My three-point plan

Many people lose weight in different ways, and some people find it more difficult than others.

As many people will have read in the newspapers recently I was 18 stone when I left school. It was awful – I was very unhealthy, and only ate fatty foods.

Last week, a resident wrote to me asking for advice and practical suggestions to loosing weight. In response, I wrote back with three key ideas. Let's call it my three-point plan:

1) Self discipline and will-power
2) Exercise
3) Eating sensibly

I’ll go through these one at a time –

1) Self disciple and will-power. I would encourage you to take a photo of yourself now, and stick is on the wall in your house. That way everyday you will look at it and feel encouraged to lose weight. You’ll need to mentally commit yourself to changing the way you look. This also involves changing the way you think. Often we put on weight easily because we are not very self-confident and have low self-esteem. If you start to think positively and always say to yourself ‘I can do this’ and ‘I will do this’ your attitude to life will start to change

2) Exercise. It’s always difficult to start exercising. Our bodies often get into a rut and like to do things ‘the same old way’. Start by choosing an exercise that you enjoy. For instance – if you like walking then commit yourself to walking 1 mile per day. Each day walk faster and speed up the amount of time it takes to walk the mile. Gradually, over time you will feel the walking getting easier and easier. From then try other forms of exercise.

3) Eating sensibly. Dieting does not have to be boring. Start dieting by choosing healthy foods that you like. I started with banana, yoghurt (the healthy varieties) and cereal. The good news is you can eat as much of these as you like. Eat these kinds of foods with one hot healthy meal per day. Try to completely avoid chocolate, crisps, cake, chips, burgers etc.

If you can commit to this you should see the weight drops off over a few weeks.

Ultimately, if you really want to lose weight it’s all about will power and self-discipline. I believe that we, as individuals, can do anything as long as we put our minds to it and believe in ourselves.

Remember change can happen – you just have to believe in it!