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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- With cookies, cakes and holiday treats abound, this time of the year is the toughest to lose weight and keep it off.

But it is possible, and 31-year-old Michael Shilkus from Ottumwa is living proof.

Four years ago, Michael weighed in at 525 pounds. After eighteen months of hard work, he's down almost 300.

"It sounds kind of weird, but I kind of just got tired of being fat," he said. "One day my wife and I were in a restaurant, we were eating food, it was a buffet. Obviously, when you're bigger, that's your favorite place to go is a buffet. We happened to watch this little girl walk in and she was very obese for her age, and I remember looking at my wife, and saying that when we have kids, I don't want our kids to be that big. It kind of dawned on us, you know, when you have one of those moments where you step outside of your body and you look, and we were bigger than that girl's parents."

Michael first began to cut calories. Three months later, he started walking on a treadmill. Eventually, he encorporated more healthy eating and exercise into his diet, cutting out sweets and fried foods entirely. But it wasn't easy.

"It was hard in the beginning, walking into the gym, because when you're extremely overwight, you're always sitting there and thinking everyone is staring at you," he said. "Everyone thinks that when you walk into the gym, even the most fit person in the world. But if you have enough guts to walk into the gym, then you belong there."

Michael began jogging, kickboxing and found a passion in weightlifting. His waist went from 54 inches to 34 inches. He's now a personal trainer.

"My passion is helping other people get away from where I was," he said. "Because I know how much it stinks to be big. You get ridiculed, you get made fun of. It's not fun."

He suggests that for those who want to lose weight, the easiest thing to do is to cut your portions and keep a log of exactly how much you're eating and exercising. It leaves you accountable for your actions.

And Michael stresses that if he can do it, anyone can.

"Put your mind to it," he said. "You can do anything you put your mind to. I use that a lot, and it does sound cliche, but if you can put your mind to losing weight, you can do it. It might not come off as quickly as mine did, but it will come off. You just have to keep on persuing that, because if you don't, you're never going to be happy with yourself. You'll never get to where you want to be."