RICHMOND — I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the feedback from readers about my blog/newspaper column. It is really good to know that I am not the only one in this boat, and that you are counting on my success for inspiration.

I have received many uplifting emails and phone calls, and even had one reader bring low-calories snacks to the office.

It is odd, I confess, to publish such personal things. But, almost everywhere I go, someone thanks me for writing about my struggle to be healthy. So many have said my experience is inspiring them to tackle the issue, too.

Sharing this journey with you holds me accountable to you, which aids in my success, and it is helping others, so how can we go wrong here?

One reader said she was stunned when she read my first entry because she felt like she was reading her own story.

A coworker joined Weight Watchers and thanked me for inspiring her.

I even received some invaluable advice from Jimmy Dale Williams, a local defense attorney who has been writing me letters for the past few months about various topics. (Jimmy Dale’s letters usually are full of insults, but I don’t mind, because I’m just glad he keeps reading our newspaper.)

It seems that Jimmy Dale understands a thing or two about weight issues. I wouldn’t have guessed it.

The only thing that Jimmy Dale was wrong about in his letter is saying that I am a “Johnny Come Lately” on the fat scene.

I only wish this were a new issue for me. I’ve struggled with weight and food issues since I was young enough to count calories. Losing weight isn’t the hard part for me. It’s the keeping it off.

Jimmy Dale joked that he never would have guessed that I weighed one ounce over 201 pounds, and suggested that perhaps I am “big-boned” and carry my weight well. I got a good laugh about that, but my husband did not find it funny at all. I really thought he would.

Jimmy Dale said perhaps I have been employing the same technique he uses to create the illusion of a more “svelte” look, wearing dark clothing.

The letter made me laugh out loud.

Next time I see Jimmy Dale, I will be sure to give him an “atta boy” on his weigh loss endeavors. He tells me he has been working on his Doctor of Phatology for 13 years at Duke University’s Diet and Fitness Center.

Jokes aside, Jimmy Dale did offer some tried and true suggestions, some that I already have talked about here. Weight loss is simple, he said.

“The simple answer is living a healthy lifestyle by consuming fewer calories than you use; and the two components of that healthy lifestyle are just simply consuming nutritious foods in a modest and sensible manner, along with daily exercise,” Jimmy Dale writes. “It does not get any more simple than that; and the more you try to invent a new method by which you can see Twiggy in the mirror, the more you are destined to continue to see Fat Alberta in the mirror.”

I couldn’t have said it better.

Lorie Love Hailey is editor of the Richmond Register. Her blog can be read online at www.aweightoffmyshoulders.wordpress.com. It also is linked to the Register’s Facebook page.