There is no quick fix to exercise, if you want a firm, healthy body, you will need to work for it, but there are some exercises that are more effective than others. Spot conditioning is a wonderful idea, but in practice, they don’t work.
You need to exercise your whole body in order to firm up portions. Cardiac exercise is a way to build your respiratory system, your pulmonary system and your muscles. Be careful to work at this slowly at first and build up as your health gets better. Starting fast and wearing your body out can not only be unhealthy, it can be downright fatal. If you work a day job, you can start out with ‘spurt’ type exercises. Go for fast walks at lunch time while practicing controlling your breathing, keeping it deep and as slow as you can.
Ride an exercise bike while watching TV, reading or listening to music. Again, work on controlling your breathing. Deep controlled breathing is a way to build your lung capacity, and also get your muscles to release the waste product they tend to hold onto. Go for a swim before bedtime, swimming is a very good all over conditioning exercise. The best part of it is that there is no impact injury possible as it is during jogging or flat out running.
Use your imagination, there are many ways you can exercise, any of the things already listed will help along with all sorts of things you can come up with by yourself. Exercise can be fun and enjoyable if you don’t overdo yourself. One real good and not so well known way of low impact exercising is horseback riding. In this activity, you will use muscles you wouldn’t normally use. It is very low impact with the only concern being having bad knees. This activity will also teach you how to relax your muscles and move allow the movement of the horse to dictate the movement of your body.
If you exercise within an hour of going to sleep, your metabolism will stay up for a couple of hours even while you sleep. If you have access to a gym, you can do all sorts of toning exercises like leg presses, etc. But again, the cardiac is a large portion of what you should be doing as the cardiac will boost the toning. You don’t need to spend hours doing this to be effective, in fact that can work against you. Spend a half an hour to an hour each day and you will begin to see results in a short period of time.
Protein is a wonderful thing for your body, it helps you build lean muscle and helps build muscle strength, but protein isn’t a one man show, it needs help, by itself it won’t do your body much good. In order for your body to fully utilize the protein, you need to take in a balanced number of carbohydrates. Only with the carbohydrates can your body use the protein to it’s full extent. 
It is a proven fact that eating smaller meals many more times a day is all around a healthier way to eat. In eating smaller meals more often, your metabolism stays up and you burn more fat. If you go longer periods between eating, your body goes into a starvation mode where it begins to store calories as fat, turning to burning lean muscle instead. Our bodies are naturally tuned to eating small meals many times per day; they function best under these conditions. You will stay more awake and alert, not feel weak and run down. You will not tire so easily nor stress so badly. You will not feel the hunger pangs, nor fall victim to the desire to fill yourself to the bursting point. You will be able to think clearer and have more stamina in your every day life if you change your eating habits to match your body chemistry.
