Every day, as part of my morning routine. Making it routine is key. When I'm done, I'm "in a good way" tired and my mind is sharper. A little over a year ago,

Every day, as part of my morning routine. Making it routine is key. When I'm done, I'm "in a good way" tired and my mind is sharper. A little over a year ago, I started stretching every morning, slowly and gently, as part of my shower routine (shave, shower, stretch sort of thing). A few months ago, I integrated strength exercises. I started with squats, just squats. After less than a month, the nascent roundness had left my face, my pants were less snug around my thighs, the overall layer of bacon wrapping was dropping away; I still have a little belly, but I'm 48 - a friend of the same age runs marathons and has a slight paunch. After a bit, I started doing push-ups, chin-ups, etc., a little bit here and there. GAH! It was hard. Now a complete routine, done once-a-weekish, is 3 rounds of PCLPDS: Pull-ups (wide; x10), Crunches (x20), Lunges (x20), Push-ups (narrow, x10), Deadlifts (x20), Squats (x20). Most days I'll work intensely where I feel I need to (I've developed pretty good body awareness over the last 15 years, so I pay attention to it). The last couple of days has been arms and chest; this morning was 20 wide push-ups and 10 wide pull-ups, moderately quickly, 10 normal push-ups and 8 "normal" chin-ups, both more slowly, then a break (trimmed my nails, shaved), then another round of 20, 8, 10, and 7, respectively. Tomorrow will probably be 2-3 rounds of squats, deadlifts, and lunges, with some crunches at the end, and a break the next day. Make it routine. It's amazing the effect exercise has if you stick to it. It took very little time to drop from 190 to 180, and now I'm slowly over 190 again, heavier than I've ever been, but with less fat and something I never, ever imagined I'd have: A chest. And muscular arms. And those muscles all around the armpit. Looking in the mirror when I get out of the shower is a nice ego boost. Not to mention that I can move more easily, I have far less stiffness, practically no back pain - for a 48 year old guy who just two years had a back episode so bad it took 10 minutes to get out of bed (by which I mean rolling onto the floor on hands and knees, wondering for the life of my how I was going to make it onto the toilet), this is fantastic!