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Recently, two co-workers of mine were discussing their weight loss efforts and part of that conversation stuck with me. One of them said, "It sure is a lot harder to lose weight than it is to gain it." The other one answered, "Yeah, thats because gaining weight is fun." I laughed with them, because there is some truth to that statement.

Yes, it can be fun to eat with abandonment and not think about whether what you are eating is healthy or not; it is only the consequences that are painful. Examples of shorter term consequences are pain in your stomach, indigestion, and sluggishness. The longer term consequences are high blood pressure, heart disease, and shortness of breath. Seeing your appearance change for the worse is painful too. Focusing on these consequences is key to developing self-discipline.

Discipline is necessary to achieve your weight loss goals and any goal that you want to achieve in life. after all, you dont have to employ discipline to do those things that you enjoy. For example, I wouldnt have to discipline myself to eat chocolate bars because I enjoy them, however I do have to discipline myself to limit them in my life. How do I do it? Discipline requires two skills: Desire and diversion.

Desire means that you have to want the goal that your discipline will help you achieve more than anything. For example, I wanted to lose weight and get healthy more than I wanted the chocolate bars. Each time I desired the chocolate bar, I had to remind myself of the alternate goal and make it real and vivid. I had to see myself with that goal already achieved and experience the pleasure of it. I had to make that pleasure more intense than the pleasure I imagined I would receive from eating the chocolate bar.

The second skill is diversion, which is simply engaging in an activity that diverted my attention away from the undesirable activity. In the chocolate bar example, I had to either give myself something that I would enjoy eating that was healthier for me or perform an alternate activity that would help me better meet my needs. For example, if I was angry, eating a chocolate bar would not help me, but taking a long walk to cool off likely would.

My co-worker was right: For many of us, losing weight is harder than gaining it. But we need to remind ourselves that, although it is harder to lose weight, it is not impossible. It is also worth the effort. Then we use our key of discipline to help us achieve what we want. It is the only way to get the body that we deserve.

A Registered Nurse for many years, Kimberly Floyd battled obesity for much of her adult life. She achieved her ideal weight and has written a new book entitled 'Moneywise Weight Loss' which teaches others how to lose weight and save money--at the same time.

Kim has written articles for the georgia Nurses Association publication and nursing Spectrum online. now a technical writer, she has written training programs for corporate clients, including IBM, U.S. Bank, and Cingular.

Kim also teaches an online course called 'Goodbye to Shy'. This course is distributed to over 1100 colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and Australia through Thomson Learning. An accomplished speaker and trainer, she delivers presentations on health-related topics to enthusiastic audiences.

The Latin word for meditation is 'mederi' which means 'to heal'. To meditate is to develop an understanding of your inner self, to know yourself better, so that you can improve your life, by watching yourself as a witness to control anger and be more retrospective towards your behaviour and relationship with others.

• meditation is getting in touch with your inner self.
• The dictionary defines meditation as continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature; "the habit of meditation is the basis for all real knowledge" .
• meditation is a way of life.
• meditation is getting in touch with the vast reservoir of energy within us.
• meditation is a state of being.
• To me, meditation is thoughtlessness.
• Gurumaa says that meditation is being aware.

However, experience says that real meditation cannot occur without the grace of the master. meditation starts with repetition of mantra and concentration of breath. Once the seeker starts meditating regularly, the mantra slowly fades out and the breathing becomes so slow that keeping count of it becomes difficult.

According to doctors, the best stress relief technique is meditation. many patients have been cured of their mental as well as physical problems by meditation and related breathing techniques.

The eight-fold path of yoga as described by sage patanjali leads to meditation. The first one is yama which is social behaviour which tells us to be non-violent, truthful and honest, not to steal, not to be lustful or possessive. niyama i.e. discipline tells us to be pure, content, austere, study the sacred texts and live with the awareness of the divine. The next point is asana, where we must learn to sit erect so that the energy generated within us can move up the spinal cord from the muladhara chakra towards the head. Once asana has been mastered, we go on to pranayama or controlling or balancing the breath. after the breath is controlled, pratyahara or withdrawal of the senses occurs. Dharana allows the mind to fix itself on an object or sound or within oneself. Uninterrupted meditation is known as dhyana which is the next step. Samadhi, the eighth and final step is the very goal of meditation, which is absolute bliss and union with God. In Samadhi, one realizes the pure consciousness and unites with the absolute.

Visit Anandmurti Gurumaa site for a number of amazingly simple and effective guided meditation techniques. You would also like the great soothing meditation music cds from Mystica Music.