How did you do with your two family fitness activities for the first week? If you succeeded, bravo! If not, that's ok, too. Think about why you weren't able to make it happen and what you can do differently this week.

Week Two Activity

The top 25 reasons to exercise: We all know that exercise is good for us, but sometimes highlighting exactly what it can do for us will push us from thinking to action!

Here are the 25 best reasons to get moving:

1. Exercise burns 2-12 times as many calories per minute as sitting.
2. Exercise helps you lose fat and inches.
3. Exercise makes you stronger and your muscles look more toned.
4. Exercise is an awesome outlet for stress.
5. Exercise helps fight fatigue.
6. Exercise just makes you feel better!
7. Nobody else is going to do it for you.
8. Exercise gives you more energy.
9. Exercise gives you a more positive attitude.
10. Exercise gives you more confidence in your ability to accomplish goals.
11. Exercise success translates into mental fortitude for other challenges in life.
12. Exercise increases your body confidence.
13. Exercise improves your flexibility.
14. Exercise reduces symptoms of PMS.
15. Exercise increases your bone density, decreasing your risk of osteoporosis.
16. Exercise can reduce joint pain and inflammation.
17. Exercise can prevent constipation.
18. Exercise helps your body better regulate insulin and blood sugar levels.
19. Exercise reduces your risk of diabetes.
20. Exercise reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease.
21. Exercise reduces high blood pressure.
22. Exercise helps you sleep better.
23. Exercise can reduce total cholesterol.
24. Exercise strengthens your immune system.
25. Exercise increases your metabolic rate so you burn more calories all day long.

Quite a list, huh? The truth is that this is only a partial list. In fact, there is no other single health change you can make (besides quitting smoking), that will have as many and as far-reaching health benefits as exercise!

Schedule it: Pick three 20-minute blocks of time for the week and put them on the calendar right now. This is your time for Mommy and Me Boot Camp! That's right, boot camp—but the fun kind. The kids will love it and so will you.

Here's what you do: Warm-up with a game of “follow the leader” around the room for a few minutes. Then, use the four corners of the room and assign an exercise to each corner:

1) abdominal crunches

2) jumping jacks

3) push-ups

4) jogging in place.

All you do is rotate through the four stations. Remember, it's all fun and the name of the game is to keep moving, so it doesn't really matter how long you spend at each station, though it is a good idea to get at least one to three minutes under your belt at each. Depending on the number and ages of your kids, you can stay together as you move from one station to the next, or rotate. Take your pick and have fun with it!

Results: After completing three twenty-minute exercise sessions this week, you can expect to feel pretty satisfied. You're meeting your goal of sticking to a routine. And not only did you get it done, you probably burned an extra 400-600 calories!

Hope you enjoy the Mommy and Me Boot Camp! Talk to you next week.

Questions for Cathy? Comments? Post them in our Message Board.

Get more exercise ideas in our 20-Minute Park Workout and Stretching guide. Plus, get tips on finding time to exercise.