That was my reasoning! i usually go balls to the walls when i lose weight. no sugar, no fat, no carbs, no nothing. sounds pretty miserable. and on top of that i go from no exercise to exerting myself beyond belief. and then i feel like crap when the scale doesn't reflect what i think it should. then its the end of the world and i quit. and in my depression of feeling like a failure, i eat. next thing i know, i have even more to lose. lather rinse, repeat. This time i decided I would start out first with just knocking out all the sugary drinks and sticking to coffee, tea, and water. food, i knocked out almost all processed stuff and trying to eat more fresh stuff. once i got that down, Its time to start exercising. but not all nutty. maybe just start out walking a little bit more and more up from there. you said it best. its about creating new HABITS. and thats a slow process. and really, the only one that works. baby steps FTW!