1. Not ready yet.
2. Thinking about it.
3. Preparing for action.
4. Taking action.
5. Maintaining a good thing for life!

These stages represent a spiral path to adopting regular physical activity into your life. Each stage takes a period of time to acquaint yourself with new behaviors.

Effort and commitment is needed in all stages. You will move through each stage as you are ready to change. The interesting part of this model is that is recognizes you may not always move forward in a straight line. There will be times when you lapse, going back to an earlier stage. Then the time will come when you are ready to advance forward. This is expected and part of the process of adopting new behaviors. You will progress when you are ready.

Source:  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/physical/starting/index.htm