At the age of thirty-seven, I was fat, and since the age of thirty-eight, I have never been fat again. That's the whole idea of effective weight loss - it's permanent because it's part of your lifestyle and the way you think about yourself, with pride and a sense of accomplishment. The goal you achieve is your own - you own it.

Food is not your remedy for problems. Food is not going to change your life. If you are lonely, food is not going to be your company. If you are sad, food is not going to give you solace.

Weight loss can change your whole character. That always amazed me: Shedding pounds does change your personality. It changes your philosophy of life because you recognize that you are capable of using your mind to change your body.

For the first few years after I lost weight, I would feel for my hip bones every morning when I woke up so I would know I wasn't fat. It was like pinching myself so I'd know I wasn't dreaming.

When you're trying to lose weight, one of the most important things you can do is eat three decent meals a day so that you're not so hungry that you can't get food off your mind. Habit and hunger have long been the basic, insidious enemies of the overweight. We can't fight hunger, but we can fight habit.