I received an email through my web site the other day.

Karen asks, "I need to lose weight quickly. Are there ways of dropping a lot of weight in a couple of weeks?"

Well, Karen, there are lots of ways to lose weight. Popular at the moment among the Hollywood-set is the skeleton diet. This diet consists of a large consumption of oxygen with three square meals of water per day. Previously, this program was known as starvation, but somewhere along the line political correctness took over and "starvation" was found to be discriminatory to aspiring young starlets.

Now, I would never recommend such an eating plan (is "eating" the right word?).

Terrible as it may seem, whilst weight can be dropped (and kept off) by following good eating plans, diets that allow you to turn from happy-go-lucky mom to cadaver in a couple of weeks are, in the main, not good for you (or anyone that is required to look at you for more than a few seconds without laughing hysterically at your new Halloween costume).

On the serious side, there are ways that Karen and anyone else can lose weight successfully without the need to go on an oxygen-only diet. There are programs out there that when followed correctly (without the need for eating like a pigeon) show results.

The most important thing to look for in any diet program are a) testimonials and b) satisfaction guarantees. If a vendor guarantees satisfaction it is a pretty safe bet they are confident you will be happy with a diet program.

To your success (with apologies to Karen)!

David McGimpsey's web site lists guaranteed weight loss programs. Check it out at: http://www.weight-loss.minisitereview.com