You need to define what Fitness is to you.
Let’s assume that you are a middle-aged person, usually very Busy at a mostly Physically Sedentary and a Mentally Stressful Job. Fitness to you would mean not to put on a Tummy, to Keep your Blood Sugar and Blood Pressure under Control, not Gasp for Breath if you have to Walk up one Flight of Stairs…things like that.
So, two things to do:
1) Eat Healthy, but Don’t Overeat
- Avoid Soft-Drinks and Junk Food completely
- Do NOT buy Soft-Drinks and Junk Food for home storage…you do NOT need to work HARD to abstain from eating Junk, if you don’t have them stored at home
- In fact, AVOID doing grocery purchases when you are hungry
- Try to Eliminate Simple Carbohydrates such as as White Rice, White Flour…
- Complex Carbohydrates such as Oats are good
- Eat a Good Amount of Quality Protein with ALL your Meals
- Do NOT Skip Meals….Do NOT Skip Breakfast (a bit of a repeat…yes)
- Have a gap of 4-5 hours between meals….Do NOT Snack between meals
- Eat your Dinner early…about 3-4 hours before bed…Do NOT Snack afterwards
- Have a gap of 10-12-14 hours between your Dinner and Breakfast the next morning (NO SNACKING on ANYTHING, in-between)
- Eat ONLY when hungry (Eliminate Emotional Eating/Binging)
- Eat Slowly and Chew your Food Well
- Hydrate Well
2) Keep an Active Lifestyle (definitely outside of work…maybe even a bit while at work)
- Keep Active
- Walk whenever you can…even to the nearest Grocery Store/Shop
- Climb the Stairs, instead of taking the Elevator, as much as possible
- Taking up some day-to-day household chores will keep you healthy and will also lessen the burden for your spouse (and for your other family members)
- Take up Other Chores around the house too, maybe on the weekends. Gardening is an EXCELLENT workout. Maybe a bit of simple plumbing, electrical works (simple ones that you are qualified to do) etc., would help too
- Make sure to get enough Rest each and every day (a minimum of 8–10 hours of sleep is a MUST.
- Do NOT Stress out too much.
All of the above would cost nothing…in fact, would lessen your overall expenses quite a bit too, while at the same time will keep you healthy and fit, as according to your definition and need for Health and Fitness.
This will be a good start, will be very effective at producing your desired results, even before contemplating simple exercises that can be done…in addition to the above.