How To Get into Shape When You're Really, Really out of Shape.

Every exercise plan begins with a single step. If you are extremely out of shape, focus on short-term goals so that you do not feel overwhelmed. The simplest way to begin a fitness plan is to incorporate walking into your daily life. Set small goals such as parking further from where you work or taking an evening stroll around the neighborhood with family. Use a pedometer to measure the number of steps you walk. After a week, divide the total number of steps by the number of days you walked to get your average number of steps per workout. (You might want to sign up with this guy) Spend the next week slowly adding to your number of steps so that the week totals another 1,000 steps. Your long-term goal should be to walk 10,000 steps per day.

** Note from Marco ** Exercise is work. It elevates your heart rate, makes you somewhat breathless, and causes your muscles to burn. It's tiring—sometimes exhausting. Yes, exercise does get easier with time, but it will never be "easy." If it were easy, it wouldn’t be exercise and everyone would be doin' it. You see, beyond just getting your body moving (which is great but will only get you so far), exercise has to challenge you. You have to work past your comfort zone in order to train your heart, lungs, and muscles to get stronger and fitter. Over time, yes it will become easier to walk at the 3 mph pace you started, but once that becomes easy, it's time to walk faster, which brings me to another cold, hard truth: You have to work harder as you get fitter. Think of it exercise as a challenge to continuously improve on what you just accomplished. Remember, it's the start that stops most people. 

Sounds easy right? Read on..

New Year's Resolutions? Why not start NOW!

Hey! It's Marco! It takes 21 to 28 days to create a good habit! So how many of you make New Year's resolutions? Do you keep them or do you fizzle out by the end of January? Well, if you get started now, you'll have much more success than if you wait to start on day one of the new year. Don't believe me? Give it a shot! But you've got write them down and place them somewhere you'll see them daily! Put them everywhere! Carry them in your wallet or in your purse! And don't make the mistake of calling them goals. Call them promises! Promises that you make to yourself? Want to shed some fat? Start now! Want to make more money? Start now! Want to have a better relationship with your significant other? Start now! It's the start that stops most people! Find your why and then find your how! Knock out the little promises first with baby steps. Then move on to the next promise! Wow! This is so simple, I bet even I can do it! Oh, but wait...will you have obstacles? Of course. Challenges? Absolutely! Will you want to quit? You know it! Will you? Not in this lifetime! Put your body in motion and the emotion will follow! So write out your promises and get started today!
My good friend, John Chancellor says " I want to share with you some tips on how to bring about sustainable change in your life. There are five requirements before you can make and keep your New  Year's resolutions." Here they are!

1. You must truly want to change.
2. The perceived benefits of change must outweigh the cost of changing.
3. You must believe that you are capable of change.
4. You must arrange your environment to assist your change.
5. You must make the change a ritual or habit.

"Also, make sure your resolution is yours and is based on a strong desire to change! Otherwise, there's no point in making it at all." Thank you John! (www.teachthesoul.com)

Remember, whatever you want in life you can have, but know this: There are millions of people out there that want exactly what you want and they've been working at it for alot longer than you have! Think you can compete? You can...if you get started now! I know you can...but will you? Be well! Stay healthy and remember, don't count the days, make the days count!
Peace and love everyone!