If you, like me, have tried everything else, try this approach:

* Decide that you want to lose weight. Not a decision taken lightly but a decision taken because you want to move your life to a new place. In other words, a life changing decision.

* Do not start any new exercise regime... yet.

* Get through the pain threshold by training your tummy to expect far less food for the first 3-4 days.

* Buy a pair of jeans in a size you want to get to. Spend a lot of money on it and hang it outside your wardrobe so you see it and motivate yourself everyday.

* After passing the pain threshold, eat what you always eat but far less AND more slowly, so eating takes just as long as before.

* Concentrate on the outcome (a more handsome you wearing your new jeans) rather than the process (pain, starvation, starvation, etc.)

* Do not use scales; use you belt, jeans, shirts to measure your progress.

* If you succumb to the odd large slice of cake (remember don't change what you eat, just eat less of it), never mind, don't treat it as a failure, it is merely a pause in your diet.

* Once you reach a certain weight, you will naturally feel like exercising.