Fit Or Fat: Nutrition and Exercise

10 Steps For Getting Started With Exercise

Posting Date: 03/12/2001

Hooray! Americans are getting the message that exercise and getting fit is important to their health. A recent survey by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 53.8 percent of American adults reported being overweight BUT that half of them were doing trying to do something about it. Most of those trying to lose weight - 62.7 percent - are doing some form of exercise. This is great news!

If you are among the group who is out there getting yourself fit, you deserve a pat on the back. Now, if you've gotten started, but still need a few pointers, read on. We'll give you the top 10 tips for getting started.

1. If you can?t do it right, do it often. People sometimes get too hung up on rules. They overlook the fact that a whole lot of "not quite aerobic" exercise can be just as good as a moderate amount of true aerobic exercise. For example, tennis is generally considered non-aerobic. But if you play tennis for two hours, you definitely are getting aerobic benefits. Just try to combine this with some true aerobic exercise during the rest of the week.

2. Don?t exercise with a fit friend. First of all, it? hard for either of you to get much out of it besides a social hour. It?s too hard for you and too easy for the fit friend. In addition, sometimes with the best intentions, fit friends push us too fast, too often, or too hard because it?s so easy for them. We end up getting injured while they think the exercise was nothing.

3. Start so slowly that people make fun of you. I deliberately said that in a peculiar way so that you?d pay attention. In the last 15 years we?ve learned a lot about the benefits of exercising more slowly than what we used to recommend. It needs to be emphasized over and over: gentle exercise pays off!

4. Exercise as often as possible. Lots of books claim that we need to exercise for a half hour three times per week. I tell beginners to exercise six times a week for 15 minutes. But all this advice is just more cumbersome rules. In the end, the rule should be to get out there and exercise as much as you possibly can. I?m in favor of lots of exercise.

5. Don?t even think about distance. It doesn?t matter how fast you go. What matters is how many minutes a day you spend trying to change your body into a fit body. Exercise for time not for distance. Somebody once remarked that we ought to match exercise minutes with the number of minutes we eat. Just think how many minutes a day you spend shoveling food into your mouth. If you were to match even half of those minutes doing exercise, you would probably be fitter than a fox.

6. Cold weather is not an excuse. It?s funny how we complain about going out to run in the cold, but we don?t even think about dashing up to the mountains to ski in freezing weather. Cold weather won?t hurt you. Get some good breathable and warm clothes and head on out. Or find some indoor exercise options. Don?t use cold weather as an excuse.

7. Rain is not an excuse either. I live in Portland, Oregon, and let me tell you, it rains so much here that people have webs between their toes. Yet more people run in Portland than in practically any other city in the country. Running in the rain is fun. Go out and get wet and come back and jump in the shower. It?s a wonderful experience.

8. Find a sport or make one. Getting involved in a sport is a terrific way to get in shape. The team atmosphere is very supportive and the activity is fun so you want to do it. It?s never too late to try out a new sport. Even individual sports are great exercise and motivation. Bicycling is a wonderful example. You plan to go for a 15-minute bike ride and you are having such a good time it turns into an hour ride. That wouldn?t happen on a stationary bike.

9. Forget about calories. People ask, "How many calories will I burn doing this or that." Stop thinking about calories burned during the exercise. The reason we exercise is to change our body?s chemistry, not to burn a lot of calories.

10. Skipping a day of exercise does not make you useless, lazy and hopeless! We all get lazy and skip a day. In fact, lots of us take a week off now and then. If you don?t exercise for a day, don?t feel bad about it. Just get back to it when you can, knowing that everyone has an off day. In fact, a day off now and then is good for you as long as you don?t let those days off turn in to weeks off.

Adapted from The New Fit or Fat by Covert Bailey. Copyright 1977, 1978, 1991 by Covert Bailey, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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