“Early on, I missed food — a lot. Replacing fast food everyday with asparagus and lean proteins made me miserable. So, once a week (sometimes even more) I would have a small splurge. I love cheese fries — like, I really love cheese fries — so if I wanted them, I would build them into my schedule.

“It isn’t balanced to think you can go from eating two double cheeseburgers and fries to eating ‘healthy’ overnight; it also isn’t balanced to do away with junk food forever. Take it as it comes and commit to creating small changes over time.

“I want the weight loss to be something I continue to maintain — I know that, for me, the only way to do that is to have a balanced lifestyle where there are no real exclusions.”

—Phillip Wagner (lost about 135 pounds in a little over a year)