Getting the Skinny from Heidi Roizen

I'm a frequent reader of Kara Swisher's blog BoomTown, which is part of the All Things D Web site. On Wednesday, Kara wrote about a music project that Heidi Roizen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, has embarked upon.

This project is not funding and launching the next big music platform or player, as one might think given Roizen’s background. No, it's a project that's unique and quite personal to Roizen.

In Roizen's own pursuit to lose weight, she wanted to listen to great music to help her stay motivated as she took off the pounds and got in shape, but when she wasn't unable to find any, the entrepreneur in her kicked in and she set out to create it.

Not being a musician herself, Roizen teamed with veteran music industry exec George Daly and songwriter and producer David Malloy, along with some very talented artists. Together they took Roizen's idea and turned it into a well-produced CD, or as Roizen puts it, "first class, radio-hit-quality music," which includes 10 songs.

Roizen wrote the lyrics for the CD, which is titled Skinny Songs and is available at iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, and SnoCap. You can also listen to Skinny Songs and read about it at MySpace and the Skinny Songs Web site.

The songs range from pop and country to vanilla hip-hop, and are positive, upbeat and motivating with song titles such as "Skinny Jeans" and "I'm a Hottie Now."

I suppose some people, especially men, would find this corny, but what I love about what Roizen has done is that the entrepreneur in her realized that there was a need in the marketplace and she filled it. More importantly, she has created a product that is designed to motivate other women as they, too, work to shed the pounds.

Losing weight is not an easy task. It takes self-discipline, dedication and time, and I might add, a little forgiveness of ourselves for those times that we stumble. Whether you are at your ideal body weight, underweight or overweight, body image and weight are two things that most of us women struggle with throughout our lives.

However, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve struggled, it’s never too late to commit and make it happen.

Swisher's blog post on Roizen includes a video clip of Roizen discussing Skinny Songs and her own motivation to lose weight. In the video, Roizen, who is 49 years old and about to turn 50, shares how turning 50 was a motivating factor in her decision to get in shape. "If you're not going to do it by the time you're 50, when are you going to do it," says Roizen.

That's a very powerful statement that I'm sure resonates with many women. If your New Year's resolution was to get in shape and you need a little extra motivation to keep you on track, head on over to Skinny Songs.