Get Started Exercising Now

So you're overweight, "fat"-to be honest-and you want to start
exercising. Before you take off like an overlarge airplane and start
preparing for the Olympics trials, stop right there.

You may have it all figured out by now, after checking with your
friends, the media and finally that fickle fiend known as the bathroom
mirror, that a regular exercise program is the only way to fly when it
comes to permanent weight loss. That entails working out or otherwise
flexing your physical and psychological muscles on a regular basis,
perhaps three times a week, or maybe even once per day.

But therein lies the rub. How do you get started? How often do you
exercise? Most importantly, if you've been very sedate or at least
somewhat off your feet for awhile, what's the safest way to begin an
effective, weight-loss centered exercise program?

Beginning a Righteous Program - Realistically

First of all, follow the old saw about consulting with your doctor.
Don't start thinking you can just begin running around the block.
That's why the medical profession exists, to advise and keep you safe.
Your doctor will recommend specific types of exercise tailored to fit
your own individual lifestyle, personal health needs and concerns. But
you don't need to make it entirely clinical when you begin an exercise
program.

Most importantly, you need to pick something you're going to stick
with. What do you like in the way of sports? If you're
people-oriented, you should look into joining a team sports program of
some kind in your area, one created for adult participation. You can
look for a local softball league, take a beginning aerobics class at a
fitness center, or play regular games of basketball at a gym with your
buddies. And then there's golf, the perennial favorite of people who
want to perform fun and interesting mild exercise. All you have to do
is motivate yourself and perhaps some friends to get started. Or if
you're a loner, you can take up an individualized sport such as
bicycle touring, which can also be done in small groups, or laps
swimming at your community pool.

And if you like to be around a humungous amount of people, how about
mall-walking, one of the latest in adult and family mild fitness
trends, or the more traditional act of partner dancing, which you can
do at all kinds of gathering places such as local taverns, senior
centers, community halls and social clubs. There's an almost infinite
number of places you can go and groups you can join. Just pick one,
and remember to start out with a breezy, fun and easygoing attitude.
You're not punishing yourself; you're picking up on a lifelong habit
of moving your body for health purposes. You'll feel better, look
fitter and maybe meet new people while you're dropping those needless
extra pounds.

But be realistic, and work with your doctor. You want to aim for
something fun that you'll keep committing to doing regularly. If it's
something you hate, perhaps such as running on a track, climbing
stairs or using what seems to you to be boring exercise equipment,
forget it! Don't spend all your money on something you can't keep
doing because you feel guilty, or think you have to punish yourself
into exercising. Be sure you like what you're going to do before you
get started. Simply walking around the block is a very inexpensive and
potentially fun way to go from a sedentary state to a beginning new
level of much better health and fitness. You must start with something
easy and simple if you haven't been exercising for decades, and you
should gradually increase your level of activity as you feel
comfortable with it. Move by inches, not by miles.

Are you a morning or an evening person? If you're the former, plan to
work out in the morning, and if you wake up later in the day, do your
routine more near twilight. Also, as your doctor will tell you, start
with a small window of time, perhaps only fifteen minutes at first,
and slowly increase it every other day or so. In order to achieve a
higher level of fitness and to lose weight, you must perform whatever
exercise you choose at least three to four times a week. This is
better at first than every day, as a rest may be needed between
workouts to give your aching muscles a chance to soothe themselves and
heal before you bravely saunter forth again or head back merrily to
the gym.

Eventually, you can try exercising every single day, anywhere from
twenty minutes to a full hour. But especially at first-and that may be
for several months-don't push yourself too hard. Don't go all out, and
get frustrated because you can't keep it up. You don't have to be a
college athlete, and you can seriously hurt your heart by pushing too
hard or overdoing it. Remember, you're doing this for fun, for health
reasons and to feel good about yourself. Don't try to become an
"athlete" unless you think that will be something you'll want to
commit to on a much more rigorous schedule. Later!

Easy Exercise Comes - Naturally

Americans tend to think of exercise as more their duty than as a part
of their culture, or "way of life." But it's a true lifestyle
preference. Throughout the world, many forms of regular exercise are
taking hold of whole general populations. Take walking, for example.
In Europe, people are flocking to their local well-developed public
hiking trails, and there's quite a few of those spread across the USA
as well. Walking of a moderate type is called Volkssport in Europe,
and it's really been around for many centuries.

Easy-going exercise such as walking continues to stave off heart
disease, osteoporosis, high cholesterol and many types of cancer, as
well as taking care of most of your belly flab. It doesn't sound like
much, but it will really tighten your whole body up. Your legs will
especially benefit, and your buns will automatically grow firmer as
you stroll. Not to mention that the worst investment you need to make
is a pair of comfy, sturdy sensible shoes, preferably made of leather
or canvas with rubber soles.

You may think that yoga is some uncomfortable form of Eastern
self-punishment and mysticism, but it's not. Yoga is great for toning
your body, as it's extremely gentle when done correctly. It combines
traditional breathing and relaxation techniques with simple
stretching. It's good to use yoga during a weight-loss program when
you're sedentary, as it's very easy on your body, you don't have to
repeat the same exercises every day, and it requires a minimal time
commitment.

Yoga can be used in conjunction with a more rigorous exercise program
to help maintain your overall state of fitness. "Yoga doesn't take
over your life, it enhances it," says Alice Cristensen, founder and
executive director of the American Yoga Association.

Continuing Your Program - Goals and Motivation

Okay, so you've gotten started, but what does all this have to do with
watching your weight? To keep on schedule with this as your original
goal, you also have to keep that commitment to lose enough poundage to
be a healthy, happy and physically fit person.

First of all, you have to figure out exactly what you're expecting to
accomplish. Are you looking for optimal health, or do you really want
to fit into slinky clothes better? Either way, you're going to have to
set goals and try to attain them as you go. It helps to clearly keep
in mind what you're aiming for, and it helps to visualize yourself at
your ideal weight several times a day. This image impresses itself
upon your subconscious and inwardly motivates you to continue your
program with a bulldog's sheer tenacity and motivation. You want that;
whatever happens, you don't want to stress out and quit. Try looking
at old photographs of yourself at your ideal weight and picturing
realistically what you'll look like when you're back there again.
Don't expect the Fountain of Youth, but you'd be shocked how close you
can get to your mental picture, and how good you're going to feel as
you move your body, eat less liberally and become fit and not fat.

Also, you should make a brief list of the five major reasons you're
embarking on an exercise and weight-loss program. Do you want to bring
down your blood pressure? Does being fat make you feel too old? Do you
want to attract someone new in your life? When you sit in your car,
does your stomach practically turn the steering wheel? Make it a point
to carry this list with you wherever you go, and when you get in the
mood to quit and give up, whip it out and read it aloud, saying to
yourself that this is what you really want.

You must also remember to keep it simple when you're losing weight. In
most cases, burning more calories than you ingest is the biggest
concern. You have to expend approximately 3,500 calories to lose one
pound of adipose fat tissue. Water weight doesn't count, and that's
what a lot of people lose at first. Also, the important thing about
exercise is that you can eat almost normally and still lose the weight
at a healthy and reasonable pace. If you don't exercise and try to
lose weight, you'll be tempted to embark on a starvation diet. This
has been shown to make you lose lean muscle mass instead of fat in
most cases, and although you'll drop some pounds, they may be the
wrongest ones. Chances are that if you're unfit while you're losing
weight, you'll get physically tired, sleep less, become overly
emotional, and stress out and become extremely irritable. It simply
isn't healthy to do it that way, so you need at least a moderate
exercise program.

Try keeping a journal of your progress every day, and consult with it
when you want to know how far along you've come. You can also use it
to gauge how you're doing, and whether or not you're losing weight at
a reasonable pace. Congratulate yourself every time you ate the right
thing, kept to your walking schedule, or didn't give in to temptation
that day by making a brief note about it. Read the journal to inspire
you about what you're doing whenever you feel the urge to let go.

Meanwhile, as you chart your progress, take the time to reward
yourself for everything you're doing right. Ignore occasional slipups,
and don't let them bother you. Move on and motivate yourself by going
to a movie, taking a break from work, going to the beach or whatever
floats your boat. Don't reward yourself with food, ever! Find other
methods of loving life and use them. Treating yourself manifests your
brain's reward system and keeps you striving toward your goals.

Don't forget to share any successes or failures with your friends and
family. Tell them all about how proud you are of the new lifestyle
choices you're making, and share in their enthusiasm. They want you to
be healthy and go on living, and so do you. But some of them may worry
that you're starving yourself or are in a state of denial. Reassure
them, and proceed carefully with your healthy diet and exercise plans,
while always knowing that it's exactly what you need to do to look
better, feel stronger and live longer.

Easy Dieting Tips to Live By - Starting Now

• Never eat after 7 pm. Studies prove that your body's metabolism
begins to shut down in the early evening. It needed fuel to function
earlier, but at night you're getting yourself ready to fall asleep.
Eat the bulk of your daily food intake around noon-that's when you're
burning the most calories. But if you work nights, do it the other way
around, of course. It's not the time of day that's important; it's the
fact that your body is well-adjusted to a cycle where it doesn't burn
many calories before and during bedtime.

• Americans are used to eating super-sized meals, so learn to limit
your portion size. Eat smaller meals five or six times a day instead
of the standard three huge ones, and grab healthy snacks like
vegetables, fruits and yogurt in-between. You want to prevent any
binging or "pigging out" that could occur. Eat modestly, but often,
and be sure to drink plenty of healthy fluids-mostly, pure cool water.

• Limit your intake of saturated fats, sugars and any other
substances in food proven to add empty calories to your daily diet.
Don't drink any pop or sodas at all as they're very bad for you
generally, being full of chemicals. Diet sodas tempt you into drinking
the sugary ones, and all soda pop robs water from your system and
makes you thirstier. That can lead to eating more food.

• Eat lots of vegetables and fruits. You might want to go easy on
some of the higher-calorie fruits such as starchy bananas, and don't
eat lots of high-fat avocados. But in general veggies are a dieter's
best friend. You might want to always eat your veggies with some meat
protein to curb any histamines that might ravage your system and make
it harder for you to breathe. Also, eating plenty of veggies kills the
hunger signals from your brain, due to their sheer bulk and fiber. And
the nutrients in fruits and veggies will increase your physical
strength. Eat your spinach!

• Also eat lots of whole grains, which provide antioxidants that
fight cancer and help you feel satisfied in a manner similar to that
of eating veggies. But whole grains are even more filling, and help
you digest your food. You want to eat plenty of fibrous foods, plus
drinking lots of water, to flush toxins left over in your body from
the dieting completely out of your system.

• Take a healthy multivitamin. Don't go overboard and try to take
everything, because some of the substances we need interact
non-positively and can cause chemical imbalances. Consult with your
doctor and see what's recommended nowadays. One good wholistic
multivitamin and mineral supplement-not a megadose of potentially
harmful chemicals-can improve your skin, hair, overall appearance in
general, and also your chances of managing on a little bit less food.

Lastly - Remember This

Please remain consistently aware of one thing: these are radical,
life-changing choices that you're making each day and night, and
you've got to stick with them. Not everyone else in the world is going
to live this way, but many people are and it's a sensational start!
Think that you really have no choice, if you want to go on living for
many long years and be vibrant, strong and healthy. Realize that your
loved ones truly need you, and that the right thing to do is to take
the best possible care of yourself. Tell yourself that with honest
compassion, every single waking moment of your entire life.

SIDEBARS

First sidebar: Please Make Your Kids Exercise!

America's children are routinely both terribly inactive and physically
unfit, which means the USA will face ever-increasing health care
costs, reduced workplace productivity and a more restricted and
undesirable quality of life.

Nowadays, TV, computers and their accompanying video games are
replacing the physical sports and activities children used to play
that enabled them to frequently exercise. Obesity, heart disease, high
blood pressure and diabetes are becoming hideously prevalent among
today's modern kids. Fitness has become an anachronism for many of us,
and we must continuously strive to get our children moving, running
and laughing with each other before they succumb completely to
unhealthy lifestyle patterns.

Researchers have found an existing relationship between the amount of
TV watched and a child's accumulated body fat. A healthy diet and
vigorous exercise are needed as much by our nation's children as they
are by their sedentary and underactive parents. You should know
exactly what's appropriate for your child and how to instill the fun
and repetitive behaviors that create a lifetime of pleasure and good
health. And you must become a lasting, visible role model by
demonstrating these capabilities outwardly, or they won't take hold
with your child.

There are basically two types of exercise the experts want you to
consider. Aerobic exercise burns fat, and it can be very fun and
involving for all ages. It causes rapid increases in your child's
breathing and heart rates, and must be performed over at least a
twenty-minute time period. It takes that long for your child's body to
start burning its stored fat reserves. Aerobic exercise includes most
team sports such as basketball, soccer, hockey, rowing, swimming, and
running. It also includes individual sports such as bicycling,
cross-country skiing, jogging, karate, rollerblading, tennis, and fast
walking. (Continued on next page)

Second sidebar: Please Make Your Kids Exercise! (Continued)

Anaerobic exercise causes a short burst of exertion followed by a
brief rest, and tends to develop stronger muscles. It complements the
fat-burning aerobic exercise. This includes weight training and
strength training, such as that done with free weights or standing
equipment, and standard "training" exercises like pushups, crunches,
pull-ups and other such floor exercises.

Most healthy children have little trouble working out on a twenty to
thirty minutes, three to four times a week basis. But if your child is
overweight and sedentary, he or she needs to begin on a similar
schedule to that of a sedentary adult. You mustn't let your child
overdo it, either! Use the talk-sing rule. If while exercising, your
child cannot sing but can still talk, he or she is moving around at a
proper rate of pace.

Children need to imitate their parents and older siblings, and that
means you must personally take on physical activities in front of
them. Use family participation to stress the rules of active fitness,
stressing variety, freedom and joy. Avoid overly regimented and
competitive activities, and show your kids that being active is fun.
Plan outings that involve long walks, such as going to the zoo or a
national park, and encourage them to play extended outdoor games and
easygoing supervised organized sports.

Our children are the blue-ribbon prizes of a well-lived existence, and
need to be taught a lifelong appreciation of good diet and physical
fitness. How can we idly sit by and take no action when the quality
and decency of their lives is what's truly at stake?

_By: *Karen Cole Peralta*_

*About the Author:*

Executive Director and President of Rainbow Writing, Inc., Karen Cole
Peralta writes. RWI at www.bookauthorswriters.com [1] and
www.rainbowriting.com [2] is a world renowned inexpensive professional
freelance book authors, ghost writers, copy editors, proof readers,
coauthors, manuscript rewriters, graphics and CAD, publishing helpers,
and website developers international service corporation. And Four
Seasons CDROM Store sells inexpensive cds: fun arcade games, business
and e-book software and computer learning tutorials, all state of the
art, at www.cdrommarket.com [3] .

Links:
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[1] http://www.bookauthorswriters.com
[2] http://www.rainbowriting.com
[3] http://www.cdrommarket.com