Yesterday, my mom called me to tell me about what she had learned from The Talk show. Apparently, someone on the show said that losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise. This made me think "How can that be true?" In my own life, at 51, the only way I can seem to even maintain my unhealthy weight is to exercise 30 minutes a day. And if I want to lose weight, I need to exercise more than 1 hour each day.

But as I thought about this, I thought about all the people who have had gastric bypass, or the band or some other bariatric surgery. I thought about people who have cancer who lose weight because of the side effects of chemo/radiation. Not to mention all the diet programs out there, from Weight Watchers to the Cabbage Soup diet. I even thought about the show Survivor and how the contestants suffer from being food deprived. All of these methods result in weight loss.

And here I am, hating exercising and not doing it consistently, and not losing weight. So if exercise is only 20% of the equation, maybe I should focus on what I put in my mouth more than what I do at the gym?

So, my goal for January. . . .

1. Eat breakfast.
2. Record every bite that goes in my mouth.
3. Learn to live within my calorie budget.

I am not going to stop exercising. I'm not that consistent in doing it anyway. So my infrequent trips to the gym or walking the dog is not what I will focus on. I've been ignoring my diet by not measuring my food, recording what I eat, planning my meals, or counting my calories. Of course, this will take more time and effort than my random 30 minutes of exercising, which only required the effort of getting out the door to the gym, but maybe this will be the key to losing weight for me.