Hello, my name is Michelle, and like many other Oklahomans, I am categorically overweight.

While I cringe at the label, two years ago I would have had to write, "obese”. I have maintained a weight loss of 30 pounds over the past two years, and I am excited to reignite my efforts through the mayor’s campaign, www.thiscityisgoingonadiet.com.

I’m going to share with you my journey to release 35 more pounds and to become ready for the OKC Memorial Marathon, where I plan to run my first half marathon on April 27.

For you who are starting out on this journey, my first recommendation is to get a network to assist you. This could be a support group, dietician or another resource to help you set up a plan and encourage you through frequent check-ins. This was pivotal to my initial efforts in 2006. Don’t wait until you are at the end of your rope to get help!

The second area that I focused on was exercise. For me this means early, and I do mean EARLY, workouts. Why? I once went by the philosophy of doing what you hated first thing each day, now I try to view it as taking care of myself first. Now that I am training for the half marathon, workouts are six days a week! My husband and I now work out together on the weekends. And even though I have the normal body image challenges, I enjoy the workouts more than I could have ever imagined.

As we go through this journey I’ll tell you more about how I got to this point, as well as the efforts I’m taking to meet my health goals. Diet, exercise, and mental perceptions all play a part in this voyage. In the meantime, I will share with you other concepts that have worked for me:

What has worked for me:

1. Prayer, prayer and more prayer. I pray before I get out of bed. I pray for willingness to exercise and eat healthy.

2. Get support. In addition to people support, I finally bought good exercise shoes. I’ll talk about this later, but it has been a key improvement in my exercise regimen.

3. Write down everything you eat and drink daily. I found that I was more willing to modify my eating when I could directly see the cause and effect of my eating habits.

4. Rekindle those things you loved as a child. For me, this is music. Rather than buy the sweet treat, I will buy a cheap CD that has all the '70’s songs I love. Then I sing in the car (I also find great pleasure in embarrassing my kids ... :-))

Do you want to lose weight? Visit our diet and fitness section, and stop by Oklahoma City's ThisCityIsGoingOnADiet.com Web site to get started.