You’re a strong person, supporting friends in crisis and doing the work of 10 men before you have your coffee in the morning. But even Atlas got tired (and probably sore) after a while. Follow these easy steps to drop some pounds.

Watch Your Weight

Your bag, ideally, should weigh no more than 10 percent of your body weight or 10 pounds, whichever is less. A quick way to gauge if you’re carrying too much? Hold your bag in one hand and a gallon of milk in the other. “The bag shouldn’t weigh much more than the jug,” says Heidi Prather, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis. (One gallon weighs 8.3 pounds.) To shed some weight, you’ll need to make some tough decisions. Do you really need your Palm Pilot, cell phone, camera, full makeup kit, and novel all the time? On some days, leave at least one of those at home or perhaps tucked in the glove compartment or an office drawer, says Prather. Some other tips: Tear out articles you want to read in a magazine instead of lugging the whole issue; wait for the paperback; leave gym shoes and clothes at work or rent a locker at the club.

Minimize Your Makeup

If you’re hauling around your entire vanity, it’s time to pare down. Your on-the-go kit should contain just the key items you need for touch-ups, says makeup artist and author Bobbi Brown, who’s known for her minimalist approach. For most women, that means carrying a small pouch with concealer, pressed powder, blush, and a single lipstick or gloss. “If you have to rifle through your bag to find your makeup, you’re probably carrying too much of it,” says Brown.

Declutter Daily

“At the end of every day, take one minute to remove unnecessaries from your handbag,” says organization expert Donna Smallin, author of The One-Minute Organizer (Storey Publishing, $10, www.amazon.com). If you wait until the end of the week, it will take more time. And before you know it, you will have amassed a dozen receipts, a handful of pens, a few dollars’ worth of loose change, and a half-full water bottle or two. “That can add up to a pound of stuff you don’t need,” says Smallin.