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More than one-third of Americans made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight this year.* Sometimes this makes me sad. Shouldn’t we be reaching for loftier goals like world peace? If we put our collective yearning together, couldn’t we find a cure for poverty, an end to domestic violence?

But framed another way (as my friend Andrea suggested), this resolution is really about transforming the way we see ourselves; to believe that we are worthy enough to care for ourselves by eating right, exercising, and finding balance. **

So, taking this suggestion to heart, perhaps this age-old New Year’s resolution is not about losing body weight; it’s about dropping the weight of the world ... shedding the burden of taking care of everyone else before we take care of ourselves.

Coming from someone who weighs about the same as I did in high school (although a lot of things have shifted to slightly lower latitudes) but who is a master at putting everyone else first, I could really use this transformation.

Let me be the first to wish us all a lighter 2012.

And just because I’ve mostly been about the right weight for my height (if you don’t count my “Freshman 15”), doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes often wish I weighed less, ate healthier and had better stamina.  Part of it, for me, is that I have a commitment to the clothes in my closet. If I spent $100 on a pair of designer jeans 12 years ago, they are just getting good and vintage right about now and I’ll be damned if I give them away just because they squeeze my muffin top in a way that frequently causes me to see stars due to restricted breathing.

I even have an idea for a website about well-loved clothes: How Old Is Your Closet? A place where people can post pictures of themselves in their favorite, oldest clothes that they still wear. (Minus the entire decade of the 80s; even if a jacket fits, we are not doing massive shoulder pads anymore. And I don’t care who’s wearing acid-wash jeans, you are not going to keep that pair with the waistband that’s practically up to your sternum.)

So regardless of what I weigh, I am one of those people who weighs herself every morning. This time of year, it’s to ensure that I am not on my weigh way to gaining the eight pounds that experts say the average American adds between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day.

It’s also to ensure that I will still be able to slip on the $200 silk two-piece top I splurged on more than 10 years ago but that is still my go-to outfit whenever I have a special event that’s neither business nor cocktail (and was one of my first-date saviors when I began dating-after-divorce). I thought this top was extravagant when I bought it on my 40th birthday, but amortized over 12 years, at about 12 wearings a year, that’s less than $1.50 per wearing, and I'm still counting on it. As long as I don't gain any more back-flab. 

This morning as I was weighing myself naked in my closet (doesn’t everybody?), my phone beeped to remind me that I had a doctor’s appointment next week. That got me wondering about how much my clothes weigh, as I will be stepping on the scale at the doctor’s office fully clothed (they frown on me taking off my clothes in the lobby).

So I weighed myself and the numbers stopped at 123. That’s about right for me, although I’ve been several pounds higher and I admit, for no apparent reason, I prefer when it says 122 and would be stunned and delighted and would have to check its battery if it said 120. I have often wondered what the results would be if they did a study on female behavior that involves changing the scale so it weighs about five pounds lighter every morning. I think if you told a woman her scale showed she’d lost five pounds overnight she would immediately feel sexier, happier and more confident. What does that say about us, I wonder? I bet it would help offset the symptoms of PMS and menopause. How can you be irritable when you’ve basically just been given permission to eat chocolate? Conversely, if you really want to start a war, make everyone’s scale weigh 10 pounds heavier. I would NOT want to work in that office.

So when I go to the doctor, I typically weigh about five to 10 pounds more than my morning scale, and I always just chalked it up to whatever I’m wearing. I decided I should get the real deal, and see exactly what my clothes weigh. (Clearly I don’t have much of a life.) Here’s what I found: my jeans weigh two pounds. Gone are the days of vintage Levis, the jeans that could stop my mother’s washing machine due their water-weight. Now we have spandex and moleskin and distressed denim that keep jeans nice and light. Great.

My shoes weigh just a pound and a half.

My bra doesn't even register when I slip it on and get back on the scale. Of course, that gets me thinking that the combined weight of my boobs has to count for something, but there’s no lady-like way to weigh my breasts so I move on.   

By the time I have all my clothes on, I’ve added just under four pounds. Not the five-to-10 that I usually attribute to my wardrobe at my doctor weigh-in. And don’t start with my jacket or my purse – we all know those are the first items we set down. And truth be told, sometimes I kick off my shoes!  So now I’d be down to just two pounds extra!

I take a deep breath, slide the scale back under the shelf where it will lurk for another day, and remember it’s not about the number. It's about letting go of the pounds of regret, obligation, guilt (I will never win Mother-of-the-Year), wouldas, couldas, shouldas, and especially the weight of the girl who thinks she has to please everyone. 

It’s about the way I see myself.

That’s when I go to the mirror and realize, I gotta do something about those wrinkles.

* according to Thomas-Reuters-NPR Health Poll

** If you truly want to transform your life, I highly recommend Andrea Rosenthal, owner of Life & Career Soulutions. If healthy eating is your goal – once and for all – please visit my friend Sandy Dalis at www.cravenutrition.net. Two of my favorite and most inspiring friends!

Ginger is a 20-year veteran corporate writer in Atlanta, and most recently, the former national web editor at skirt!, www.skirt.com. She is a contributing blogger for The Balancing Act, Huffington Post’s divorce vertical (www.huffingtonpost.com/divorce) and skirt.com, the mother of a 16-year-old son, and the author of the hilarious and helpful book, “Back On Top: Fearless Dating After Divorce.” She is a regular ShareWIK.com columnist, and has been featured in More.com, Glamour.com, LovingYou.com and several other women-centric media. She has appeared dozens of local and national TV and radio shows, including as host of Book Talk with Ginger in Atlanta, Georgia. 

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