How do I start a fitness program?

A beginner's guide to successfully starting (and completing) any new fitness/exercise program...

Starting a new fitness program can be a daunting task. But remember, you're making a GREAT decision that can improve every aspect of your life. You should also remember that lots of people have successfully and dramatically lost fat, gained lean muscle, and improved their overall health....so you certainly can too. The following tips will help you get off to a good start as well as keep you from making some common beginner's mistakes.

Note: A complete physical from a doctor is recommended before beginning any sort of physical activity, or before making any drastic changes in diet.

1. Start slowly. Don't make the mistake millions of new exercisers make: doing too much too soon. Too much of anything will make you sick of it fast. Eventually you'll learn to love exercising and eating healthy foods but, when you're first starting out, you need to "ease" into it. Don't try to become a fitness model in one week!

2. Get your mind right. At least twice a day, take 5 minutes to visualize what you want to accomplish. See yourself with the body you want, doing the fun things you want to do, enjoying the company of the people you want to be with. Visualization is an incredibly effective, proven technique for programming your brain to do what it needs to do to be successful.

3. Know what's ahead. Realize that there are several key steps to beginning a new fitness program. These are the mental stages most people progress through before being successful. They include: not wanting to exercise --> thinking about it --> getting ready for it --> starting it --> enjoying it and doing it almost daily. Prepare yourself for each stage and you'll be better able to deal with any problems or doubts that arise.

4. Keep it simple. It's very difficult to go from being undisciplined in terms of diet and exercise to following a highly detailed eating plan and exercise routine (like the kind you find in most fitness magazines). Not that these plans won't work. It's just that, by keeping it simple when you start out, you'll be less likely to feel overwhelmed and quit after a couple of weeks.

5. Get moving. Start off with walking, slow jogging or cycling and some light weight workouts. If you belong to a gym you might want to try a beginner's exercise class. Just choose something you enjoy and don't do more than 20 or 30 minutes of exercise 3 or 4 times per week. After 2 or 3 weeks you can begin to gradually increase the intensity, duration, and frequency of your workouts but don't "jump ahead" too much or you'll regret it!

6. Clean up your diet. In reality, diet is about 70% of the equation when it comes to losing weight, gaining muscle, or just getting all-around fitter and healthier. Don't sabotage your efforts by exercising and then putting a bunch of junk in your body. Clean up your diet by cutting out as much junk food, fried food, sugar, white flour, and artificial ingredients as possible. Eat plenty of healthy whole foods - lean proteins, whole grains, legumes, and "good" fats. Also get in the habit of drinking about a gallon of pure water everyday. This step alone will make all the difference in the world in terms of how you feel and how successful you are with your new fitness program.

7. Get help. A personal trainer can make a HUGE difference in terms of showing you what to do and getting you on the right path. They're also great motivators. Most gyms have at least a couple trainers on hand to create a simple workout and diet program for you. You can also usually find them in your local yellow pages. If you really want to "do it right" get yourself a personal trainer and get going!

Well that's it. The basic steps to starting a new fitness/exercise program. Remember -- start slowly, visualize success, keep it simple, and learn to enjoy moving and using your body. Most people can see significant, visible results within just a few weeks of starting a new program. Stick with it until then and you'll (hopefully) get into the positive-reinforcement cycle where you see results, get more motivated to keep going, see even better results, get even more motivated, and so on. Good luck!

Note: Be sure to read Fat Loss for Beginners as well as Top 10 Fitness Mistakes