I am in fitness and weight lifting so I can shed a little light. There is no magic trick to weight loss, but what you can do is make adjustments to diet that will help. This in combination with exercise will help. Walking is low impact and effective 3-5 times per week @ at least 30-45 minutes.

The adjustment that can be made takes a bit of self control. Cut out soft-drinks unless they are the diet variety. The non-diet soft drinks pack a lot of simple sugars that turn to adipose tissue (fat) very quickly. Also, cut out desserts and try to minimize your bread intake. If you do eat bread, try to make sure it is made with whole grain.

Diet and exercise are the key! Best of luck on this and your competition!

Rick

You're welcome! You can do this ;-) BTW, I wanted to also mention that jump rope is a great exercise. And since you cheer it can actually put more spring in your jumps for cheering. A great way to use this for cardio exercise is jump rope for 1 minute and rest for 2 minutes, then back on for another minute and back and forth. This is interval training. If you do this for about 30 minutes you will probably burn more calories than walking plus the added benefit of building up your "springs" for cheers.

There is no such thing as the wrods "Quick and safe" together when losing weight. Just stay away from ALL sodas-even diet-and easy up on the carbs. Don't cut them out completely though. Pump up on veggies and fruits and do more cardio.