The fastest way to lose ten pounds is also the safest way to lose ten pounds and that is by rigid planning and strict discipline. Can you stick to a regime like that? Do you have the determination because without it, why bother putting your body through the stress?

!) Planning is the key to success and determination is the doorway.

2. You aren't going to lose ten pounds in ten days without the likelihood of becoming ill or of failure. It's too big an ask of a persons body after abusing it for some time so give yourself a break and plan for losing the ten pounds over a longer period. It won't be much longer but it will be 100% safer.

3. Buy yourself a calorie counter reference book. Read it like a text book because it will need to be second nature to all your decisions for the next three weeks.

4. Get a pen and paper and start making out a shopping list of low calories foods that you like taking into account all the food groups. There is no point in begging for failure by trying to eat foods that you don't like.

5. Work out an eating plan for the next seven days that includes all the food groups (you can get these off the weight watchers website) and work on 1000 - 1200 calories a day. Because you will be eating fresh food, you need to go shopping once or twice a week. Remember, a shopping mall or supermarket is both your best friend and your enemy at this time.

6. Under no circumstances are you to miss eating a meal. You need to graze. That is, eat a little bit of food every hour and a half to two hours so your body stays in a constant state of metabolisation. By keeping your body digesting food you are using up a lot of calories as well as adding fuel for sustenance.

7. Water is now your very, very best friend. Drink a lot of water frequently. This washes the toxins from your body and takes excess fat cells with it and the water leaves you with a feeling of 'fullness' so you don't feel hungry.

8. Plan your daily exercise and plan to stick with your exercise. Even if you haven't done any exercise for the past ten years, all exercise really is, is simply physical activity. Just go for a walk. The more you walk (or exercise in whichever way you are most likely to stick with) this burns off the fat cells and gets your physiology running for those storage bins secreted around your hips or waistline. The exercise doesn't have to be of Olympic standard ~ just get moving.

9. Be very aware of your self-talk. I don't mean you have to go around the home or work place muttering "oom mantras" but I do want you to speak nicely to yourself. When you pass a mirror or a shop window, look in and say "Hi, Wow! We're

Looking good!" Tell yourself several times a day how good and light you are feeling today.

10. Weigh yourself the morning you start your dieting regime, write your weight on a calendar or in a diary. Go three weeks ahead and put a great big circle around that date and write in the weight you want to be in three weeks time. Write it several times so it's in the front of your psyche. Now go and throw your bathroom scales under the heaviest bed or down in the basement or out in the garage or better yet, give them to a friend to mind for the next three weeks.