Take more than a casual glance at the weight scale. Is it time to lose pounds? Don’t wait too long after the holidays to do something about it.

There is a time for everything. Once the Christmas season is over, there’s the perfect time to take a long, hard, analytical examination of how too much indulgence combines with too little restraint.

To be overweight means a person is 20 percent heavier than the average for his/her height.

Your doctor should be able to tell you if this is the case. The average person has anywhere from 30 to 40 million fat cells—an astounding number. And for many of us, this is way too much!

Causes of weight gain:

Poor diet

Fatty foods

Lack of exercise

Hormonal problems

Hypoglycemia—low blood sugar condition caused by adrenal exhaustion connected to stress and poor digestion. This condition may be hereditary but an inadequate diet is normally the culprit.

The cortin hormone, when depleted, contributes to indigestion. Other causes are the consumption of large quantities of sugar, carbohydrates, caffeine, sodas and alcohol.

It is interesting to know that hypoglycemia is sometimes mistakenly diagnosed as asthma, various allergies, weight problems, nervous disorder and fatigue syndrome.

To do: Check for hypothyroidism. A six-hour glucose tolerance test (GTT) is the most reliable diagnosis.

New diet: Go natural by eating more fresh vegetables, whole grains, lightly cooked vegetables. Avoid salty food as it challenges and exhausts the adrenals.

Do not skip meals.

Add licorice to your diet—it increases cortin for better digestion, or take digestive enzymes before meals.

Helpful herbs include spirulina, ginger root, wild yam (camote) milk thistle and bilberry.

Start exercising. Take up a sport. Enroll in a gym. Join a walkers’ club.

The mind

If there is one potent part of who you are, it is the mind. Your brain and its thinking processes directly affect your body and its overall health profile.

Your adrenals can get exhausted due to stress—so can your brain and your nervous system.

To do:

Sleep—get enough of it.

Rest—apart from good sleep, get as much rest as you can, while this is no excuse to be a “couch potato.” Rest whenever you can. Driving yourself too hard or cramming as much work or studies as you can will rob you of inner balance.

Adopt an attitude of calm—whatever situation, person or condition that seems to challenge you, assume a calm stance.

When you choose to become objective about things, you become impersonal.

From now on, don’t take anyone personally. If some people have issues with you—that’s not your problem, it’s theirs.

Free yourself of all hang-ups and fears. Once you do, you will experience a new sense of liberation.

The heart

Both mind and heart have a strong connection. What you think, you feel and vice versa.

Beginning today, adopt some quiet time. Own a small space, a sanctuary of sorts, where no noise, distractions or disagreements reach you. Meditate.

Or simply keep still—and listen to your inner silence. Pray. This can empower you.

No to the negative—if you think negative, you feel negative. And what is worse is that you will attract the negative.

Yes to the positive—say yes to a new adventure, romance, skill, hobby, challenge.

Yourself—stop stopping yourself from going beyond your own personal boundaries.

Healing—while many of us go through life in a state of unforgiveness, it isn’t healthy. Forgive now to heal today.