Face it, losing weight is not simple, or you'd be thin already.

Every day, you're bombarded with ads for food -- restaurants, fast food, pizza, snack foods, desserts...the list goes on and on.

At the same time, we see ads featuring models so thin that a high wind would (and probably does) blow them away. And that's what the media would have you believe is normal.

Sad to say, but thin, or even normal weight is getting rarer by the day. If the trend continues, overweight will be normal.

Losing weight, and then keeping it off, is tough. But the fact is, you can do it -- but only if you really want to. If you're half-hearted about it, you'll jump ship at the first sign of a setback.

Are you ready to change your life?

If you've been dieting for years and years, your metabolism is probably out of whack. With yo-yo dieting (hands up if you've never yo-yo dieted...no hands?) your metabolism takes a beating.

You're eating (and maybe even bingeing) one day, starving yourself the next. Your body doesn't know what it should do. Is there plenty of food? Is there a famine coming on? What?!?

Since your body gets mixed signals, it errs on the side of caution -- it saves every last calorie it finds. And when a "starvation" day comes, instead of burning fat, your body burns muscle, further tipping the metabolism over.

Your body is actually playing it smart, if you think about it. If it thinks it's starving, hanging onto fat (which burns no calories by itself) and getting rid of muscle (which does burn calories) makes absolute sense.

So what do you do to turn this around? Eat more! Yes, that's right, eat more to lose weight.

You can find out more about how much you should eat, and any pitfalls at: http://www.losing-weight-over-40.com/eat-more-lose-weight.html

Here's a reason -- you will feel a whole lot better!

Now I'm a dyed-in-the-wool couch potato. Or at least I was for most of my life. And I've been overweight almost all of my adult life. I couldn't remember what it was like to feel good, physically. I said goodbye to that around 30.

I ate my way up to over 275 pounds (ow, does that ever hurt to admit). But now that I've lost 60 pounds, you know what?

I feel so much better!

Sure, I'm still overweight. Even downright fat. But I now feel that there is a day coming where I will reach my goal weight, and I'll be able to do the things I miss. It may take me another year, but so what? I'll get there.

So why bother to get fit? Because the world opens with whole new possibilities. Because you'll feel better, sleep better, live better.

Don't get trapped in the "I'll be overweight forever" mindset, because it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you can put one foot in front of the other, you can walk for exercise.

If you don't want to go out of the house (bad weather, bad neighborhood, don't want to be caught dead in exercise clothes, etc.), you can still walk in your own home!

Leslie Sansone has created a series of DVDs for people who want to get exercise, but they need a little help. You may not be able to afford a gym membership or have the money to buy a treadmill,

But you can still walk, right at home.

Leslie makes it easy; the tapes have music (not to mention Leslie's encouraging words) to keep you on tempo, and Leslie calls out every half mile you walk.

The shortest tapes are about 18 minutes for one mile. Or, you can go longer!

So you no longer have an excuse not to exercise -- now when you can walk away the pounds at home!