Best wishes for a very happy festive season and a wonderful 2009!

Have you ever tried a new form of therapy - be it acupuncture, osteopathy, reiki, massage etc and felt really good afterwards? Think back and then remember how long you felt different for. Was it an hour, a day, a week or maybe longer? Maybe if it was only a short while you discounted that particular therapy as "not working".

A good complementary therapist will no doubt have given you some aftercare advice. It may have been stretching, postural advice or de-stressing techniques. Did you take these on board and implement them. In many cases, for whatever reason, the answer if probably no.

The time spent on the therapists couch is only a small piece of the jigsaw puzzle. In any week you will spend one hour on the couch and another 6 days and 23 hours going about your everday life - doing things the way you've always done them.

As powerful as a therapy may be there is simply no way it can maintain magically transform you. Ultimately it is what you do once you are off the couch that really counts. It takes commitment, courage and dedication to make any sort of change.

So take the first step on your journey today and implement any aftercare advice your therapist gave you. You'll be amply rewarded.

Are you a very organized sort of person? Your christmas present list already distributed to friends and family. Making their lives easy and taking the guessing out of present buying?

Or are you leaving everyone in the dark - giving them no ideas at all and yet secretly hoping you won't get any of those horrid "gift sets" which adorn the aisles of Boots, M&S and big name supermarkets. You know the ones ...... which end up in the charity shop.

Well ....... thinking ahead......... are you planning to start 2009 fit and healthy? If that's the case then maybe popping a few healthy gift ideas on your list will help get you started in the New Year.

Here are some ideas to get you going:

• a pair of cross trainers, which you can use in the gym or for running

• a new workout outfit which you'll be dying to show off on Boxing Day
  

• some personal training sessions to overhaul your exercise regime and keep you motivated
  

• six month gym or leisure centre membership

• a massage [see how I slipped that in?]

• a subscription to an inspirational magazine such as Ultra-Fit or Runners World

• an I-Tunes voucher so you can download some new workout music

• an exercise DVD