Ran into this article which really sums it up. When you get right down to it, weight loss boils down to four simple principles.
- Fad diets don’t work
- Eat nutritious food
- Exercise
- Stick to it!
I’m thinking this would make a great poster for over my desk. Because from everything I’ve read, from everything I’ve tried, it really does seem to boil down to those four principles. No special soup, no miracle juice or unbalanced food regimen with strange and mysterious restrictions will melt the weight away.
No matter how much you wish it would 
If only I COULD lose weight while eating ice cream! Ah well, it will be that much sweeter when I have it occasionally, instead of as one of my four food groups.
The original article: http://www.weightlosswand.com/blog/96/the-4-principles-of-weight-loss/
