Aug. 18, 2006, I went to an amusement park with my children. It was the first time I was confronted with the possibility of being too big to be the parent I want to be. I had already been writing about my weight since January 2006, so it was on my mind. The humiliating experience ended up being the first chapter of my memoir, Fat Man’s Daughter.

This past weekend, the date, Aug. 18, 2007 arrived, and I wasn’t at an amusement park, but as the day went by, I also realized I wasn’t where I wanted to be either. I have talked and talked about losing weight, and I’ve tried to do something about it, but I haven’t had a lot of success in actually losing weight. I have a lot of up and down the scale within about a 10 pound range.

So I am recommitting to my weight loss journey. I am not going to be discouraged by what I haven’t done. Instead, I am going to focus on what still needs to be done. I don’t need to do the math and think about how much weight I could have lost. I need to do the exercise and be better about keeping the calories done. I’m starting again and maybe by Aug. 18, 2008, I’ll have something more encouraging to report. But I’m not going to wait until then. I want to see some results — maybe not on the scale but at least in my behavior — by Sept. 18, 2007. I want to exercise regularly. Key word there — regularly. I can do this.