My daily struggle with diet and exercise starting to pay off again

As I stepped outside to begin my trek home to Orange, the scent of french fries reached out, as if to hook its magical McFingers under my nostrils. This is the struggle I face every day in my quest to continue losing weight and getting healthy.

Since January, I’ve lost 33 pounds. A great amount of credit goes to Weight Watchers and Anytime Fitness.

There is one “cheat night” per week that I allow myself. That’s a night when I allow myself any food, no matter the calorie and fat content. This includes, but is not limited to, aforementioned french fries dipped in mayonnaise. In “Pulp Fiction,” Vincent Vega (played by John Travolta) said they do that in Amsterdam.

Last Christmas, I’d made up my mind to go back to Weight Watchers. It worked so well for me in the past — I’d lost nearly 60 pounds eight years ago.

Since then, I’d “fallen off the wagon” and eventually fell back into old habits. I quit exercising, started eating crap food again and went back to feeling lousy. The end of the line was when I looked at photos from summer of last year, Christmas and — gasp — my 20-year high school reunion.

On my Christmas list was a Wii Fit, which my husband had to put out an APB for. On Jan. 1 I crawled on the balance board. My Wii profile, after an in-depth analysis of my height, weight and lousy balance, stated I was obese.

Holy mackerel, I was obese! Then my little Wii person, called a Mii, was made to be rotund.

The following week, I went back to Weight Watchers. My first goal was set and I was on my way. Once the weather warmed, I started walking on my lunch break. But I needed something more, especially on rainy days.

After going online and doing some research, I printed out a free trial for Anytime Fitness. There’s one only a quarter mile from my office, plus there’s one in Orange I can go to on the weekends. The beauty part is, just as the name says, I can go there any time, 24/7. I shoot for five days a week, about 45 minutes per day.

Even on vacation, I was able to go to the gyms in Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The staffers, both at Culpeper and Orange (and other locations I’ve been to) are awesome — very helpful and accommodating.

It’s not been an easy road. There are days when I think, “China Garden buffet would taste soooo good right now.”  Instead, I go to the gym and watch some goofy sitcom rerun while getting my 30 minutes on the elliptical.

The benefits? Feeling better and looking better! There’s no special food that I have get “delivered right to my door.” There’s no gimmicky only-on-TV product (i.e., Thighmaster) that makes the fat magically melt away. It’s good, old-fashioned eating well and exercising that works wonders.

As always, we are plugged into “The Biggest Loser” this season, but the more and more I watch it, the more I realize that it’s not realistic. Sure, people are going to lose five to 10 pounds a week if all they do is work with a personal trainer a few hours each day. The slower your weight loss, the more apt you’ll be to lead a lifetime of looking and feeling fab!

Smith’s column runs every Friday on the editorial page.