I know I'm guilty of being so obsessed with becoming a certain weight or size that I don't focus on what is a healthy weight for my own body, and I often try to achieve something that is too hard to obtain. With all of the stress that's placed on BMI, what should I really be looking at in attaining my weight loss goals?

You bring up a really important topic. I think there are two major issues: what's a healthy weight, where our risk of developing chronic illness such as high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes is decreased; and what weight can we be personally satisfied with?

It's a lot easier to pin down a number for a healthy weight, because we can look at BMI or even losing 5-10% of our current body weight if we're overweight.

But when we try to figure out a weight that we can personally accept, there is no magic number. Some things to consider: at what weight do I feel good about myself? at what weight can I do all the things I want to do? at what weight am I not focusing all of my energies on losing weight?

Sometimes we're already at a healthy weight, and it may be better for us in the long run to learn to love our body the way it is, instead of always trying to lose those last 5-10 pounds.

Just my two cents!