It was such an odd moment for me: I was at a bar a few months ago with some friends and, for whatever reason, the subject turned to weight issues. (Not, by the way, a subject I usually choose to chat about over drinks.) I told some story about my chunky childhood and this guy I hadn't met before, a friend of a friend, said he never would have pegged me as a person with a weight problem. That definitely threw me.

Here's the skinny: Since I was 9, weight has been an issue for me. Over the last 23 years, I've become quite the expert at shedding pounds. In fact, I've done it more times than I care to mention through methods ranging from the sensible to the utterly ridiculous. (Let's just say a weeklong banana-and-vanilla-ice-cream-only diet is not as much fun as it sounds.)

As for keeping the weight off? In that arena, I was a fumbling amateur. I would get bored. I would get frustrated. I would, well, give up, and my weight would creep up. Then, in 1999, I joined the weight-loss program at the (now-defunct) Theodore B. VanItallie Center for Nutrition and Weight Management at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City. The dietitians there helped me realize that it was time to stop futzing around (and making myself miserable) with one-size-fits-all weight-loss plans; I needed an approach that allows a custom fit.

Now 45 pounds lighter, I'm confident (on most days) that I'll be able to maintain that weight loss for the long haul. But I also realize that I can never really let my guard down.

"It's hard, hard work in a society that gives this kind of work short shrift," says former VanItallie Center director Cathy Nonas, R.D., author of Outwit Your Weight: Fat-Proof Your Life With More Than 200 Tips, Tools & Techniques to Help You Defeat Your Danger Zones (Rodale Press, 2002).

Following are a variety of tips and tactics you can put into play to help you get to -- and maintain -- your goal. Oh, just one big (and heavy) thing you need to keep in mind: "When people will not acknowledge their responsibility, no other tool will be helpful," says Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D., director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System Weight Management Center.

Weight-loss success really begins when you are willing to take an honest look at your eating and exercise patterns and vow to make the necessary changes. If you have confidence that you can do it, you're on your way.