I get a bunch of emails on this topic so I thought I'd save myself some letter-writing time and discuss publicly how we can best maintain our focus and commitment to our exercise program, as it seems to be a challenge for many of us. We all talk about regular, consistent exercise (I'm not talking about incidental activity, I'm talking about actual structured, regular workouts). We all intend to do it, and while some of us do, most of us don't.

Research and simple observation says the vast majority of us spend a great deal of our adult lives starting and stopping exercise or activity programs. Very few people start and maintain structured exercise programs for the long term. We perpetually talk about it, but we don't do it (for a range of reasons).

We join gyms and then don't go. We start running programs and last a week. We buy a treadmill and hang washing on it. We get ourselves a mountain bike and ride it twice. We buy cross-trainers when we don't even know what cross-training is.

You know the drill. Your story may be slightly different, but you know exactly what I'm talking about.

After watching thousands of people struggle with their exercise goals over way too many years, I have a few ideas on the matter and a few suggestions for you if your goal is to create a better body forever. If you're someone who has a history of almost getting in shape and you've started and stopped more programs than you care to remember, then you'll probably find the following interesting and helpful.

1. Start (and progress) realistically
As obvious and simple as this sounds, many people don't do it. Some people, often blokes with massive egos (so I've heard) will attempt to go from lounge lizard to Olympic athlete in four days. Spare your hamstrings my silly, deluded brethren. Save yourself some embarrassment and humiliation and spend at least four to eight weeks creating a reasonable strength and fitness base before you get too Olympian on us.
Slow and steady Tiger - it's not about the next four weeks; it's about the next four decades.

2. Collect some base-line data and set some goals
It's always great to take some 'before' measurements to give us some perspective on our progress over time (it's very hard for you to be objective when it comes to you). Set yourself some physiological goals (girth measurements, weight, blood pressure), some fitness goals (aerobic capacity, strength, flexibility), some behavioural goals ("I will walk to work daily"), possibly a sporting goal or two ("I will run a half marathon this year"), maybe some competitive goals ("I will beat my brother at tennis by July"), and possibly some personal achievement goals ("I will climb Mount Everest in the next three years").