So I've unnecessarily gained a happy 15 or so lbs in my first 5 years of marriage. A slow but steady increase that definitely isn't warranted, even if "being happy" could be an excuse...lol. I think I took my crazy metabolism for granted when it was still crazy. After I hit 30 everything changed (I'm sure many of you can reminisce and relate).
I'm looking to drop around 20 or so for starters. It's really hard for me to be motivated to do anything these days though, which definitely doesn't help. There are a lot of things that I probably could do around the house that might help me shed off some lbs (e.g. laying pavers in our small yard, build out new shelving in the garage, build out a new kitchen pantry, etc). I could also bike into work as well. Now, I say all of these things very idealistically, thinking about how great it would be to accomplish each of these 'small' feats. But a combination of my laziness and fear (of the unknown) prevents me from doing any of it. And especially in the name of "fitness"
Outside of those things though, I have no routine. I never did growing up and even through a year of cross country (I was the slowest on the team, go figure). Basically, very little to no physical discipline has been instilled in me. Part of this I attribute to the lack of not participating in team sports in middle school or high school - that is one of my biggest regrets. In either case, I've been trying to identify sources of motivation to actually make me get off my lazy butt.
My wife and I tried a free group fitness thing last year that met down the street every other morning at like 6am. It was good but apparently not good enough for us to want to wake up that early. So many people in that group really LOVE it for the fact that it's free and offers opportunities for encouragement, support, etc. It's a really neat concept but after falling off that horse, I feel guilty about re-joining. I'm sure it's just a self-confidence/esteem/psychological thing ala that chance of being scornfully asked "where were you all this time?" In any case, we feel like there's something wrong with us with how much we hate exercising and fitness. I don't understand the people who get all crazy addicted to it... I guess if you see real tangible results though, that can be addictive - but everyone's body is different too when it comes to "results." I guess I'm just not one of those people who enjoys "challenging" myself or "pushing harder" at hard things.
I do like shooting hoops, kicking around a soccer ball, hackey sack, etc (anything requiring some form of coordination) but I'm not really into the competitive nature of sports as much either (again this comes from my lack of playing any team sports growing up). Even with this, it's really hard to get myself out of the house, and I barely keep in touch with friends who like to do any of those things.
So I've also started looking at [free] weight loss and fitness apps (Noom, My Diet Coach, Google Fit, Lose It!, etc) but there's so many of them and some seem overly complicated. I guess if you want to lose weight though, it takes the extra effort to count calories (outside of exercising). I've also thought about getting a FitBit device but wonder if it's really necessary (probably not when I can use my phone as a pedometer). I think I'm going to give Noom a try and get back into my daily walking routine (around 1.5 miles) at work - basically it's a 30-minute walk down the street and back that gives a mild sweat. I was doing this for a while but then it's so easy to sit here at the desk and keep working while ignoring taking longer breaks.
In any case, what works and what doesn't for you guys? Feel free to chime in with anything: methods, apps, programs, groups, etc... especially the FREE stuff.