Exercise is crucial for your life, and oftentimes, people don't really think about the fact that exercising is actually putting boundaries in your life. Let me explain. For years, I didn't exercise and in a few days I'll talk about the aftermath of what happens when you don't take care of yourself. Hint: 369 days.
Exercise is one of those things where if you're not used to doing it, you're not going to be able to jump right into it. If you're going to start an exercise program, I know this is going to sound like a commercial, but talk with your medical professional to come up with an idea. Don't just go into it cause you will hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing. Start off small, start off slow, and you'll go a long way in being able to make some changes in your life from a physical standpoint.
For me, I spend a lot of time on the treadmill, a little bit of weights, but sure I'll be changing that a little bit up. I need to really work on some tone and some energy driving things and really help build some muscle mass for metabolism. All the books out there talk about it.
For me, exercise is an excellent way for stress management, especially because I work out in the morning. Now many people may work out at night. They may work out in the afternoon if they have that capability. Whatever time works for you, do it. Don't wait. Do your best to get your exercise in as frequently as possible. Whether that's just simply walking to lunch, instead of driving to lunch, or parking further out in the parking lot and walking those extra steps actually made a big difference.
For stress management, though, exercise is great because it gives you those energy, endorphins. At the end of the day what happens is I feel better after working out. Also, when I work out in the morning, it gives me that energy to be able to handle stress in a little bit better way than if I didn't because when you're going to work things that come up or in life whether you're facing life changes or whatever, the exercise really makes a big difference.
The homework for you is to start exercising if you're not. If you are exercising, awesome. Take a look at what you're doing and making sure that it's working for you and, hopefully, you will see some positive results once you start.
Cheers.