Chapter One: The Easy Fitness Approach

1. Stop Worrying

Although it really is easy, none of it will work if you don’t do it. While the pleasure of this type of exercise provides its own motivation, other forces in your life unrelated to exercise can be powerful de-motivating factors that can still prevent you from enjoying the benefits of a healthy active lifestyle.

It’s not just physical.

One of the major reasons people stop working out and fail to start up again is that, due to common everyday problems and struggles in their life, they fall into the habit of worrying themselves into a state of depression.

Worrying is a huge waste of both time and energy.

The first step to fighting worry is to make yourself feel better physically.

Stop dieting, eat your favorite foods, get more rest, pamper yourself, and do little things you enjoy even if you “don’t have the time” and “can’t afford them”. Time spent wisely and money saved carefully are useless if you don’t make your first priority taking care of you.

The second step is to put your worries in perspective.

They are not so big, compared to the universe. They are not so important, compared to you. You are priceless. They are temporary. Don’t let them ruin your life minute by minute. Life is full of frustrations and problems. The only people on earth who have no problems are the ones who are six feet under. Don’t wait for some worry-free day in the future that will never come. Be happy right now despite your worries. You deserve to be. The next time you catch yourself worrying, try saying “So what about that? So what? I can still have a good relaxing pleasurable light workout today, and I’m going to.”

The third step, once you get yourself feeling better physically and slap your worries down to their proper size mentally, is to tackle the problems behind the worries.

Most importantly, change your actions. Stop doing things that have caused you trouble. Get away from situations that are hurting you. If you keep doing things the same way, you will get the same results, no matter how hard you keep trying. In fact, the more time, energy and money you put into the same approaches, the more trouble you will bring on yourself. So try a different approach, or just stop trying for a while. That’s OK, too. Everyone deserves a break. It doesn’t mean you won’t try again sometime in the future.

Despite your efforts to change, some problems might be with you a long time. Still, it makes no sense to worry about tomorrow no matter what your current situation, because life is funny and things could change literally overnight. Even if you don’t win the lotto, who knows what other good fortune might suddenly come your way? When it happens, you don’t want to feel foolish for having wasted all that time worrying for nothing!

Of course, no matter how bad things are already, they could also get worse. If that happens, you might not be able to enjoy some of the things that you can now, no matter how small they are. So don’t waste a second worrying. Enjoy what you have. You are entitled to that.

Finally, don’t try to do it all alone. Ask for help. Many other people (often older!) have been through similar situations before (although never exactly the same). Talk to them. Learn from their mistakes and take advantage of their experience. They might be able to help.