When people think of exercise, they might think of jogging or going to the gym and spending an hour flailing away on some machine. I think for a lot of us, that stuff is....not fun. But exercise is important, and to be healthy, we have to do it. I have personally found that if I do active things that are fun and don't feel like exercising, I can get a lot more out of it.

My big one is working at a barn. I know, it's technically a job so I have to do it, but one of the big reasons I wanted the job was to get active. I love horses, and I have always owned horses, but now that I'm in college, I had to take a break from owning for a few years. But I still spend plenty of time at the barn, and it's hard work. Stacking hay bales, walking around huge pastures, mucking stalls, carrying buckets, fixing fences, Pushing wheelbarrows up hills. I don't worry about lifting weights endlessly at all, haha.

I also volunteer at the Humane Society and walk dogs. I want to play with all the dogs, so I end up taking a whole bunch of them for walks. Taking boistrous 6 dogs on 10 minute walks is a lot more fun than speedwalking for an hour.

It's too cold to do this too often right now, but I love hiking. Taking a half day trip to a national forest with a friend is a lot more fun than walking around my neighborhood.

So what activities do you do that keeps you active but isn't the conventional lifting weights, jogging on a treadmill, going to the gym, etc etc.

Playing with my nieces

The little ones I lay on my back (or stand) and lift and wave around in the air and pump up and down. Little to medium ones get airplane rides on my feet - and I throw in more up and down action. There's chasing around the yard, of course. Even just sitting on the floor with them is better for my hips, knees and abs than slouching on the couch or easy chair.

And I always volunteer to go get things for people or run open the gate at my sister's house (up hill), etc.; that adds a lot of NEAT into the day. Even just helping with cooking or dishes keeps you standing instead of sitting.

I work at a barn too, which is a lot of exercise for sure! It's a therapeutic riding center, so part of my job is to lead horses during the classes, so that's 45 minutes of walking per class and I usually walk 3 or 4 classes a day. It definitely adds up!

This may sound silly, and it actually is... sometimes when I am working around the house I will breast stroke or crawl swim as I walk from place 2 place. Of course I am doing the action in the air...but I figure I am using up a few extra calories. Cathy

Cathy, it's not silly....I skip around the house and do other silly things.

It may not count as official exercise since it's not a long chunk of time, but hey...skipping and flailing my arms has to burn more calories than walking.

haha i usually just do the boring gym stuff but have started do 30 minutes of cranking up the music and dancing around my apt on my days off. I'm not even talking about the mild dancing that most people do on the dance floor...I get really into it and work in pirouttes etc haha...if anyone ever saw me they'd think i was a kook but I wear a heart rate monitor and, wouldnt you know it, i can burn more calories doing that than any other activity except running!

I do walking lunges sometimes around my house.

I'm a student and I use my part time job as a form of exercise (I work in a grocery store)...picking up and moving heavy boxes, staying on my feet all the time..etc. Hey! It's better than sitting around

I drive a school bus. Early in the morning its just me for awhile I park close to my route and dance like a maniac and jump over the seats. The bus is my own personal play yard. I am sure it looks really silly for a 45 year old woman to be acting this way.

I work at a dog kennel. the first half of my day is cleaning, hosing, scrubbing, mopping then the 2nd half of my day is walking dogs, or playing ball with dogs, or chasing after dogs...LOL! I do the boring gym stuff too, but it's nice to know I'm getting the extra activity in when I work!

haha I like Tamil's best! sounds fun!

I play with my dog and take her for walks, sometimes through deep snow.

I walk a lot, from 30 mins to 2 hrs daily ( if the weather/my schedule permits it) and pass from a carefully selected route that includes the best clothes stores possible and the least fast food places!

I shovel snow. Being located in the Great Lakes area, it's not a negligible amount of exercise. Unfortunately, it is pretty one-sided exercise and it also has a potential for causing arm, shoulder or back issues. Considering that I am now 50 and I know what daily shoveling does to me, I invested into a big honking snow blower this year. However, I plan to use it only for big snowfalls and handle the smaller amounts myself.

I play basketball with my boyfriend after we lift weights at the gym- I'll do this much longer than I can stand to stay on a stationary bike or treadmill (boring).

I also enjoy riding horses and wish I could do this more.

I work at a nature sanctuary on the weekends so I try to hike about 4 or 5 miles the days I'm there. Hiking on rough terrain is great, I can feel my muscles working and stretching when you have to navigate rocks/logs not to mention climbing up and down hills.

I used to work in a deli and I would always be the one to roll up the big heavy rubber floor mats at the end of the night- I figured it was good exercise :-p

I do a lot of fell walking and hiking - really want to lose weight though so I can try the climbing wall at the local leisure centre.