A lot of people have written to ask me on how can they get started with a workout. Many of you are interested in working out but it is the first step that you fail to take. So let me give you simple tips on how you can put your own workout regime together. There are also many books about this topic and numerous websites and magazines that I encourage you to check out.

Start by knowing where you stand

If you have any medical condition such as high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, heart problems, etc., you need to check with your doctor first. Having a medical condition does not necessarily mean that you will not be able to workout; what it implies is that you may need to watch out for specific signals in your body to avoid problems. Your doctor is the best person to tell you how to proceed forward.

Be safe and avoid injuries

If you do not have any medical conditions or your doctor has cleared you to go ahead with your workout goals, you just start to workout and listen to your body. Remember that you want to avoid injury at all costs. Injuries are common reasons why people quit exercise programs.

Set reasonable goals

You need to know if your goal to workout is it to firm up, lose weight, develop muscle, improve overall health, or all of them. Usually it is a combination of all of those goals. Most people want to lose some weight. To achieve this, you need aerobic or cardio exercise. You will also need strength training to develop muscle and a few minutes of flexibility exercises.

Be accountable to yourself or to someone you can trust

You decide your goals, the time you will devote to workout, the type of workout, and you jot it down every time. You can record your progress in a diary. Several dieting websites also allow you to track your progress online using simple trackers. This is very powerful, since at any point of time, you can see if you have kept your word.

Set measureable goals

For example, lose 50 lbs in five months (or whatever time period makes sense for your body). So after one month, you can measure yourself and see if you have reached your one-month goal or if you need to change strategy. This is also very useful since when you see your accomplishments you get a strong sense of motivation and empowerment.

Reward yourself

After reaching a goal you can reward yourself. For instance, take a short trip or buy a dress. You can also have small rewards for short- and medium-term achievements and a big reward when you reach your ultimate goal.

Follow through

Excercising may be a necessary evil in life but most people, once they workout for a while, start to enjoy it. There will be times that you do not want to continue, there will be tough times but exercise is the closest thing we have to staying young. It is worthy to workout either for health or vanity reasons.

Celebrate your success

The reason you worked out was because you loved your body. Embrace your new body shape, love it and make it the best it can be. Do not be critical of yourself. You do not have to look like Britney Spears or Katie Holmes or Paris Hilton. You have to look like YOU.

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We have discussed the importance of getting enough sleep on overall health and for having a good relationship with your partner. But it seems that it is not just the adults who need to deal with insomnia. The use of sleeping pills among children and very young adults rose 85 percent from 2000 to 2004, according to a study by Medco Health Solutions. It is fairly common for teenagers to not have enough sleep time as they are constantly distracted by video games and Internet. But rather than dealing with it using discipline, parents are simply bringing them to doctors for prescription medication. Another disturbing message that is many of these children actually also receive medication to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These drugs used can cause insomnia.

In another sleep related study by James Gangwisch, it has been found that less sleep often leads to obesity. The study demonstrated a clear link between the risk of being obese and the number of hours of sleep each night, even after controlling for depression, physical activity, alcohol consumption, ethnicity, level of education, age, and gender.

Specifically, the study found that subjects between the ages of 32 and 59 who slept four hours or less per night were 73 percent more likely to be obese than those who slept between seven and nine hours each night. People who got only five hours of sleep had a 50 percent higher risk than those who were getting a full night's rest. Those who got six hours of sleep were just 23 percent more likely to be substantially overweight.

"The results are somewhat counterintuitive, since people who sleep less are naturally burning more calories," said Gangwisch who works at Columbia University. "But we think it has more to do with what happens to your body when you deprive it of sleep as opposed to the amount of physical activity that you get. Other studies have shown that leptin levels decrease and grehlin levels increase in people who are sleep-deprived, leading to increased appetite and consumption. As a result, sleeping less could serve as a trigger to the body to increase food intake and store fat."

How to sleep better?

1. Be disciplined about sleeping.
2. If you are stressed or worried about something, try to keep it away when you are ready to sleep by listening to relaxing music, taking a bath, and buring aromatherapy oils.
3. Try natural sleep pills rather than relying on prescription medication, unless the doctor thinks that you have no choice.

That is exactly what happened to obese men and women who lost weight. The so-called "sexual quality of life" improved significantly when they felt more attractive after weight loss. The researchers conclude that quality improves with intentional weight loss. Prior studies have demonstrated that obese people have high rates of difficulty with sexual quality of life, or SQOL, and obese women experience higher rates of difficulty than do obese men.

In the current study, Dr. Martin Binks and colleagues examined the impact of weight loss on SQOL that includes feeling unattractive, lack of desire, reluctance to be seen undressed, difficulty with performance, avoidance of bedroom encounters and lack of enjoyment of any intimate activity.

After two years, the patients lost an average of about 13 percent of their body weight. Maximum improvement in SQOL was seen after approximately three months (approximately 11% weight loss) and remained relatively stable thereafter in all six domains for both women and men. Overall, these changes were consistent with improvements in BMI.

"There is tremendous social pressure in our society to be thin, so it is not surprising that the majority of women and men in our study felt sexually unattractive," commented Binks. He says that SQOL is an important, but frequently overlooked aspect of overall quality of life for men and women; however, women face particular challenges in our society.

So how can you improve your SQOL?

1. Make up your mind about losing weight by setting goals, choosing a diet, and exercising regularly.
2. Let your partner know what you plan to accomplish.
3. Better still, if your partner is obese too, ask her/him to join as well.
4. When you feel more attractive, take a romantic vacation since improvements are seen as early as 3 months after you start.

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Avoid fat in your tummy for a healthy heart

Patients, and even some doctors, are unaware that abdominal fat and waist circumference are important risk factors for heart disease which kills 17 million people worldwide each year. This finding comes from a latest survey shows that it is not just patients, but even 40% of the doctors, do not know that a bigger waist is a big problem. In another study it was found that a bigger waist increases the risk of diabetes.

So how big should your waist be?

It all depends on your height, race, etc., but a waist size of 88 centimetres (35 inches) for women and 102 centimetres (40 inches) for men in North America puts them in the high risk category for heart disease. Waist measures differ to take into account physique and lifestyle differences around the world. The figures are slightly lower for people living in Central and Latin America, the Middle East, India and Asia at 80 cm for women and 90 for men. In Japan the high risk category is 90 cm for men and 85 for men and 80 cm for women and 94 for men in the rest of the world.

"Measuring waist circumference is an easy, low cost indicator that should be added to measurements of other cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, lipid levels and blood glucose," according to Professor Sidney Smith of the World Heart Federation (WHF).

How can you reduce your waist size?

1. Of course, exercise is key so that if you do gain weight, you do not add fat in your tummy, but actually gain muscle overall.
2. Stay away from rich and deep-fried dishes. In other words, keep your calories consumption in alignment with your lifestyle.
3. If you are obese, you must speak to your doctor and consider options like gastric bypass surgery, liposuction for losing weight, lap band surgery, obesity surgery, etc.

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