Absolutely! Most of the time I feel 100% better after exercising, but I seldom think of that when I’m trying to persuade myself to do it. Thanks for reminding me!

I have a fitbit that I’ve been using for a year. I really like it. It definitely helps me to be more active and more aware of how active I am. It also tracks the quality of my sleep which is a nice bonus.

On my Android I use Endomundo.

I use a Fitbit as well. I actually found this website through a link on Fitbit. I enjoy using it, and I also like the fact that it tracks my sleep as well. They have some cheaper versions that have just come out!

I use Noom on my Android phone. It’s got a really simple way to track food, exercise, and a built in pedometer. The thing I like most is that it is set up as a “coaching” app, so for example it monitors how much you actually walk then ramps up your goal…I find it depressing when I know I am supposed to walk 10,000 steps in a day and I can barely manage 20% of that…but when Noom decided my goal would be 2,500 and I could meet and exceed it, it was motivating for me. I like it, but of course it depends on whether you carry your phone around with you all the time (I do).

Thanks for the info, everyone! I don’t carry my phone, so I definitely want something I could tuck away and wear all the time, perhaps even in shower/pool. I will stick w/ my pedometer and keep saving for a motivational treat when funds allow.

FYI, it’s a little pricey at $100, but Fitbit are coming out with a new version very shortly. This one slides into a bracelet and you can wear it in the shower: http://www.fitbit.com/flex

@Kimberly, I added you as a friend on Fitbit. Kudos to you for being so active! It’s something that I am working on.

Thanks Brandi! It’s taken me a while to build up my activity. Having the fitbit to help me be aware of it has really helped :-)

Caraqueña

Caraqueña

I have a FitBit too. I love it! Very motivating. It is pricey, but I think it is a great value considering the amount of information you can get and store on their website.

Hi Tasha – I sent you a fitbit friend request :-)

Awesome! Thanks.

Have a fitbit & love it! Great motivator and the connection to other supporting apps is very cool!

Have a fitbit & love it! Great motivator and the connection to other supporting apps is very cool!

Também comecei a fazer caminhadas diárias, de pelo menos 30 minutos, para pegar ônibus na ida e volta ao trabalho, e no interior do trabalho entre setores, 5 vezes por semana.

Don’t aim for more than you can accomplish with your energy level. Do a lighter workout on workdays, and a heavier one on weekends.

Can you do it before you go home? If you belong to a gym, don’t go home until after you have exercised. Or find a class that starts just after you leave work, and do that before going home. Leaving the house after coming home from work is really hard.

By making it (modest, regular) exercise a non-negotiable event, I have mostly removed my grumbles and my guilt about avoiding it. I don’t make excuses to myself, I don’t wonder whether I can skip it. It’s happening, so I can either complain or just plow through it.

That said, I count different things as “exercise” on different days. I do physical therapy to control pain from a chronic injury; I lift weights for strength and bone density; on pub trivia nights or library days, I walk ~2 miles; on laundry day, I climb the stairs 5-8 times.

And as predictable as it is, it always surprises me: like so many things, thinking about having to do it is worse than just doing it.

Yeah, I found after work classes were great for getting me to leave work on time. And when I missed the instructors and other students asked after me. And I worked out a lot harder than on my own (bootcamp or boxing classes). Full disclosure – I now work out before work, but it’s later in the morning, and so I’m getting to work and home later, which are both fine, too.

Can you do things during your workday that count as exercise? Extra stairs, extra walking? I used to walk to work every day and counted it as exercise most days. Joining a class or scheduling a workout session with friends (so you can’t bail) helps too.

When I exercised after work I did it immediately. Then I gave myself a reward like a yummy drink or something. After a while, as the exercise became more habitual, I tapered off the rewards.

Hit the gym on your way or do it as soon as you get home. If you give yourself ten minutes to sit and unwind, that turns into half an hour, which turns into all night, and whoops! You were just too tired to work out that night. If you don’t give your body that signal “we’re all done for today,” then you may have more luck keeping going while you still have a little forward momentum.

Or exercise at lunchtime, if you can swing it.

I go at lunch, actually, which works out pretty well for me even though I arrive back at the office still all red-faced (even after showering and everything; I turn BRIGHT red and it takes forever to fade). I’ve decided not to care about that.

I know how you feel! I’m normally exhausted after work; I work in PR and it’s mentally tiring.

I started walking home from work to try and save some money. That gives me about 40 mins of exercise, and generally afterwards I feel like doing a bit more. I’m hoping to start walking /to/ work, as well… that little bit of extra walking will be fun!

The downside to this all is that I live in Dubai, and I can only walk to/from work for half of the year. The rest of the time, it’s just too darned hot.

Take baby steps. If you are watching TV, just stand up and walk in place or side to side for those 2 or 3 minutes. Most long programs have about 10 minutes worth of commercials throughout. That’s 10 more minutes of exercise you did than the day before.

Another thing I do is dance! Pick two or three of your favorite songs to play to start off and just dance for entire length of each song so it doesn’t feel like you are exercising.

See if you have a gym nearby that offers water aerobics! It really helps, and it’s not as bad on your knees.

Hahaha!! I have never heard that one. I laughed out loud!

Yeah, I’m trying to practise it too, lol!

That sucks. Have you clicked on Your Current Game in bottom toolbar, click Your Last Turn, scroll down and at the very bottom of the page it says Edit This Turn? (Last game played is editable)

Thanks for your help too late now but I will check it out next time :)

I like this, Brooke. Just did the first video. Thanks.

Thanks Brooke. I’m gong to start incorporating these into my daily routine.

thanks, Brooke.
I had come across the exercises for my arthritic neck. I thought, “Oh, good. I will start these again. … Oh, too bad there is a stain on the paper. I hate that! I’ll have to photocopy the exercises. Cut out the stain and copy it again. … Why is the stain moving? It looks like it’s waving at me. Wait. It’s walking away! Oh, yuck! It’s a creepy chunky spider with red legs!”
Squish. Splat. No neck exercises anymore.

Sounds like a good idea.

Bridget, that’s hilarious!
(not for the spider, though)

i did! i have yet to do something with it. i stuck it in my drawer when they came to clean and you are just now reminding me i have it. v

Love that efficiency!

Me too. Smart and practical, Nina :-D

Focus on the result you want. How do you feel after you exercise? What can add pleasure to your exercise time? Music? A friend? New workout togs?

Anything high in protein.

I do CrossFit 3x week, at 7:00 a.m. When I get home, within about two hours I have an egg, a couple strips of bacon, and some fruit. Lunch is usually a salad. At dinner, when my muscles are deep into their repair work, I go more protein heavy and have beef, fish or chicken. I wouldn’t worry about diet plans; keep it simple. Choose a protein for each meal and put some vegetables and fruit with it. I’m not going for weight gain, I’m working on weight loss. This combo has been successful for me (30 pounds total so far).

Thanks! that really helped on planning some changes. oh, I’ll get me a steak… : D

I’m sending you a piece of fruit so I can copy in a CrossFit travel workout :)

I like doing the few yoga poses I know like downward dog, and then pushing myself to stretch my legs deeply. You can also run up and down the stairs! Congrats on exercising while you are traveling!

Walking and more walking— especially when we travel with dogs. ..

I take advantage of hotel gyms if available, plus of course getting in as much walking as possible.

Like Sara…I’m big on hotel gyms. And as everyone probably knows from my posts when traveling…I do a LOT of walking when traveling!! Also, I found this article in Shape long ago…from one of the Olympic Team softball players…thought it was good for a hotel room workout!! Good luck keeping fit on the road.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0846/is_1_28/ai_n28009339/

If you can afford an exercise bike, that might do the trick. I got a used one (actually, almost never used by the previous owner) on Kijiji and I’ve got it setup in front of the TV. It allows me to be “lazy” and watch TV while still getting in some cardio in the winter.

I also hate running and don’t really like going to the gym, so this works well for me.

I just walk. I need to do something every day, otherwise I get out of the habit and it falls apart. At the moment I’m walking about an hour each evening and although it doesn’t burn the calories as much, steady consistent exercise is far better than on-again-off-again attempts.

Does he watch TV? We put a TV in front of our treadmill in the basement, and my husband runs or does a brisk walk on an incline while he watches PVR’d hockey or football games in the evening. Maybe you could do the same with an exercise bike.

I like Couch to 5K. Where is he hitting the wall? Is it motivation? Is it at Week 5/6, when you start doing the continuous running? Is he running too fast?

And finally, if his diet is not already awesome, spending some time tweaking that aspect should go pretty far with regard to weight loss goals.

Two major approaches:

1) Acknowledge exercise sucks and distract yourself (tv, audiobooks, music, etc)

2) Find exercise you really enjoy.

Both are pretty valid approaches. Personally I use #1 for cardio (step machine, bike, etc), and then #2 for lifting. It’s fun to know that I can push 200 pounds into the air (granted, only in squat form, not bench… yet…).

Has he tried lifting? It takes up only a bit of time and you see results pretty quickly, and it’s a different set of numbers to track beyond weight. And it still gets your heart going a bit if you push yourself to get it done.

It also has the bonus of building up muscle that eats at fat a bit faster (not by much, but over time it does add up).

Buy him a Jeff Galloway book or send him to the website. Jeff advocates the “run/walk” method, and it’s much easier on the body than full-on running. (I used it to run my first marathon last year.) It also helps you SLOW DOWN, which is the thing most beginners get wrong. He might find he likes “running” a lot more then!

Thanks all for the suggestions – keep ‘em coming. One of the reasons I’m asking this question is to get a sense of the variety of activities out there.

He and I had a talk today about finding an activity he would really enjoy, but we’re both left scratching our heads. Right now biking is the best option, but seeing as how he doesn’t yet know how to ride a bike, I’m wondering if there are other options out there. We’ve considered lifting, but he’s concerned about form—maybe it’s worth investing in a personal trainer to get him started at least.

I run, and while I only recently became a runner very much to my own surprise, I don’t want to push it on him if he’s not into it. He’s done run/walk and hates it every time he goes to do it and even more when he’s done with the workout. So rather than push him into something he hates, I figured trying something else would be good.

I am mostly self taught on lifting. Things like stronglifts and starting strength emphasis just a few lifts, and both want you to start slow (empty bar) and go up. That encourages you to figure out form while the weight is low enough that even if you screw up, it doesn’t hurt you.

A trainer will help if the trainer is good. They can see things that are hard to see during your lift. But it’s a standard ‘buyers-beware’ situation, since the quality of trainers varies so much.

I’m a 27 year old guy, about 50 pounds overweight (230, should be 180), and lifting has been a great way to get more fit, and look better without focusing on my weight as much.

Other activity ideas:
1) Training for a tough mudder or equivalent (silly obstacle course 5k races)
2) Team sports (anywhere from softball to rugby in terms of intensity and roughness).

Both of those go to the previously mentioned “make exercise a fun activity” approach.

On the ignore it approach, I’ve grabbed an audio book recently (Black Swan by Taleb), and have been listening to it while cardioing at the gym. It’s been interesting since it keeps my mind occupied and I don’t notice the time as much.

My exercise (especially in the winter when it’s tough to get outdoors, but even a good bit in the summer) has mostly been—don’t laugh—Dance Dance Revolution on the Wii. I’ve been able to stick with it for quite a while, where I gave up on many other forms of exercise. I think my problem with most forms of exercise is that they’re BOOO-OOO-OOOO-RRRRING (and even watching TV while doing them only alleviates that somewhat), but DDR is mentally as well as physically challenging, which I think is why I’ve been able to stick with it.

Yeah, I’ve done the couch to 5k with success! This time I’m trying a modified program with 3 running days, 2 xt days, and 1 long walk each week.