Ways to be "Lightly Active"

bex1086
bex1086 Posts: 85 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've gone from never stopping and constantly out and about moving to sitting around the house over the last few days. In this current UK lockdown situation I'm very limited in what I can do so please give me some ideas to bump up my activity level.

At the moment I'm redoing couch to 5K so that gets me out of the house for my one form of allowed daily activity.

I've borrowed a barbell and some plates from the gym and signed up to lesmills so that I can do body pump 3 times a week.

I have 2 kids so my days are spent getting up and down tending to their various demands. They do however make exercising in the house tricky, I attempted a lesmills body attack session yesterday and got halfway through then gave up because my 2 year old kept getting in the way.

I'm going to try get more housework and tidying done over the next few weeks. I've already done a lot of weeding in the garden and the car needs washing and cleaning inside.

Anything else I can be doing to bump up my activity level? I need to stop eating everything out of boredom too, that's not going to help!

Replies

  • randyolf
    randyolf Posts: 61 Member
    Hi. I'm the same. Trying to exercise at home with 3 kids who want your attention can be challenging. I'm lucky enough to have a little home gym but its finding free time to use it.
    I went out and did 14 mins of my planned 30 minute treadmill run when I was called for to fix a toy.
    I even do 50 pushups and a round of crunches occasionally when I have to use the loo😉.
    Bike rides are good for our one a day exercise.
    Stick with it and we can get through this together 😊
  • bex1086
    bex1086 Posts: 85 Member
    randyolf wrote: »
    Hi. I'm the same. Trying to exercise at home with 3 kids who want your attention can be challenging. I'm lucky enough to have a little home gym but its finding free time to use it.
    I went out and did 14 mins of my planned 30 minute treadmill run when I was called for to fix a toy.
    I even do 50 pushups and a round of crunches occasionally when I have to use the loo😉.
    Bike rides are good for our one a day exercise.
    Stick with it and we can get through this together 😊

    It's so hard isn't it. Ironically I've been saying for ages I want a day to sit around, eat chocolate and not leave the house, now I've got 3 weeks of it, maybe more!
  • samjuggins
    samjuggins Posts: 1 Member
    I'm now working from home so steps are dramatically reduced. May set up my wii fit later. Got some additional fitness games and yoga to have a go at
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,981 Member
    I've got a home elliptical but working from home is definitely killing my step count. Even after a 50 min elliptical session yesterday, I still had to jog in place to get the last 100 steps in to hit my goal. The weather isn't helping here, either, as it rained yesterday and the forecast is rain today too. Hopefully, it will clear up this evening so I can get a walk in outside - I'd much rather walk than use the elliptical. I've also found a couple of aerobic routines on Youtbue I can work through. I'm thinking I should dig out the old Wii fit soon, too. I did pull out my old PS2 DDR mat and it actually still works!
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Here is some of the stuff I do (and have been doing more since all this started):

    1. Practice purposeful inefficiency. If I'm putting laundry away, I'll do one stack at a time instead of grabbing one in each hand. If I am putting dinner on the table, I'll make extra trips to set the table, etc.

    2. I read a fair amount and I walk while reading. I just make a big loop in my living area. This one looks weird so warn anybody you're living with!

    3. When I'm watching tv, I'll get up during ad breaks to get a glass of water, do some stretches, put away clutter on the coffee table, whatever.
  • beulah81
    beulah81 Posts: 168 Member
    Waking or jogging in place?! I have four children in the house at the moment. I take brisk walk-in-place breaks. Love it!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited March 2020
    I'm getting out an hour in the morning for a family walk or bike ride for an hour and then another 60 minute or sometimes more ride in the afternoon/evening on my own.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    bex1086 wrote: »
    I've gone from never stopping and constantly out and about moving to sitting around the house over the last few days. In this current UK lockdown situation I'm very limited in what I can do so please give me some ideas to bump up my activity level.

    At the moment I'm redoing couch to 5K so that gets me out of the house for my one form of allowed daily activity.

    I've borrowed a barbell and some plates from the gym and signed up to lesmills so that I can do body pump 3 times a week.

    I have 2 kids so my days are spent getting up and down tending to their various demands. They do however make exercising in the house tricky, I attempted a lesmills body attack session yesterday and got halfway through then gave up because my 2 year old kept getting in the way.

    I'm going to try get more housework and tidying done over the next few weeks. I've already done a lot of weeding in the garden and the car needs washing and cleaning inside.

    Anything else I can be doing to bump up my activity level? I need to stop eating everything out of boredom too, that's not going to help!

    I was going to suggest housework and gardening, but you're already there :)

    It's just the beginning of gardening season here in MA, so I've been limited, but it's finally warm enough (daytime temps in the 50s) to do spring clean up: https://savvygardening.com/spring-garden-clean-done-right/?fbclid=IwAR0F0lv5haNEZhJmXPE4wmZRN3t2q6LKOMN7vK4yM5LxynwstvucFlx-Kpc

    My soil is also warm enough for some seeds and I will be planting peas for sure this week, plus considering kale and spinach and lettuce seeds - I usually get these as seedlings, but...

    I use my meat thermometer to measure soil temp.

    https://todayshomeowner.com/how-to-measure-soil-temperature-for-planting/

    Garden Vegetable Seed Germination Temperatures

    The soil temperature for planting vegetables should be:
    • 40° F or warmer: Lettuce, kale, peas, spinach.
    • 50° F or warmer: Onions, leeks, turnips, Swiss chard.
    • 60° F or warmer: Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, beans, beets.
    • 70° F or warmer: Tomatoes, squash, corn, cucumbers, melons, peppers.

    ****************

    I did some deep cleaning last week - moving furniture around and vacuuming, etc.

    I'm thinking about getting a stencil and paint and adding some color to the bathroom, which is overwhelmingly pink.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,060 Member
    I've really increased my NEAT since getting a Fitbit. Doing things like using the master bathroom instead of the main one, walking in place with my laptop on the counter when I go on social media in the morning, and parking further away. I'm also less likely to procrastinate. There are a lot of kid-friendly workouts, I'm blanking on the first one but saw yesterday the app Fit On has workouts good for kids too. One of my friends on here uses Just Dance on Nintendo Switch. When my nephews were younger we used to have dance parties, it was a lot of fun! We go for family walks when we're all together too and the boys have Fitbits.

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