Look at your diet patterns and decide if there are some nasty patterns that you can break. For instance, are there certain times of day when you just have to have a candy bar? Or are there certain times of day when you can't go without that bag of chips? Think about what you can reasonably give up or even better what can you replace with healthier food choices.

Here are some little habits that you might consider changing. The key is, you are breaking a BAD habit and instilling a GOOD habit in its place. This should be a PERMANENT change. Ask yourself, "Can I maintain this change for rest of my life?"

1. Fast Food. Do you eat out everyday for lunch? Start to bring your lunch to work at least 4 days a week Even stopping by McDonald's twice a week can have a big impact on your diet. When you cook at home, you know what's going into your food.

2. Drinks. When you're thirsty, choose drinks that don't have any calories (water, tea, or diet soft drinks). If your drink choices do have have calories, they should have nutrients. Alcohol and soda both contain useless calories.

Research indicates that slower weight loss of a half pound to two pounds a week and preferably about a pound a week on average is healthiest rate of weight loss and rate most likely to be able to be maintained.

However, we are an impatient people by nature. I've spent most of my life in Church. And sometimes in church circles Christians joke about patience. They say "Don't pray for patience because "trying of your faith worketh patience." We conveniently forget to add rest of that passage which says, "Let patience have her perfect [or complete] work in you." One of great spiritual benefits of weight-loss is development of patience. Weight loss takes time, it isn't a straight line, there are weeks you lose and weeks you don't, and consistency is more important than momentary flares of excellence. Reminds you of life, doesn't it.

In some ways, process of controlling one's weight reminds us of process of controlling one's life. It requires discipline, self-control, consistency and patience. But we all know that patience doesn't come naturally to most of us, especially those of us who share a Western European or North American heritage. We live life in "fast lane" and patience requires us to slow down and enjoy journey as well as destination.

Even process of losing weight provides us with small moments of joyous revelation occurring along way. Like last month when I realized that my thighs were no longer hitting each other when I was walking, or last week when I noticed that I hadn't touched or even wanted to drink 2-Litre bottle of regular Root Beer left in my refrigerator after Fourth of July celebrations. Or first time I made it all way through a one hour aerobics class. These are moments to cherish which will not come again, yet if I fume over fact that i lost "only" a pound or half pound this week, I will miss joys of journey.

I'm a science fiction fan. I was watching Babylon 5 a couple of weeks ago on Sci-Fi Channel. Marcus, a sort of interstellar knight errant, and Commander Susan Ivannova, career military, are talking about something and Ivannova mentions that a certain alien language, Minbari, is a beautiful language. Marcus says, "I could teach you." Ivannova begs off saying, "Oh, no, I couldn't. It would take me a year to learn." To which Marcus responds, "And how old will you be next year if you don't learn Minbari?"

It might take you a year or two years or five years to lose weight you want, but how old will you be if you don't lose weight? Often our discouragement with weight loss, comes not from process itself, but from our own impatience with process. So, here are a few hints on developing patience:

1. Celebrate today's success however "small." When I was doing a traineeship in psych counseling, I had a supervisor who had been a Navy captain. He had a white board in his office. On that board he drew an outline of east coast of US, Central and South America. Across from it he drew Coast line of Europe and Africa. He put a mark where New York would be and drew a line to west coast of England. He looked at me and said. If I were captaining this ship and I made just a one degree change in heading just after leaving New York Harbor look where I would end up." And he drew line to a point on continent of Africa. "Small changes maintained over an extended period of time have major results."