Add Kirstie Alley to the list of those who have lost weight only to put it back on over time. Kirstie is the latest to bite the dust, although I suspect she’s been biting more than dust, because dust is low in calories.

Kirstie was the spokesperson for Jenny Craig Weight Loss , and this shows how difficult it is to keep weight off: Kirstie was being paid to stay thinner and couldn’t do it.

Ninety-eight percent of the time, diets fail. Yet, we continue to try because we need to lose weight and we don’t know another way.

I am awfully tempted, in the last 30 days before I climb Mount Monadnock, to go on a diet of some sort, to save face by losing belly, in order to be able to announce that I am much closer to the seventy pound weight loss goal I set for myself last year. Yet, the fact that I have lost 30 and kept 30 off is, in and of itself, reason to celebrate success. I have not ingested any diet shakes, or counted points, or given up starches, or denied myself anything, except to make lifestyle changes that will continue long after I come down from the summit of Monadnock later this month.

I have been where Kirstie Alley is right now. When she speaks of her humiliation, I know how she feels, even though I have never gone public about weight loss until the past 16 months. But I know the uncomfortable, self-conscious, defeatist, self-hatred that a heavy person lives with all too well.

I am going to set some short term goals, and push hard to lose additional weight before the climb. It will make it much easier on my body if I am carrying fewer pounds. But I will not shortcut the process. Whatever happens, happens. I have moved beyond where Kirstie is now. I am ready to climb, and then to keep going.