Get Hold of those love handles and make a commitment

We all know that carrying excess weight around isn't good for us. But sometimes it's just so difficult to say 'today's the day when I start my diet'! But perhaps that's the problem. Although millions of diet books are sold each year, and, let's face it, it's we're talking about a huge industry that has a lot of reason and a lot of money invested in encouraging us to look at our figures but they're not doing it for our benefit but for their own pockets.

Let's turn the tables and look at it from our point of view. In past generations life has been very different. We all work as hard, but it's not so physical now. We tend to sit for long periods with our computers and even the physical tasks in the home are now nothing compared with only a few decades ago. The net result is that we don't need the number of calories we used to consume and if we take anything like the number without substantial exercise we are going to put on weight.

Whereas a normal diet could well have consisted of 4000 calories fifty years ago, we can now find ourselves putting on weight if we only consume 1500 calories a day. The result is that we become disillusioned, starve ourselves and then our bodies have a way of calling for food in a manner we find it difficult to ignore. Unfortunately often we fail to distinguish what we should or should not be eating and we therefore binge on all the wrong things. We know they're wrong but the call is something we can't ignore and so our good intentions and our strict diet end up making us put on weight.

In addition, it has always been accepted that as we grow older our waists will thicken. Now, however, we expect to stay sexy and young for longer. They say that fifty is the new thirty but it is hard work to make a fifty year old body have the same shape as a thirty year old. Our main goal, however, should be to want to live a long and healthy life and we can only do this by taking care of ourselves and what we eat. If we can grasp the nettle and start our new lease of life by changing our diets, our bodies will begin to feel more energised and therefore able to start exercising. If this is a frightful thought it can start as something as simple as making extra trips up the stairs and develop into extra housework or gardening, a walk at the weekend, perhaps a dance class, swimming (with a sauna a Jacuzzi, of course!), in fact the list is endless.

If you've decided to commit to becoming fit then take the following steps: Look objectively at what you are currently eating. Cut out the 'dead' foods (anything that is literally dead or cooked to death by frying or over boiling) and target your shopping towards the fruits, vegetables and nuts that are fresh and nutritious and have life in them still. Eat the right fats - almonds and avocados are avoided by many but are full of the fats that we need. Remember that fat free diets aren't good for us. Drink water and plenty of it. Sometimes we think our bodies are hungry when they're actually thirsty. Recognise the difference. Eat small amounts often. Remember that your stomach doesn't tell you that it's full until twenty minutes after you've finished eating. The art is to recognise that you should stop eating! Take a long look at your body. Assess which areas you want to improve and how many inches you want to lose off particular areas and once you feel able to face it, target those areas through the right exercises. By combining a good diet along with exercise you will find your body shape changes twice as fast.