This is the time of year when I'm thinking that summer is just around the corner and I still have a few pounds put on from the holidays that I need to shed. I've always been fairly thin and lean, but since entering my 30's, I have found that my body increasingly wants to hold on to the extra weight I always put on during the holidays. Still, I always manage to shed the 5 to 10 lbs of body fat I need to by summer time, and it's not as difficult as you might think. If you start now, at the beginning of February, you should reach your goal well before summer begins.

There are some things you may think you need to do to lose that last 5, 10, or 20 lbs. of body fat that may be holding you back from even trying. Here are a few of those, helpful but not necessary, "common knowledge" techniques for trimming down:

• Run or walk 30 minutes to an hour several days a week.
• Reduce your caloric intake to below what you need to maintain your BMR (basal metabolic rate). We've all heard about the standard daily 2,000 calorie diet. If 2,000 is your number, for example, you don't need to reduce your calories to 1,500.
• Do more ab exercises or hip flexor exercises or any other isolation exercises that focus on "problem areas."

So, you do not have to starve yourself. You do not have to add and cram in multiple workouts per week into your busy schedule. You do not have to focus more on any one body part (abs, hips, etc.). None of those typical approaches is actually very healthy. That you don't have to create those stressful habits should be good news to you.

Next, I'm going to tell you all you really need to melt that last bit of stubborn fat away. Believe it or not, just one or two simple and fairly easy changes is all it takes.

Let me preface my suggestions here with a couple of disclaimers. First, I know that some people struggle with weight loss much more so than others. For those people, results may come more slowly after making the changes I'm going to recommend, but the results will come.

Second, don't be fooled by the simplicity of my formula (I call it "my formula" because it is what I do every year to successfully and consistently drop anywhere between 5 and 10 lbs of body fat in 2 to 3 months. If you think, "That won't work for me." Then guess what? It won't work for you. If you think that you have to run 10 to 20 miles a week, eat like a rabbit, or do more crunches, you're wrong, but it will be true for you based on your belief. The subconscious mind is a powerful force.

Here's the simple strategy I use every year to lose 5 to 10 lbs of body fat in a couple of months:

• Make sure that either lunch or dinner (preferably dinner) is a big salad with lean protein (grilled chicken, boiled egg, tuna, or lean steak). No iceberg lettuce, but raw spinach is great, and put a variety of at least 6 different vegetables in your salad. If you're not a big vegetable eater, I understand, so for taste, use a salad dressing with all the fat (not lite, not fat-free) and don't skimp on the protein. If you're a steak eater, for example, put a healthy serving of meat on your salad. Here's the thing, if you eat enough of a variety of veggies in your salad, the fiber in the salad helps metabolize and digest any fat (from salad dressing or meat) eaten with it, so it has less of an impact on your body fat than say, eating that steak with a potato, bread, and maybe a little side salad. Remember, your meal should be a salad with a side of protein, not the opposite. This recommendation needs to be followed at least 5 days of the week.
• Drink at least two liters of water every day. Start in the morning. As soon as you wake up, drink 1 liter. You don't need to drink it all at once, but within the first hour or two after waking up. This helps re-hydrate you and jump-start your metabolism. Body fat loss is optimized when you're hydrated and your metabolism is revved-up. After that first liter in the morning, it's easy to sip and drink the second one over the rest of your waking day.
• Eat a breakfast consisting of mostly protein (eggs, or a protein shake) with fresh fruit on the side. If you're not too full after having your protein and fruit, add a bowl of oatmeal to your breakfast. It's scientifically-proven that the more good calories you consume at breakfast, the faster you lose weight.
• If you get hungry late in the evening, and often eat a bowl of cereal or some other snack before going to bed, just change that to a low-sugar, low-fat protein drink. The protein will help fill you up and will help keep your metabolism moving on an even keel over night which helps keep body fat under control.
• If you drink soft drinks, stop now. If you have a habit of drinking just one cola a day, you are fighting an uphill battle. Cut it out and watch how amazingly fast you will lose weight. if you drink sugar-free colas for the caffeine boost, there are plenty of other great-tasting drinks on the market with caffeine, and even better, vitamins, minerals and herbal extracts to give you energy without a crash.

As you may have guessed by now, body fat loss is mostly about what you eat, not exercise. I'm not saying exercise is irrelevant (although you are mostly wasting time if you're working out abs for more than 10 minutes), because (the right kind of) regular exercise in addition to the right diet will accelerate your results. But, at most, I will perform only 15 to 20 minutes of cardio exercise 2 to 4 days a week, max, when I'm on my pre-summer fitness regimen to get lean. That's a whole lot less than the 30 minutes to an hour, 4 to 6 days a week normally prescribed in fitness magazines. Hey if that kind of torture is your thing, more power to you, you're probably in great shape, but it's not necessary if your goal is just to trim down.

On the other hand, I'm a big believer in the psycological boost you'll get from adding exercise. If you normally don't, but you start exercising along with the above recommendations, it will be easier to adjust your diet and your schedule for your workouts, because combined they will put you in a mindset which will give you positive inertia to stay the course and reach your goal. Again, the mind is powerful. Where the mind goes, the body follows.