Losing weight is not “rocket science.” All you have to do is increase your exercise and control your eating and you will lose weight. Of course this is easier said than done, but it is possible to do it.

Many people give up the effort because they are overwhelmed with so many things to do. Don’t eat this, eat this, do this, do that and many other instructions prove to be too much. OK, if you can’t follow a whole program then why not make one change at a time in your lifestyle?

I will give you a few examples. One of my yoga students came to me and told me that he had just lost 4 kilos (close to 9 pounds) in one month. How did he do it? He just did one thing: he fasted during one day of each week of that month. That’s all he did.

If you don’t like fasting or are not ready for it, then try one experiment with food.  Give up eating foods with unnecessary added sugar such as cookies, cakes, candies, soda etc. I tried this recently and lost ten pounds. After a meal, instead of eating a sweet dessert I eat a piece of fruit. It’s possible, and you don’t have to change anything else.

And, if you are not ready to change your eating habits, then try adding some exercise to your life. Take a walk after dinner instead of sitting in an easy chair watching TV. Put on your mp3 player, get out in the fresh air and digest your dinner with a brisk walk. Walk 20 minutes away from your home and 20 minutes back. Do this every night and you are sure to lose some weight, and also improve your digestion and sleep.

Another small change you can make is to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Four liters (quarts) spread out over the day will help you to control your appetite and also help your over-all bodily functions.

If these above mentioned tips are not “doable” then try something else: do the three yoga postures which are explained in the Yoga Weight Loss Secrets ebook, twice a day. It will take you a total of forty minutes, and/or do the meditation that is described in the mini course and in the ebook. (If you want to get the ebook, then go to http://www.yogaweightlosssecrets.com )

Finally, if you are gung-ho and would like to try all of these tips on a daily basis. Then here is what to do:

1. Give up unnecessary sweet foods, and substitute them with fruit

2. Do fasting on a regular basis (see the ebook or mini course for instructions)

3. Add brisk walking to your daily schedule (40 minutes)

4. Drink four liters of water every day

5. Practice yoga exercises two times a day

6. Practice meditation two times a day

If you do any one of these things you will lose weight. If you do all of these, then your success is a sure guarantee.

“If you think there is really a god then why do evil things happen?” (Someone recently posed this question on Myspace.com and I would like to reply)

This is a question that has long troubled people. Why is life filled with so much pain and hardship and suffering when everything has been created by an omniscient and benevolent God?

Think about the kind of world that there would be if no one ever died, if there were no poisonous snakes, insects or dangerous bacteria, if no creature preyed upon another creature or if nothing ever decayed. There are some religious sects distributing literature which shows a world that would supposedly exist after the establishment of God’s kingdom, and you see drawings of lions and lambs happily grazing in the same field while wholesome looking families are holding hands nearby. This is not what God has planned for humanity, it is not at all the way the world is like or will ever be like.

If a cat destroys a nest of young robins, we can’t say that it is an evil act. It is the nature of the cat to prey upon small creatures. Similarly, humans are not all saints. All humans are a mixed bag of “good” and “bad” tendencies. Some people manage to control their basic instincts and learn to treat others around them with kindness and understanding. Some people are not able to do this, and hence there is conflict in our human society. At times, people with lesser developed moral stature prevail and crush others beneath them, and at other times such injustices are righted. Life is a back-and-forth fight of opposing tendencies. It has been going on since time immemorial and will continue in the future.

Yoga philosophers explain this more broadly saying that in nature there are two basic tendencies: one force (Vidya Maya) pulls all things towards the nucleus of the cosmos (God) and another force (Avidya Maya) pushes them away from the nucleus. Roughly speaking the force which pulls us towards the nucleus is responsible for “good” and the force which takes us away from the nucleus is “bad” but both are an integral part of nature.

The struggle and interplay of these two tendencies is responsible for the kind of world we live in. Now the question still remains, why did God create this kind of world? There is no logical answer to this question, but where scientists and intellectuals have to keep mum, simple minded religious devotees have an answer. They say, “Because the Lord loves drama.”

Wouldn’t it be rather boring for you, and for everyone else, if your favorite baseball or football team won every game, every year? Would there be any kind of suspense or action to savor?

View the cosmos from this perspective and you will be able to accept the imperfection and strife that exists, side-by-side with all the good things that make up this world.

As if anyone needed more reasons to stop smoking, take a look at this breaking news report:

TUESDAY, Oct. 17 (HealthDay News) — A new study finds that at least 1 in every 4 smokers will develop progressive and incurable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a much higher risk than previously believed.

COPD is a respiratory disease that results in blocked air flow to the lungs and grows progressively worse.

For this study, published online in the journal Thorax, researchers at Hvidovre Hospital analyzed data on 8,000 men and women, ages 30 to 60. All were monitored for 25 years as part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study.

At the start of the study, all the participants’ lungs were healthy and working normally. However, over the course of the 25 years, the lungs of almost all the male non-smokers continued to function normally, compared to 60 percent of men who continued to smoke.

Among women, 90 percent of non-smokers still had healthy lungs at the end of 25 years, compared to 70 percent of smokers.

Overall, 25 percent of the participants developed moderate or severe COPD over the 25 years. Persistent smokers were six times more likely to develop COPD than non-smokers.

During the 25 years, there were 2,900 deaths in the study group. Of those deaths, 109 were directly attributable to COPD, and nearly all those deaths were in people who were active smokers at the start of the study. Only two non-smokers died of COPD.

The study also found a sharp decline in the risk of COPD among people who stopped smoking soon after the start of the study. Over the 25 years, none of these ex-smokers developed severe COPD.
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If you need help in quitting the habit, start practicing yoga and meditation. If you don’t have anyone close at hand to teach you, then try my e-book, Start Meditation, Stop Smoking