Assignment Day One

• Make an appointment with your doctor to get your baseline - you will need a fasting cholesterol test, BP, and weight. You may want a uric acid test and a test for a predisposition to diabetes.
• Buy the book and read it. The book I use is Dr. Atkins New Revolutionary Diet Book. It will teach you what is happening at each step of the way, plus provide you with lots of tools at different phases (in the beginning (called Induction), on-going weight loss (called OWL), maintenance, and plateaus).
• Start drinking 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water, up to 100 oz a day. You can do it; your body will adjust. For additional help, read my post on how to drink more water and search the web for reasons why more water is recommended. Ignore folks who say it's not important; trust me on this - it will make a difference in your weight loss, health and happiness. Drink up!
• Start exercising 5 more minutes per day - up to 30 minutes a day if you have not been exercising at all.

• This week, your goal is 5 minutes more per day, for at least 6 days.
  That will give you 30 more minutes per week than you were doing
  before.

  Make a goal of increasing your exercise up to 300 minutes a week....not
  in a week, but over months.

  If you're just starting out, stretch in the morning when you wake up.

  If you can (force yourself), stretch again before going to bed. There,
  a whole extra hour a week, done easily (if you force yourself), and you'll be
  sleeping and waking up better before you know it.

The doctor's appointment may take a couple of weeks before you get to it. Don't despair and by no means stop now.

Start reading the book and thinking about what it says. You will probably find some things you will want to do besides water and exercise, but do not begin the diet yet. Let your blood be drawn first.

You can start planning your menu for a week, and getting rid of foods in the house you want to get rid of. Food pantries would love to have your donations (and they are tax-deductible as well!)