If you are overweight and are unhappy about the way you look and feel you may think it has happened to you by accident. We are all quick to blame our weight problems on things like overloaded schedules, being too busy, too tired, too bored or the like.

Of course there may be other factors involved with being overweight. Certain sickness conditions that preclude weight loss, but for most of us, we are fat and there is really no excuse for it.

The excuses we have been making such as "I don't have time for exercise", or "I love my food too much" or "I already get enough exercise" or "I don't eat that much now". These are just excuses we make to ourselves in the hope that we might believe them and therefore justify what we know is not the truth.

After all who is the loser if we are overweight and our health is compromised somewhere down the track? We are of course. If you are tired of making excuses for your weight and your health, now is the time to take control. If you have been playing the blame game now would be a good time to put that aside and start forming some new strategies that will work with what you really want rather than working against you.

The recipe for successful weight loss is a simple two part equation. Exercise properly and eat properly. The hard bit is taking responsibility for your own actions and this must be the very first step if the rest of it is going to work. You are in control of everything that you do in your life including:

1. Whether you exercise or not

2. What you eat

3. How healthy you are

4. Your long-term quality of life

You are smart enough to figure it out for yourself. After all no one is going to work harder for you than you. Start with the information you already know which could include:

• A proper exercise program must contain strength training exercise to boost your metabolism to help you burn off the excess body fat.

• Interval training will skyrocket fat loss (short bursts of intense activity followed by slower activity).

• Hire a fitness professional to get your exercise program working properly for you.

• Small meals (5-7) every 2-3 hours each containing 20 grams of protein and lots of vegetables is the best way to eat for fat loss.

• Natural, whole foods (like a carrot, a tomato, an apple etc) are good for fat loss.

• Highly processed, refined food in pretty boxes is not good for you.

• Water is the only drink you need.

• Skipping meals is bad and will make you fatter.

Even if you get 80% of this right you will make huge headway into getting your body back into good shape and reduce the health risks associated with being overweight.

The aim is to slowly replace bad habits with healthier habits. It is a fact that the more unhealthy food you eat, the more unhealthy food you crave.

So, by slowly cutting fatty and sugary foods from your diet will eventually help you lose those powerful food cravings that get in the way of losing weight. You will find you will gain more and more control. If you make one good food choice today, you will be on your way to better health and weight loss.

And if you can make one good food choice today you can make two good food choices tomorrow. You don't need a fitness expert to tell you this stuff, right? You already know it, now simply do it. Don't let temptations control you, you are the one in charge and don't you ever forget it.