You'd be surprised at how quickly you will "tone" if you do some weight-lifting. And by this I am not talking big, bulging muscles. Muscle tone is just muscle...you have to build muscle to have muscle tone, simple as that. You don't need to worry about bulking up, because you'd have to specifically train to do that. But just doing a full body workout twice a week wouyld give you amazing results.
As far as your ankle goes, you need to work on getting that range of motion back...you can't go through life with limited range of motion in your ankle, it will only lead to more problems later. Start doing some gentle range of motion exercises like pointing and flexing the toes, turning the foot in and out. If you like, you can simply sit on a chair with socks or slippers on, slide your foot under the cahir as far back as possible and the slide it forward as far as possible, while keeping your whole foot in contact with the ground at all times. Then do this side-to-side.
Let's see.....abs. If you have never worked out before, start with some basic crunches and reverse crunches. I could explain them to you, but you can find explanations and pictures on the Internet, that will make it simpler. I generally give beginners 2 sets of maximum repetitions. That is, you do as many reps as possible, then rest approx. 1 minute and do another set. I tell people to do this until they can do at least 20-25 reps fairly easily. Then they will do either of three things :
1-change the position of the arms (this makes the resistance lever longer thus making the exercise more difficult)
2-hold a db or plate across the chest to add resistance
3-move to crunches on the stability ball
Option 1 is easiest if you have no equipment.
And last but not least, don't be self-conscious. It is an amazing thing to just take the initiative to become active, and it is more than a large part of the population is willing to do. So be proud of yourself and pat yourself on the back!!!
Sorry for the loooooooong post!
Good luck!!!
