hiya.. I keep an eye on this thread from time to time but haven't posted before...

Jennie, I really sympathise about resenting fitting in exercise. For years I've felt I wasn't fit enough but as a busy person never made time to do anything about it and never found much that I enjoyed anyhow. It's not a weight issue for me, more to do with stamina/strength/feeling tired all the time plus wanting to guard against injury when I dance. Couple of things have changed for me though, this past year or so, net result of which has been I feel fitter at the moment than I have done since I was a kid.

One is I've got together with a group of (mostly equally not fit enough) friends and we play badminton a couple of times a week. I am rubbish at motivating myself to do something on my own but if we've booked a court and I've promised to be there then I go - and mostly enjoy it :)

The other is I've started cycling to work, after years of being frightened of the traffic and the hills. And it's saving me money (bus fares) and time (takes approx same amount of time as the bus on a good day, but predictably the same every day whereas bus can vary by 15 mins depending on timetables) and I'm finding that kind of activity on the way home is de-stressing my head in a way that waiting for bus and reading my book wasn't doing. Plus its getting me fit - so there's a 4-for-1 benefit.

Not that these two things would work for everybody but I think my big lesson has been about letting go of resenting the time spent/wasted (no I know it's not really wasted but sometimes hard to believe that) doing exercise versus doing other stuff, plus finding ways to shoehorn exercise into my busy lifestyle in a way that becomes routine and has other benefits too (socialising, money saving, head de-stressing...) In the past I'd tried pilates and aerobics type classes and they didn't suit me one bit.

J