What better time than the day after Thanksgiving to decide that going back to regular gym workouts is a good idea? We have just finished a grand dinner with all the trimmings, we’re feeling stuffed, and the scale is groaning under our prodigious weight. You remember your last doctor’s checkup, he or she said that you had better get serious about that diet that you said that you were going to start, and your clothes are stretched to the limit. Why haven’t we kept up with our workouts? We know what is good for us, we feel good after a visit to the gym, our skin takes on a healthy glow, so what’s the problem? In a word: laziness.

There were good reasons that we started to lift weights many years ago. Maybe it was to impress the ladies, or to get stronger for a job, or to improve one’s health, or to recover from a health issue. After a few weeks of weight training we feel better, stronger, more confident. We’ve made a few new friends, we workout with other people, we set goals. The gyms these days are so convenient; every comfort, including your favorite TV shows, is at hand. The building is cooled in the summer and heated in the winter, there are indoor tracks, swimming pools, and personal trainers behind every barbell waiting to assist us with any question. Gone are the days when gyms were like dungeons, dark and dank, leaky pipes overhead, filthy toilet facilities and no one to help. The gym experience today is certainly a pleasant one.

Here’s a few things to help with your decision to get back in shape:

1) Set a goal. It is impossible to get to a destination without knowing where you are going. What do you want from your workouts? Keep your goals small and practical. Wanting to look like Arnold is a great idea and a wonderful goal, but do you know how hard Arnold had to work – and for how many years – before you realized the body that we see today? Keep your goals within your abilities. You will be much happier when you achieve your first goal and you will have gained confidence to on to a second goal.

2) Make the visits easy to do. If you have to drive many miles to get to the gym, or it is inconvenient time-wise, you probably will find excuses not to go. You have to outwit yourself by taking away all the possible excuses ahead of time so there will be no reason to not do your workout. See if you can find a gym close to where you work so that you can go there either before or after your workday.

3) Look in the mirror. Do you like what you see? Be honest with yourself. Can you "pinch an inch"? Then you need to get serious. How do your clothes fit? Too tight? You had better get serious. The amount of pounds that you weigh is of secondary importance to how you look and feel when you see yourself in the mirror. If you like what you see, then keep doing what you have been doing. If you don’t like what you see, then change something.

4) Work out a time for completion of your goal. You should not lose more than two pounds in a week (on average) so crash dieting is out. You need sensible methods for nutrition and for workouts. Think in terms of months and years to transform your body to what you desire. There are no quick fixes. Instead, enjoy the journey; you’ll get there.

5) Understand that diets don’t work. In spite of this advice, there are hundreds of new scam diets appearing every day. All of them don’t work. What does work is sensible eating. Eat real food, not processed garbage.

6) Make a commitment and stick to it. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither were you. Read some good books written by people in the field of health and fitness, most of them know what it is like to build a body.

7) Seek the advice of a trainer. Find a trainer that has a body (height, weight, somatotype, age) that you would like to build. He or she knows how to build the body that you are admiring, so he or she will be able to give you good advice as to how to achieve your goals. Your trainer should take a personal interest in you and he or she should take whatever steps necessary to assist you in your exercising.