The Name of the Game is Patience

Patience is a virtue. It's also an extremely important skill that most people aren't trained in. And so you must train yourself.

When it comes to losing weight, there's no getting around it. It will take time. (If you go in for liposuction the weight disappears over night, sure, but since the individual involved has not learned the necessary diet and exercise routine to follow...that sucked out weight will return shortly.)

When you're over 40, you must be more patient than ever.

If you had a fast metabolism when you were young...around the age of 40-45, it slows down. If you had a slow metabolism, it will slow down even further.

That does not mean its impossible to lose weight! The same law of nature applies - if you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight.

It will just take longer.

Which is why I encourage everyone who is just starting out on there new, life-long regime, to not even step on a scale for the first two weeks. If you feel hungry all day, go to bed, wake up and step on the scale and see you haven't lost a single pound, frustration and anger can set in and you'll eat something - and likely too much of something - just to soothe your anger.

It takes about two weeks of new exercise and cutting down on food intake before the body develops an overall caloric imbalance and the weight starts to come off.

In those folks younger than 40, losing 2 pounds a week is the safest rate of weight loss. For those folks over 40, 1 pound a week may be the best you can do.

And that's pretty good. That's 52 pounds in a year!

So make patience your watchword.