Miami ? Toss your bathroom scale and stop “losing weight.” Losing weight is like losing your glasses, says Dr. Pamela Peeke. Sooner or later, you find them. To keep the weight off, you need to “remove” it.

“We have a national epidemic of losing and finding,” says the author of Body-for-LIFE for Women (Rodale, $26.95). “It’s not about quantity; it’s about quality. We should pay attention to body fat and bone, not the weight on a scale, which can be misleading.

“That skinny minnie who’s 5 feet 4, 110 pounds and cocky is at high risk for breast cancer if her body fat is out of proportion,” Peeke says.

In Body-for-LIFE for Women, Peeke focuses on minimizing fat and maximizing tone – being a smaller size at a higher weight. By exercising and reducing fat intake, you can stop excess fat from accumulating around your belly, increasing the risk of diabetes, heart disease and colon cancer.

Her book outlines a 12-week mind (emotional health), mouth (nutrition) and muscle (physical activity) formula to set a foundation for a healthy lifestyle. Among the highlights:

¢ Be conscious of how you exercise. “Work on progress, not perfection,” Peeke says. Don’t just do the StairMaster; embrace diversity.

¢ Eat every three to four hours, and watch those portions. “We’ve bashed carbs and we under-eat proteins,” Peeke says. We need to “make combinations in a balanced way. When we eat this way, we eat more protein.” Some women eat huge amounts of healthy foods, then wonder why their bodies are out of proportion. Eating too much brown rice or drinking too many smoothies is not good, Peeke says.

¢ Get a dose of vitamin I. That’s “I” as in intensity. “Women have to learn to become more intense,” Peeke says. Start with a combo of strength training and cardio. As you age, you should increase the time you strength train. “After 40, muscle mass melts at two to three times the rate of muscle in men,” Peeke says.