Me, in the Soup

Every year at this time, I'd join the millions of Americans who swore that this year -- this year for sure! -- they would win the battle with their weight.

Not this year! This year, the story of my weight loss success is in the new Chicken Soup book, Shaping the New You, along with 100 other inspiring stories.

What I found was not that I needed some grand goal and rock-solid resolve, but that I didn't need any goal at all and only daily resolve. Once I dropped the pressure of a goal -- lose 10 pounds by X's wedding! fit into a size 10 by summer! -- I was free to begin my quest simply because it was the right thing to do for my health.

Many of the other stories in the book are far more inspiring than mine -- people who lost 100 pounds or more, people whose lives were entirely changed. But I won my 30-pound battle and for the first time in my life I feel free. Food isn't the enemy anymore. I'm not the enemy.

Whatever your goal is this New Year -- or your non-goal! -- I wish you success and freedom as well.