I don't have a long history of steady exercise, but I think I am making progress. Two of the obstacles were: (1) Tedium. For my heart, I thought I had to run.

I don't have a long history of steady exercise, but I think I am making progress. Two of the obstacles were: (1) Tedium. For my heart, I thought I had to run. For the other muscles, I thought I really should be doing 30 different exercises, split across three days, every week. Otherwise my body would become imbalanced from training some muscles and missing others. Some people enjoy this sort of thing. But for me it is mindnumbingly boring, and on top of that, physically uncomfortable. Boredom is one thing, and pain is one thing, but this kind of thing is boring and painful at the same time. (2) Threshold. Once in a blue moon, I would feel motivated to exercise that much, but most days of the week, I didn't. Those days, I might have been willing to go for a short walk or do one or two exercises. But I thought, such a small amount of exercise isn't much better than nothing at all. Plus I'll have to shower. If instead I spend the next 30 minutes working, running some errand, or even just unwinding, that will make a difference. Therefore I will do one of those things instead of lightly exercising. So the two things that are maybe helping me overcome those obstacles are: (1) Exercise programs like the StrongLifts 5x5 (which is not 25 different exercises). It is "the Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, Overhead Press and Barbell Row. You do three of these exercises each workout, three times a week, for about 45 minutes per workout. You Squat every workout, three times a week" (http://stronglifts.com/5x5/ http://stronglifts.com/5x5/). I haven't dived fully into the program, but the prospect of a few "compound exercises" is enticing, especially if they each develop several muscles at a time, so that with just these I will work out my whole body. This is a time-tested program, recommended by many people, and invented by the guy who trained Arnold Swarzenegger. (2) Finding out that walking is good enough. Even the gym rats say that the best way to lose weight is walking, especially before breakfast. Okay, I sort of enjoy walking (sometimes). So if I feel like walking, I will! I have, and it is sort of addicting. Unlike running, which makes me never want to do it again (the same goes for all other intense activities that certain people consider fun, like swimming, HIT, surfing, rock-climbing, soccer, football, and so on.)