By denise_nowell

For years now I have been overweight—well actually obese. I tried to diet with no success. I tried to exercise, just to feel like I had beed run over by a Mac truck. I tried high impact, low impact, lifting weights, you name it. It seems that anything I tried either didn't work or it was just to much for my 344 pound body to handle.

Well about 7 months ago I got a new job, a new lease on life, and I decided to give Atkins a shot. I bought and read the books, and began to travel down the long road to a thinner me. I set my sites high, to loose 200 pounds or die trying. I started induction and I will admit it was rough, I never knew the body could go through withdrawls from sugar just like a drug addict going cold turkey from their nightly fix.

I made it though, 2 months into it I had lost 40 pounds and was fast approaching the 300 pound mark (when I started this "diet" I decided I would start exercising when I reached 300). After work one night (I work at Wal-Mart) I stopped by the electronics department to see what they had in the form of exercise tapes. Wow have they changed, you see the last time I bought an exercise tape there were two kinds: Richard Simmons for those of us who not only need the lower impact of his programs, but also cheer up everytime we turn it on to see 20 other overweight people doing the same silly exercises we are; and then there are the high energy, can't make it through the first five minutes, gut wrenching, throw it behind the TV, high impact arobic tapes. I looked them over to find that most of them, although seemingly better than those of the past, still seemed a little much for me to handle. Then I found something that has changed my outlook on exercise forever.

I always knew walking was a good form of exercise, but with two children and a disabled husband I really never had the time to leave the house. Now here it was in front of me, Walk the Pounds Away by Leslie Sansone. I figured what the heck, grabbed the box set and made my way to the check out lanes. The set came complete with two DVDs (after all who buys video tapes anymore), and a purple stretchy thing. You have the choice of doing a one mile, two mile, or three mile walk, being the newby I am I chose the one mile walk. Fifteen minutes and one mile later I was done, and I felt great! Yes it was hard, but I did it and for the first time in a long time I felt good about exercising. I have incorporated it into my lifestyle and am sticking to it just as strictly as I am Atkins. I now walk two miles, three times a week. And as far as the purple stretchy thing, it is like a power band that you use for lightweight strength training while you walk (you do various arm exercises with it).

To go along with it, yesterday at work a woman was handing out free samples of a Slim Fast challenge that came with a free pedometer, so I took one (being free and all). I was curious to see how much I walk in a given day. 6723 steps yesterday, not including my exercises. I figured if I can add 50 steps or so a day until I get up to the recommended 10000, even though it is not brisk walking it is still exercise, and it will only add to the walking program I am already doing.

It has been 7 months and a few days since I started this new lifestyle (yes, I now know it as a lifestyle not just a diet). I have lost 111 pounds and have gone from a size 32 jeans down to a very loose 22. I am determined to loose another 93 pounds and I know that if keep walking, the pounds will "walk away". So get up, get moving and walk your pounds away too.

Walk Away the Pounds: The Breakthrough 6-Week Program That Helps You Burn Fat, Tone Muscle, and Feel Great Without Dieting author: Leslie Sansone asin: 0446577006