Tom Petty was wrong

He said, "The waiting is the hardest part."  I have to disagree--the starting is the hardest part.  About two weeks ago, I started this process of losing a LARGE amount of weight.  Seventy pounds or so, in fact.  Now, I didn't just suddenly wake up one morning, look in the mirror and say, "Holy cow--I'm fat!"  I've seen this developing over many years, but I didn't do anything about it. Because (sorry, Tom), the starting is the hardest part.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've started.   It wasn't easy--breaking bad habits (laziness) and starting new ones (exercising) is tough.  But I've made it through two weeks.  And that's a start...

So--what am I doing so far?  I start out with 35 mins on the stationary bike, followed by 20 mins on the track.  Initially I was only able to run about 7 minutes, but I've increased that by about a minute each time, and now I'm up to 15 minutes running, and walking the last five.  Once I get to 20 minutes running, I'll increase the track time.

Two or three times a week (depending on my schedule), I end up with a workout from the Ultimate Dumbbell Guide (no jokes, please).  This is a full body workout, and it's my first experience with weights since college (and we were only passing acquaintances then).  That takes about 30 minutes. 

Now, for those of you keeping score, that's about an hour and a half of a workout.  I have the luxury of being able to carve that much time out of my schedule fairly often--you might not.  There's nothing magical  about the times--it's just what I could spare for now.  On busy days, I do less.  On quiet days, I do more.  The key is to do something, do it consistently, and if possible, do it willingly--seems like you lose weight easier when you ENJOY what you're doing.

So get out there and start!