In every supermarket in America, the headlines scream out cures. Lose 10 lbs. in 10 days! Melt away fat with butter! I lost 75 lbs. by driving faster! Health "experts" have done extensive research and concluded America is overweight. Obesity rates are skyrocketing. The children learn lousy eating habits, and folks are getting fatty, fatty, fat, fat.

Lots of people, but mostly women, always seem to be on some kind of diet. The Atkins diet (no potatoes, no pasta), the vegetarian diet, the jellybean diet, nothing but chicken, nothing but peanut butter. The truth is that extreme diets work for a little while for the simple reason that they're a shock to the system.

The problem with diets is in the concept. It implies that they will eventually end, and a person can go back to the hot fudge sundaes once the weight is lost. The best diets are the ones people make themselves and keep throughout their life. Know what you eat. Know the consequences. If you really want a piece of cheesecake, then eat it. Don't feel guilty. Don't feel shameful. Accept it and do something with it.

That brings us to what to do about it. We eat food to give us energy. It's the fuel that allows our body to keep pumping blood. It keeps our mind thinking and our lungs breathing. Like typical Americans, we are consumers, and many of us consume more than we should. We get the pudge, love handles, and arm flab. Even with the minuscule calorie diets, it takes something else to burn off old established fat. It takes (oh no!)... it takes (he's going to say it!)... It Takes Exercise!

The best way to shed pounds is to move around. Use up that excess energy you stored away eating too much. I'm not talking about the pleasant stroll around the block either. I'm talking about shaking the body up enough to use up not only what you ate that day, but all those fudge brownies Christmas past as well. Bike, hike, run, swim. Move!

Don't believe in gyms and wellness centers. They are nice for body builders and looking at yourself far too much. Treadmills and Stairmasters are shams. They are machines that do more than half the work for you. Don't believe in home fitness equipment, Bowflexes, spinning gadgets and bizarre contraptions. They get old very quickly and become strange dusty modern art within months. Get out of the house and move. It doesn't have to be complicated. Walk round-trip to that store that's two miles away. Four miles of walking will burn off many calories. Stop using the car so much for simple trips. Jog to the park and back. Run a few sprints. Near the water? Jump in, move around. Near the mountain? Hike up and down. Stuck in the flat plains? Bike until tomorrow.

It will hurt. It will be painful. It will wear you out. Old fat does not give up without a slow, lethargic fight. Strangely enough, the results do not take long either. The body will tighten up. Your lungs get a greater capacity. Your posture begins to straighten. The world doesn't seem as tough and heavy. If you exercise enough, you will discover that you should eat more than those freaky diets allow.

So the answer to losing weight is just eating less and exercising? Nope. The answer to losing weight is really time and dedication. You have to set aside the time to do this, and that's seems to be the hardest part. In this zippy, zippy world, we drive from spot to spot frantically trying to fit it all in. Don't cram in being healthy. It won't work that way. Losing weight can be simple, but simplifying your life helps out as well. That's a whole other column, though.

How about wrapping it up with a personal testimonial. Around July 4th, I weighed myself at my Grandmother's house. I was 198. One other time in my past, I almost reached 200 pounds. I didn't feel fat, but people commented on how much bigger I had gotten. I came back and talked to a friend about running a little bit. We used to go to a gym a few years before until it closed down, and he agreed with the idea. Exercise is always better with a friend. Now, once or twice a week, I walk over a half mile to his house, jog about a mile to a nearby park, run six 70-yard sprints, and walk back to my house. It takes a half hour of my day. Two months after we began, I am now 185 lbs., I breathe better, and I relish the simple satisfaction of shaking up my body.

Life is as simple or complicated as we make it, but the solutions to our problems are usually not that complex. Let's shape up, folks. There's better bodies in all of us.

Chris Jungle still eats cheesecake when offered.