Even if I could wave my weight loss coach's little magic wand and make you instantly slimmer I would not do it - no matter how much you begged or pleaded. It's not because I want to keep you overweight and make you unhappy but because I want to see you succeed - permanently.

A magic wand would simply do you no good at all! You would just be back for another wave of the wand in a month or two when you had eaten yourself overweight again. You would be there with your tail between your legs, feeling like a failure, asking "How could I let myself get into this state again?". But without a change in lifestyle and attitude, it's natural that you would get right back to where you were before.

In any case, I don't have a magic wand to offer you - no one does. There is no safe and effective magic pill, potion or patch out there, no matter what the ads say, so quit putting your faith in these things and spending your hard earned cash on every so-called miracle solution.

If you want to find weight loss magic, you already have all you need inside your own brain. You can decide right this minute that you will transform your life, your health and your body. If you take that decision, and mean it, you will get there.

And you don't have to magically transform your life overnight. Unless you have iron willpower, drastic changes to your regime rarely last.

But there is magic in changing your life one or two steps at a time. Start with changes that are relatively painless. Eat less junk, replace it with delicious nourishing food. Move a bit more every day. Eat enough to satisfy your appetite, don't gorge on all the good things on offer.

Feel the power of small successes and use the motivation and momentum they create to help you become slimmer and healthier. You will not have a magic wand but you will see the magic of creating a healthy lifestyle bit by bit in melting away unwanted fat permanently.

Copyright 2006, Janice Elizabeth Small