Most women cry, help me lose weight on my hips and thighs. Men cry tummy, tummy, why? Why is all my fat only around my tummy. The research shows that this is a genetic factor. The location of fat in each persons body is a family heritage. Being fat or thin to some extent is hereditary but if one works hard, this can be changed. i.e. anybody can reduce and maintain an ideal weight for height. But if you have a family history of heavy arms or big stomach or heavy hips, when ever you gain weight above your ideal then it will mostly be in that particular area.

So the first decision is to come to your ideal weight. What is my ideal weight? The simple calculation is to find out your height in centimeters, then minus 100. So if your height is 170 cms, your ideal weight would be about 70kgs plus minus 2kgs.

Soon after all the festive eating the impulse is to go on some crash diet. Please understand that all fad diets and crash diets, detox diets etc., are harmful to the body. Don’t start the New Year harming your self. Before you start dieting let me advice you to do something more positive, i.e. to start walking. Weight accumulation around the tummy, hips and thighs starts moving when we stop sitting so much and start walking.

The biggest gift one can give one self and the biggest treat you can treat your body to is to make a mental commitment to take out 20-30 minutes every day, 7 days a week and 365 days of the year for yourself. Pamper your self to a 20-30 minutes time out everyday. In all our busy schedules, as we push our minds and bodies to meet so many targets and challenges the least we can do is to give ourselves this time out. This year instead of thinking of pampering yourself to that dinner out or rich tasty treat lets make a resolution to treat ourselves every day to a brisk, invigorating walk and rejoice a few months down the year, when we will change our trouser sizes and be shopping for a new wardrobe.

Walking is the ultimate over all toner as it exercises 90 percent of all the 500 odd muscles in your body at one time. Keep your tummy muscles tightened and firm when you walk, breath well and don’t talk. Then you get an extra tone on the waist line and of course the hips and thighs get firmer automatically. All people from age 5-75 must have a 20-30 minutes walk daily and the good news is, it can be done any where at any time of the day or night. Only tell yourself I won’t go to sleep without having done my walk today.