I'm thankful this Thanksgiving to be a part of a great church, to have a job and a home of my own. (I'm also thankful for the "eye candy" at church!)

A weight-loss misconception I run into is people thinking they have to starve/deny themselves in order to lose. I have been fighting the tendency in myself to not eat, this is why tracking my food is difficult for me, because then I start being obsessive and not eating.

Part I

1. I am so thankful for the support of the people here and those in my "real life" who have supported me in my journey. You guys have always encouraged me to be kinder to myself and, slowly but surely, I am learning how to do that.

2. I am thankful to be so fortunate to have a stable job and make a good living so that I can afford the products and services that will help me succeed, including having health insurance so that I don't have to avoid taking care of myself, which often happens when people can't afford to pay for tests, doctors, etc. My living also allows me to help others who may not be so fortunate and for that I am very thankful.

3. I am thankful for the selfless people who step in to help their fellow man in all kinds of situations. Watching Oprah this week, in which every audience member was a person who volunteered to help during the Katrina disaster, I was reminded how incredibly inspiring these people are. They left their families, travelled long distances and risked dangerous situations to help strangers who were in a desperate situation.

Part II

There seems to be this pervasive myth (I suffered under it myself for years) that you can go on a diet, lose weight, and then go back to eating the way you did before and you won't gain the weight back. I consider myself an intelligent person and it embarasses me to think that I fooled myself with that myth for 30 years or more before I finally woke up to the truth. I now see that a lifestyle change is the only way it's possible to lose weight and keep it off forever. I wish that I could wave a magic wand and remove this damaging myth from the minds of millions of Americans, because it is holding SO many people back from achieving their dreams.

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