It's far easier to reach your destination with a map; therefore, here is your roadmap to permament weight loss. Follow these five steps, every day for one week. At end of week (say Sunday evening) take stock. How has week gone? Did you follow through? Did you make a plan and then follow your plan?

Make adjustments where necessary. That's whole point. When you discover a plan that really is workable, you'll be much more likely to work toward following through until that new plan becomes your new habit.

Each week decide if you'd like to follow steps for another week. It takes some discipline to follow-through, but anything worthwhile takes effort. Even lottery requires buying a ticket.

STEP 1: State What You Want to Achieve in Next Month

"I want to lose 50 pounds."

Is that achievable in next month? If not, break it down into smaller mini-goals. "I want to lose 5 pounds this month."

What other ways can you describe what you want? Try using other senses such as what you'll see, what you might hear (compliments, etc.) and what you will feel:

"I want to step on scale and see (a certain number) of pounds (remember keep it reasonable for something you can achieve in one month).

"I want to feel my pants getting looser."

"I want to see myself in mirror wearing last year's bathing suit and it fits."

"I want other people to notice my clothes are getting too big for me."

"I want to easily bend over and touch my toes."

"I want to get up from a seated position, easily and gracefully."

Those are positive goals. Focus on what you want. How you want to feel, what you want to experience. Imagine hearing these things, feeling these things. Does it "feel" right? Are there any issues that pop up regarding what you are imagining? If so, you'll be able to refine your goals as you progress.

STEP 2: Make A Plan

Get out your weekly calendar and start with eating less (portion control), eating more (healthier foods), or eating differently in some way. Obviously, you're going to need to make some changes but that doesn't mean you have to find latest fad diet to follow. Absolutely best thing is to look at how you eat now and see where you might make some changes.

Do you eat pizza every Friday night? What if you ate it only three Fridays a month? What if you stopped at one slice less than usual? I've noticed that Friday nights I can easily eat four slices yet Saturday leftovers one slice seems to be plenty. What's different is that Saturdays don't have "indulgence" atmosphere that I associate with Friday nights. Have you noticed anything similar in your eating habits?

Do you mindlessly snack out of bag of chips until they're all gone? Start to use some portion control. Take a small bowlful to your chair instead of whole bag. Decide in advance how many bowls you'll eat, and stick to your plan. Be reasonable. If you know it's going to take three bowls full of chips, fine. It's still probably less than eating whole bag, and later you can cut it back to two. One day you'll find a handful or two is plenty.

Gradually cutting back on quantity, gradually introducing other ideas such as an apple here and there, modifying what you prefer to eat is a far better approach than eliminating all your favorites. The former is a way to develop an eating style that works for you and that you can live with. The latter (fad diet approach) is fine for short-term weight loss but that weight inevidebly comes back simply because you'll eventually go back to eating style you prefer.

STEP 3: Consider Exercise

Adding regular exercise helps more than anything else because more active you become more calories you burn, and if you build muscle, more calories you'll burn at rest. What, when, how often? Do you need equipment, books, tapes or can you just get started and gather other ingredients as you go?

Write it all out. Your plan should include which days of week and at what time. Don't make mistake of trying to decide you'll exercise every day. You're not likely to stick to a plan that doesn't have build-in off days. Make it easy at first. You can always add more later.

Hate to exercise? Think outside box. Exercise does not have to mean getting sweaty to oldies. It can be gardening, bike riding, it can be enjoying nature. Anything where you're up and doing something other than sitting watching TV, unless of course you're using DDR (Dance, Dance, Revolution) or new Yourself!Fitness program for X-box, PC and PlayStation. Dance, play, go fishing. Whatever floats your boat but get out and get busy.

STEP 4: Decide Whether Your Plan Is Workable For You

Take a look at your plan and decide whether it's possible. If not, make changes until it is.

Start by listing each individually what you want to achieve, and then answering question of how you will achieve it?

1. I want to eat less quantity. I'd achieve it by having half or three-quarters of amount I usually have. See if that is sufficient. Keep a food diary for one week, religiously writing down everything that goes in my mouth.

2. I want to eat more, healthier foods. I'll achieve this by adding more fruits and vegetables for snacks, so when I'm hungry, or think I'm hungry, I'll have an apple or some carrots. This has added benefit of more nutrition.

What is Clean Diet?

The Clean Diet means different things to different people. My version is less strict than some because frankly I'm not a competitive body builder and I don't have a modeling contract. Unless you must maintain a specific body weight (as actors sometimes do for instance), you probably are of same mind as I; that being, I want to lead a basically normal life. Eating out sometimes, enjoying parties sometimes, and generally not feeling like I have to "watch what I eat" or suffer consequences. The way I eat is sometimes called non-dieting approach because I don't diet, but I do pay attention. That's what Clean Diet means: paying attention to what you're eating.

What Can I Eat on The Clean Diet?

Vegetables: Enjoy unlimited raw, steam, baked. Go for it. I don't know anyone who got fat because they ate too many vegetables and that includes carrots, beans, corn and potatoes. Unless you are allergic, there is no reason to shun fresh vegetables. Yes they contain carbohydrates. Get over it. Wean yourself from sauces, and learn to like them without added butter or salt. Vegetables like carrots and beets for instance are very high in natural sugars (that's point -- nature intended to give you sweet things whereby you'd WANT to eat them and would consequently get adequate Vitamin C among other things).

Fruit: Try to eat at least one or two pieces a day. More is fine. There is no reason to restrict yourself to one-quarter of a cantaloupe or 1 small apple. Who comes up with these rules anyway? An apple contains less than 100 calories. That's not exactly going to break diet bank, is it? Eat all fresh fruit you like, especially late at night if you're working on learning to give up your chips or cookies habit. Apples are great for snacking, as are grapes, bananas, kiwi or anything else you like. Try to eat mostly fresh fruit, and saved canned fruits for once in awhile.

Dried fruits such as raisins are a super concentrated food source and should be treated with respect. A few thrown on your morning cereal or in your trail mix is fine, but remember super concentrated food is also high calorie food. You don't need a lot to get nutrients. Learn difference between densely packed nutrients and loosely packed nutrients. Fresh fruit is loosely packed, high in water content, and dried fruit is dense with little or no water. Corn-on-the-cob is loose, corn syrup is dense (and processed too).

An ounce of raisins contains 85 calories and 201 mg of Potassium, while an ounce of fresh grapes is a mere 20 calories. You'd need four times fresh grapes to equal dried.

Clean foods are as close to their natural state as possible without being fanatical about it. There is a world of difference between a baked potato and a bowlful of potato chips. One is a good source of nutrients and one is a highly refined, richly saturated fat, greasy, salty, modified source of nothing but smears on your napkin. One is satisfying and one leaves you wanting more. Betcha can't eat just one was more than a catch phrase for Lay's Potato Chips. It's a truism.

Grains & Beans: Whole grains like whole wheat, rice, millet, barley, and others. Drop habit to eat chips and crackers out of a box. Once in awhile is okay, but if you eat them regularly, then you need to make a modification. Cakes, crackers and like are simply not good for everyday fare, if you want to reach a healthy bodyweight. Once in awhile, or special occasions is fine, just not every day. Not even every other day. Once a week is plenty, and if you can't commit to weaning yourself off those foods, then you need to adjust to living with a higher body weight. It's not a character flaw, but it is a fact you must face. What you eat, dictates how healthy you will be, both mind and body.