Guest Post Author Bio: The following is a guest post from Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, where she writes about finding the balance between paying your bills, saving for your future, and budgeting in the fun stuff along the way.

I love chocolate, pizza, and steak.  I also have always eaten more than I really needed my whole life because food tastes good.  Sadly, I also cannot stand formal exercise.  I will kill myself for a team sport or walk happily for miles if I can chat with someone too, but exercising just to exercise bores me to tears.

Those two qualities combined with a cubicle job led me to gain a little more than 25 pounds in the last 6 years.  I am 5’2” and weighed 176 pounds on January 4, 2011.

Weight Watcher’s Online

Seeing that number on the scale prompted me to join my husband when he signed up for Weight Watcher’s Online.  No, I am not affiliated with them in any way and I am not promoting them for any reason at all other than they actually have worked for me.

I liked the system since it gives you a certain amount of daily points to “spend” on food, everybody gets an additional 49 weekly points to spend however they want, and you can earn food points through exercise.  Plus, most fruit and veggies cost no points!  Being able to have fruit like bananas and vegetables like carrot sticks for “free” has single-handedly saved me from starving myself between meals.  That has the added benefit of keeping my metabolism humming along.

Portion Control

One of the biggest benefits of Weight Watcher’s programs is that they do not suggest that you give up a certain category of food.  I love carbs and meat and vegetables and fruits and white foods and desserts and everything!  I could never imagine telling myself that I can never have a yeast roll again.  Having a certain number of daily food points simply limits me to one roll instead of three or 6-8 ounces of steak instead of 14…

I simply had to start prioritizing my “loves”.  If a single brownie is going to cost me 6 points but an entire 2-3 cup strawberry smoothie with Splenda only costs me 4 points, I have to decide on what to eat based on quantity, quality, and mood.  Since I love to budget anyway, budgeting food points seemed to come naturally to me.  Within 2 weeks, the pounds were just disappearing!

Weight Loss So Far

It has been almost 6 months since I weighed in at 176.  On Sunday, June 19th, I weighed in at 147.  That means I have lost 29 pounds in less than 6 months!  I have gone from a size 16 and growing to a tight size 10!  I have my curves back!  I really couldn’t be happier and am still eating all the things I love – just less.

For all of you men out there, my husband has gone from 226 to 192 – that is 34 pounds!  He also doesn’t feel like he’s missing out on much at all and we do use our 49 extra weekly points to splurge once in a while on fried foods, pizza, and sweets.

In short, if you are trying to lose weight but fad diets just aren’t an option, I’d highly suggest portion control.  If you do not have the willpower to do that without something keeping you honest (like me), then Weight Watcher’s Online or the meetings may be a great choice for you too.

Have you had any success staying healthy or losing weight?  What has worked for you?