Fitness is all about keeping your body in good shape by doing regular exercise to keep the main groups of muscles working.

Sound like hard work?

Well, it can be if you want to be fanatical about keeping fit, but it doesn't have to be anything like that if you are sensible about it and don't have a lot of time to dedicate to exercise regimes and time consuming visits to the local gymnasium.

This hub page, therefore is not about going at the fitness and exercise thing like a demented weight-conscious actress or model. It is more about doing some sensible low stress exercises each day to keep your body from stagnating in a heap in front of the television or computer screen!

If this sounds more like your kind of deal, read on!

Starting with light exercise is positively the way to go, especially if you've been leading a sedentary lifestyle for any length of time. You need to ease yourself back into the swing of things gradually and slowly build up to the moire strenuous stuff.

Now personally, I run every day to keep myself fit and am now a great promoter of good healthy exercise. But I've been doing this for many years and it is second nature to me. But that's not for everyone and I realize this, so I decided to write this like I was just starting out myself and how I would go about things. That much is true, because several years ago before I got into this running thing, I too was stagnating in front of the TV and getting fat and lazy! Here's how I got out of that routine.

The first thing to do is to get the idea into your head that you can do this because you want to. Not because you have to. They are two very different things.

When you have to do something, it's natural to be slightly resistant to the idea because it always seems like a chore. And be honest, who actually likes doing chores? Not me! So it's so much better to get the idea into your head that this is something that you want to do. Truly! Because when you want to do something, you are much more likely to do it!

Why did I get off my lazy butt and start to do something about my situation?

Well, I'll be honest. I didn't want to at first because I was quite happy to come home from work and then crash out on the sofa with a cold beer and watch TV. Hell, who wouldn't? But one thing did it for me and this is one thing that will definitely do it for any man (assuming he's not gay of course) and that's a beautiful woman. Well, not any beautiful woman, but one that got my attention the first time I saw her walking past while I was cleaning the car. I realized that while I was taken by her great looks, she all but ignored me - a chubby guy in scruffy clothes half soaked with water and suds!

From that moment, I wanted to look good and that's what motivated me to do something about it.

So I had a reason. You need a reason too. Maybe one will come out from behind you and bite you in the ass. Maybe it won't. If not, you have to find a reason and make sure its a good one or you likely won't stay with it.

With a reason, comes a purpose and a purpose gives you motivation. Motivation means you're gonna do what you have to do and in this case, that means getting busy with the fitness stuff

Getting started with the light exercise and gradual build up is easy enough once that motivational kick in the rear has gotten you moving! So this is one way of getting that movement started. There are many ways, of course, and you might find one that is different but does the same job. But here's my way and I hope it inspires you to either copy it or find your own way that is similar.

I started walking!

Yep, walking is good exercise especially when you haven't done zip for a long time. Even with walking you have to start slow and build up, especially if you live in a hilly district. Mine is pretty flat, so I was at a disadvantage, but it still works. I got myself two dogs and walked them to the local park every day. At first I didn't go too far, but gradually built up the distance each day. Before long, these dog walks were lasting an hour a time and I was walking faster and going further each day.

This built up over a six week period for me but everyone will have their own schedule that suits them. Don't push yourself harder than is confortable or you'll begin to find it a chore and you know what I said about chores! Keep it enjoyable and go at your own pace. Only you know what that is so find it and work with it until you are happy to be spending an hour walking at a good pace that is comfortale for you but fast enough to make you feel like your heart rate is rising and you are getting warm enough to sweat. Maybe even getting out of breath a little, but stop when it gets too much.

After doing that I decided I wanted to try running but you don't have to unless you want to and feel fit enough by this time to move up to the next level.

Running and walking are good exercise but there is a thing you need to know. An hour long walk at a good pace with a pair of excited dogs is better for you than a mad twenty minute run at breakneck speed. The walk will burn off many more calories than the run, believe it or not because of the way the body deals with its store of excess fat and how it uses its store of ready to burn energy.

The body has enough ready to burn energy to keep it going for twenty minutes before it needs to resort to converting stored fat into glucose for energy. So it doesn't matter whether you sprint around a track, swim for gold, lift weights or walk at a stiff pace, if you do it for twenty minutes only you will not begin to burn off any stored fat, so you will not lose any weight! Sure, your muscles will tone up nicely over time, but to get at that store of blubber around your midriff you need to do it for longer than twenty minutes!

As long as the exercise you are doing raises your heart rate an makes you sweat continuously for more than twenty minutes, then for every minute over that time you are burning off blubber and losing weight!

This is the secret to weight loss by the way, that diets alone will not help you with! Sure, if you starve yourself long enough you'll lose weight, buat as soon as you start eating again you'll put it all back on and some!

Exercise is not just about weight loss, but about fitness and getting your body into a good state of health. Your muscles tone up and gain mass, meaning your body continuously becomes more efficient at burning off the excess blubber! That's because more massive muscles need more energy to work, which is why body builders that have been working out for a long time have such great bodies! They can eat like a horse and burn it all off again with no problem, simply because their muscles are so well developed they need so much more fuel to keep them working!

Ok, once you have gotten past the first six weeks or so of walking, you can of course do other exercises in the meantime of you have the time, like swimming or even going to the gym for some weight training. But only if that's what you want to do. You don't have to! One point worth noting here is that if you hadn't already figured it out, all this exercise is one serious no bullshit weight loss strategy that is really a no brainer!

My next step was to start running, so I combined it with walking the dogs jn the park. I'd walk them on their leashes to the park, then let the off and start running around the paths that lead through the park. Ok, I'm lucky that I have a large open space like that to use and as I don't live in a highly populated area there are often few other people there with me. But the dogs just run alongside me anyway so there is no problem with them.

I built up the running from a couple hundred yards in the beginning to a few miles that I still do now. Nothing too crazy and I don't run too fast either, no matter who is watching! I do my own thing and that keeps me happy. When you're doing your own thing you should pretty much ignore what anyone else says or thinks.

Hey, its your fitness time, not theirs!

Its up to you how far you take this. You'll find a comfort zone that suits you and that's where you'll stay because it remains run and not a chore. As soon as anything you do begins to feel like a chore, stop doing it and so something else that you find enjoyable and you'll stick to this fitness thing and get back in shape.

You don't have to look like a stick thin model or build yourself up like Arnie Schwarzenegger, just be normal, but fit normal... not TV slob normal!

Here's to your ultimate success!