Okay, let's just accept the fact that if you want to lose weight, be healthy, or both, you need to get some sort of exercise program going. This has been proven over and over again. Yes, you CAN lose some weight without exercise, but your health will not improve, and you may find you have created some new problems if all you do is alter your diet in order to lose weight. Also, trying to lose weight without changing the way you have lived your life will prove the old adage to be true:

"Keep doing what you've been doing and you will keep getting what you have been getting."

So, to set about changing what "you have been getting" out of life, at least in terms of health, fitness, and weight loss, you will need to get into some sort of exercise program.

THE PROBLEMS

There are a few problems that people encounter when they start exercising...particularly if they have not been exercising for a while or even worse, are beginning an exercise program for the first time.

1. They have trouble finding the time to exercise.

2. They have difficulty making exercise a habit

3. They are dissatisfied with the results of their exercise program.

4. They injure themselves.

SOME SOLUTIONS

1. Many people find that until exercise becomes an integral part of their life, it is difficult to "find the time" to exercise. There are two points here.

Engage In Opportunistic Exercise

This is the sort of exercise that can be factored into each day's activities. While parking a few feet farther from the store can be a great way to introduce some physical activity into your daily life, one such event once in a while will not make a great difference. On the other hand, it IS a start, and one of the hardest hurdles to overcome is actually STARTING some sort of exercise program. Putting several of these events into your week, parking farther away, taking the stairs, carrying the groceries in from the car, standing up during phone calls, or walking in place while watching TV, for example can get you started on the road to feeling better, looking better, and better health.

Make A Commitment To Exercise

There is an old saying that work will expand to take up the resources committed to it. In other words, if a business is doing perfectly well with one phone and a combination fax/copier and then gets several multi-line phones and a high-speed copier, the employees will soon find they "cannot get along" without these additions. Our lives are similar. In our example, if the boss finds a need to cut costs, the employees will soon find that they CAN function without the high-speed copier, just like they did before.

In our lives, if we make a commitment to exercise, we will be able to "make" the time available, probably by changing something in our lives, but the bottom line will be how important the exercise is to us.

2. For most of us, one of the hardest aspects of this whole exercise thing is making it a habit. If it is not a habit, we will probably start "forgetting" or "having something else to do" and the exercise will eventually fade into the background and be forgotten.