Do you want to get rid of love handles, belly bulge or that extra wobble around the middle? It's a very common area for people to want to 'spot' target, and the general answer is - you can't spot target.

To move that excess weight around your middle you need to do two things -

1. change your diet/nutrition
2. move more

You can add in some abdominal exercies, these are always great to help strengthen your core and once your core is strong a lot of other exercises become easier, but let's be honest here, you may get some stomach muscles back but it's unlikley you'll remove a layer of excess weight by targeting the area with crunches. 

Some good overall abdominal exercises are planks, there are so many versions of planks you can try, don't get stuck just on your traditional plank. Also do other functional exercises like the squat and lunge, press up and burpees - almost everything uses your core, so why not work your core and other parts of your body. Work smarter not harder!

When you are sick it's hard to know if you should exercise or not?

As a general rule of thumb if your illness has moved into your chest and affects your breathing then you should stop. You should also stop if you have a temperature or are feeling dizzy and have body aches.

When you should carry on: a simple cold that is only giving you the sniffles, a mild injury where you can still use other parts of the body, or times of stress.

It is important to keep up activity, but you don't have to keep it up at the same level. When you are sick just take an easy walk, do some activity round the house, take it down a notch. Some fresh air and movement is still benefiical but you don't want to risk injury or make yourself even sicker!

It's hard to know when to exercise if you are tired. There are different levels of tired. Are you tired because in general you are feeling low on energy, sluggish or stressed, or are you tired because you haven't slept 4 nights in a row due to a sick child or massive work deadline.

If it's the former then exercise will help, it will give you energy, help you sleep better and in turn help adjust thought patterns, if it's the latter then your best exercise is to sleep and watch your nutrition.