AIBU to ask for ways to stay active if you don't have children or a dog to walk?

[OhMyDaze2022]

Just that really.
Don't have children.
Don't have a dog to walk.
Don't have any hobbies.
Office job sitting on arse all day.
Asthma and arthritis.
Morbidly obese and need to lose weight before it kills us.
Partner in a similar situation.
How can I lose weight without walking a dog or going to a gym - I'm too fat so I'm not humiliating myself.
Ideas, please?
YouTube channels? Games? Silly tricks people do? I do have a step counter and I'm only getting a few hundred steps in a day at the moment. I sit on my bum at work, drive home and then I cba to exercise coz I'm tired. I need to start taking action!

Please don't me cruel in the comments. I'm asking for help not pitchforks.

Walk without a dog.

If you CBA to go out again the evening (and entirely reasonable POV!) then try looking for other times. How do you get to work at the moment? Could you get off the bus a few stops earlier and walk part way? Or if you drive, can you park somewhere else so you can walk the difference?

You could, working hours permitting, go to parkrun on a Saturday morning - despite the name, walking is absolutely fine. Or you could volunteer - you'd be out in the open air and in company which wouid be good for the spirits

No kids, no dog here too but I do walk quite a lot. It is quite boring to keep walking the same routes from home, especially after lockdown so I listen to podcasts or live prgrammes on the radio - don't feel that every excursion has to be a full-on mindfulness experience!

It is good to try and get out during daylight hours and I often do a 10 minute loop at lunchtime.
If you are going to join a gym then I would advise finding one that is between work and home and go to it on your way home from work, it is too easy to get home and then you cba to go out again.

You really don’t need a dog. I walk for an hour every day and even when working I stil did this. Get some headphones if alone and listen to music . My DH and I use it as our time to be able to talk as he has little free time.

Tackle your food intake and look for advice on the weight loss boards that are on here. just don’t be impatient. I had a friend who was very overweight and had developed type 2 diabetes. It took two years but she lost over 5 stone and her diabetes improved so much her meds were drastically reduced. She has maintained this for six years now but it’s a complete mindset and lifestyle change for ever.

You don't need a dog to go for a walk.

I'd suggest scheduling in a walk each day. Depending on your schedule a walk before dinner each night (or another suitable time) could become part of your routine. Record your steps or time/distance so you have some sort of targets to improve upon over time as you get fitter.

Swimming is also a good but gentle exercise. A regular weekend swim would be a good start too.

Honestly just go.
Even if it’s 10 minutes on a lunch break to start with. Get some comfy shoes on and go.
Have a look at volunteering at a local parkrun, you may not be up to running one but volunteering is a lovely friendly atmosphere, time on feet and you’ll meet people who are aspiring to be able to walk/run one too.
Park further away from work/the shops/your house.
I know people who’ve marched on the spot watching telly!

Take yourself for a lunchtime walk .You deserve it just as much as a dog would. If you could afford to take 20 mins out of your day to walk a dog, do the same for yourself. Something I've learned from taking up running (as a v obese person) is the first 5 mins are hell but it always, always gets easier after that. The difficult bits are getting out the door and doing those first 5 mins.

Adjust your smart watch to give you an achievable step goal that you can actually meet, then do yourself a chart and tick off each day you meet your goal.

Use the reminder function on your watch to get up from your desk and move a little every hour. A few steps every hour do add up over a week.

Imagine "walking you" doing laps round "sofa you"

YouTube has walking workouts that might be an easy way to get steps in if the weather is horrible! Look up Grow with Jo.

Don't worry about how you'll be perceived at the gym - I've never noticed anyones size and even if I did I'd think nothing more than good for you, and if you're unfit and huffing and puffing I'd just think SAME.

You don't need a dog to walk. The bigger question is what do you like.

Outdoors? Go walking everyday for 30min. Listen to a book. Look for walks in your neighbourhood to switch it up. Find your nearest outdoor gym. If you have a meeting that requires minimal participation, go for a walk. Take a longer route to go to the corner shop.

Games? If you have a a consol look up some exercise games.

Work out at home? YouTube is full of free no equipment needed exercise lessons. Also a bike or a treadmill in front of TV can be motivating.

Workouts outside home? You can go to a gym. It can be scary. I've noticed that cheaper council ones and women only gyms tend to have more accepting atmosphere. But gyms are not fir everyone. Aqua sports are great! Like aqua spinning, aqua running.

Groups? Look for groups in your neighbourhood. Could be weighloss or zome diagnosis. It doesn't matter if you don't have it. I used to go to local arthritis association aqua aerobics. I don't have arthritis so I paid more for it but it wa perfect level for me for rehab purposes.

Personal trainer? I really recommend this. I decided to get one. It's expensive but you don't have to have too many meeting. I didn't want frequent meet ups (cost too much). So we have an initial meeting to discuss and then second meeting where he shows me the programme he made. I requested work out outdoors and at home. As well as gym. He made all of these for me. He suggested outdoor gyms or cardio to do by myself. Pt is not just for the gym to lift weights.

I was 7 stone overweight at my heaviest, think my BMI was 39 so close to morbid obesity. I was like you, too embarrassed to go the gym or any fitness classes or even running so I started doing HIIT and yoga videos on YouTube. I did yoga with Adrienne to begin with, she’s really gentle and it isn’t massively technical. I also walked laps around my back garden and eventually worked my way up to jogging. Diet is the main bulk of the work though so you need to mostly focus on that.

Should say I lost 7 stone in a year and my BMI was 22 when I finished. When I got down to about 13 stone I was confident enough to run in public rather than the garden so started doing that. I never paid for any exercise at all.

Volunteer at local dog rescue or riding stables (if you like animals!)

Put some podcasts or audio books on your phone, or just make a playlist of songs you love, and walk around the block a couple of times. Or walk to the corner store.

Try Couch 2 5k - the first week is only one minute of running at a time (you get to walk in between runs).
Get some light (1kg) hand weights and do bicep curls.
Cleaning is also exercise! Sweeping, dusting, vaccuuming etc.

I walk myself every morning for an hour at as brisk a pace I can manage (which varies).

No dog, children aren't involved...and would complain if they were at 6am!

The first lockdown gave me the nudge I needed to get out the door and start moving because I was going stir crazy. Moving more has moved me out of the morbidly obese BMI section into the obese section and I'm steadily getting closer to only being overweight.

I use a route plotting website to work out different route options so I don't get bored. Between 4k to 5k is about right for my morning walk now but I started much smaller. Using a route plotter means I'm in control of where I'm going without risking the walk being too short or too far.

Also purposefully add steps at home by doing everything the long way round. For example, I'm about to go make a cuppa. I'll head to the kitchen and put the kettle on, then head back to my desk to get my cup to rinse out in the kitchen, then head to my husband's desk to get his cup to rinse out in the kitchen before making a start on the tea. It adds a couple of minutes walking each time I do it and all adds up to a move more way of doing things which definitely helps.

Don't listen to people that say you have to be doing vigorous exercise for X minutes a day to get any benefit. All movement is good - get as much as you can and it really will make you feel better and as a someone obviously overweight I'd already adopted a mindset of "at least I'm doing something about it" to combat the thoughts of people judging which they probably aren't.

In the past few months I have started early morning swimming at my local pool. 3 times a week starting around 6.30 - 7am. Its not expensive if you visit often and it gets you moving in a joint friendly way. Never experienced any fat shaming and its a good way to start the day. when I first went I did 10 mins and that was it. now up to 35/40 mins. I am in my 50's and this is the first time in my whole life I have ever undertaken any form of regular exercise. works for me.

There are quite a few apps that aim to turn walking into a game. Pokemon Go is fun even though aimed at kids. Zombie Run can be walked - and the same people did The Walk which is meant to be walked. Or look up books of walks for your area.

Move around more during your working day and when you get home. Don’t just sit all the time. Get up from your computer at work and walk around when you don’t need to be on the computer. Offer to make the teas, offer to go to the post box, find things to go to keep you active. Walk on your lunch break. Even a brisk 20 minutes will rack up that step count. Park your car further away from work so you can walk some of the journey. Or use public transport and get off a stop earlier. When you get home in the evening climb up and down the stairs a few times, stick on some music and dance while you’re making dinner, do some cleaning (I was a cleaner until very recently and always had 10k steps done by lunchtime.) sort out a cupboard.

Add small extra bits of activity throughout your day and you really will notice the step count climbing.

Why would you need a dog? Just walk. I do have a dog, but I still waljed for exercise and enjoyment long before I had one.

Walking is the perfect exercise because it can be as long, short, fast, slow, hilly or flat as you need. Start easy and build up distance/speed as you get fitter. If you get bored or self-conscious, listen to music or podcasts while you walk.

And yy to just generally trying to move around more and sit less.

Walk. The more frequently you do it, the easier it will become. I used to get sore hips and back after walking a few hundred metres. So I just did what I was capable of, and pushed it a bit further bit by bit. I'm still by no means fully capable but I can walk 5km at a steady pace now. And more importantly, I can enjoy it!

And I know people will take the piss. But Joe Wicks has some videos aimed at the elderly. I do those. They're 20 minutes, but you do however much you feel able to and build it up bit by bit.

You can start with some little walks. Even a couple of ten minute saunters at weekend would get you started. Better than nothing. Then you can build on it.

I saw a good post on here the other week about exercise saying better anything than nothing. A walk around the block is more walk than staying on the settee. Five lunges while the kettle boils is five more than zero. I found that really helpful, exercise isn't all or nothing.

Having kids and a dog is the reason I don't have time to exercise! Just find something you enjoy? Walking, lifting free weights at home, gentle yoga, I also have a spin bike at home (which while £300 or so initially) is a really nice intense but low impact exercise. If I had weekends to myself, I'd be out doing walks each day and getting some fresh air.

Honestly , I don’t enjoy any exercise. If I could live a healthy life being completely sedentary and eating chocolate, I would.

But it isn’t - I want to be around and fit and healthy for my kids and any GC. I want to role model being healthy for them too. So I choose to exercise - I do calls walking around the building or my house. I walk to the local shops for shopping and I work out hard 3 times a week.

I have found exercise I don’t hate but I’ve yet to find any I “enjoy”.

It’s discipline, not motivation or enjoyment

I would buy something like an exercise bike and commit to using for the duration of a tv show or podcast or whatever that you listen to multiple times a weeks. So just get in the habit of using it whenever you are watching/listening. Cycling is a low impact exercise and you can go as hard or as slow as you like all in the privacy of your own home.

Why do you need a dog to walk? I don't understand. I have no dog but walk for miles every day. I love being out in nature - it clears the head and you feel great afterwards. Try and incorporate it in to your daily routine - e.g. I walk to work, 45 minutes each way, well over 10,000 steps. I walk to the shops, I walk the children to school. Just making walking your default way of getting about.

I used to do a very short gym session every day in my lunch break. 20-25minutes on the cross trainer, that gave me time to get there and back and get changed and shower afterwards.

I found it important to have the mindset of doing it to make myself feel good, and it did. Exercising to lose weight doesn't really work though it might help around the edges (if you build more muscle you metabolize a bit better).

You don't need a dog or children! I have neither and do loads of walks.