Day 5 – Love your neck!

How do I love my neck? Let me count the ways. I love my neck because it holds up my head. I love my neck because I can wrap designer silk scarves and hang beautiful necklaces from it. I love my neck because it contains everything I need for swallowing good, healthy food. It may be a little thicker than it used to be, but it works just as well as it ever did. Because our necks are so close to our brains, stressful thinking makes it hurt at times. Well, maybe. Truth is, we neglect our necks, take them for granted. Today we're going to love our necks for bearing the pressure of holding up our heads so well. First, take out your prettiest neck accessory and wear it today. Second, sit up straight and tall, and carry yourself regally, like the African queen you are. Third, if the back of the neck hurts from stress, roll it, tilt it, stretch it, knead it. Roll it around and around. Tilt it from side to side. Now, doesn't that feel better?

I will bless my neck throughout the day for doing such fabulous work.

Day 4 – The lonely woman has a hungry heart.

When Black women get together to talk, the conversation inevitably jerks toward men. We may have unique stories to tell about our fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, and lovers but we sing the same sad songs. Why won't they talk to us? Why do they leave? Why are they so strange? We commiserate on the phone, or worse, we eat boxes of doughnuts, bags of potato chips, and gallons of ice cream. What's a lonely woman to do? Well, begin by not looking at your sister friendships as poor seconds to your relationships with men. They each have their place, and as we know, if a relationship with a man falls apart, it's the sisterfriend who listens and consoles us. Second, start moving. Exercise is a great antidote to depression, releasing all those feelgood endorphins in the brain. Most important, if you've done all you can do and your relationship still does not make you happy, maybe it's time to move on.

I will eat to satisfy hunger, not to push down emotions.

Day 3 – Diet strategies that make you go HUH?

Strategy #1: Grazing. Right, like a cow. This diet strategy replaces our three squares a day with five, even six, small snacklike meals throughout the day. The idea is that constant eating will keep your metabolism up and appetite down. Strategy #2: Eat a ton, weigh less. This diet strategy relies on low-fat, high-energy, carbohydrate-rich foods like pasta, vegetables, and fruit for its success. Strategy #3: Programmed eating. Overeaters Anonymous, Weight Watchers, and Jenny Craig advocate three strict calorie-controlled meals and two snacks a day. Behavior modification is stressed. Strategy #4: The Honorable Elijah Muhammad prescribed one vegetarian meal a day, with periods of ritual fasting. Clearly, there is no shortage of plans. The question is, which one is best for you? The secret to success is balance, consistency, and an understanding of yourself--your style of eating, your biorhythms, your moods.

I will choose the eating program that's right and healthy for me. Better yet, I will create my own program.

Day 2 – Let's commit to healthy action today!

"Girl, I'm going on a diet this year. No, for real."
Do we really want to go through that exercise in futility: the New Year's Resolution List? And which resolution tops everyone's list? Weight loss. Let's consider a new approach. Throw the list in the garbage. Now, instead of resolving to do something tomorrow, use the day to feel and visualize the changes you want to make in your body and your life today. Close your eyes and feel the pounds melt off your body. See the new you in your mind's eye. Imagine yourself in new, outrageous clothes. See your hair styled in a different way. Now go to your kitchen and throw out one food item that's no good for you, just one. Go outside and walk briskly around the block. The point of all this is to make the beginning of the new year a time for action. Don't waste the day on writing the same tired list you wrote last year. Instead, start the year off on a good foot. You'll set a powerful, positive tone for the next 363 days.

I commit myself to action today!

Day 1 – 'I feel good!'

Sisters, let's dedicate this next year to feeling good. No more moaning and groaning and crying and whining about fat and aches and pains. It's time to take action. Our success in creating a healthy, fit lifestyle absolutely depends on a powerful belief in our ability to manifest. Don't let past failures undermine your belief in your own power. Some of us have been playing at the diet game for so long that it's easy to remember the failures while forgetting the sheer tenacity it has taken to keep on trying. Think about all the roadblocks you've experienced over the years: illness, pregnancy, stress on the job, stress in relationships, grief, the fact that you're a woman and your body has been designed to retain fat. Hey, how about plain and simple hunger? That you have not succeeded says nothing about your worth as a human being--the fact that you keep trying does. The ability to lose weight is within you, so you must never lose the faith. If "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," then you are already slim, fit, and healthy. Keep the faith!

Doubts have no place in my thinking and feeling. I believe in my power to manifest a healthy, fit body!