My Six-Step List of How to Start Exercising

March 29th, 2010 by Amy Gonsalves Leave a reply »

Today started the annual “Spring Into Fitness Week” at bootcamp. It’s a free week designed to get more people involved in the program. Fun stuff.

As I watched a new mother/daughter team working out together, I asked whose idea it was to attend—the mother’s or the daughter’s. The daughter grinned sheepishly and said her mom turned 60 in December and the daughter thought it would be a good idea for them both to get involved in regular physical activity. I couldn’t agree more.
That is one of the greatest things about striving for fitness: you can start anytime. You can always do more, or do it differently, and reap results. Yes, your body will respond the best and your rate of metabolism will increase with regular, intense, and varied exercise. But even if you can’t commit to six days a week of exercise, you can still make small changes and see improvements in such a short time, it’s always worth an effort to get out and move.

So, here it is: my Six-Step List of How to Start Exercising. (I made it six steps just to use two hands when I say it aloud, but you can probably shorten it for yourself if you need to. It’s not complicated.)
1. Start.
2. Move.
3. Relax.
4. Keep Moving.
5. Have Fun.
6. Rest.

Don’t worry about how old you are, or what you did in high school, or what your neighbor does, or what your spouse thinks. If you live with diabetes, know what your blood glucose is before you start exercising, feel free to stop and check in the middle of your exercising, and check again at the end. Have glucose with you. Experiment with your activities and find out what works for you.

Again, your new plan for starting to exercise at whatever age or life situation you are in depends on a very, very few things: Start. Move. Relax. Keep Moving. Have Fun. Rest.
Get out there, and do it!  You will feel so proud of yourself and so happy that you started exercising, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start before.

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