I don't know about you, but I am going to make 2010 a great year for myself. I have set my sites on personal goals as well as business goals that will take work to achieve. I don't normally talk about my personal life much, but as this year progresses, I think I will let you know how I am doing because the goals I have set for myself require the same type of diligence, perseverance, fear, self-doubt, and that ever so present thought that I am wasting my time and should be pursuing something else. What I do know is if I accomplish these goals then the reward will be as great for me as you beating obesity will be for you.

So what is this goal? Well, these past three months, on weekends I wrote my first young adult novel - 320 pages. As most of you know I have written other adult novels, and although I self-published one and have won a few short story awards, my dream of being an author has been as elusive as my dream of being thin was before I found raw food. Just like you give up time and time again with your weight loss, I did with my writing. I would work so hard, I would put so much into it, and it would get me nowhere. Why bother?

There was also the dread of success. What if I did get published? What if someone wanted to put my photo on the back of the book? Would a publisher expect more books? Did I have more stories in me? Would writing become a job full of responsibilities and deadlines? The thought of succeeding, although it was what I always said I wanted, may have kept me in a self-sabotage mode when it came to my writing. That may sound strange, who would sabotage success? Who indeed? We all do it. Some with weight, some with relationships, some with careers. Not because we don't want the success, but because we are afraid of what it will bring.

Sometimes there are other reasons like it isn't the right time, or we are working with the wrong people, or resources, or our plan is based on what others think we should do rather than what is best for us. For myself, I can honestly say that I was not writing what I loved, but writing what I thought I needed to say. The idealist in me said, tell the world of the things you are passionate about, so I wrote stories to proselytize my personal beliefs. The truth is, the thing I have always loved best is young adult fantasy/sci-fi stories. So why didn't I write them? Because they wouldn't change the world!

I can say the same is true for how I started weight loss coaching. I found raw food and wanted to change the world for the obese. A simple, easy diet combined with hours of exercising brought me fast weigh loss and could do it for everyone else. While this worked for some, it did not work for many because each person is at her own place in life, and must find what she is willing to do, and able to do, for the goals she has set for herself.

That is why I changed from a boot camp mind set to working with individuals to Find The Perfect Diet. Yes, weight loss was slower for this group. Attrition was about the same whether it was an all raw fast weight loss diet, or clients took their time to figure out what worked best for them. Not everyone is ready to do what it takes to lose weight. Not everyone is at the place in their life to willingly make the changes necessary for a lifetime of health. Not everyone is willing to give up on their idea of the ideal diet, that regardless of how much they believe in it, they can't sustain.

What each of us can do though, is look at what has worked, what has not worked, what makes us comfortable, what makes us fearful, and find a way to change within the confines of who we are as an individual. Obesity is not what anyone of us wants, but starving, three to four hours of exercise a day, or living on fruits, or just protein is not what we want either. So how can you beat the obesity without giving up everything? Change. You change your concepts of dieting, you change your eating rituals, you change your self-defeating ways, and you take up the charge to make your life the best it can be. That may mean losing 100 pounds in six months like I did, or it may mean losing it slower at a pace you feel comfortable with. It might mean becoming a low fat raw foodist, or it might mean cutting back on the junk and learning to eat a more balanced "normal" diet that gets you to your goals without so much deprivation.

What it does require, and this is true of all goals, is that you don't give up. You need to wake up each morning with your goal at the forefront of your thoughts, and you need to act on it. It doesn't matter what happened the day before, or the year before, all that matters is what you do today to get closer to your goal.

So my goal is to have 3 novels out to agents/publishers by the end of 2010. I have the first draft of one. This week I will start on the rewrite. By March, I will be ready to start the oppressive task of sending it out to agents. Which means a lot of rejection, sometimes nasty feedback, and worst of all a glimmer of hope when an agent asks to read the full manuscript, and then never writes back. This time, instead of letting that rejection spoil my goals, I am going to have to push through, get past the disappointment and anger that has put years between each previous novel, and go after my goals no matter what. For you, if beating obesity is your goal, it means pretty much the same thing.

This is the beginning of a new year and like every year before it, you have set goals to become thin. You start out all full of excitement, even nervousness, and then when the reality of the day to day hits, you lose your enthusiasm and dieting become a drudgery, something you have to wade through each day.

I am challenging you to make it an adventure. To refocus your true intentions, become honest with yourself, and to commit, not so much to a diet, as to working on change for the full year. Not a week, not a month, not until summer, but for the full year. Whether you have three hundred pounds to lose, or fifty, it doesn't matter, because what each of us has to do is not just lose the weight, but restructure how we think, how we view ourselves, and then look at ourselves squarely each morning and say: "Today I choose to walk toward my dreams."

It is so much easier to stay fat, unpublished, in the same job, or relationship. It takes courage to seek the lives we want. If you use this year to change just one thing about yourself, won't that give you the courage to change other things as well?

In this vein, I invite you to join my programs. I am always working improving my programs and finding out what really works for women and what doesn't, so here is what I am offering for 2010 based on what I learned in 2009.

The first program, Finding Your Perfect Diet will be about looking honestly at your past behaviors and coming up with a program that you feel will work for you. That can be 100% raw, or it can be no raw. What matter is that it works for you. You can choose fast weight loss with lots of walking, or you can choose slower weight loss with minimal walking.

Instead of two Breaking Fat Brain Behavior programs and one Emotional Eating program, there will be Five 28 day programs to help you break old behaviors. Emotional Eating will be covered in all of them, but what I found last year was that we needed to work gradually through some of the fat brain behaviors and discuss emotions throughout the program and not wait until the end. Many felt they needed a break between subjects, so will work slower on the tougher behaviors, take weekends off from assignments, and spend time outside the assignments as a group to discuss the day to day reality of personal change. Others have asked that the site have more socializing, so everyone regardless of when they join will have access to the group as a whole, and not just the few that joined with them.

1 Year's worth of access to all the daily audios and the assignments used during your program, and membership to our private area where you can continue to work with the friends you made to reach your ultimate goals.

If you do the six programs continuously with support from me, I will give you once a week support for free from July 2010 through December 2010. This offer only applies to those that join a Finding Your Perfect Diet program in January of 2010 and who finish the five Breaking Fat Brain Behavior programs by the middle of July. There will only be two Finding Your Perfect Diet programs offered in January. One starts Monday, January 4th. The other starts on January 18, 2010.

If you are wondering if this could work for you here are a couple of things my clients sent me this week.

LNTBB - Sent me this email when she returned from her Christmas Cruise the other day.

I just wanted to check in to thank you for your help with my weight and eating goals this year. Going through your programs really helped me turn a big corner. And the proof to me is that I was able to go on the family cruise this past Christmas and came back with only 4 pounds of water weight - the last night I had a very salty meal- and I am happy to say that I am ending this year and starting 2010 at less than XXX!!!

I weighed in at XXX today. That was what I was before I left for the vacation.

I'm really encouraged and will be going back to the workbook files and daily talks for the next several weeks to make sure I stay on track. Thanks again for being you and offering the help that you do.

I've truly enjoyed and have been improved by the work. It's not a diet anymore - it's a way of life that I can do for the rest of my life!

Mona sent me this email the other day after finishing her second month of private support. She lost 14 pounds since Thanksgiving! Isn't that what most of us usually gain?

This has been a great 4 weeks!! Loosing weight between Thanksgiving & Christmas is unheard of in my world. I lost what I usually gain. I'm sooooo happy!! I even had a Martini at my Christmas Party and some steak on Christmas Eve. I don't feel left out..... I don't feel bloated, head-achy, or moody due to poor food choices. I'm taking care of myself & I feel wonderful. Checking in with Carlene regularly has been instrumental to my success. Only someone who has walked in my shoes before me can understand and direct me in this journey. I am so grateful to Carlene for her insight & guidance. Thank you!!

What do you need to do to join? Each 28 day program cost $149.00 or if you agree to share your photos with a blurred face, you can save $50 per program, and pay just $99.00.

The perfect day to start taking control of your relationship with food will never arrive, so why not make it today?

If you want to help me reach more of the obese community and offer hope to those who think surgery is their only answer, please put a link to my sites on your blog, on your own website, anywhere to help create an organically growing back link list for me. Here are the official site URLs: