When it comes to weight loss, nothing is easy and there are no quick fixes. It takes determination and a well-balanced approach to diet and exercise, along with a greater understanding of our emotional triggers to successfully lose weight and keep it off.

The secret to a healthy lifestyle is balancing the key areas of your life, like:

• Work and play
  
  
• Enjoying food and managing calorie intake
  
  
• Exercise and sleep
  
  
• Socialising and taking time out

Everything we do is inter-related (for example, recent studies have shown that people who do not get sufficient sleep are more likely to be overweight*), so when we consider whether our life is healthy or not, we need to look at it holistically.

To get a feel for how healthy your life is, draw a pie chart like the one below and, starting from the centre, shade in the segments to indicate how healthy that part of your life is (e.g. if you think that you are only 50% as physically fit as you could be, shade that segment in about halfway).

This exercise can help you identify which areas of your lifestyle need balancing.

* Shahrad Taheri et al. "Short Sleep Duration is Associated with Reduced Leptin, Elevated Ghrelin and Increased Body Mass Index" PLoS Medicine, Dec 2004 - 1(3)