Day 9 - Beck Diet Solution, Choose an Exercise Plan

Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned athlete, you'll benefit from what BDS has to say about the importance of selecting an exercise plan as a component of successful weight loss.  Even if we have a well-established exercise routine, it can be easy to forget *why* we need it.  Just some of the benefits of exercise include:

• A solidified commitment to your healthier lifestyle;
• Despite what many people believe, exercise can actually reduce cravings;
• Elevated moods and reduced stress;
• Preservation of muscle tissue so that we lose fat while staying toned;
• Boosted confidence and feeling better about ourselves; and
• Protection against disease.

In keeping with yesterday’s step, we probably already have exercise scheduled into our day.  But there’s another type of exercise which BDS calls for and that even seasoned athletes may forget: spontaneous exercise.  Opportunities to be more active constantly arise in everyday life, some expected, some not.  Park further away, walk to work, take the stairs instead of the elevator, get up to change the TV channel, pace while talking on the phone and so on.  We don’t have to limit our exercise to our planned workouts.  

If we expand exercise from planned appointments naturally into everyday life and seize new opportunities that arise, it will become more instinctive.  We won’t have to think so much about how to get enough exercise – we’ll be more likely to do it at every chance we get.  Also, we might get into activities we might not have considered otherwise and find new passions in the process.