How do you stay so thin?

This is one of those questions where I used to politely say very little, and the asker could go on as though there was nothing they could do about their own dissatisfaction.

Lately, though, I give a real answer. Currently, I say through serious dieting and exercising my willpower. I’m quick to dispel any ideas that I am “naturally skinny” so that can’t become an excuse for the difference between my body and theirs. Yes, I may have a genetic predisposition for a certain type of metabolism to certain foods, to certain fat deposition patterns (where it goes when I put on weight), but “I can be chubby in a minute,” I point out.

When I’m being asked between sips of soda, I might mention it got easier for me once I stopped drinking calories in sugary drinks. Quitting soda, sugary juices, alcohol, and energy drinks is an easy single thing to focus on. Once I switched to drinking more water, I never had to worry about metabolizing all those extra sugars, and the cascade of changes it was triggering in my body–from my hormones all the way down to an inflammation response–that would in the grand scheme make it harder for me to shape my body, let alone my mind.

I may be asked at a restaurant table, as I’m still working on my food while the asker has finished, I may mention I started to take smaller bites off my plate. I stopped forking another bite into my mouth before I had sufficiently chewed what was already in my mouth to a pulp and swallowed every bit of it. Every last bite. Every last crumb of every last bite. I mean, I’ve sat there quietly running my tongue over my teeth to check for food caught between my teeth and sucked it out while trying to make obnoxious teeth-sucking noises like my grandpa.

And guess what? I lost weight that way, just from doing that one thing. That was before my diet. I counted no calories, burned no extra calories working out, and did that while eating pizza.

The point I’m trying to make here, is that it’s been piecemeal. I didn’t grow up with a plethora of healthy habits. I also didn’t overturn my whole lifestyle in one day. I’ve gotten one idea in my brain, and remembered to focus on that one thing every day until it became a habit.

For more on my partially unfounded theories on why each one of these works, stay tuned.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.