I don't know how to exercise...help!

I follow a lady called Lucy/ Lucyssquad on YouTube she is brilliant and does many different types of work out for different amounts of time. I do her morning and evening one most mornings/nights and then I also do an odd 20 mins every other night. In January when my daughter goes to school I plan on either joining a gym or starting to go walking/running 2/3 times a week.

start slow and apparently it takes 21 days to build a habit!

I have to go to fitness classes, ones that you pay for in advance are better as it motivates me to go

Thank you for the tip about Burn Pilates, I’ve just finished their standing workout and I enjoyed it a lot! It was challenging enough and pregnancy-friendly at the same time.

Have you looked at ‘Grow with Jo’ on YouTube?

I think you're being very sensible to take it slowly. For example running when you are 2 stone overweight is horrible and demoralising.

In the early days I would find something you can do at home and fit in. I would do this on-top of walking, I think it's a mistake to think of going for a walk as having done your exercise for the day, walking is simply moving as you should anyway. IMO a good start is someone who has a variety of workouts with differing lengths. I would recommend:

https://m.youtube.com/c/growingannanas

She has a variety of workouts with differing amounts of time eg 40s on 20s off. She has a 14 day back to basics and lots of 28 day plans. Yes sometimes they are a little repetitive but when you know you're only doing 30 mins you keep going. She does include weights too.

Caroline Girvan is also very good and popular on the exercise threads. She's very weight focused. She has a great little 15 min dumbbell workout.

Others include Heather Robertson and Lucy Wyndham Read. All on YouTube.

I do the Leslie Sansom walking exercises.
Easily found via Google.

Walking. Literally leave the front door, walk for 15 minutes, fast, turn back, celebrate with a cuppa, you'll get faster and go further and then can look to different exercises once you build up a bit of fitness

Why not try couch to 5k (you say you hate running but might find the progress motivating, and you can repeat weeks as many times as you like to feel comfortable with it?)
Then combine with a YouTube weights video (plenty around 30 mins on Caroline Girvan's or Joe Wicks' channels) on other days?

If you like classes, check out what’s offered at your local council sports centre. Ours does loads, from yoga to circuits, and they’re under £5 for the hour.
Walking as others have said- it’s outdoors (Vitamin D!), free, and weight bearing too so good for bone density. You could buy some small wrist and ankle bands with weights inside, or a couple of small dumbbells to carry, to increase the load as you get fitter.

the important thing for me is that I enjoy it, and if I get bored or become unenthusiastic I am allowed to have a break or change my activity. I really enjoy swimming, for example, but every so often I just don’t fancy it so I do something else instead or just give myself a break for a couple of weeks, then I can go back to it feeling re-energised.

This is brilliant

Oh and if you do decide to walk outside, get a good headtorch. I live rurally so worry of being murdered and I walk in the dark before work in the mornings for an hour.

Hi OP, I like Bodyfit by Amy in YouTube. She does have some beginners videos. Most are 20-30 mins long and she offers adaptations for easy/hard.

Requires discipline but this is an amazing kickstart - https://thesixpackrevolution.com/

I quite enjoyed the 30 day shred dvd !

I do the classes at the gym instead

I can only run on an indoor treadmill. If I run outside, I have an asthma attack.

Safety? You might do other stuff while you're there like swim or weights etc
I'm not going out walking after work at 7-8pm in the dark so I do spin classes at home instead

I’m not the exercise police but making a 50 minute round trip in a car to walk on a treadmill does give us some insight into why this country has so much traffic congestion and obesity.

@onefootinfrontoftheotherbabe Yes but you're not the Exercise Police. If using a treadmill rather than exercising in unpleasant conditions motivates people then let them get on with it!

Cancel the gym and buy yourself some weights and a kettlebell.

Exercising with a kettlebell gives you a weights and cardio workout.

Or buy a vertical stepper. That also gives you a full body workout. I was doing 20-30 minutes in the morning. Fell out of the habit as I had an accident but now I'm recovered intend to get back on it in January. You might find a second hand one on Gumtree or EBay, but Argos also sell them.

Personally I’d think a walk, going swimming or cycling or a YouTube dance class would be a great place to start as it’s more about enjoyment than the ‘I must get through this’. Diet wise I lost a stone an a half last year from having a glass of water and an apple before breakfast in the morning (tricked body into thinking I was having a healthy day!), not eating/ only having eg fruit (frozen grapes and cut up apple and broccoli) after 8 (soooo hard the first few weeks when all I could think about was crisps!!), halfing bread, cereal, crisps and fizzy drinks (my vices!!). Biggest thing is to remember a bad day doesn’t mean you’re done for!!

Could you do the couch to 5k plan but walk it?
Walking 5k at a brisk pace takes about 45 minutes. If you’re going from a very sedentary routine that would be a good goal.
Running is honestly not for everyone. It’s hard on your joints. I like low impact exercise like walking (especially hiking, so with hills and views), swimming, dance classes. I quite fancy trying a spin class.

I would recommend Couch to 5k. I hate all exercise and am enjoying doing this. It's a 9 week programme with the running amount increasing each week. I repeat the weeks until I am comfortable, I have been doing this since October and am still only on week 3. It's more about getting fit for me.

Placemarking so I can find these links easier. Thanks for asking OP.

None of those, except maybe snow, are valid reasons imo.

The gym will offer an induction session