There are so many benefits that running can give you and losing weight is only one of the many!

***Running is an activity ANYONE can do!

***Can help strengthen your heart and thus prevent heart attacks.

***Running intensely can help you lose a great deal of weight.

***Running and exercise can help prevent diseases such as Alzheimer's, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and strokes and many many more.

***Can help reduce your cholesterol.

***Running can lower your blood pressure.

***Running can help improve your sex life and reduces the chances of impotency for men.

***Running can strengthen your cardiovascular system.

***Running can reduce your stress and give you a feel good factor!

***Running can slow down the aging process.

***Less diseases and being the ideal weight could mean you can live longer – how would like to have a letter from the Queen congratulating you on your 100th birthday?

***Running can help maintain and increase bone density – this strengthens the bone and can help prevent osteoporosis later in life.

***Do you have bad memory? Did you know running and exercise can help improve your memory and boost your brain!

***With all these great benefits there is little wonder why running is one of the most participated sports in the world!

So what are you waiting for - grab those sneakers and go for a run today!

I hope your beginning to see why running can help you live a long, healthy,

prosperous life providing you with the confidence to achieve everything you want.

Why do I say everything you want, well it’s simple really? Everything you want to achieve in life starts with you. If running can give you the confidence that you lack at the moment, then it will be the catalyst for you to achieve all your goals.

So many of us just laze around doing nothing or do too little exercise to make any real difference. Our bodies have not evolved to just sit around and watch television. Historically we were nomadic hunter gatherers, we travelled long distances either running or walking to find food, whether it be fruit, vegetables or live game. With modern technology we no longer need to do this to survive and so we do very little exercise in comparison to our ancestors. Our lifestyles have changed dramatically since then. However our physical bodies have not changed, therefore we still need to do exercise to accommodate for the way our body is designed.

I hope you’re beginning to understand why it’s not just advisable to do exercise, but essential that we do exercise. This is what our bodies have evolved to do.

Now I know that for some of you integrating running into you life will be very

difficult. You may have seen long distance runners who run for hours and hours at a time. Let me tell you from the start, you don’t need to do that. They are athletes. They are competing with each other to find out just how far they can push their bodies, to become bigger, stronger and faster than their fellow competitors. That is not our objective. We just need to do enough to maintain a healthy body and mind. They train almost everyday for hours and hours to achieve that level of fitness, so take that misconception out of your mind straight away.

So you’re wondering just how much exercise I need to do to achieve a healthy body and mind. Well the minimum amount is 30 minutes of strenuous, heart pumping exercise 4 times a week and I do mean heart pumping. Exercises that only slightly increase your heart rate are not enough, I’m not saying they won’t help, but they will not be enough to help you achieve your goals. Running for 30 minutes 4 times a week is a great goal to try and achieve.

Most people spend hours and hour’s everyday watching television after work so you can’t tell me that you don’t have enough time. Give it a try just once and see how you feel. If you don’t try then you will never know. Believe me, it changed my life and it can easily change your life too.

When I first started running I was overweight and I couldnt run for 30 minutes, it felt like an impossible task. My ankles hurt and I was out of breath within 3-4 minutes. This may be where you are today, but I persevered. I thought to myself, just how far the average man can run in half hour. So my aim was to cover that distance rather than running all the way as I knew I wasn’t strong enough. I ran for a couple of minutes and I had to stop, THAT’S OK, and so I walked for a few minutes to catch my breath, BUT THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING, I STARTED TO RUN AGAIN until I couldn’t run anymore. I kept on repeating this cycle until I reached my objective of 3 miles. I didn’t do it in 30 minutes but I had done the amount of work I needed to maintain a

healthier life. That was the most important thing to me. I wanted to make a change and I knew that if I didn’t go out there and do this, then my life may never change. I wanted to do it, I knew I had to do it and I felt so proud when I finished.

The next day was a different story altogether, be prepared for it, my body was

aching, my muscles were not used to this kind of strenuous exercise, I took some ibuprofen tablets and they helped a lot, by the end of the day, my aches and pains had disappeared altogether. In actual fact if I didn’t know that ibuprofen would help me afterwards I don’t think I would have had enough motivation to go for the next run 2 days later.

My second run was great, I was surprised just how much further I could run without stopping. It didn’t take long before I started to enjoy running, I started going more regularly and sometimes I even run a longer distance. Within 3 weeks my family and friends started noticing a difference, I was feeling much better but they could see that I looked better and that gave me even more confidence to keep going. Since then I haven’t looked back and cant explain just how much of a difference it has made to my life.

I hope I have inspired you to just go out there and run.

IF I CAN DO IT THEN ANYONE CAN.