One of those time travel dreams — you know the kind of thing — is to go back and kill your mother’s father so you won’t inherit his genes for male pattern baldness. Even more pleasing would be killing off that sports coach, whoever "he" was (it would have to be a sadistic man), who first starting shouting "No pain, no gain" at the sweating stragglers who don’t think they have to work until it hurts to get fit. Whoever he was recognized early on you don’t get nowhere if your approach is painless. How many times have we started on a diet, trying to think of the smallest changes we can make so our lives stay the same, but we still lose some pounds. Bitter experience should teach us we have to push ourselves out of our comfort zone if we want to see results.

Look around. There are overweight people everywhere. This proves most people never diet seriously. They play pretend or find health risks in some fad diets, see terrible warnings about some of these "weight loss pills" and would rather die than submit to this terrifying surgery stapling the stomach and reducing its volume. These are the excusenicks, committed to never trying anything new, but always for a very good reason. But what do you do when your first plan fails. What’s your Plan B? Well here are a few simple suggestions. Nothing controversial. You’ve probably seen them all before. But with a little effort, these can save you some pounds.

Do something with your spare time. Are you one of the people who stagger into the house and drop anchor on the sofa with the TV, a bowl of tortilla chips and a bottle of soda? Well that’s gotta change!

Exercise! Activity! No more hours in front of your PC reading articles like these, move around your home. If you have stairs, walk up and down them to get your heart beating. Better still, get out into the yard and do a bunch of the things you’ve been avoiding since Winter turned into Spring.

No, really exercise! To lose weight you have to burn all the calories conveniently stored away as fat around your body. At the very least do some vigorous walking round the neighborhood. If that’s too embarrassing or dangerous, find a place to go dancing, learn yoga, remind yourself how much fun it is to swim, or work out in the gym.

Eat less. You have to burn more calories than you eat. Read the backs of packs. If it doesn’t say how many calories, assume the worst and find food that does. The first step is small portions.

Eat healthy food. Yes, really! Fresh fruit and vegetables. Learn how to cook fresh lean meat rather than zap unhealthy processed stuff in the microwave.

If you feel hungry, buy Phentermine. No matter what anyone may tell you, the reason most give up the diet is they feel hungry and can’t take it. Phentermine is an appetite suppresser. It stops you from feeling that gnawing discomfort when your stomach is empty.

Wait patiently. Never set unrealistic targets. There’s no panic if you only lose one pound a week. Over time, every week, that’s a lot of pounds. So long as you stick with Phentermine for the early month or so, your stomach will contract and the hunger will fade naturally.