Some tips. You don't have to take them, but if you ever feel like trying it, they might be useful. This is for solo exercise. Getting a partner is sometimes good too, but because the partner can also derail you as well as motivate you, it can be hit or miss. Solo stuff is up to you.

- Exercise at a set time every day. I find that morning is easiest for me due to a few tricks. But do what works for you. Also, if it's not working, then try something else.

- Designate some cloths as "exercise" clothes (whatever exercise you decide to do). At first, it literally doesn't matter what they are. Don't go out and buy something. Just put aside some clothes that are only for exercise. Make a rule that when the set time comes to exercise that you put on your exercise clothes. If you don't feel like exercising, then at least put on the exercise clothes!

- Morning works well for me because I set out the exercise clothes the night before (which is easier because I'm not about to exercise). When I see the exercise clothes in the morning, before I wake up I put on the exercise clothes. Following random rules when I am groggy seems to be easier than when I can think up good excuses.

- Keep in mind that you will almost certainly not want to do it. Keep saying to yourself, "Well, at least do X". Don't think past X. If there is a good excuse why you can't do your exercise today, try to put it at the back of your mind and think only about "At least do X". At first, X is just "put on the exercise clothes". Even if you know you are not going to exercise, put on the clothes. It will only take 30 seconds.

- Do some warmup before your main exercise. Keep it light and easy. After you put on your exercise clothes, you might as well do the warmup. Otherwise it's a waste of time to put on the exercise clothes, right? The warmup should be relatively short -- up to 5 minutes. If I'm running, then walking for 2-3 minutes away from my house is perfect. Even if you know that you are not going to exercise, just do the warmup. It's easy. It's light. You won't get sweaty. It's less than 5 minutes. If your schedule is so tight that 5 minutes is going to make a difference, then you are going to burn yourself out anyway. Just take the 5 minutes and do a warmup. You owe it to yourself to just have that "me" time.

- If you really aren't up for it, feel free to go back home after that warmup. But even if you are ill, or hung over or busy, or whatever, put on the exercise clothes. Then just do the warmup -- it's only 2-3 minutes (max 5 minutes). However, as you are dressed and warmed up, you might as well do 1 minute of jogging (or cycling, or fast walking, or whatever). It's only 1 minute and if you are really feeling bad, you can always go home after that.

- It's important to always allow yourself that real choice. If you are really feeling bad, then go home. But are you really feeling bad? It's easy to lie to lie to yourself, but it's also easy to detect the lie. If you don't know if it is a lie, then just do the 1 minute, or whatever. It's not going to kill you. You'll find out if you really can't do it. But if you can't, then go home after that 1 minute.

- When doing aerobic exercise, breathing is really, really important. If walking or running, breathe in for 5 steps and then breathe out for 5 steps. If you have no trouble with that cadence, then speed up. When you start to have trouble, switch to 5 in, 4 out. Then 4 in 4 out. Keep working your way down to 3 in 3 out, or even 3 in 2 out. Then adjust your pace until you can maintain that.

- Getting that breathing going is actually kind of tricky. If you are walking, you may have to jog a bit to get your breath going. Then you may have to slow down to a walk to maintain that level. Or you may just have to adjust your pace, but it takes concentration.

- If you are not in good shape, it may take longer than your workout and so you won't experience it, but you body will slowly switch from burning more sugar to burning more fat. Fat is interesting in that it already binds some oxygen. Because of that, it requires less oxygen to "burn". Somewhere around when you start burning more fat than sugar, you will get your "second wind". If you are super fit, this will happen almost immediately, but if you are not it can take 20-30 minutes to get there. The first time you experience it, you will be surprised. You will go from suffering and having trouble gulping down the air to it being practically effortless to get enough oxygen.

- For the first 2 weeks, no matter what exercise you choose, it will probably feel bad. It will be hard to get your breath regulated. It will be hard to push yourself. Your body will feel bad. It will be hard to keep concentration. When it inevitably happens, just think to yourself, "Yep. That's it. That's exactly what should happen." Too many people think that aerobic exercise isn't for them because they never get past this phase and they expect to enjoy it at first. Enjoyment comes later, unfortunately. My experience has been that it usually is about 2 weeks later that you have a day where you think, "Wow. That was great. I can't wait to do it again tomorrow". Then a while later you will feel the same way again. Eventually, almost every day (unless you are ill) that's how you will feel. It will even get to the point that if you don't exercise you feel absolutely awful and you are pulling your hair out until you get get a run, or cycle or swim or whatever in.

- Your body will hurt at first. It's important to understand the difference between "good" hurt and "bad" hurt. You will get some sore muscles from doing exercise. You may think, "I'd better rest because my muscles are sore. I don't want to get an injury". However, with sore muscles (even if they are really sore), this is not necessary or desirable. After 2 weeks or so, you will never get sore again (assuming you keep doing the same kinds of exercise), no matter how much you do. However, if you get a sharp pain somewhere, then slow down, stop, and figure out why you have the pain. Take a rest and if it persists, go and see a sports medicine doctor. There are some common training injuries (illial tibial band syndrome, shin splints, etc, etc). Googling can help. Try to do a different kind of exercise until the injury heals. Don't push that kind of injury!

- Exercise 6 days a week. One day off a week is usually enough to prevent over training unless you are doing really intense stuff (which you won't be). Trying to do less is just an invitation to "I'll make up for it tomorrow". If you are training practically every single day, there are no days to be able to make up. If you miss a day, you miss a day. So, just put on the clothes. You can't afford to miss a day. Just do the warmup. If you at least do the warmup, then you might do the exercise. Just do 1 minute. If you do 1 minute, you might do the whole thing. By the time you have gone half the distance, you are committed because you have to go the other half to get home ;-) Every day is dramatically easier to maintain than every second day (the the point where if you choose to exercise every second day, I'm willing to bet that you won't continue with it long term).

- Start off with only doing exercise for about 10 minutes (so 30 seconds to get dressed, 5 minutes to warm up, 10 minutes to do your main exercise -- 15 minutes 30 seconds total ;-) ). Every week, extend that by 1 minute. Only 1 minute! After 5 months you will be exercising 30 minutes 6 days a week (3 hours of exercise a week). From there you'll be in a good position to figure out what works best for you. The 1 minute of extra per week will avoid injuries. Injuries are crap because if you get one, you have to rest and then start the whole process over again.

- Realise that it is hard to do this. Take pride when you succeed. Forgive yourself when you do not. But the most important thing to remember: Today is the best day to start over. If you lapse, start over today. Just keep starting over until it sticks. It's totally normal to lapse. It's totally normal to start over. It's totally awesome when you string 2 days in a row.