I am 54 years old and the last few years I have not been feeling to well. Unhealthy diet, drinking and smoking did not help. My daughter is overweight and we have started a new plan last week.

I try to encourage her as much as possible, I want her to get lean and healthy, so she can have pride in herself, she has a very low self esteem. We now admitted to ourselves that we are so out of shape and we now plan our meals in advance, we do cook for at least 3 days in advance. We exercise every day. Most important, we eat healthy meals with lots of vegetables, fruit, chicken, fist, yams and sweet potatoes.

I am willing to go through with this so other people can see how a healthy plan helps, to encourage them to try it too. We now try to have only positive thoughts, instead of saying oh no exercise again, we say, yay, after the exercise we will feel so much better.

We try to see ourselves in a few months time, healthy and fit and lean. We would love to have your fat loss programs but can’t afford it at this time as my daughter and her son are living with us. It would really help us to be able to read your books and to have your help.

I have to look after my heart and health, been neglecting myself for too long now. I read your e-mails all the time and they have encouraged me to start on this diet. We just don’t know exactly how to go about the exercises. We have started a healthy program and we are feeling a bit better already and reading your mails with even more enthusiasm.

To achieve unstoppable fat loss I am willing to …

1. change my life-long habit of giving up every time I start to smell success – I have been the consummate self-saboteur!

2. tell my lovable, but incessantly chattering head to SHUT UP – all day long it drivels on, dragging up an endless array of past history, re-living it, re-doing it, none of it positive – it’s so noisy in here!

3. settle on one tried-and-true method for permanent health and lifestyle changes for a measurable amount of time, instead of spending thousands of dollars on every new plan that comes out, inevitably getting bogged down in the details, and never really putting any one of them to a true test.

4. be more patient with myself, and realistic about what I can achieve – I have struggled with my weight all my life – why on earth do I think I can change it overnight, and how dare I use that as an excuse to fall off the wagon all the time.

5. take my own advice for a change – I know what to do (hell, I’ve studied it enough), and I have no problems advising anyone who will listen about what to do.

6. become a non-drinker again, and get over the need to join my husband in daily alcohol consumption, or use it as a stress reliever.

7. be a non-smoker again, and rid my life of my filthy 28-year smoking habit that is killing my efforts to go the next level, and slowly killing me.

8. get my eating pattern back on track, and cease starving myself in order to feel slim.

9. review my goals, make sure that they are what I REALLY want and why, make sure that they are REALISTIC, and that the time frame I have set is ACHIEVABLE, then read them out loud to myself and anyone else who cares to listen, at least twice a day, and do at least one thing EVERY DAY towards those goals.

10. go to the workout journal that I created ages ago, and put a start date on it, enter my training schedule, print the damned thing, and take it to the gym!

11. go back to meal planning and cooking in advance – I have a very busy stressful life – I need to be organized.

12. get over my current addiction to milk chocolate – I don’t even enjoy it like I used to when it was just a treat.

13. keep helping other people who want to achieve their health and fitness goals, and be a real-life WORKING INSPIRATION to them, and my family.

14. fulfill my true potential.

15. be the stunning woman I have been so afraid that I am – damn, I’ll do anything for that!

Help me make it happen, and make me accountable!