Ready to hit the gym hard this year, but not sure where to begin? Follow the lead of triathlete Valbona Bushi (CWR '08, MGT '09), who's been able to successfully make regular exercise a way of life.

Though she's not an early riser by design, Bushi, an associate at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, makes it to a Manhattan gym for her 6 a.m. workout routine three or four times a week. "Just get up and do it," she advises. "If you need to, wear your gym clothes to bed, so in the morning you can get up and go."

Bushi's workout routine:
Warm up: 10 minutes of walking and stretching.
Every other day: Spinning, 30 to 45 minutes, with a focus on sprint or hill intervals. This is also applied to treadmill workouts by alternating one minute with an incline, one without, then repeat. "It's better to do shorter workouts with a lot of intervals," she says. In the warmer months, she'll sometimes switch out the spinning for a 5K run in Central Park.

Swimming: 2x a week for 45 minutes, freestyle stroke.

Weights: Several times a week. "I usually do 20 minutes and follow exercises from fitnessmagazine.com. You can pick the tools (weights, chair, yoga mat, etc.), the amount of time you have, and the area you want to work out, and it puts together lists of exercises."

When she's short on time, she does five to 10 minutes of strength exercises, including planks, push-ups and squats.

Cool-down: Stretching for 5 minutes, focusing on the areas she targeted in her workout.

Track it: "I use the website dailymile.com. I can input anything on there, including my daily walking commute, core fitness, weights, hiking, etc."