If you are talking about motivating your brain?, I can tell you what happened to me. All the speeches in the world, my own mother who couldn't stand me being fat, all the health issues I wound up with, all the talks people gave me, nothing applied to me. I never took it in!!!

Honest to god. And the funny part is I was always pretty!! People used to tell me I looked like Elizabeth Taylor when I was younger. Then they would hit me with "if only you lost weight"!!!

I don't really think anyone can really be motivated until something clicks in their brain saying "I do not want to look like this anymore". I'm being perfectly honest. Look at Al Roker, Randy Jackson, Carnie Wilson (and my own cousin). All of them had bariatric weight loss surgery and all of them either put the weight back on or they are slowly doing so.

All that surgery to reduce the stomach to the size of your thumb and you lose 100 lbs and slowly you start to eat again. When people who have had weight loss surgery are asked "why are you gaining weight again", they say "I can't give up the food and my stomach is getting bigger inside my body again".

So, even though they had major surgery, NOTHING CLICKED IN THEIR BRAIN!!

Well, my brain clicked in a major way after I went to Cornell Medical Center in NYC and spoke to a dietitian and learned what diabetes does to a body. I then decided "I don't want to look like this anymore".

Worked for me!!!! I can actually wear skirts (something I never did in my life!!!!

And shorts, OH my God, imagine being 55 and putting on your first pair of shorts??????

Now Alan lost his 73 lbs because he had a stent put in and as he put it "I don't want any more stents!!! He got scared.

He is now on the way to being Rocky Balboa. I think it's hysterical.

While I will never look like Gina Lolabrigida, I can sure give her a run for her money.

Imagine, yesterday, Alan and I went out for Breakfast. It's a very sociable place. There's a handsome guy sitting in the table next to us. We all start chatting, talking about winning the lottery, and he goes, Well, since I'm not married I don't have to split it with anyone".

All I said was "oh, a handsome guy like you is not married, how come?" And we started chatting. All the while Alan is eating his breakfast.

We finished up and he said "is this what you do when you go for breakfast without me"???? I burst out laughing.

Imagine, I'm almost 59 and he's jealous. I think it's a hoot!!!!

mel