2) LET'S PREPARE.
Now take out your weekly planner and grab two little ol'spiral notebooks to use as your exercise and food journals. Starting with your weekly planner, find the time in your day that you can devote to exercise. Sundays are when I write down my weekly exercise schedule. I know I know, "But I don't have the time to exercise." Right? Well you have to make it. I get up at 5am to get my workouts in (before anyone else in the house wakes up.) This is my time and I am committed to it. I treat my workouts as though they were important business meetings that I can't miss. So find the time of day that works best for you and write it in your schedule!!! Once you've determined the right time, then you can prepare. For example, if you find after work is the best time to hit the gym, you can get in the habit of keeping your gym clothes in the car. If morning is best, keep your clothes packed and waiting by the door.

3) MOVE THAT BODY:
This month we are focusing on getting your body to move! If you are new to exercise or have been off for a while make sure you clear it with your doctor before starting any exercise program. Once you get the ok, start moving your body, working up to 30-45 minutes a day, 3-5 days a week. You can walk around the high school track, join a gym, dance or get some exercise videos and work out at home (I order all my videos used off of Amazon.com for really great prices). Do some or all of these. Because I get easily bored, I am always varying my workouts. It is important to do what is fun to do - as this is going to be something you do for the rest of your life, right? Of course, right. So learn to love feeling your body in motion. How hard should you work? The intensity of your workout depends on your fitness level but the general rule is you should be able to speak in short sentences but unable to sing. Simple, huh? Or on a scale of 1-10, with 1 feeling like a breeze and 10 like a hurricane, you want to work around a 5-6, somewhat winded but not out of control.

Oh, and here is where you'll need that exercise journal. Make sure you take it to the gym, noting down the, duration (amount of time), frequency (the days) and intensity (difficulty level) of each cardio session. You can also note what type or mode performed.

If you aren't new to exercise and haven't begun a resistance training program, you should start thinking about it. Resistance or weight training provides that added punch for more fat burning potential. Next month I will go into details about weight training and its benefits, but if you are ready I suggest the book The Body Sculpting Bible for Women. (There's a book for men, too and you can get this off of Amazon as well.) These books have routines for all levels and very easy to follow.