How would you like to spend just eight minutes a day exercising? Interval training is a great way for the busy person to exercise from the home or office. You can burn lots of calories, without spending a lot of time at a workout. Skipping rope for two minutes, followed by a two-minute break, is a great form of exercise. Do this four times a set, 16 minutes all up and you're done. It's that simple.

If skipping doesn't appeal to you, jogging will do the same thing, as will swimming, rowing and cycling. You can jog for two minutes around your hometown, or on a treadmill. Two minutes jogging, followed by a two-minute walk or break, done four times through and that's it! Exercise needn't be the dreaded chore that you normally see it to be.

Muscle burns more calories than fat, so increasing your muscles will have you burning calories at a faster rate. You can lift weights in a similar fashion to other forms of exercise, just two minutes on each set of muscles. Instead of having the two-minute break, change to a different set of muscles for each two-minute session.

For the best overall effect, try the different types of exercise on different days. Different exercises also saves you from getting bored, which means you're more likely to stick at it in the long run. As well you should try to keep it fun. Jogging could be changed to chasing your child round the park. Lifting weights could be rock climbing. Trail riding on a motorbike is another form of exercise that, although it seems easy, is quite strenuous and a lot of fun. As is horse riding.

Movement is what you're after. If you can't get motivated to move it's because you aren't attaching pleasure to exercise. Instead of your internal chatter talking you out of exercising, try talking yourself into it. Think of all that you'll gain from exercise, rather than thinking about the fact that you hate to do it. Internal chatter is something we all have and we all need to learn how to control it, rather than have it control us.

Picture the new you, sleek and slender, fit and healthy, happy with your new look. It's easier to work out with these pictures of success in your head. Failure thinking is to think about how much you hate to exercise and talking yourself down and out of exercising altogether.

People do things for either pleasure or pain. They're either covering up pain, or enjoying what they're getting out of what they're doing. If you can link pleasure to exercise, if you can eliminate procrastination then you can win the weight loss battle.

Learn more about this author, Alexandra Grose - Children's Activities Steward.
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