You’ll find yourself with more energy, a better outlook and, most important, better health by making physical activity part of your daily schedule. Check out this list of exercise benefits.

1. Reduces heart disease risk. Exercise protects against heart disease by improving your cholesterol profile, reducing your triglyceride levels and lowering blood pressure.
2. Prevents osteoporosis. The development of the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis can be slowed through regular weight-bearing exercises like walking, jogging, stair climbing and aerobics.
3. Controls diabetes. Studies show that adult-onset diabetes is much less likely to develop in active people than in nonactive people. For those who have the disease, regular exercise may help reduce or eliminate the need for medication.
4. Fights obesity. When excess weight is dropped through exercise and a low-fat diet, the risks for heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and osteoarthritis drop along with it.
5. Increases flexibility. Regular exercise strengthens muscles and keeps joints, tendons and ligaments more flexible, allowing active people to move freely and easily.
6. Elevates mood. Health experts say exercise can improve a person’s mood and reduce anxiety and tension.

VA’s MOVE! program

Sid Wright of Catlettsburg, Ky., was motivated to change his lifestyle when his doctor told him he would develop diabetes within a year if he didn’t lose weight.

“My biggest excuse was that obesity runs in the family,” says Wright. “But that’s not true at all. I really started putting on the weight when I retired, because of my inactivity.”

Wright turned to the MOVE! (Managing Overweight/Obese Veterans Everywhere) program at the Huntington VA Medical Center for help. In just eight months, he lost more than 50 pounds. As a result, Wright’s blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels are now normal, and he tries to walk five miles every day and rides a bicycle.

Wright credits VA and the MOVE! program for providing him with the right information and the desire to make the needed changes to his lifestyle.

“Everyone needs something to motivate them,” Wright says. “The bottom line is you’ve got to move to lose.”