Do you remember the Physical Education classes you had to take in school? Did you look forward to them or dream up imaginary illnesses and injuries to get out of them? Were you good at sports or were you one of the last to be picked for the teams? Chances are the attitude you developed towards activity during childhood, whether positive or negative, has affected the way you feel about exercise in your adult life. For some it may even have become a phobia! The first step in changing your attitude towards exercise is identifying your feelings about it; so, how do you feel? Do you hate exercising? If so, why; what is it that you don't like? Are you self-conscious about people seeing you exercising? If that is the case, remember that these same people will be witnessing your progress as you succeed in your goals to achieving a healthier lifestyle.

Give your attitude some thought; the answers to these questions may help you recognise the factors that are standing in the way of you incorporating regular activity into your lifestyle. Sometimes just understanding why you feel the way you do about something can be the key to changing how you deal with it. Once you have identified your barriers, you can start breaking them down.

Regardless of your history with exercise, it is vital that you learn to make it a part of your life. Perhaps one of the factors that can make establishing an exercise programme seem so overwhelming to some of us is the amount of time we think we need to devote to it. Lack of time is the most common excuse used for why people don't exercise! However, the American College of Sports Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other reputable groups are emphasising that low levels of activity can be beneficial for your health, decreasing the risk of developing conditions such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, as well as being in weight loss. In other words, you do not have to go out and run five miles every day or spend all your free time in a gym! Just making small increases in your daily physical activity counts as exercise.

Consider this: Making your bed can burn 40 to 50 calories: mowing the lawn burns 100 calories or more; mopping the floor for just 10 minutes uses approximately 45 calories; playing basketball with your friends for 20 minutes will use 160 to 175 calories; weeding the garden requires about 70 calories for every 10 minutes. Here are some other ideas on how you can add more activity, and burn more calories, on a daily basis.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator; walking up stairs for 10 minutes will burn at least 175 calories.

Park your car or bike a couple of blocks further away from your destination and walk the rest of the way, or if you catch the bus, get off a stop early and walk; adding a mile to your distance walked in a day will burn an extra 105 calories even at a slow pace.

Where possible, sit instead of lying down and stand instead of sitting to burn more calories.

Does these ideas seem unreasonable? It is surprisingly simple how easy it can be to burn more calories throughout the day; all these small changes can add up to make a big difference. Remember, every calorie you use for activity is one less calorie that can be used for fat storage.

So don't be intimidated by the thought of adding exercise to your lifestyle.

Start with just being more active. Get off the couch, away from the television and start moving. Play with your children or your pets, wash the car, do some gardening, stroll around the block on your lunch hour; do something, anything to get the blood flowing and the heart pumping. You'll be amazed at how much better you'll feel as you start enjoying a healthier lifestyle and becoming BodyWise! Alison Hirschi