Are you ready to live a more powerful life by taking control of your weight and physical condition? If so, here are five ideas that can start you on the path to a healthier, slimmer body today.

1. Stop using remote controls. Remote controls are the bane of a prospective weight loser. They may be remarkable gadgets by themselves but from the weight loss point of view, they just aren't very helpful.

They really encourage us to take a laid back kind of attitude towards life itself. In fact if remote controls were not there, the television would not have become so popular. It is because of remote controls that people can remain where they are and switch from one channel to the other. And they only have to twitch a finger muscle to achieve this.

Now, I have nothing against multi-channel television sets but what I strongly advocate is that you get up from where you are and change the channel of the TV each time you want to do so.

2. Try massaging your partner on a regular basis. This is a fun way to lose weight. It is something that can give your partner a lot of pleasure and at the same time can give you a lot of exertion there by leading to weight loss.

The attitude should of course be you scratch my back I will scratch yours. It should not be a one sided effort or else the interest will soon dwindle.

In fact, it is a good idea if couples take up weight loss routines together. They can keep watch over each other, help control those urges to eat and motivate each other to stick to the routine.

There are a lot of things that couples can do together that can help them to keep physically active...

3. Try breathing exercises. You might be surprised to know that breathing exercises too can lead to weight loss. If you are doing the breathing exercises properly, you will find that you can exert a lot of pressure on the muscles around the mid section.

You can feel a tightening of these muscles each time you breathe in or breathe out. So go ahead and breathe properly, it is good for you.

4. Join a dance class. Dancing is a wonderful way to burn off those extra calories. It is true. When you dance you are in fact burning away a lot of calories. Of course we are not referring to the slow ballroom kind of dances in which one person actually leans on the other one for support. We are talking about fast dances.

The best way to do it is by joining a jazz or hip-hop dance class because they will really work you out. I would suggest that you wait for a couple more pounds to vanish before you think of becoming a ballerina.

5. At the very least, do things like fetching, turning things off and on by yourself. Often when we come back tired from work, we tend to get others to do simple chores for us. These things are no big deal. They are things that we can very well do for our selves but we don't.

That is why we often ask our kids to fetch us this or take away that.

Training your pet is a wonderful thing indeed. It is quite remarkable how some people get their dogs to fetch them something. But the fact is that while you may be making sure that your dog is getting a lot of exercise, you are neglecting your bit of the story!