by Aparna Mukhedkar

Created on: March 07, 2009

At the beginning of every year, a surfeit of programs offer different approaches to successfully losing weight gained during the holidays. We are entering the second week of March and many have begun evaluating their New years resolutions. We are bombarded every day with ads and messages about the importance of losing weight for a healthy lifestyle. Each year, we resolve to be healthier than the last.

Over the last few years, a number of diet and exercise websites have mushroomed all over the internet, like southbeachdiet.com, ivillage.com, weightwatchers.com, among others. These provide valuable tools and social support for those looking for diet and exercise tips to lose weight. While there is value and credence to all the offerings available, I believe a self created regimen works best for very individual. This article attempts to highlight some of the important factors that can lead to a sensible, healthy and safe way to weight loss.

Losing body weight is easy. It is the maintenance and following a diet program that requires Herculean' strength and motivation to keep the weight off. You can go to a gym, yoga center, use the outdoors, starve or go on a Hollywood diet or a cabbage diet or a myriad other diets, the results are the same. You continue to find yourself having to do more and more of the same. What is required is the drive and more importantly the incentive to keep your routine on track. Repetitive activity often leads to boredom and then the excuses kick in and finally you find that you have not worked out for days. Your girth expands and as you age you find it harder and harder to lose weight and you don't feel good about your self. I am guilty of this behavior and have attempted to mend my ways and have achieved considerable success in this endeavor.

I learnt (the hard way, of course) that a holistic approach to weight loss is the one that works best. It is absolutely critical to focus on a harmonious alignment of the body, mind and the spirit in order to lead a wholesome, healthy life. Imagine a curvaceous body with a sharp intellect and a dazzling demeanor! You can achieve it by creating an exercise regimen that works specifically for you.

A scholar once noted: "change the way you look at things and the things you look at change." Begin by changing your thoughts and believe that weight loss and a healthy lifestyle are within your reach. Incorporate exercising, meditation and learning something new or playing a new game (sudoku, word puzzles

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