Sure, you'd love to get fit, stay fit, and have it all be a piece of cake. But in real life, the cake often seems a lot more appealing than the fitness.

The truth is, when you set out to go from not-so-fit to "Wow, I love my body like this!" you're going to bump into a few obstacles along the way. With that reality in mind, here's a look at the Top 20 Roadblocks To Fitness Success, and how to keep them from kicking you to the curb.

In today's article (Part 1) we'll look at the first three in some detail. I'll cover the rest as we move through his 6-part series.

Success Roadblock Number One: Attacking Symptoms While Ignoring Root Causes

I have listed this as Roadblock Number One for a very good reason. Just as the American "health care" system has degenerated into having a near-total focus on eliminating symptoms without ever correcting -- or even acknowledging -- the real, root cause of a problem, so it is in the areas of fitness, health, and happiness.

You want instant happiness? That's been the pharmaceutical companies' top money-maker for decades. To their way of thinking, getting you hooked on a chemical crutch is just a smart business decision. That way you'll become their bread and butter -- a "repeat buyer."

And just as there's a pill for every little problem with your health (courtesy of your friendly neighborhood pharmaceutical mega-corporation), you can also find a "quick-fix" remedy for your every fitness problems.

There's every imaginable kind of device that promises you the sun, moon, and stars. You want instant weight loss? Saturday morning TV will give you a ton of "solutions." Of course, none of them work. But that doesn't seem to slow down sales very much.

Am I overstating the case? Not really. You see, here in America we are absolutely obsessed with quick fixes and easy solutions. And we'll spend every dime we have to get them.

The tragic irony is that doing what actually works is not only less expensive and much healthier, it's also quicker. Because when you make your changes where it counts -- in your own motivations -- then doing the healthy thing becomes automatic, and you're now set for a struggle-free lifetime of real fitness, great health, and the kind of happiness that no pill can provide.

That's why the major focus of this book is on making changes where it counts, by identifying your self -sabotaging beliefs and attitudes, and replacing them with self supportive ones. And if you will focus on doing that first and foremost, these other 19 roadblocks will become little more than speed bumps that you can step over easily whenever you come to one.

Success Roadblock Number Two: Problems With Goals