Weight loss is about people, not calories! Interpersonal, emotional, and spiritual factors are the real keys to weight management, but are seldom mentioned in diet and exercise books. Drawing on the inspirational stories of the members of the international nonprofit weight-loss support group Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), the organization's psychologist, Howard J. Rankin, Ph.D., shows you how to harness your personal power-and the power of others-to lose weight and keep it off. Successful weight loss has to do with personal transformation. Dr. Rankin shows you how to develop and maintain your motivation by finding the real meaning in your weight-loss efforts. Extracting key principles from incredible success stories, Dr. Rankin not only presents practical steps for achieving your weight-loss goals, but shows how they can be implemented in the context of your everyday, busy life. In addition to motivational strategies, easy-to-follow advice is given to help develop key attitudes such as resilience, self-acceptance, and responsibility; as well as essential skills such as self-control, adaptive thinking, and temptation management. People don't lose weight in a social vacuum, they lose weight in the context of their relationships. So at each step, Dr. Rankin shows you how to enhance your program by using one of the most valuable resources available-the power of others. Book jacket.

TOPS (an acronym for "Take Off Pounds Sensibly") was founded in 1948 in order to do, well, what their names says -- teach people sensible weight-loss strategies. Developed with the help of medical and nutrition experts and the American Medical Association, the TOPS organization believes the most successful way to sustain healthy habits is by having a supportive environment. Today, TOPS has about 170,000 members in nearly 10,000 chapters in the U.S., Canada and other countries worldwide.