Do you want to lose weight?

Don't eat.  At all. 

It's really that simple. 

Then it just happens.   

After losing the first ten pounds, you don't feel it anymore.  The next ten just breeze on by.  When you reach a two digit number on the scale and you're only 5'3 like me, the process begins to slow down.  Your body begins to compensate the loss by storing fat and conserving energy to delay starvation.  As this continues, you gradually lose the rest of what you're left with.  At this point you are extremely malnourished, tired, and even more depressed than you were to begin with.

When you're depressed, you don't do anything to make things better for yourself.  Simply, nothing really matters anymore.  You empty your mind and your body. 

It starts off as a choice.  You don't eat until your body starts shaking and you begin to feel light headed. But after awhile, you forget what it means to be hungry--hunger becomes just a concept.  

It's all in there, in your head.  That's why, as an observer, it's so difficult to understand a person in this mental state of mind.  That's why it's so hard to fix--because the only person who can truly do it is yourself, and you have to want to be better in order to make yourself better.  And this can be hard because the chemical levels in your brain may prevent you from doing so.  That's what depression is--a lack of self will and purpose.      

This is a reminder to self:  Start by eating.  Regardless of the condition you're in, remember that it's still a choice.