Losing Weight

I have lost weight. Yes. I really have. I have dropped a dress size into the bargain. How did it come about?  A bit by accident, really. I have never liked the word "diet" or the words "you must cut out..." and have thus avoided all those suggestions which appear every week in women's magazines.
The first time I found I'd lost a pound or two was when I was dog-and-house-sitting. I took the dog for a walk and combined this with doing my grocery shopping. Which meant leaving the little darling in the car for a short period of time as he refuses to be tied up outside the supermarket. I didn't like leaving him there for any length of time. This, in turn, meant that I practically jog-trotted the five minutes to the store and jog-trotted back to the car - this would be twice the speed of my normal sedate walk. I also had chores to do around the house I was looking after which meant I was active a bit more than normal - not a lot, mind you, but I wasn't lolling around quite as much as usual. When my dog-and-house-sitting was over, I found that I had lost nearly two pounds!  Couldn't figure it out for a while but then I tumbled to it: that little bit of brisk walking every day plus the ten or fifteen minutes of chores around the house was enough to make me lose a small amount of weight.
I lived on the top floor of an apartment block so I took the lift every day. When I moved to where I am living now, I had no lift and have to walk up one flight of stairs to my place. I have to walk to get to the laundry room, too. Mindful of the unintended results of my previous brisk walking, I do now move at a faster pace - I don't get out of breath or anything.
In addition, I have cut down drastically on snacks of any kind. I substituted porridge/cornflakes for plain yoghurt/fruit for breakfast which meant I lost another pound or two. I still eat chocolate - maybe once a week I'll treat myself, but for the most I will eat a maximum of three digestive biscuits with a cup of tea after my evening meal. Apart from that, I have always eaten vegetables and salads and not too much meat and I don't drink sugary drinks like coke or lemonade, so I haven't changed much in the way of my eating habits. Perhaps cutting back on snacks is the most important and also the most rewarding because it shows up on the weighing scales after a week or so.
Lesson learned: you don't have to go crazy on activities or drastically reduce your food intake. If you get the bus to work, try getting off a stop before your usual one and then walk the rest of the way at a brisk pace. It is trickier if you drive and have an allotted parking space at work, if you don't just finding a space to park near the office will usually mean walking a bit, so make sure that you walk briskly. Just be inventive in increasing your walking time.  It will make you feel good and you will lose a pound or two.  If you work on the second floor, try walking up one flight of stairs and after a week or two try running up that one flight. Later you can walk up both flights and you'll find you don't get out of breath - this takes perseverance, but again, you'll lose weight and feel good.
If, like me, you have a sweet tooth, wean yourself off of those sugary snacks gradually and give yourself a treat once or twice a week. After a while you'll notice that you won't crave these things as much and you'll get used to doing without them.
I am low on self-discipline, so I reckon that anyone can do what I have done. The most important thing is that you do everything gradually and that you keep doing it- and don't cheat on yourself by bypassing the brisk walk or having the sneaky bar of chocolate. It's worth it to see where the needle on the weighing scales points next time you check.
Most important of all - have fun!