In fact, forget this article and just turn off the computer and stop working on it, stop playing video games, stop looking for racy sites, just turn it off, and go outside for a little while. Enjoy a stroll around the park, a bike ride around the block or, if you’re at the office, don’t take the elevator when you go to see that friend of yours five stories up above your cubicle, waiting for you by the watercooler for the latest and most juicy gossip. Take the stairs, for starters, and announce this as your first step to a better, healthier life and make your way out of the scary country statistics on overweight and obesity. That friend of yours will surely be jealous when she sees you in those stretch pants and a radiant healthy skin in a couple of months!

If you chose to linger a little longer before that first step of yours, this article will tell you more about the new exercise guidelines released on Tuesday by the Health and Human Services Department. The report sets the minimum sweaty activity at 2 ½ hours a week, but the actual recommendations vary depending on age and level of fitness.

HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt says, according to The Associated Press: "The easy message is get active, whatever your way is. Get active your way!”

The more fit you are, the more exercise you need, but if you’re only getting started and are not very sporty, more on the contrary, the TV dinner, TV lunch and TV everything type, some ten minutes a day of speeding up on your way back from the grocery store or finally joining your kids on a casual basketball game in the back yard should do the trick, as long as you keep the rhythm up.

"For a total couch potato who does zero, zip, nada, getting up and walking 10 minutes a day is a great start," said Rear Adm. Penelope Royall, deputy assistant secretary for disease prevention.

If you are still reading this, you’re obviously not convinced yet. Well, maybe you don’t know that more than 60 million American adults are obese, while the kids’ reports sound even worse: about a third are overweight and 16 percent are obese, a situation that is getting out of control, as the calories in their favorite foods keep going through the roof and as schools are decreasing the amount of recess and gym time.

An expert panel gathered by and the Health and Human Services Department found that regular physical activity can cut the risk of heart attacks and stroke by at least 20 percent, reduce chances of early death, and help people avoid high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, colon and breast cancer, fractures from age-weakening bones and depression.

Aren’t you putting your tennis shoes yet? What are you waiting for? Ready, steady...Go!