The first step in constructing a home gym does not involve paint, nor nails nor delivery trucks in your driveway. The first step is deciding whether you truly want a home gym. You can find plenty of information on-line, in fitness magazines or in advertising for the local health club that will extol the many virtues of gym membership. Stay motivated by being with other people. Get out of the house. Have a much larger selection of high quality equipment. All valid.

But let's say you're one of those people (and I find this to particularly be true among women) who struggles constantly to find time to make it to the gym. Or to find a babysitter. Or even to find a health club open at 11:00 p.m. when you're finally able to go (and it's also pouring rain, or snow or.... well OK, you get my point!).

So here you are, the kids are finally in bed, Dear Husband is watching TV, and you would love to kick into a little sweaty exercise to wear off that sour cream and butter you added to your baked potato tonight! Now is the time to start looking at your options for having a gym at home.

I approached mine a bit differently than many people have, perhaps. I began thinking of a home gym as an "oasis"; a pleasurable, nicely appointed, comfy place to be. Forget the "just stick it in a corner of the basement among the junk" kind of mindset. I wanted to WANT to be there. I wanted it to beckon to me, to welcome me, to create a little haven where I could spend some "me time". It's hard enough to stick to an exercise plan - I didn't want the added burden of staring at used car parts, or the no longer utilized dog crate. Let's get a little "Zen" going here!

A spare bedroom would be great - but in my case, I did use a corner of the basement. I carefully cleaned it, scrubbed the tile floor, and repainted the entire area with a nice cool blue. A side benefit is that I got rid of a LOT of stuff that should have been dealt with sooner! When it was clean and ready to go, I invested in an inexpensive set of curtains, had DH bring down the old comfy armchair (which I promptly covered with a washable throw). I moved in a small bookshelf and began gathering all of my various workout manuals and instruction books. I moved the small older tv from the spare bedroom and decided to invest in a simple dvd player ($40). I assembled my yoga dvd's, and my aerobic work out dvd's. I brought down my exercise mat and placed it right in front of the TV. I searched eBay and found

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