as simple as going to a restaurant and sitting comfortably in a booth or as expensive as flying around the world without the need for a seatbelt extender or to buy more than one airplane seat.  Something I really enjoy being able to do now that am thinner is to trim my own toenails easily. I also like being able to bend over comfortably and tie my own shoes.
3. List the new opportunities that might be available if you lost weight. Some examples include new career options, a happier love life and the energy to learn something you always wanted to try such as ballroom dancing, skiing or tennis.
4. Once you have fully visualized the new life that you could have available to you as a thin person, calculate how much weight you would really need to lose in order to get there. Don’t be afraid even if the result is a big number! Remember I lost 159 pounds! Just figure out what your weight-loss goal would be and write it down.
5. Now write down how very much you want to achieve your goal! Do you desire it so much that you want to taste success more than any food that would keep you from reaching it? If you do, you have already taken the first step. Just keep going that direction and you will eventually wind up where you want to be!