I highly recommend South beach diet, very effective and fast. it has 3 phases. The first phase you will lose fast then it slows down to goal, but you can stay at that phase as long as you want. You will lose weight without exercise, but if you really wanna tone, swimming works every muscle in the body especially the legs and hips. low impact and does not hurt. Just don’t over do it. You want to build endurance and it builds muscle fast, so when you start, start at 20-30 min 3x a week. 4 years now and looking good. Start slow and build up. The diet is amazing, all my friends went on it after me with fantastic results.

Foods to avoid: Things with enriched flour (fancy wording for white), corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, artificial colors, artificial preservatives, and anything that looks as though it was made in a lab by people and not in nature by God. Even things that claim to be healthy, i.e., “Made with whole grains!” or “Contains x grams of whole grains” or “Made with real fruit” may not be so. Sure, it may have the good stuff in it, but it might also be listed way after all of the junk. I think the food companies plaster that dribble on the front because they don’t expect people to actually read the ingredients list.

To eat: Whole real foods with real, all natural ingredients.