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Maybe you put on a pair of jeans you haven't worn in a while or you found an outfit you wanted to wear for a special occasion, only to find out your clothes don't fit you anymore. You walked over to the scale to find out that you have gained weight. A bit of weight. And while this isn't shocking to you, it's the final straw. You want to lose weight for the last time. But where do you begin?

Start with Where You Are

Too often, diets and the best intentions to lose weight dissipate as people begin to look to others to help them lose weight. All of those weight loss books out there might make grand promises, but they aren't doing the trick for most people – otherwise, there would be only one weight loss book, wouldn't there? Instead of looking for advice, it's time to look at your life and try to find a way to lose weight that works for YOU. Right now, you might want to look at the kinds of foods you have in your house. Do they seem to be healthy? If so, great. If not, it's time to make some changes. The truth is that you already know how to lose weight – eat less and exercise more. But just because you know this doesn’t mean it's easy to do. When you want to lose weight for good, you need to start by cleaning the junk foods out of your home and replacing them with healthy foods and produce. This will help you instantly cut calories – no calculator needed. Think about the kinds of foods you already enjoy. Now, you don't have to get rid of these foods in your life, but you do need to reduce how much you're eating. In doing so, you will not feel deprived, but you will still be managing your diet in a healthier way.

It's Not about Deprivation

The key to losing weight is thinking about ways you can begin to eat less and exercise more. Successful dieting doesn't occur when you eat nothing and you exercise all the time – what kind of life would that be? Instead, you need to make small changes in your life to help you see big results. Add a 15 minute walk to your day, every day. Think about just leaving a little food on your plate at each meal. It doesn’t have to be hard. What you're trying to do is make small enough changes so that you will stick to these new habits for the long haul. When you make too big of changes, you will not be able to stick with them, which makes you will not keep that weight you lost off – and you want this time to be different. Slow and steady wins the weight loss game, even if you think it's not working as quickly as you want it to work. Losing a little at a time still adds up to weight you never have to lose again.