Get a hobby that keeps you active. If you have become a couch potato you can take up a hobby that gets you off the butt and into life. The more active you become the better health benefits to both mind and body.

Look at exercise as being an integral part of your life. It's like joining a club where you are a well respected member. Perhaps you can go pick up rubbish along a beach or in the local park. Your membership in life doesn't cost a cent, yet you are diong something of value to the world. You may be the only member in your club, but you certainly are the most valuable.

           

Turning a hobby into exercise

Exercise doesn't mean hours of grueling pain, slogging away in a gym or walking for miles just to burn a few calories. Exercise can be fun and combining exercise with a hobby is the best way to make sure that you will enjoy the activity and get benefits to your health.

Here's a few things that you could try if you haven't got a hobby.

Take up exercise photography
Taking photos of things you like to look at is something we can all enjoy. If you are reading this page then chances are you have a computer, so digital photography can be a great and rewarding hobby. The best thing is you get to walk around taking photos, and walking is called exercise.

Bird watching to lose weight
Go to your local park and count the birds. Take a little of the bread you are trying to give up and feed the birds with it. Looking up into the trees or onto the neighborhood roof tops will stretch those neck muscles and walking is the best form of exercise yet.

Window Shopping
What could be better than walking around town for an hour or so looking into the windows of your favorite stores. Everybody likes to shop and everyone likes to dream of what they could buy if money was no object. How about window shopping for the new clothes you will buy when you are 20 kilos lighter.

Flying a kite
We loved to do it as kids, why not as we get older?

Sightseeing
You don't have to go on holidays to go sightseeing. There is something different that happens in your local area everyday and some people actually come to your neighborhood on holidays. Take a stroll around you neighborhood and look at it from the eyes of a tourist, you will burn calories and notice a few interesting things at the same time.

Gardening
One of the most enjoyable hobbies for anybody is gardening. Stretching down pulling a few weeds out is great activity and keeps the joints working. If you haven't got a garden yourself, the local council will probably have a parks and gardens program you could volunteer to join and do a bit of gardening exercise.

My wife is into photography big time and studied it at university. When she goes on a camera shoot I usually tag along for company and to carry the gear. While she was off in her own world I would sit quietly and watch the world go by, waiting until she was ready to go home. Luckily I could enjoy wherever we were, just looking at the scenery, but sitting wasn't being active.

One thing that I noticed is that we see things totally differently. I would suggest to photograph something that I saw as interesting or beautiful and would get a quizzical look as if to say, "what the". So I figured I should take my own photos of what I like and see.

I purchased a digital camera myself and yesterday went on a photo shoot with my wife to the local botanical gardens. We walked in our own world for over 3 hours taking photos and while you walk slowly with frequent stops, it is still counted as exercise. I am planning to go on a photo shoot to Cape Hillsborough, where we will have to walk up a mountain to get fabulous shots over the crystal waters of the Coral Sea. Now that will be great exercise.

Get off that couch and burn a few calories enjoying a good hobby.

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