Gone are my Jenny Craig and Weight Watcher days when I had to maintain a very strict diet to the point that I had to weigh my foods .... still, I should have paid more attention to the calorie counting portion of both programs.

I think I got duped into the modern way of thinking that cutting out carbs, going vegetarian or even taking diet supplements can give me the edge in losing weight. In fact, I now believe that this actually might have contributed to my weight loss plateau.

I found out a month ago that after two years, I was still paying for an online calorie counter that I never got to use. It's about $8.00 every three months, so it flew under the radar on my credit card statements.

Since I was paid up until August, I decided to put it into good use. After doing a little bit of research, I set my daily calorie intake to 1200, which is recommended for fat burn enhancement based on my height and weight.

Here I thought that this will just be a piece of cake.... after all, I don't eat carbs anymore and I'm practically off red meat. I should be able to meet that target with no problem.

What was I thinking???

As soon as I started counting my daily calorie intake, I realized that my existing diet consisted of high calorie foods, topping at almost 2000 calories a day. It's a perfect number if I was maintaining my weight, but it will not do if I need to lose a couple more pounds!

The calorie counter I use provides me a list of foods with their calorie content and I decided to go shopping to buy foods that I actually like - lite yogurts, whole wheat bread, unsalted butter...... To my amazement, I lost four pounds the first week. Then, I lost another five pounds for the second and third week combined. Wow, what a big difference!

I am eating more healthy and balanced meals. My new weight loss is quite noticeable after the second week that everyone started asking me what my diet secret is.

It's funny, actually, because the first thing I hear is "did you drop carbs?"