First, you need a plan that dovetails with your diabetes management program. Book a date with your dietitian so you can strategize on meal plans to promote weight loss. Talk to your doctor before embarking on any new exercise plan so he can assess your heart health and give your workout his official stamp of approval.

If you have diabetic complications or other health issues that affect your mobility, an exercise physiologist and/or physical therapist may be able to get you on track with a low-impact or adaptive exercise program.

Set Realistic Goals

Many people end up abandoning perfectly good weight-loss programs before they even lace up their sneakers. Why? Because in a world filled with fast food, instant messaging, and five-second glucose meters, anything without a quick payoff goes against the grain of the American instant gratification ethic. While it would be nice to “drop inches in days!” as the miracle ads proclaim, weight loss is a slow and (hopefully) steady process that takes time and commitment.

Setting weight-loss goals can be a good motivator. Gradual weight loss is usually the safest. A diet that cuts your normal calorie consumption (for your weight) by 500 to 1,000 will encourage weight loss. So will burning 500 to 1,000 calories each day with exercise.

Your best bet is to strike a balance between the two, and make exercise — be it team sports, cycling, or walking — something you enjoy. Making a long-term healthy lifestyle change is essential to keeping the pounds off once they're gone.

Aim Low

If you wear a size 14 and you blow a bundle on a designer size 8 dress as motivation, you'll probably end up feeling guilty, frustrated, and angry if you aren't slinking around in it a month later. You'll do much better setting smaller, achievable targets for yourself. If you must try the new-clothes strategy, go down a size at a time.

Because weight loss can be a long and bumpy road, you'll find your enthusiasm waning occasionally. Try these strategies to stay inspired and on track:

• Compete and commiserate. Set weight-loss goals along with a friend or spouse. A little friendly competition can be just the motivation you need, and you'll also have someone to call and talk you down when that ice cream sundae just won't stop calling your name.

• Reward yourself. Find non-edible indulgences to tell yourself “good job!”

• Scale back. Don't weigh yourself obsessively. Once a week — at the same time of day — is all you need to monitor your progress.

• Take baby steps. Everyone starts somewhere. Even a walk around the block is better than sitting on the couch wishing you had the stamina to go on a bike ride with your kids.

Need more motivation? Find ways to keep exercise interesting.

What Doesn't Work

There are also plenty of weight-loss strategies that are guaranteed to backfire:

• Skipping meals. Forgoing food completely is hard on your diabetes control, may cause a hypoglycemic episode, and will probably only be effective in making you eat twice as much at the next meal.

• Skipping meds. Purposely skipping your shots is spinning the DKA roulette wheel. Insulin omission is not an effective method of weight loss and can trigger dangerous highs.

• Dieting without exercise, or vice versa. Decreasing calories and increasing activity are both required for successful weight loss.

• Perpetual procrastination. Waiting for a “better time” to start a weight-loss plan won't make it any easier, and it can quite possibly make the task harder. Stop waiting for tomorrow, and begin today.

Mind Over Matter

Losing weight with diabetes means you have two challenges to conquer: learning what and how to eat for optimal blood glucose control, and breaking away from bad overeating habits.

Eating emotionally rather than in response to hunger cues is at the root of many weight problems. Examine what your “eating triggers” are. Do you use food as a reward, a comfort, a social tool, or simply a release from boredom? The first step in breaking these habits is recognizing them, and then coming up with positive substitutions.

Make a reward something that feeds your soul rather than your stomach — a few hours with a good book or a weekend getaway with someone special. Try to come up with ways to socialize that aren't focused on food. Meet at a coffeehouse rather than a restaurant, or gather at the park to play football or Frisbee rather than spending another afternoon as armchair quarterbacks.

Above all, practice mindful eating. Have meals and snacks away from the television and other distractions that make it too easy to gobble up twice as much as you intended to. Enjoy your food, and then move on. Fortunately, good diabetes management encourages mindful eating.