Exercise?

Don't kill yourself.  

For the Taut Tan and Gooch contest, just think in terms of stepping up the exercise you are already doing. 

If you aren't exercising now, then start. But start SLOWWWW. Start by walking and then think about doing some hills, and then upping your pace.  

If you are already exercising, try increasing the effort both in repetitions and stress (weight, incline, speed). Also, don't forget that we humans are basically lazy. You have to change up your routine regularly or else your body will "expertly" minimize your effort to accomplish the task.

And keep the peripheral efforts minimized. Huh? What I mean to say is, if you have to "find" a solid 1 + 1/2 hour break every day to work out, then this is going to be difficult to do for 30 days and impossible to sustain thereafter - at least is would be for me. I've just got too much going on. Try to figure out how to incorporate exercise into your day. 

Example: I could pack my workout bag with all my toiletries, bring my work clothes with me, drive to the gym, put my stuff in a locker, go do an elliptical machine for 45 minutes, then turn around and do some weight training for another half hour, and then go shower, get dressed and go to work. Then, when I get home, I have to unpack my stinky bag, and get my clothes together for the next day. 

How long do you think you''re going to stay motivated to do this routine? Good grief Charlie Brown, getting ready seems like more work than the exercise itself. If you have a gym about a mile away from your house as I do, forget the eliptical, just walk to the gym and back and stick to the weight training at the gym. If you aren't so lucky, then break it up. Do the weight training in the morning or evening and do the walking at lunch time. The point is, you need to make it easy to get a workout in. Plan for the worst day. If you really aren't looking forward to working out today, then how excited will you be to have to struggle just for the opporunity?

Happy puffing!