Its not a huge exaggeration to say that everyone I know who is over 30, needs to lose weight. If you're an adult living in America today, chances are you need to exercise more and eat less.

Recently a group of us "boomers" decided to deal with our various weight issues and started a Christian weight loss program called 1st Place. It is great and I highly recommend this course for everyone. It is a Bible based couse that deals with balance in every area of life. Everyone of us have enjoyed the class and we have all lost weight.

This article is not about "1st Place". I want to simply give you some proactive measures that you can take, beginning right now that will help you lose weight before Christmas.

I emphasize losing the weight before Christmas because my guess is that during the holiday season you typically put on a few pounds. I know i usually do. However, its possible that if we go into the Christmas season on the positive note of having lost 15 pounds, we might continue on our "losing' ways and reverse the trend of the past few years and actually lose more poundage during the yuletide season. Although it has been disputed, some estimates are that American's gain between 5 and 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years Day.

Follow these steps and see if they prove to be helpful to you. First, determine an appropriate calorie level for your age and life style. A simple chart for determining your caloric intake can be downloaded as a pdf file here: http://www.mypyramid.gov/downloads/MyPyramid_Calorie_Levels.pdf

Next go to the home page of mypyramid.gov for a very thorough study on what types of foods to eat and how much of each food to eat. Spend enough time there to figure our a 7 week plan.

Plan every meal as well as snacks. Keep you meals and snacks within your target calorie range. Go get what you need. Make as much preparation in advance as needed and be ready to start on your new food plan tomorrow. To reach your 15 pound goal by Christmas, you need to begin about November 2 or 3. Stick as close to your plan as possible and try not to eat after 6 PM. Don't skip meals if you can keep from it because this might trigger overeating.

Also, starting tomorrow, get more excercise. You might need to check with you doctor first if you currently do nothing. Then start walking. Work as hard as you can at it until you can do a 15 minute mile. You should work toward walking 3 fifteen minute miles at least once a day everyday of the week. If you miss one, just get up and get going again the next day. If it will help you be consistent at this then get a friend who will walk with you.

It wouldn't hurt for you to figure out what your resting, maximum, and target heart rates should be. A simple tutorial on this can be found at: http://exercise.about.com/od/cardioworkouts/ss/findtargetheart.htm

Now, one other element should be added to your daily regimen. In a notebook write down what your target caloric intake is for each day. Write down the number of servings from each food group that you should eat to reach your target. Write a full log of what you eat and at the end of the day tally it all up. Better yet, before your last meal of the day, tally what you have eaten in the day up to that point. Then adjust your final meal accordingly to ensure that you are within the target range of caloric intake.

Don't get over wrought about bad days when you eat everything wrong and so forth. Just do better the next day.

Focus on low fat and non-fat foods, limit sugars,try to eat more fruits and vegetables. And drink (8) 8 oz. servings of water each day. Remember to watch your portion sizes. For example, a three ounce serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards and you don't want to eat more than a couple of those in a day.

Stay strong and stay committed and you will have all the family talking about how thin you are getting as you gather around for Christmas dinner.

Finally, I strongly recommend 1st Place Christian Weight Loss Program. You can visit the 1st Place website for lots of good information and to locate a group near you.