Lots of people find that their weight loss starts to plateau after awhile so pay attention to your portions when you eat. Next time you serve yourself dinner on your usual sized plate, remove a third of it and put it in a container for a mid-afternoon snack the next day.

Don’t diet — make changes that you will be able to maintain forever. Start with eating lots of green vegetables or a fibre supplement. Fibre helps reduce “bat wings” and “bingo arms” by eliminating toxins.

Whether you run, cycle, swim, box or lift weights, it’s time to take things to the next level. This means not only ramping up the intensity, frequency and duration of your exercise but also mixing up your modalities to ‘shock’ your body into shape.

Studies show that low-fat yoghurts, for instance, are loaded with sugar and sodium to make up for the blandness of having no fat. So, eat real butter, yoghurt and milk and cheese. Keep the doses small, though.

Only you can decide when the time is right for you to lose weight and only you can truly motivate yourself to keep going (although help along the way is still important).

Limit alcohol to four standard drinks a week. A 400-calorie glass of wine replaces one snack. One coffee per day is allowed. After that, drink green tea.

Learn to love walking and do it for fun not just for exercise. Start increasing exercise slowly and build up over time. If you try to do too much too quickly, you will either hurt yourself or give up because it is too hard.

If you do fall off the wagon don’t throw it all away, congratulate yourself on the things you have achieved, set some new short-term goals and get going again.

(Text by bauersyndication.com.au / Additional reporting by Natalya Molok)