Give us 5 minutes to convince you SparkPeople's program is different

We realize people come into our program with different views about fitness—some people are excited, while I’m sure others audibly groaned about fitness as today's topic. For those of you who are excited, already know the fitness basics and are ready to take action now, Coach Jen has put together great options for a workout plan you can follow at the end of this text. Jump to the workout plans now.

For the latter group, stick with me and you’ll learn that SparkPeople really is different when it comes to fitness programs for both beginner and advanced exercisers. Today, our goals are simple:

1. Discover how SparkPeople looks at fitness in a different way, both for beginner and advanced exercisers
2. Convince you that any amount of fitness done consistently is important as part of your healthy lifestyle
3. Be your coach and show you why fitness is important

1. SparkPeople Looks at Fitness Through a Different Lens

There are probably many people in your world—doctors, personal trainers, media, friends, co-workers, your old P.E. teacher— who have shared information about fitness with you. In many cases, though, they have likely done this in a way that makes you:

• Feel guilty for not exercising regularly
• Believe that fitness is too difficult, both in effort and in the idea that you must make a major life commitment
• Remember the many times you have tried exercise and "failed"

This will not happen here; I guarantee it.

SparkPeople is different because we integrate both fitness experts like Coach Jen and behavior change experts. We have spent more than 15 years refining our program, a program that has helped millions of people take the smallest steps possible because we know this is key in turning fitness into a healthy habit, rather than a dreaded chore. We also know that overtraining at the beginning of a program is a common mistake that leads to failure, frustration and injury. Instead of setting you up to fail, we want to help you build this habit one step at a time, one walk at a time, one crunch or curl at a time, one day at a time. This slow-and-steady concept is the one that will work for you as part of a permanent healthy lifestyle change. Soon enough, you'll be one of those people who actually looks forward to their sweat sessions! Really!

To emphasize this, I put together an entire life-changing program around doing as few as 10 minutes of fitness most days of the week, which you can discover on Day 9.  If you do happen to be an advanced exerciser already, I’ll show you how I was an advanced exerciser, but the behavior change and motivation principles in this program elevated me to a completely different fitness level and helped me reach many goals in life.

One of our all-time favorite SparkPeople success stories involved a woman who started her fitness program by setting a goal to walk to her mailbox and back. After reaching her goal, she found herself wanting more. Eventually, she lost 100 pounds and sent us a photo of herself crossing the finish line of a marathon while her daughter watched her accomplishment from the sidelines. Wow! Take a moment to visualize what this means: No matter where you are right now, this could be you reaching your most important goals!

2. Why Fitness is Important

Here's a stat you've likely heard before: Weight loss is 80 percent diet-based and only 20 percent about exercise. While this may technically be true, it overlooks important points about your body and mind that really matter.  

As behavior change experts, we know that different elements affecting both your body and your mind have an important influence over other areas of the body and mind. This influence, which we refer to as "Crisscross Effects," means that your fitness directly influences other important aspects of your life, including:

• Food choices: Sticking to a regular exercise routine makes it dramatically easier for you to make healthy food choices.
• Stress levels: Did you know that stress causes a hormone called cortisol to be released, which can increase your risk of anxiety, weight gain and other negative health issues long-term? Did you know that exercise helps to reduce levels of cortisol? Scare tactics aren’t my favorite motivator, but take it from me that you do not want excess cortisol in your body. There is even growing research that connects cortisol and dementia, which should be a major motivator to all of us.
• Sleep quality: The improved stress levels and other physical benefits will help you improve your sleep quality, a secret key to a healthy lifestyle. Just imagine the difference you'll feel waking up rested and refreshed versus feeling tired and worn down before you even get going.
• Strengthen your body: Exercise is proven to strengthen just about all of the organ systems in your body, from your muscles to your heart.
• Energy: Most people think exercise "takes" time. In fact, when done correctly, we’ll help you reach the point where exercise actually gives you more energy than you have ever imagined, allowing you to reach goals in all areas of life.

Again, we will help you receive all of these benefits and many more starting with only minutes of exercise per day until you make the personal decision to increase your levels.

3. Take Action

Just by reading this overview of our approach to fitness, you can already count this as a successful day in your program, but if you're ready for another challenge, consider these two "extra credit" options.

To signify that you are willing to try our program emphasizing small amounts of fitness to build a healthy habit, commit to doing anything related to physical activity today. For example:

• Walk for five to 10 minutes
• Do one to 10 crunches, pushups or curls of any weight
• Vigorously clean your house for a few minutes
• Choose any type of fun activity you enjoy