A recipe for fitness success

Do not make the mistake of spending lots of money getting a membership at your local gym, when you know deep inside that it never will be practically possible to get there on a regular basis. Be realistic!

Are you looking for a complete workout without spending too much time outside your home? A complete home gym would be a great solution if you can afford it, but a used exercise bike and a set of dumbbells is everything you need to get a complete workout inside your own home. It should be possible to get everything for about $100 if you look around a bit.

The start
So how do you start? If you are a complete newbie and are not accustomed to how you should build habits you should actually start with something that is not sports oriented and build a habit around it. If I should pick for you I would start by trying to make the habit of eating an apple extra a day. This would benefit you by increasing the number of meals you eat a day, which is good.

Habit building
To make a habit you take a blank piece of paper, write down the days of the week on the top and the task "Ate my afternoon apple" on the left side and check box beside it underneath each day. To make it a strong habit you should make it a ritual by grouping it with something you do daily at that time. Lets say you have an afternoon coffee. You group the apple with the afternoon coffee and you suddenly have made a habit out of it. After eating your apple you credit yourself by ticking the check box. You have now made your first habit. Congratulations!

Goal setting
After seeing that you are able to make habits you should set a realistic goal and make a plan for what you want to achieve. With an exercise bike you should be able to shed some fat off your waist, so setting a goal of loosing an inch off your waist in one month would be a very specific and realistic goal.

Planning
So how do you want to achieve it (the plan)? For a beginner I would suggest putting the exercise bike in front of the television and making exercise habits that are connected to your favorite shows. When the show is on, you are on the bike. You are not allowed to watch the show unless you are on the bike! So you set a plan for two bouts a week, which is a good start.

Doing
Start with riding the bike for at least 20 minutes and aim for one hour. Work out at a pace that you can manage while still being able to talk to others. If you want to be more specific you could measure your heart rate and adjust the resistance/speed accordingly.

Adding tasks
You can now start with adding additional nutritional and exercise habits to your paper and tick them off when done. On top of my list for additions would be a full body dumbbell program two days a week, a total of 6-8 smaller meals a day (all containing protein) and a post workout protein+carbohydrate shake after each workout.

If you start today and follow my recipe, there is no doubt in my mind that you will succeed on reaching your fitness goals. Good luck!