We all know that the best ways to lose weight all involve some form of exercising. But knowing this is true doesn’t make it any easier to get started on and maintain an exercise regimen. So, do YOU dread exercising? Here are some pointers that will help.

Particularly at first, we all hate exercising, but that changes. Before you know it, you start looking forward to your workouts! You start feeling like something is wrong or missing if you skip a day. You can stop giggling now. It happens, (yes, even to you).

The tough part is the beginning. We know we have to do it, so we muster all our mental reserves and force ourselves. For a little while anyway – the vast majority end up quitting in frustration, never knowing how close they may have been to a breakthrough. There are some strategies and tips you can employ to help you learn to love working out. When you’ve attained that level, weight loss becomes much easier. Almost an afterthought.

If facing another day of endless jogging, mindless crunches and lunges has your snooze alarm working out harder than you do – good news! There’s hope!

Strengthening your core may be important, but crunches aren’t the only way. There are aerobic exercises that are as good as or better than jogging too. Have you considered swimming? It’s much better and is easy on the joints too. Get some cd’s and dance the day away in the privacy of your living room. Get a bike and go cycling! The message here is that for every form of exercise that you can’t stand the thought of doing – there is a more fun and often better replacement! Face it, if you enjoy your workout, you are likely to stick with it. That’s when you’ve found the path to the best way to lose weight and more importantly, keeping it off.

Obviously, the boring exercises exist for a reason. Some of the more fun alternatives may not be quite as ideal. That’s ok. At first, you want to do anything that you are likely to stick with. After all, NOT DOING a perfect exercise is far worse than DOING a pretty good one! Any exercise is better than none. As you get more in shape, your muscles will start to crave the daily sessions, then you can slowly start replacing the lesser exercises with the better ones. You’ll find they aren’t so tedious now that you actually like working out.

Consider working up a sweat by doing some vigorous gardening around the yard. Rake up all those leaves! Park the power mower and get one of the old push mowers. Try to mow your grass a little faster each week. Make it a personal competition.

That boring jog can be replaced by winter sports if you live in the colder areas. Try tobogganing with friends. Just stay away from the after sledding hot chocolate. Or you could dig through the piles of stuff in the garage and drag out your ice skates. (You know, the ones you haven’t seen in 20 years.) Get one of the new Wii games. There are several games available that will give you a good aerobic workout. You may even get the kids to join in. Just be sure to call it a game, not an exercise.

Get a workout buddy. We all need a little push from time to time and a training partner will help immensely. You can help each other keep motivated. As you get in better and better shape, you can move from playing tennis on the Wii to actually doing it on a tennis court – you’ll have a partner! You can each set certain goals and challenges and make it a competition.

Once you get back in the gym, talk to a trainer. They can help you design an effective yet safe program. Plus, keeping you motivated and on track is their whole reason for being there. Your trainer is an expert at helping you get past the hurdles of feeling boredom, injury and getting overwhelmed. Use them.

Don’t do it alone, take some exercise classes. Most gyms offer them at a very reasonable rate or even free with membership. Who knows, maybe the best friend you will ever have is taking a class right now. Classes help with motivation, you learn new exercises and you’ll get to meet your new best friend! A little tight on cash? Most community centers offer a free or extremely low cost exercise class. Check it out!

Try these ideas and soon (faster than you think) your workouts will no longer be a dreaded task that you have to struggle through. They will be the highlight of your day! You will have found one of the best ways to lose weight and will have mastered your body. Above all else, never quit.