Hi all! Sorry for the long post, but I have a few questions I'm hoping someone can answer. I'm trying to add exercise into my routine and I was just wondering if anyone has an opinion on whether it's better to join a gym or get equipment for home? I was thinking about joining Curves, but I'm not sure how I'd feel in a setting with other people. It's also a little expensive. The one in my area costs $99 for three months, with a student discount.

Also, does anyone have any exercises or alternatives to the gym that you can do at home? So far, I've got an exercise ball, a mat, and a ton of extra pounds on my body to work with. Space is sort of an issue, so those huge, intimidating iron fortresses aren't really an option for me. I was wondering about weights though. Should I get a set of small hand weights, and what should be the highest weight to buy? I'd really like to gain some muscle, and hopefully lose more inches, by exercising in addition to my new WoE.

Is it possible to target one area of your body to work on? I keep reading conflicting information. I'd really like to work on my stomach and hips. (I look like a misshapen ice cream cone. ) I've never really exercised before, except for walking, which I used to do a lot of. Now that it's getting cooler - I hate the heat - I'm going to try to start walking again. Does walking help burn fat or gain muscle? Also how much should I exercise? Today I did a 15 minute exercise ball work out video, Leslie Sansone's 1 mile Walk Away the Pounds video, and 60 crunches on the ball. (Totaled about 45 minutes.) Is this enough for one day? How much is too much? And is it okay to eat after exercising? I'm really hungry now.

Forgive me for the long post, I'm just really trying my best to do everything in my power to get healthy and lose the weight. And exercise is pretty confusing, at least for me.

Hi Mlyn,

I can give you some advice about the exercise routine. Working out is great and makes you feel better. At the beginning you have to use your inner strength or wild power. You will hear a little voice, don't do it, you can do it later. Don't listen to that voice, keep going and you will like the results.

There is not such thing as spot reduction, but you can exercise specific areas to build muscle.
You can divide into 2 major groups: Cardio and strengthening.

Cardio: You need to raise your hart rate to loose the fat. My suggestion is to make a google search for hiit. This exercise is based in intervals. The level you can do it, it is up to your fitness level. It could be walking and then walking in a brisk at the beginning.
In my opinion the regular cardio, which promotes slow pacing not much effort don't give you the best results. That is just me and I am not a doctor or trainer.

Strengthening: You need to build your muscles. Muscles burn more fat.
You can have your own weights, or elastic bands, etc. anything that makes a resistance when you try to lift it will do it. (Water bottles, pet food bags, weights, etc.)

First contact your doctor and he can tell you if your are ready for a exercise routine. Second, your question about joining a gym, well you don't have to, it depends how determine are you to follow a regimen at home. Gyms have the advantage of having all the machines you can dream of. There are cheaper gyms than 99 per 3 months.

If you can you buy a book body for life from Bill Phillips. It is an excellent motivation book and it can give you samples of different exercises and he talk about hiit (yes, it has a double ii). He promotes to exercise using some dumbbells and the cardio you can do it running, walking, biking, etc.
And, Yes, you don't have to buy any supplement they recommend in the book.

This book will answer many questions about exercising.

Enjoy the journey, the prize it is at the end of the tunnel.

Keep it up.

Whether you choose going to a gym or working out at home depends mostly on whether you can self motivate or whether you needs others to help motivate you.

A super inexpensive way to workout at home is to start an exercise video / DVD collection. You can pick up used ones at thrift stores, garage sales, ebay and Amazon. A great source for new exercise videos is CollageVideo.com

This also builds variety into your program to prevent boredom and keeps your body from adapting to the same activity over and over. The best way to keep your fitness progress on track is to change up your exercises.

Don't overlook or neglect resistance training. Aerobics alone is not a balanced fitness program. And muscle really does burn more calories than fat. A pound of muscle burns about 50 calories a day, a pound of fat burns about 3 calories a day.

Good Luck!

I workout at home. I have a treadmill and a mini trampoline for cardio and a total trainer (total gym like machine) that folds up out of the way I use for resistance training. I also love yoga and pilates. I tend to cycle my exercise throughout the year so my body doesn't get too used to one set routine. I actually find that yoga keeps me as defined as when I do the resistance work.