I'm a "think out of the box" person. Does anyone have any creative ways to get moving and burn calories? I'm sick of my treadmill.

TIA!

Heidi
175/175/135

If you can buy or borrow a GPS unit (some recreation departments rent them free or cheap) geocaching is tons of fun (geocaching.com). My husband's dad gave us a GPS unit last summer, and told us about the website (they'd heard of it, but hadn't tried it). It's like hi-tech treasure hunting (people hide a little box or container with keychains and trinkets in it for other people to find). The website will tell you how many cache's are hidden in your area (we were surprised at how many there were near us). I am very heavy, and can't walk very far, so we only could try the easy ones, (most were hidden in city and county parks), but it was so much fun.

Dancing - stick on your loudest, boppiest cd and just dance! If you get into it, you can buy plenty of dance workout dvds and learn some funky steps to make it a bit more interesting and structured. There's also DDR (dance dance revolution) for playstation 2, which is meant to be great fun and a good workout, though I haven't tried it.

Personally I love my swimming and aqua aerobics, though I do lots of other stuff to.

Martial arts is fun and burns a lot of calories.

I'm sure I'll think of more.

trampolining! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Er... Horse riding, playing tag with the kids/DH, frisbee, circus skills classes, unicycling great fun and works the core muscles!

I'm definitely not genetically built for unicycling!!!!

You don't know till you try!!

Bicycling! LOL...I'm hooked on it! It's helping slim me, pretty quickly I think, along with eating right and other exercise when I can't get outside. I like my elliptical for rainy days when I can't ride, but if it's not raining...there's no way I'm getting on that thing!

I got a Tae Bo Cardio DVD last week and liked it...I've only tried it twice, and couldn't get all the steps, but it looks like alot of fun!

Walking outside? Jogging?

There's tons of exercise! Doesn't have to be organized and all that....just fun and MOVING!!! That's the important thing. Don't let yourself get bored. I know for me that's the death of exercise, when I get bored! That's why I love cycling...It's exercise, but I don't really see it like that, I'm loving it, and I have goals that I"m working towards!

Good luck! There's something out there for you to do that you'll really enjoy!

Kim

Thanks everyone! I love your ideas. It's so true, that you won't keep it up if it's "boring". I want to have fun and burn the fat off! If it's something I love to do, then I'll stick with it!

I'm making a list!

Heidi

Has anyone looked into renting exercise equipment? My dh balks at the idea of buying anything, since we've seen so many ads for used stuff in the paper. I wonder if renting a piece for a month or two, then switching to something else or taking the plunge to buy might be a good idea. Any thoughts?

I don't know if you have a dog, but that's what got me out of the house in the beginning. I use to just walk every morning till I didn't know the neighborhood and turn back, lol, I just moved to Baltimore, so it also helped me learn the neighborhood.

No dog. (no pets at all!) But I do have 2 kids I run after. Do they count?

I need to get excited about exercising....find something I love and stick with it. In 2 weeks I start my summer vacation (I'm a first grade teacher), and I really want to use this time wisely. The food choices I make are tougher to change (can't cook, no money, picky family, yadda yadda yadda), so if I get my a** into gear, maybe I can burn the fat away! If I hate what I'm doing, I know I won't stick it out more than 1 day. Been there, done that!

Have a great day!

2 kids? PLAYGROUND!!!

Get out there and PLAY! Play tag! Swing on the swings! Climb on and through the climbing structures. Slide down the slide! Play hopscotch! Dig in the sandbox!

You're a first grade teacher -- you know what the kids do during recess. When you're on duty, you probably can't join in (because you have to be on watch), but with your own, PLAY!

You'll have oodles of fun and so will the kids! My son loved it when I played with him and his friends. We actually still do play together, but now it's more video games and less tag .

I agree with Lena, chasing around kids will definitely get you going. TAG! You're it!

We are dancers in my family...I teach belly dancing, and my father in law directs a clogging group/teaches clogging classes. We both perform with our groups at events, as well as doing the actual classes-so some of your exercise is actually "for show" as well, which makes it really fun.

Maybe there are some adult dance classes in your area worth looking into-adult ballet, line dancing, ballroom dancing or swing dancing (if you have a partner!), hip hop dancing, modern dancing...you name it, it's out there!

Re: the unicycle...those are GREAT! And even me, uncoordinated and poor balanced as I am, managed to learn to ride one.

The part about playing on the playground with the kids...that's an excellent way to get exercise.

I change my exercise frequently so that I don't get bored. Things I've tried:

Running/walking
Parking long distances and walking to the doors/taking the stairs
Dancing with my son (7 months and he loves it)
Dancing with the mop/music and chores go great together LOL
Exercise videos
Exercise equipment
Yoga
Curves
Speed jump rope
Swimming
Kegals in the grocery store line (no one has to know )

Or just get together with a group and do something fun. Upcoming holiday...perfect time. Just spent about 3 hours in volley ball this past Sunday. Man, what a workout!