The paper quoted Dr Rob Hicks, a GP in London, as asserting that many people start socialising more in February after January, when we socialise less and prefer eating healthy food, giving our bodies a chance to recuperate after the over-indulgence of Christmas.

He added that with more socialising, we come in closer contact with others, which is when germs can spread easily through coughing, sneezing, and physical contact.

Hicks further added that returning to old habits can be a “shock to our system”, after a month of being health conscious.

The buddy system

Know a friend who’s also trying to shed kilos? Make a pact and promise each other that you’ll exercise together – even if you don’t live in the same city. Join a yoga class, dance class or just go for a brisk walk every day, whatever floats your boat. Check up on each other’s progress daily; it’s not just the moral support that we need but the thought that someone is trying just as hard as you that can really help you keep your routine intact.

The carrot and stick approach

Ok, so this probably isn’t as cruel as it sounds. It’s quite simple really – an incentive always pushes you to do better. Promise yourself that if you lose 2 kilos in the next one week, you can buy yourself a lipstick or whatever it is that you like. The corollary should work too – unless you lose those 2 kilos, you will not shop for anything, no matter how cheap or small. Shopping is just one carrot; yours could be dining out or a new haircut.

Keep short goals

If someone told you to lose 10 kilos in a month, chances are you’ll quit in a week thanks to the mammoth goal but who said big numbers are the best ones? While it’s good to be ambitious, for starters keep your goals achievable – that way the regime won’t sound so daunting. Think about it – losing 1 kilo in a week sounds good too, doesn’t it?

Give yourself variety

Just because you chose to walk every day for an hour doesn’t mean you have to do it every day. For one, it will turn into a monotonous routine that you’ll itch to skip. So do different things – dance, skip, cycle or swim. And if you are a bit more adventurous, you could try jogging backwards. Just a thought! Dancing is probably one of the best ways to get you moving but you don’t have to join a dance class for that. Just create your own playlist, lock yourself in a room, plug in those earphones and get grooving!

Indulge once in a while

Losing flab means keeping the most tempting things at bay – cheese, chocolates, sweetmeats, fried food – and this is hard work. But if you’ve stuck to your eating habits you can indulge yourself once in a while – that means once in two weeks! This is harder than it sounds because the minute that piece of cake comes in front of you, you’ll begin to justify to yourself why it’s ok to have it. ‘So, I will have two now and none the next week.’ But it doesn’t work that way.

Compensate

Again, this doesn’t mean you pig out on desserts one day and starve yourself the next day. It doesn’t even work. What it means is that if you happened to have a heavier lunch than you intended to, go easy on the dinner.

Sworn enemies of a weight loss plan

So you’re out drinking with friends and even though it may be impossible to avoid one drink, stay away from the French fries! When you go to the movies, not having popcorn and cold drinks is almost criminal for some – so popcorn might be ok, but cold drinks are an absolute no-no. Have water or juice instead. When you are out for a dinner, avoid the dessert unless it’s a fruit salad! These are very frequent situations we find ourselves in and so keeping clear of cold drinks, dessert and deep fried appetizers is absolutely important. If you are one of those who stock cold drinks at home, time to put an end to that as well.

Stop one at a time

Don’t try to go gung-ho on your diet plan and quit everything at once. You can start with something you eat fairly regularly but which is fattening too – for instance fried papad at home with meals. Try roasted instead. You might also be eating cheese in your grilled sandwich – time to cut that out next. Slather your rotis ghee or butter, maybe? Chop that off your list too. Cut down on one thing at a time – it’s easier than stopping everything at once.

Declare

It may sound ridiculous but when you declare your goals, the pressure is that much more on you to achieve those goals – it’s a trick many people use to stick to their plans of action and you could try the same. You don’t have to put it on Facebook but maybe tell a friend. Let them know that you binged or you strayed off – it’ll help you be true to yourself and help you get back on track.

Take inspiration

We all have that one person, that one celebrity that we wish we could look like and even more so who went from overweight to fit. Read up about them and find out their fitness secret. You don’t have to ape their routine – the idea is to take inspiration. Every time you feel like you are close to quitting, sit back and think of your inspiration; after all it wasn’t easy for them so it won’t be for you either. Having someone to look up to makes it easier to stick to your fitness regime.

Making charts and giving yourself constant encouragement is all good but remember not to justify binging or making lame excuses for when you stray off your plan. If you do, don’t quit – get back to it. Adhering to a weight loss plan is easier said than done but hey, if losing weight was that simple, everyone would be skinny right? The trick - Keep going and don’t let bumps in the way stop you.”

I will not eat junk food ‘anymore’

If there ever was a list of the most common New Year resolutions in anyone’s diary, this would top that list. And it’s a rare percentage of people who are actually successful at sticking to it. And no wonder too. Just walk yourself through a regular day – running late for office so you skip breakfast and decide to grab a vada-pav at the hawker near your office instead; friends at work suggest eating out because the cafeteria food never stops being awful; you again grab some snack on the way back from home because dinner is still a few hours away. It is possible that you carry fruit or a fat-free snack with you at all times so you don’t succumb to junk food but let’s face it – that doesn’t work all the time, does it?

What you can do: Resolve that you won’t eat junk food more than once in two weeks and limit the types of junk food. For instance, bhelpuri or sandwiches are ok but a burger or pizza isn’t. Stay away from aerated drinks and choose lemonade instead. Strictly avoid anything fried, especially in the mornings.

I won’t touch sweets – EVER!

Ah, the unrelenting sweet tooth! Come festive season (which is practically all year round) and it becomes impossible to ignore the lure of all those ghee soaked guilty pleasures. And even if it isn’t a special occasion, the odd piece of chocolate cake you see passing by a bakery or a restaurant is sure to erase all memories of that resolution. So while keeping off sweets is not a very realistic goal there are ways of having your cake and eating it too.

What you can do: Try curbing your sweet intake with a fruit instead of a cupcake. If you are really craving for the real thing, make sure you choose a sugar-free version of it. With people becoming health conscious these days, confectionaries see to it that they have sugar free products as well.

I’ll lose 15 kilos in a month

Alright, so resolving to lose weight or flab is great; what’s not so great is to try to lose too much in too short a time through unhealthy (and sometimes downright dangerous) methods. These would involve crash dieting, skipping meals, too much of heavy lifting in the gym or frequent fasts – an absolute no-no. Want proof? Consult a dietician or a nutritionist. If you plan to start picking up heavy weights in the gym to lose weight take advice from an experienced health instructor if you should really do it. Incorrect methods of exercising can be a big mistake.

What you can do:  Stop looking for quick results! Eat healthy, on time and in right quantities. Exercise whichever way you like but do it regularly and you’ll see the results soon. Don’t stop eating for a week thinking you’ll turn size zero next month – it won’t happen, not in a good way anyway. You’ll only end up harming your body more.

Carbs and fats are off the diet

If you have read enough about losing weight you should also know that fat isn’t all bad. In fact, fats and carbohydrates are two of the most important energy-providing components (the third is proteins). Fats also help the body absorb Vitamins A, D, E and K. What you need to know is the difference between good fats and bad fats. Unsaturated fats, derived mostly from plant sources, help raise levels of HDL (good cholesterol) and are found in olive oil, canola oil and almonds. Saturated fats are mainly obtained from animals in the form of ghee and cheese; they are important because they allow absorption of vitamins but also lead to increased LDL (bad cholesterol) so they are important but in limited quantities. And lastly, trans fats which have no health factor and are found in deep fried snacks and junk foods like French fries.

The same goes for carbs – complex carbs found in whole grain cereals are good because they release sugar into the body gradually unlike simple carbs found in refined sugar and polished rice, which give instant bursts of energy by releasing a large amount of sugar in the bloodstream. This causes the pancreas to work harder to release insulin which acts on the sugar and converts the rest into fat.

What you can do: Mix and match and don’t avoid one type of fat or carb completely because that throws your diet out of cycle. Eat correct proportions of both in your food.

I will not drink

Well, this is an excellent resolution to keep actually. After all, alcohol has empty calories – which means you pack on calories that have no nutritional value whatsoever and it reduces your ability to burn fat for energy. It also affects the liver and causes hypertension. Alcohol has also been associated with psychiatric disorders and brain damage. However in some corporate cultures where meeting clients (especially foreign clients) happens frequently, it could be considered inappropriate to refuse a drink. Your best bet is to stick to a glass of red wine since it does your heart good.

I will completely stop smoking

 If you are a regular or chain smoker and have tried kicking the butt before, you know it’s easier said than done. While it’s good to make a resolution about quitting you also must realize it doesn’t happen in a month.

What you can do: Cut back gradually. Involve your friends to help you out. Make sure you don’t smoke passively. Instead of telling yourself you can kick it anytime and that you don’t need help, enlist the help of a medical professional and find out your options of cutting back.

The final word

Making the effort to give up junk food, sweets and alcohol for good is great if you can do it. In the real world though, for some of us it might be difficult see our resolutions to the end. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make them – instead try to set your goals a little more realistically. Maybe if you can stick to junk food only twice a month for the first six months, who knows? You might be able to give it up completely next year. Add one resolution to that diary for 2013 though – that you’ll find more ways of eating and living healthy!

Does this list look familiar?

For several people, like me, the end of one year and beginning of another is the time to review our lives and time for The Resolutions.
These “I will do this and that” points last for a few weeks or for days and fade back into the background. How many times have you wondered why these don’t last?
Most of these resolutions are formed out of desperation and frustration or as a distraction from a routine that you follow. It’s very rare that any resolution is formed out of passion or interest for that activity. You exercise because you’ve always heard that it’s the right thing to do. But do YOU really want to be fit?

Let us look at a simple way of keeping our resolutions going with an example of exercising regularly.

1. Make sure you really want your resolution to become a part of your life.
2. Know the motive behind the resolution: Why do you want to exercise? Is it to lose weight? Get a toned body? Feel fit? Increase stamina? Decrease your cholesterol levels? Get rid of PCOD? Once you define your motivation, you can refine your resolution better.
3. Magic of 21: Fix up a day to begin and exercise every day. It takes 21 days to make any behaviour into a habit.
4. If you have a really bad track record of keeping your resolutions, ask your best buddies to help you. You might ask them to wake you up in the mornings or check back on you. Obviously, they will also have the authority to penalize you. Social networking sites might be of great help here. Letting the world know will help you keep going. Updating your experiences and progress online will be a good boost.
5. Get/find company. Research shows that group work works well with most people to balance each other’s slack state of mind. See if you can get any of your friends to exercise with you or find people who you meet on the go.
6. Fix up the same time every day for the activity. That way, your brain gets wired with signals to be ready. Also, you can set your schedule around your resolution for a few days.
7. Take baby steps. Divide a larger dream into small goals and each goal into even smaller tasks. Congratulate yourself for each achievement. Start with stretches and basic exercises for the first 2 weeks. Then increase your workouts by 10 minutes after every 2 weeks. By the end of the month you’d have achieved much more than you’d have thought.
8. Find things you love in the activity, your heart will motivate you to continue doing it. It might be the music, the ambience or even people!! Just another reason to go back the next day.
   Again resolutions are things that are supposed to make your life better. So then, why wait for the New Year to start doing what you love? Start Today. Start Now.