Our appearance- obsessed society offers up a 1,001 ways to banish fat, lose the cellulite, get ripped, slim down, firm up, be lean, get strong, and regain the body you once had or the one you never had and want. You can eat or drink these products, wear them, rub them on your skin, or buy something you’ll use a few times before you lose interest in it. But there’s still only one way to get the most attractive and alluring thing of all—that glow of good health than can only come from physical activity. Call it a radiance, a certain energy, or whatever else you want; you know it when you see it, and so does everyone else.

Physical activity doesn’t mean you have to endure a 45-minutes spinning class, or a personal trainer putting you through the paces of hell, or a daily 5:30 a.m. jog. It doesn’t mean you have to invest in a bicycle or a home gym, or put a heated lap pool your yard. But it does mean you have to MOVE…to get up and join the rest of the living world.

Have you noticed? Everyone and everything is always in motion—people running, walking or jogging, the kids on skateboards, the guy on the bike weaving through traffic, the young mother chasing after her fast-moving toddler, the old man slowly making his way across the street with his walker, the birds flying, the dogs playing, the leaves in the trees, each swaying to that magical rhythm that resides inside each and every one of us—no matter what condition we’re in.

You might have spent the majority of your life watching TV and eating Cheetos. Or trying to find the closest possible space to the mall. Or having a Milky Way bar every time the kids got you aggravated. Or snarking down a Big Mac and fries for lunch every day for the last six months. Or moving no further than is absolutely necessary to perform the functions of life.
No matter where you are on the spectrum, physical activity of any kind will make you look and feel better. It’ll make you leaner and stronger. It’ll make your cardiovascular system happy. It will put you in a better frame of mind. It will even make you more intelligent.

I’m not just making up these claims to induce you into a grueling exercise regimen. I’m only repeating what the science says. These are the proven outcomes of hundreds if not thousands of studies on physical activity and its effects on people. If you’ve been looking for the magic bullet, you can stop searching right now. You’ve found it. Now it’s just a matter of changing a few old routines. It’s hard to do that alone, so we’ll do it together. Let’s start.