Many people really don’t dance that much these days. This is probably especially true after getting married and having a family, just due to the sheer lack of free time.

Because of this many people feel very clumsy when they dance. So why do dance aerobics?

One of the simplest advantages is that many people find it fun. The music adds interest to an activity that might otherwise bore you. And moving to a rhythm encourages you to keep up with the group, to keep trying. It also just feels good.

As with any other aerobic exercise, dance aerobics is good for your metabolism. It gets your heart rate up and works your muscles. Some steps help with your balance.

As with any workout, your clothes should be comfortable and your shoes suited to the activity. It’s always important to correctly support your feet during physical activity. In addition to being comfortable, your clothes should help to wick away sweat.

There are different levels of classes you can take at your local gym. Talk to the trainers and figure out which one is best for you. You don’t want to take a class that will push you so hard that quitting makes more sense than continuing to try. A good trainer will be able to help you figure out which class you would like to take. And if the class doesn’t suit your style, consider trying a different one. Just don’t give up on the workout as a whole.

The other challenge is getting over your self consciousness. When you don’t know the steps, it’s easy to feel embarrassed and clumsy. It can help, however, to remember that everyone else started out not knowing the steps, and that most of your classmates are solely interested in their own workout.

Take your time in figuring out what works best for you. Some people need to listen to the instructor to figure out what to do. Others do fine just watching the steps. But especially as you’re learning, don’t demand of yourself the intensity your instructor may perform. They know you will be working out at your level, and you can work up to the full intensity over time.

A good dance aerobics class may be one of the most “fun” things you do at a gym if it’s a good match for you. Enjoying your workout is one of the best ways to get yourself to keep going back.

How do you pick the right gym? There are several factors to consider.

1. Are you comfortable there?

If you’re just getting started, will it make you too self conscious to go to a gym where it seems like everyone has been working out heavily for years and years? The right atmosphere makes it much easier to go to a particular gym.

Some gyms are set up just for women, such as Curves. Some have rules against grunting as you work out. There are many factors to consider.

2. The right cost.

Many people have to think budget when they pick a gym. If you need low cost, I understand the YMCA has great prices. But if you want a different gym and cost doesn’t matter so much, pick one based on other criteria.

3. Your level of commitment.

If you aren’t committed to going to the gym, don’t bother joining one. Many people keep paying and paying for no benefit because they never go.

You may be able to increase your level of commitment by finding a buddy to workout with. Join the same gym or even different gyms if you’re just going to compare stats, and really push yourself to make it work.

4. Distance.

If you have to drive too far, will you really go? This is related to your commitment level, but the a long drive can mess with even the most committed.

5. The contract.

Read the contract carefully. If things don’t work out, some gyms have contracts that are utterly miserable to get out of.

Some gyms also have different levels of access, depending on your contract. You may be able to visit other locations, which is very useful on vacation. You may have access to childcare. Make sure the contract offers the features that you will value most.

There’s no one right answer for which gym you will be comfortable at. As you consider gyms, think about what it is you want from them. Take a tour and see if they have a trial period before you have to sign a contract. There’s nothing like experience to tell you if the gym is the one you want.

This is one of those things many people argue about. Some insist you can’t, and rely heavily on BMI as an indicator. But from what I understand of it, the BMI is really not an indicator of health or fitness.

I’ve long felt that one can be both fit and fat. I’m not a medical or fitness professional, just someone with a lot of opinions on the matter, but there it is.

You can see an indication of that in this abstract in JAMA. Fitness was the best mortality predictor, not weight.

That really doesn’t surprise me.

I’m not fat, except maybe by Hollywood standards. 5 foot 7 inches, 140 pounds. A BMI calculator puts me at 21.9, or midrange normal. But my sisters would generally fall into the overweight or obese sections of the BMI chart. But I think at least 2 of them are more fit than I am. It’s not that I’m in that poor of shape; it’s just that I suspect they’re in better shape.

To me this is something you should think about, especially if your New Year’s Resolution is to lose weight. A better resolution, perhaps, is to simply get more fit.

This is hard to deal with, especially when you go out into the real world, and all they see is fat. My sisters and I have had frank talks about this very topic. Back when we were all single, I had the advantage of being the thin one. But none of us were that worried about weight. We were having too much fun.

As you work towards your fitness goals, do your best to remember that fitness goals are in many ways better for you than weight goals. It’s not an easy change to make, but it could help you make more achievable goals.

Getting fit is one of the classic New Year’s Resolutions. It seems like people are always saying they want to get fit right now. Why is that?

Honestly, this is one of those things you should work on whenever you realize you need to get fit. But at the New Year is as good a time as any, and may even be the best time to get a workout buddy, since other people you know may well be making the same resolution.

But if now is not the time that you will stick to your goal of getting fit, don’t commit yourself to it. Find the right time to set up a workout schedule.

When it’s wrong

This is the wrong time if you’re stressed out from the holidays and have no idea how you’re going to go about getting fit. It takes a plan. It takes commitment. If you don’t have those, you’re probably only going to frustrate yourself.

If you know you have too many excuses for why you can’t so much as take a regular walk around the block for fitness, never mind working out, you probably aren’t ready to get fit yet.

If feeling like you’re so out of shape that you won’t fit in at the gym, decide if that is too much of an obstacle to join a gym, then figure out an alternative. This can be an obstacle, but you don’t have to let it be one.

When it’s right

Getting fit is the right decision most of the time, however. It doesn’t take money if you don’t want it to, so even finances should not be an excuse. Anyone should be able to find a safe place to take a regular walk, even if it’s just around the block at home, around the office you work at, or the mall. They’re all free, so you just need to pick the one that meets your needs.

You can also do basic exercises indoors at home with no equipment at all. Crunches, dancing randomly to music, anything you can do to get in motion.

If you can afford some basic home gym equipment or a gym membership, so much the better. This can often be one of the easy ways to get a workout buddy. Find someone who wants to join the same gym and plan at least a couple nights, mornings or whenever it works a week to workout together at the gym.

Many people find a workout buddy to be a great motivator. If you can’t work out a schedule to work out together, just try comparing how often and how long you work out. That can also be enough to give you that extra nudge to keep going.

But the most important thing to remember is simply that you don’t need to give up just because right now is not the time for you. Get started when you can make the commitment, then plan out what it will take to keep going. Having goals can make it a lot easier.

Being too busy to work out is one of the most common reasons why people don’t exercise. Just about everyone uses it at some point. But even if you don’t have the time to break for even 15 minutes to take a walk you can sneak in a little bit of exercise.

Think about times you just stand around… brushing your teeth, cooking, that sort of thing. Leg lifts or walking in place can get you moving just a little bit more. It’s not a lot of exercise but it is something.

Put a little more effort into housecleaning. This in itself is fair exercise. Do a bit more of it and work harder at it.

Work out whenever you watch television. It may be a leisure activity, but it doesn’t have to be so sedentary. I like using a Gazelle while watching television, doing crunches, leg lifts, whatever. An exercise ball can be nice too. Fitness balls are also nice. The exercise shouldn’t be anything that makes it too hard to watch your show, or you probably won’t keep up with it. Then again, there are always commercials!

Working out at the computer is harder. This is one of the hardest areas to work out, and it may not be possible to do much about that. You can move your legs, but generally not much and not terribly effectively.

When you shop, park further out. The added walk really won’t be all that bad, and it’s generally much easier to find a spot.

Stealth exercise isn’t generally enough to get you fit, but it’s better than not trying at all.

Fitness gifts can be a good choice… PROVIDED the person will not be offended. If you are shopping for someone sensitive about their weight, it might be better to get something else. But if they’ve been commenting on how much they want to get fit, and seem sincere, not the type to take offense that you noticed, fitness gifts can be extremely welcome.

Most budgets won’t allow for anything fancy, such as a treadmill. However, there are a lot of things you can buy that will help with working out at home and not be expensive.

Fitness Balls

As a parent, I love my exercise ball. Not only can I work out on it, my kids love playing with it too. I just have to be careful that they don’t abuse it too much.

Yoga Gear

Yoga is a wonderful form of exercise and relaxation. Most people will enjoy both. Much of the gear is quite affordable.

There are a lot of options when you want to help someone with their home gym that are extremely affordable. For the person in your life who is genuinely interested in improving their fitness, it can be a great gift choice.

Having a perfect figure is the goal for many. I know that I’d love to get my middle under control once again, but that has been my challenge since having two children, one by C-section, I’ve had to struggle with a touch of extra weight and slack stomach muscles.

It’s hard. These used to be the areas that just came naturally to me. I drove people nuts that way.

But now it’s much harder, and I know it.

I’m still pretty fortunate, since my weight is just in the higher part of the healthy range. I work harder than I used to have to in order to keep it that way.

Being honest with myself about these physical changes has been a challenge. It’s easy to see it as worse than it is or better than it is. An honest self assessment is challenging.

So how do I go about it? How should you go about it?

The first thing is to know where you are in terms of where you want to be or where you feel you ought to be. I don’t own a scale, but I do check my weight occasionally at my inlaws’ house. It keeps me lightly aware of where I’m at without obsessing over it. It works for me. It doesn’t work for everyone.

If weight is your concern, know where you are compared to what’s considered healthy. If you’re just a little higher than you want to be, and still in the healthy range, things aren’t that bad. If you’re far from where you would like to be, you should be aware of that too.

If overall fitness is your goal, you need to be honest about that too. Plan out how you’re going to reach your goals. Work toward them. When life gets in the way, admit it and allow yourself to get back on track.

Being honest with yourself about what you are and are not achieving will help you to succeed, but it’s not easy. It takes practice. It takes a degree of honesty about yourself that is not always easy to achieve. But it’s also something that will help you to reach your goals.

One of the biggest blocks to getting fit is the mental block. If your mind just isn’t cooperating with your goals, you aren’t going to get anywhere.

You know you’re not in the right frame of mind when you allow too many excuses to keep you from exercising. If you always come up with reasons why you can’t get to the gym, take a walk, take the stairs or whatever else you’re doing to improve your level of fitness, it’s time to figure out why you are doing this to yourself.

Start out by looking at your fitness goals. You do have fitness goals, don’t you?

If not, come up with some. Keep them realistic and allow for improvement over time. Depending on what you think will motivate you the most, you can base your goals on time spent exercising, goals for specific exercises, weight loss and so forth. You decide what will keep you going.

If you do have goals, why aren’t you reaching for them? Did you set them too high? Too low? Too vague? Rethink your plans and figure out what you can do so that you really want to achieve them.

Now think about where you work out.

If it’s at the gym, why aren’t you going? Is a gym membership really the best thing for you? Can you make it easier to get yourself there? Would finding a friend or partner to meet there help?

If you work out at home, what’s keeping you from doing it? Are there too many distractions? Not enough distractions when you work out? A television or radio where you work out can be a very good thing if it encourages you to use your equipment.

Or maybe you haven’t bought any equipment yet. While a home gym isn’t an absolute necessity, and many exercises can be done without equipment, it does make exercising easier. If budget is the problem, take a look at the possible solutions.

You can check garage sales for the things you want. Freecycle (a website where people offer things for free). eBay. You have loads of options that can help you find used home gym equipment in very good condition, and that can save you quite a bit of money over buying new.

Consider hiring a coach or personal trainer to at least get yourself started on a good routine. A professional can help you find ways to reach your goals and really motivate you to reach for it.

Despite all the excuses that are so easy to make, it is very realistic to plan to get fit in your spare time. It’s just a matter of figuring out what will motivate you to keep working at it. Nothing good will happen otherwise.

For many people, trying to lose weight is quite simply a miserable experience. Conflicting advice, weight loss pills, tough exercise regimes, deprivation of your favorite foods… it’s just not fun.

Worse yet is how often it’s not sufficiently effective. All that work and too often the goals still appear unattainable.

But no matter how much weight you want to lose, there are a couple things that are very important to keep in mind.

1. Exercise.
   If you aren’t exercising, you aren’t increasing the number of calories your body is burning, and it becomes much harder to lose weight. Make sure you include at least 20 minutes three times per week of aerobic exercise to most improve your overall fitness. Find something you enjoy doing to make this a bit easier.
2. Eat more healthy foods.
   Low carb, glycemic index, whatever rules you want to go by, the most important is to include a lot of healthy foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. If you work at finding recipes you really enjoy this will become an easier lifestyle change to maintain, making it easier to maintain your weight loss for the long run.
3. Eat less.
   No matter the diet, there’s a part of it that comes down to calories. Eat too many calories of any type and you’ll gain weight. If you need to snack to get through the day comfortably, find healthy alternatives to your old snacks that won’t add so many calories to your daily total. It doesn’t have to be rice cakes and celery; it can be what tastes good to you and keep you from thinking on less healthy and higher calorie alternatives.
4. Don’t get in your own way.
   Sometimes you will get frustrated. But giving up because things aren’t going so smoothly as you like won’t help matters any. If you slip up, start right back up again. If the scale isn’t showing the changes you’d like to see, remind yourself that it all takes time.

Within these basic parameters you can find plenty of ways to drop unwanted weight in a way that is comfortable for you. If one way is too stressful or leaves you feeling too deprived, try another way. There are plenty of alternatives out there; no point sticking with one you hate.

I meant to blog this the other day. I really did. But then the California fires started, including some near enough to my home that I had to evacuate. Kind of put a kink in a lot of my plans.

There was a story on Reuters about how obesity is primarily a result of modern life. Sad as that makes me, it also makes sense. High calorie foods are very easily available now, so people tend to stock up too much and eat too much. After all, you used to have to eat whenever possible to get by.

Add that to more and more sedentary lifestyles and of course people are going to be having weight problems.

But that doesn’t mean you have to sit and take it. It just means you have to think more about what you eat and how sedentary you are in order to fight it.

From the article:

Tackling obesity, like tackling climate change, requires a range of changes in society, from increasing everyday activity through the design of the built environment and transport systems to shifting the drivers of the food chain and consumer purchasing patterns to favor healthier options.

That sums it up pretty well. Most people don’t mean to get overweight or obese. It happens because they do what comes naturally. To cut down on obesity rates is going to take very specific efforts that will make it easier to be healthy than unhealthy.