"I hate exercising, I never see any results!"

Ahh, the all too common quote used by far too many of us.  Exercise may seem like the demon to many of us who are simply too busy to fit in that half hour of cardio between work and dinner.  And when we finally become so fed up with feeling "soft", especially after gasping for breath after walking up that short flight of stairs (embarassing!), we manage to create an amateur fitness routine for ourselves, only to hopelessly give up a week later after seeing no immediate results.  If this is the mindset you have toward exercise, you are not alone!  But it is NEVER too late to start leading a healthy lifestyle!  All it takes are a few minor tweaks in how we view life, physical activity, and feeling healthy.  Now I know what many of you are thinking--you are no longer a teenager, so your metabolism simply is not as fast as it used to be in your younger years.  While it is true that metabolism does slow down as we age, it must not be viewed as a barricade to maintaining a healthy weight.  The basic building blocks to leading a healthy lifestyle include fitness and nutrition, or shall I say nutrition and fitness (because for many of us, nutrition is equal to, if not MORE important than exercise!)  We cannot labor for hours in the gym and eat what we normally eat--large plates of pasta/fast foods/bagels (and all other foods with these simple "bad" carbohydrates.)  This entails managing what you eat, and planning your grocery lists carefully!  You must change the way you eat PERMANENTLY to lead a healthy lifestyle.  I cannot emphasize this point enough!  Sure, it's still possible to lose weight quickly by temporarily starving yourself, but in doing so, you are actually slowing down your metabolism and setting yourself up for weight gain again.  I will dedicate my next post to the metabolism, and how we can speed it up/slow it down by the nutritional choices we make.  STEP 1:  Deciding that you want to change your habits and lead a healthy lifestyle is KEY!!   You can do it without as much effort as you'd think!  Start today!