Starting an exercise routine for weight loss can be daunting. Many exercise programs expect you to put everything aside to follow some kind of physical activity for an hour, five times a week. How will you ever fit that in? How will you ever have the strength and energy to keep going that long when the most you've ever done before is a brisk walk between the sofa and the fridge?

But you don't have to start with a full-blown exercise routine. If an hour seems impossible, set aside half an hour. If that looks too much, just start with 10 minutes or even 5.

Any exercise is better than no exercise at all when it comes to weight loss!

Obviously check with your doctor before you start with any kind of exercise or weight loss program, but most people can manage to walk at a moderate pace for 5 minutes. Maybe once you're up and doing it, you'll feel like more. Maybe not. You never know until you try. Pat yourself on the back for the 5 minutes you've done.

After a few days of walking for 5 minutes, see if you can manage 10. Feeling the benefit of 5 minutes, you'll probably find that you want to do this. And let's face it most of us can find that amount of time each day to improve our health. If you truly can't fit that in, then you have real problems and not just with your weight!

Continue to add in as much time as you can. And once you've really no time to do more, increase your speed little by little. Enjoy the level you can achieve, whatever that is. Feel good about yourself again, rather than berating yourself for not being able to do an hour a day.

Exercise on your own terms. You know your body and its capabilities, your life style and what you can manage, more than any of the diet and exercise gurus out there.

Just don't use the impossibility of a full-blown exercise routine as an excuse not to bother with any at all. You owe it to yourself to do the best you can for your weight loss efforts and if that starts with 5 minutes that's great - you're on your way to a fitter, slimmer lifestyle.

Copyright 2006, Janice Elizabeth Small

Janice Elizabeth Small

"As a weight loss coach, I love helping people lose the diet mentality and get slim for life by making tiny changes to their habits. New habits are adopted, step by step and weight loss becomes automatic as a result"

What I wish for you....

* that you finally understand you don't have to starve yourself or kill yourself at the gym to be slim
* that you learn that being slim can mean eating delicious food
* that you value your health and well-being enough to take action - small steps but action nonetheless

And what I wish for me?

* that I help make the world a healthier and happier place - one person at a time - through my articles, website and ezine
* that I can teach my boys to love salad too...