I need to tone up my body in general, and I would also like to lose 5-7 pounds. I don't have access to a gym, though, and I lead a busy life, so I'm not able to run as much as I'd like to. Are there any exercises that I could do in my house or just outside around my house that could help me with this?

You don't need a gym to get in shape, just a little motivation and the wherewithal to squeeze in a fitness activity whenever the opportunity presents itself. A well-balanced fitness routine involves three basic components:

1. aerobic endurance
2. strength
3. flexibility

Toss in a healthy diet and those 5-7 pounds should disappear before you know it. Probably the best "quick-fix" activity to burn calories and increase endurance is walking. It's convenient; all you need is a good pair of walking shoes. It's effective too. A recent survey sponsored by the National Weight Control Registry found that walking is one of the main strategies that respondents used for losing weight and keeping it off. I recommend four to six 30-to-60-minute walks a week to achieve your weight-loss goals. You'll burn calories more quickly if you walk faster. Try walking at a pace where you feel a little breathless but you can still carry on a conversation or sing a song to yourself. And by the way, you don't need to do your entire walk at once. It's okay to split it up into three 10-minute shots.

You can also buy a couple of aerobic videos and keep them in the VCR so whenever you have a spare moment you can hit Play and work up a sweat. For beginners, I like Richard Simmons' Sweatin' to the Oldies, volumes 1-3. At $19.95 each they're a bargain. Kathy Smith's Fat Burning Workout is a little tougher, but it's also a good workout (also $19.95). You can order those tapes through Collage Video (1-800-433-6769), a great mail-order catalog that has a group of trained workout-video consultants manning the phones.

While we're on the topic of videos, I should tell you that these are also a great guide for strength and flexibility training, especially when you're in a hurry, and especially if you like visual instruction. Tamilee Webb's Quick Toning series is perfect for the time-challenged: Each tape has three 10-minute workouts. Keep one in your VCR, do one workout every other day, and your three strength and stretch workouts a week are no-brainers. Collage sells dozens of other toning and flexibility tapes; they even sell exercise bands you can use for strength training for as little as $4 a set.

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