Build exercise into your life - turn yourself from sedentary to active. That is sometimes even better than being sedentary all day and then doing a one hour cardio or strength workout, though they can go together.

Examples -
Do ten squats every time you go to the bathroom.

Put a pullup bar in doorway in your house - do your best to do a pullup every time you walk through . If nothing else jump up as you are walking toward it and grab it and lower yourself down.

Anytime you have something in the microwave or on the stove and have to wait for it, stretch... touch your toes, etc. Or grab a few cans and do some slow reps of biceps and triceps.

If you watch tv, do it while on the floor stretching, doing hip bridges, etc. Come up with a few mindless type exercises you can do while watching.

If you watch tv with commercials, spend every commercial pacing or go outside around the house and back in. Or better yet - clean. You get a little exercise and a cleaner house.

Speaking of cleaning, pick a 15 minute project every day. Pick a good time. Every day go do that (i.e. basic bathroom or kitchen clean. Move the couch and vacuum. Dust the ceiling fans, pull out the stove or fridge and clean under/behind it, etc.)

Find a park within walking distance of home or work. Go by there when you can and play on the playground equipment - swinging can be a great leg and arm mini-workout, pullups on the bars, etc. Have some fun for a few minutes.

Find a church or other facility with a ping pong table and get a friend to meet you there regularly . You can work up a sweat if you are a little competitive!

Find some local batting cages and go hit some balls. Or a raquetball court. Or a driving range. These can all be fun and stress relieving and work different muscles.

If you have a kid, do soccer drills with them. Play catch. Play tag. Play monkey (monkey see monkey do - follow them around and do whatever they do).

For "real" workouts, check out youtube - lots of free videos on there. Experiment with all of them, then when you find out what you really enjoy doing, find the better videos even if they cost $ (dont spend money til you know you what you like!). Get some TRX type straps (the "WOSS" military brand are way cheaper, available on Amazon for about $30 and can give you a total body workout).

Good luck! Just move more every day all day. Best advice I got was not to think of it as a "work" out... think of it as "recess"

Awesome stuff, aylajayne! I've heard "follow a ten year old and do what they do" before to make exercise less of a chore!

Note: following an actual ten year old can get you into trouble and is not recommended!

I do go to the gym usually, but there are times that life just doesn't allow that to happen. When the weather is good, I walk the dog, but when the weather is bad, I have a sick child, am super busy, etc. I have a yoga mat and will do a Youtube yoga or pilates workout for 30 minutes. Something is better than nothing, and Youtube has some wonderful videos for those days.

I started out with a lot of biking, walking, and elliptical with the occasional 30 Day Shred worked in; swimming too during the summer.

Now I'm doing a lot of jogging (about 15 miles/week) elliptical, and kettle bells (Shred It with Weights). I also try to throw in some planks, plank rows, and some other plank torture to work on my abs.

I'm generally exercising 30-60 minutes a day with a rest day about every 10 days; but, since January, I've been traveling nearly every week on business and I take advantage of the free time to get in extra workouts (up to two hours a day, about 3 days a week).

Loose skin notwithstanding, I'm in the best shape of my life at 40 and I ran track and field all through high school!