Before we embark on our enlightening journey about exercise, let me make one thing clear: no matter how much exercise you make, it’s also necessary for you to take on a diet or, failing that, restrict yourself to eating the proper food.

That means eating the needed amount of vitamins – and yes, you do have to include healthy food such as vegetables to your diet – and reducing the amount of cholesterol and fats in your body – again, I’m asking you another impossible thing, which means, stay away from juicy steaks and greasy fast food meals like burgers and fries. I know it tastes good but if you truly care about your health, then certainly you would do what’s right?

But enough chit chat and let’s proceed to tips and suggestions to make your exercise goals successful and achievable.

WEIGH YOURSELF – Before going on a diet or starting an exercise routine, make sure that you weigh yourself and measure every vital statistics so you’d know what’s your point of origin. That way, you’d be able to measure just how much you’ve succeeded after, say, one month’s worth of diet and exercise. Now, according to experts, it’s healthy to lose about two to three pounds a week. Anything beyond that may be hazardous to your health so don’t overdo it.

REGULATE IT – And speaking of overdoing, I hope you’re aware that exercising must be done in a gradual manner. That means, if you’ve been quite the lazy bum for the past few months, then suddenly forcing your body to undergo 100 push-ups and five miles of jogging everyday will only work to your disadvantage. That’s not, I’m sorry to say, how our body works. Regulate your exercise. Start with something easy. The moment your breathing becomes labored then perhaps it’s time to stop. Wait till the whole exercise routine becomes easy for you and then that’s when you increase the tempo or amount of exercise you’re doing.

DON’T EXPECT TOO MUCH – Expecting too much too soon would just be opposite to your exercise goals. Exercise takes time. That’s a given fact. It’s not something like undergoing cosmetic surgery to take away unwanted fats from your body. Exercise is a natural process and it does things step by step.

Before it can tone your muscles, exercise would first get rid of the fats. So don’t hope that after just one week of dedicated exercising efforts, you’ll be transformed from L-size to XS-size because that’s completely unrealistic.