As Steve Jobs would tell you (uh, if he could), sometimes you need surgery and medicine, because eating and exercise won’t cure what you’ve got.

But in many, many cases some exercise and better eating will fix your health problems, give you way more energy, save lots of money and put less of a burden on those you love.

You don’t need to do extreme exercise, but here are a couple impressive success stories from people who used P90X.

http://www.beachbody.com/product/p90x-success-stories-tommym.do

http://www.beachbody.com/product/p90x-success-stories-jeremyy.do

I see a lot of testimonials posted at 24 Hour Fitness as well.  One was a grandma who was becoming a burden to her family.  After exercising she was able to do so much more on her own and to play with her grandchildren.  Another was a common one where a guy lost a lot of weight and was able to get off all sorts of medicine.

I think the key is to remember who you are competing against: Yourself.  It is the “you” who won’t do any physical activity today versus the “you” who does something — anything!  As the Bible notes, there will always be those better or worse than you, so try not to compare.  Just find something you like, no matter how minimal, and do it.

I like doing a hybrid of P90X weightlifting, some cardio (stair stepper or exercise bike) and core work.  And we go ballroom dancing several times per week.  We’ve met lots of people who lost weight and feel much better since they started dancing.  We think of dance as just a fun hobby and not exercise, but you get the benefits either way.