I'm 5'10", and at my biggest, I weighed 303 lbs. Looking back at the pictures of myself when I weighed so much, I can't believe how large I was. But the odd thing is, I never felt that big. I was always self-conscious about my appearance and had a low self esteem, but I never saw myself as big as I actually was. I was very aware that my pant size was 44" and that I was barely able to wear XXL shirts. But I guess because I didn't have a skinnier "me" to compare myself to, my large size didn't really register. Let me say that after 6 months, I had lost as much weight as all of those commercials guarantee you if you'll just take their pill, or use their product.  But I wasn't using anything extra, just eating right and getting exercise.  You don't need the latest and "greatest" thinkg that is advertised for weight loss.  You just need a plan and will power. Looking back, I was huge! I had problems breathing, problems with any sort of physical activity, and I wasn't sleeping good at all. As I remember back to when I was that large, I can remember the decision that I made to finally make a change in my life. I basically told myself, "This is enough. I don't enjoy where I am and I know I have the power to change." But thinking that and having the will power to change my eating and exercise habits were 2 very, very real differences.

I'm not going to keep you in suspense until the end of this article before I explain how I lost so much weight. So here it is:

• Eat the right, healthy kind of foods
• Eat the right portions of the food that you eat
• Get exercise as often as you can

That's it, no tricky diet plans, no shakes, no pills (except a daily Centrum multivitamin), no surgery, no internal cleansing programs, no nutrition cookies, no ordering food programs from the tv. I started my journey by researching and learning about healthy foods and non-healthy foods, about food portion sizes, and about proper amounts of exercise. It's important for me to tell you that I never considered myself on a "diet". I knew that diets eventually end, and when they do, we go back to our old eating and exercising habits (or lack of exercise) and put the weight back on. That's great for the people selling diets, because they keep making money off of us, but that's terrible for us and it wreaks havoc on our bodies. So here's what I told myself, and it really helped me with my will-power. I told myself that I am not going on a diet, but I am beginning a life-long change in the way I eat and the way in which I take care of my body. After 12 months, from late 2007 to late 2008, I had dropped 116 lbs. and went from 303 lbs. to 187 lbs., from size 44 pants to size 34, from XXL shirts to larges and mediums.  I never starved myself, I never skipped meals, I never went to bed hungry. I chose the right foods to eat, I made good decisions about the portions of the foods that I ate, and I exercised 4-6 times a week (usually no longer than an hour a day, sometimes 30 mins.)

My wife and I started eating right together. Let me assure you that, if you are in a relationship, it is paramount that your significant other supports you. There's no way I could have been successful if my wife brought home a greasy fast food burger while I was trying to eat healthy.

We began by following the eating guidelines of Weight Watchers. We didn't go to any meetings, but we got a hold of a friends point calculator and beginners guide and started to learn about what foods were best for us and what portions were appropriate. After about a month, we had learned what Weight Watchers was trying to teach us. We learned to read nutrition labels and find out about the serving size of the foods we were eating. I was blown away at how much I had been overeating without knowing it. I literally had been overeating at every meal for the better part of 10 years. Click here to view the FDA's guide to Learning About Food Nutrition Labels. Here are some of the basics that we learned about:

• Check the Fats. Are they bad fats (saturated and trans fats) or are they good fats (poly and mono unsaturated fats)? It's important to note that too many of any kid of fat will be unhealthy.
• Check the Dietary Fiber. Fiber helps keep you full and helps with your digestion. It's not all tasteless!
• Check the Protein. Protien helps keep you full too, but it's also packed with vitamins and nutrients and helps out tons of stuff within your body. It's also very helpful in building muscle.
• Check the Carbohydrates. We do need carbs, but not too much. Carbs give us energy, and we'll burn a lot of them off when we exercise. But when carbs aren't burned off (because you've had too much), they turn to fat, so be careful.

Now, please understand that this article is in no way the end-all be-all of nutrition guidelines. My wife and I read and learned about nutrition, and then we also dug deeper and kept doing research about the best, most nutritious foods to eat. I want to encourage you to take the info that I've given you and continue on in your own research. Learn more and eat better.

Here's some specific foods we've found that have great nutritional qualities.

Some are "super-foods" and some are just great! Foods that speed up your metabolism and aid in fat burning are vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, fish, healthy fats and whole grains. Look for these vegetables when shopping: baby spinach or regular spinach, broccoli, carrots, asparagus, cabbage, assorted beans, and dark, leafy veggies. Any type of fresh fruit is great for you. Try focusing in on blueberries, melons, apples, citrus fruits and tomatoes. Skinless poultry, fish, lean beef, and eggs are great sources of protein. (remember portion control, we're not talking about the 14 oz. Porterhouse at a steak joint) The omega 3 fatty acids in fish boost your metabolism. Eat healthy fats like nuts and peanut butter. Try finding the peanut butter with "no sugar added" on the label. Whole grains found in brown rice, cereal, barley, and oats speed up your metabolism as well. We had a great time mixing our own cereal (it was a combination of natural granola from Sprouts mixed with regular rolled oats and almonds, so delicious) Yogurt, walnuts, turkey salmon, oranges, green tea, black beans tomatoes and carrots are all considered super foods.

Let me also tell you that I was not a vegetable and fruit eater before we began. But as I began to eat better, my cravings changed. I began to desire fresh fruits and vegetables. I started looking for great recipes with great, healthy ingredients.

You can get exercise without a gym membership and without buying any equipment off the tv! We started exercising by taking walks. It was great time together and it was great exercise. Here's how we progressed with our exercising routine. We began trying to go for walks about 3-4 times a week. Just regular walks, we tried for about 30 minutes at a regular pace. After about 3 weeks, we were less tired at the end of our walks, so we tried upping the walks to 5-6 times a week and we mapped out a 3 mile course. It took about an hour at first, but soon we cut it down to 50 minutes. Then we decided to interject some light jogging into the three miles. We would try jogging for about 50 yards every 10 minutes. It wasn't exact, obviously, but it helped us burn more calories as we got accustomed to exercising. The weight just kept falling off, week after week. I lost more than my wife (because I was way, way more over weight than she was. she only needed to lose 5-10 lbs.)

Soon, I wanted to join a gym. Walking and jogging was getting boring to me, and I knew, with my personality, if it was boring, I would quit. So we joined 24 Hour Fitness, and the fun continued! The gym allowed us to work with weights, many different machines, and many different kinds of cardio equipment. I could never get bored with so many possibilities. My routine finally fell into this: I would do an hour of cardio 4 times a week with no weight training on those days, then I would do two days a week with light cardio and 45 minutes of weight training (arms and legs mostly, with some core exercises to boot). I'm not saying this routine will work for everyone. A personal trainer might even try to tell me that I wasn't doing enough weight training or that I was doing too much cardio. All I know is that I developed a routine that worked, the weight kept coming off, and I didn't get bored or tired of going to the gym.

Again, losing the weight that I have has been the easiest and the hardest thing that I have ever done. All it involves is following three simple steps: 1. eat the right, healthy kind of foods, 2. eat the right portions of the foods that you eat, and 3. commit to getting exercise. But it's so hard to keep at it when all you want to do it find your favorite restaurant and double up on cheddar bay biscuits and the ultimate seafood feast.

So here's what I'm offering you, the Bat Phone. Ok, well maybe the Bat Email. Email me if you want to, for whatever reason. Tell me your struggles. Tell me what you think you won't be able to overcome. Tell me what you're scared about. Email me when you feel week and your about to drive to the nearest Chinese food buffet. I'm not a fitness expert or a nutritionist, I'm just a guy who can talk you down from the ledge.