Just to be clear . . .

. . . I have friends who are doing South Beach, Weight Watchers, Sonoma Diet, and probably several other diets. I even have one friend who is, under advisement from her doctor, doing Atkins.

Over 80 percent of the participants at the National Weight Control Registry say that they lost weight by tracking everything they eat.

Some people have discovered if they do not go at weight loss and exercise as hard as possible, they'll lose interest in the results, so for them, it's go hard or do nothing.

I support all of my friends--people I've met and people I haven't--doing whatever they think will work best for them to have a joyful, healthy relationship with food, eating, exercise, and life in general.

I don't ever want anything I say on here to be construed as anything other than support for whatever paths people are finding successful.

What I have found for myself, at this stage of my life, is that if I follow my perfectionistic urges to control myself in an absolute way, to demand of myself a very rigorous performance when it comes to diet and exercise . . . I'll falter, and then I'll give up. And I'm tired of that cycle, so I'm trying something new by not counting anything, by trying to offer myself loving guidance, and by getting whatever forms of exercise I can whenever I can work them in.

So far, it's working for me. But I just want to be clear about the fact that I am with you all the way in supporting your efforts if what you are doing is healthy and is working for you.