Back on 3-13-08 I decided it was time to start losing weight, eating healthier and all-around getting myself into better shape.

So I started with totally cutting out the 6-8 mugs of coffee I was gulping down a day – cold turkey for a week. that got me jump started.

I changed my eating habits – no fried crap, no fast food and I cut way down on processed foods.

I also combined this with the beginnings of my exercise plan, which consists of me walking 4-5 times a week for 20-40 minutes a time, plus I have been pumping some weights on the boys’ exercise weight machine.

As of this morning (almost 4 months later) I am at 255.5 and I started at 281, so that’s a loss of 25.5 pounds!

My last visit to my diabetes doc went very well. It was the first time he ever spoke about the possibility of getting off the meds if I keep this up.

So to all of you overweight people out there who have lost hope, you can do this without taking extra weight-loss junk or getting a personal trainer or getting your stomach stapled.

It just takes the will to start and once the results start coming in it gets easier to keep doing it.

My sister Keri is also writing a story for her paper about her efforts to slim down involving a personal trainer.

BTW…I only had to do cold turkey on the coffee for a week. I now have 1-2 cups a day and limit it to no more than that.