How can I get myself to exercise?

Answer:  Put on your exercise clothes!

This is what Atul Gawande, author of The Checklist Manifesto, suggests.

Watch the  video from 1′ 26 “:

How can I get my exercise and weight-loss program to work for me?

Answer:  Be happy.

Being happy while eating healthily and exercising has lots of advantages. Watch this 2-minute video to find out how:

Intro from the video:

We all know that weight loss is not only a physical journey, but a psychological one as well. A positive attitude can do wonders for your mind and your body as you work to shed pounds and get fit. Learn how happiness can help with weight loss and lead you toward more mindful living.

How can I motivate myself to exercise enough to stay healthy?

 

Answer:
(1) Put on a pedometer every morning,
(2) set a goal to walk 10,000 steps a day, and
(3) join an 10,000-steps-a-day Internet support forum

An excellent 10,000-steps-a-day Internet support forum is  www.10000steps.org.au

10,000 steps is an active Australian forum with over 150,000 members who have walked a grand total of 85 billion steps.

From the website’s home page:

Welcome to the 10,000 Steps website where you can access your FREE & FUN features!

10,000 Steps is a free health promotion program that encourages the use of step-counting pedometers to monitor your daily physical activity levels.

  • WORKPLACES – access interactive online features to create virtual team challenges
  • access our Library for general health and physical activity information
  • have your own personal interactive Step Log
  • access physical activity resources to promote physical activity in your workplace or community
  • share your story and view our online discussions to communicate with other members

 

Martin Seligman, pioneer of the Positive Psychology movement and author of the books Authentic Happiness and Flourish,  describes how his Internet support forum helped him walk five million steps in one year:

The surgeon general’s 2008 report enshrines the need for adults to do the equivalent of walking 10,000 steps per day.  (The real danger point is fewer than 5000 steps a day, and if this describes you, I want to emphasise that the findings that you are at undue risk  for death are–there is no other word for it–compelling.)   To take the equivalent of 10,000 steps a day can be done by swimming, running, dancing, weight lifting; even yoga and a host of other ways of moving vigorously.

What we need to discover now are new ways to get more people off the couch.  I’m not waiting for new techniques, however.  I found one that really works for me.  The day after Ray’s talk [Ray Fowler, one-time president and CEO of the American Psychological Association and now a 79-year-old marathoner],  not only did I buy a pedometer, but I began–for the first time in my life–to walk.  And walk.  (I gave up swimming, having swum two-thirds of a mile a day for twenty years and failing to find any technique that kept me from being bored out of my skill.) 

I formed an Internet group of  pedometrized walkers…We report to  each other every night exactly how many steps we walked that day. The day feels like a failure under 10,000.  When I  find myself before bedtime at only 9,000 steps, I go out and walk around the block before reporting in.  We reinforce one another for exceptional walking:  Margaret Roberts just reported 27,692 steps and I sent her a “Wow! ”  We give each other advice  about exercise; my left ankle hurt at two weeks, and my fellows told me, correctly, that my sneakers–with their new, expensive insoles–had become too tight.  “Buy an airdesk [www.airdesks.com],” Caroline Adams Miller advised me.  “That way you can play bridge online and walk on the treadmill at the same time.”  We have become friends, bonded by this common interest.  I believe such Internet groups are one new technique that will save lives.    

 I made a New Year’s resolution for 2009: to take 5 million steps, 13,700 per day on average. On December 30, 2009, I crossed the 5 million mark, and got “Wow!” and “What a role model!” from my Internet friends.  (from Flourish by Martin Seligman, page 219)