By Cherry Norris

I love it when people tell me, "You're so lucky. You've never had a weight problem."

I struggled with diets and weight gain for YEARS! I've been on Weight Watchers, Nutri-system, Jenny Craig, the Hotdog diet, the Grapefruit diet, the Cabbage diet...to name a FEW! Some of them worked...for a while. Most of them made me crazy!

Although I'll never be a "skinny minny," I have grown to respect my body (most of the time). And even though I am not a "diet and nutrition expert," I've discovered 6 non-obsessive ways to feel great and maintain a comfortable body weight.

I call it the "Love Life" Diet.

1. Throw Away Your Scale

Your weight is a useless piece of data. Muscle weighs more than fat anyway. And just because you're "skinnier" doesn't mean you're "healthier."

Now...the thought of tossing your scale may freak you out! (It did me at first.)

I'd been a slave to that flat piece of metal since my adolescence. One Christmas I came home from college after gaining 30 pounds my first semester freshman year.
My father threw me on the bathroom scale so I could "put my weight before me." Talk about horrifying! And embarrassing!

But still...throwing away my scale was one of the scariest things I've ever done. How would I hold myself accountable? I didn't trust my body. I worried that I'd blow up to be the size of the Goodyear Blimp.

But I did it. I took the risk. I tossed that bloody scale.

And I've never looked back. (In fact, when I go to the doctor's office, I turn my back when getting on the scale and WARN the assistant not to utter my tonnage, lest risk my wrath!)