Are the clothes a tight fit?

It's the fuel that drives folks to commit (recommit, or re-re-commit) to a New Year's resolution, don workout gear and give working out again.

It's good for health.

Good for life.

While I'm no expert (and the appropriate disclaimer should be here about following a doctor and trainer's advice and such) and I'm not as dedicated as it once was, but here is some everyman encouraging advice for those who have the nerve to enter the starting gate.

First, join somewhere and take advantage of the available equipment. I know you're thinking it would be easier and cheaper just to lift weights in the garage, walk on the treadmill that's being used as a clothes rack now, or start taking crisp evening strolls.

Yes, of course, it would, but where there is no cost, there is no motivation-at least, that's what I found to be true with me. When I pay, I go.

It's not cheap to join a gym, but if you shell out for it, the unction to squeeze in a workout at the end of those long, tiring days is there. With money tight, the last thing one wants to do is to pay for a service, then not get it.

Besides, that treadmill and weights that don't carry any continuous cost (provided they're paid for) at home were probably collecting dust in the same place at the beginning of last year.

And maybe even the year before that.

Secondly, schedule workouts, but don't go home first after work, no matter how close you live to the gym. Home is, of course, where the food is and a comfy place to sit down and relax.

Tired bones are sedimentary bones-if you go home, you won't go to the gym or workout at home.

Thirdly, it's always a good thing to be self-motivated. No one can make you go, stay with it, or endure the cold and the heat. One has to go for one's self. That having been said, it's an added bonus to have a training partner.

Someone who will push for to one more set.

Ten more minutes.

Another half mile.

Still, when they've got up and gone or left you high and dry (as they sometimes do or as their schedule changes), a workout warrior has got to press on.

And, lastly, don't set lofty goals no one can attain or think about a future that will always include some from of fitness. If you dwell on all that running, lifting, sweat, working out to reach something that, at least for the moment, out of reach, it'll be too tiring to go.

Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day; and neither was Farmville.

I remember as a teenager the slogan of a company that supplied weight lifting supplies: “Lift For Life.” I didn't like it then because, I suppose, it seemed so daunting that it was a forever thing. I like goals that I can set, reach and then move on to the next thing.

But life and fitness is a journey, a collection of small steps that help in attaining bigger distance-spanning goals. And every journey must begin somewhere.