91 weeks of at least 90 minutes of exercise per week.

That’s my current fitness streak. And it would be much bigger if I hadn’t gone through some terrible weeks of lower back pain prior to the last time I pressed the reset button here on Sparkpeople. Because when I last restarted my attempts to lose weight, back in June 2011, I promised myself that no matter what happened with my weight, no matter how good or bad my eating habits would be, I would do my best to keep exercising every week at least three times. I made a promise to myself that I would seek for all the health and strength and freedom of movement that years of living on the couch had stolen away from me. And I kept that promise.

The majority of my fitness minutes is exercise done at home. Working out at home is one of the things that helped me lose weight (combined with healthy eating, of course), is what filled me with energy, is what gave a new meaning to my everyday routine and it’s what helped me – an unemployed stay-at-home-mom – stay sane! It wasn’t an easy road. I had to fight boredom and loss of motivation. I had to educate myself on different ways of exercise. I had to make up for the absence of a coach by spending hours on reading fitness articles and watching videos here on SP. On the way I got discouraged, I fought injuries, I struggled with ineffectiveness, I was disappointed at the expected results that I was too anxious to see.

But I had a promise to keep.

A few rainy days spent in the comfort of your living room, reading and watching TV, don’t make you a couch potato. You can’t expect a few days or weeks of mild exercise to turn you into an athlete! So, I kept pushing. I continued trying on my own to regain my lost endurance and acquire a certain level of fitness. Yes, a gym or a personal trainer would have been much easier. But I couldn’t afford that, neither financially, nor emotionally, neither in terms of time, nor in practical terms like having someone to watch over the kids while I’m gone. Two choices were available: be my own coach or… the couch!

Working out at home solves many issues. But is working out at home ideal for everyone? What are the positives and the negatives? How can we adjust it to our own unique needs and preferences? After 91 weeks of trying and learning, I thought I could share with you some of the things I learned during this fitness journey. The mistakes I made, the challenges I faced could be found useful by those of you that are now starting out on home fitness. I started taking notes on the things I would like to share but they were too many to fit into only one blog. So, I’ll have to divide them in more.

Let me stress out here that I’m not an expert and I can’t offer individual fitness guidance and advice. My purpose is to share my own experience hoping that I could help someone who is just starting out or someone who is trying to overcome obstacles.

Making exercise part of your daily life is not an easy thing to do. It’s a road paved with sweat and soreness. It’s a road onto which you have to be guided by commitment.

But it’s a road that leads to health and strength.

It’s a road worth taking.

Stay tuned!