Now we are on day 16, half way through to day 31. After all the steps we have gone through until today we have been able to establish a start to a healthy lifestyle.

On day 3 I said that you should have started a long time ago to lose the weight you are now so desperate to lose before Christmas. But I wasn't talking about dieting; I was talking about your lifestyle. It is your lifestyle that needs to change and not doing a crash diet for a month to temporarily solve the problem.

My intentions here have not been for you to lose weight quickly but to see the small steps that will help you to avoid these crash diets and desperate thoughts next year. And by now you should have a good ground to stand on to continue this new lifestyle.

Go through the weekly health check and see how the week has been for you. And no matter how small your progress is you should reward yourself for being on the right way. Rewarding yourself with food won't lead you anywhere but down again so make sure you reward yourself with something that you have use of for more than 30 seconds.

Go and get a massage, take a bubble bath, buy a new handbag or whatever you feel is a good reward for what you have achieved. Start thinking about what you will reward yourself with once these 31 days are over.

Setting up small rewards for yourself will not only motivate you but also make you extra happy. If you want to be extra hard on yourself and you are a disciplined person you can owe yourself a certain amount of money every time you "sin", ie eat a chocolate or stay at home instead of exercising. The money will not go back to you but will go to an organization of some kind or a friend in need.

I believe I have been pretty good and decided that it was a bout time to reward myself with a new grater. That way I won't have any excuse to not add grated carrots to my salads, see what an easy reward. How are you going to reward yourself?