Great Hunt: How to trim your tummy without also trimming your bank account

hairypitz

For me the thing that trimmed my tummy, toned me up and made me feel the happiest and healthiest I have in ages was a £48/month gym membership.
I get it if you really don't have that to spend but my logic is that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my gym. I go 4 times a week and am intending to start spinning in the new year to take things up to 5 sessions per week.
It has really nice changing rooms with clean good showers and toiletries, a swimming pool, sauna, steam room, gym, studios, lots of different classes and is open all hours. When they change the class routine, every 6-8 weeks they provide nice stuff like fruit to eat after class. Best of all for me I've met lots of incredibly nice people too.

It's expensive enough to make me use it. I save a fortune in heating coz I don't just sit in the house every night after work and my O/H does the same classes as me so we motivate each other to keep it up.
We are both really happy that we've joined and it's worth every last penny. There's also no contract to be locked in to. I'm not forced to keep paying... I want to.
When I hear stuff about all the health benefits of exercise I think I'm making an investment. I also get to have excellent "me" time several times per week. I feel great when I leave and I sleep like a dream.
I consider this to be amazing value.
By the way I'm not one of those natural born gym bunnies, I just managed to become one.

gloriouslyhappy

A few years ago I rehomed an energetic dog, and she's made a huge difference to my life. I now walk three or four times a day every day in all weather, I meet lots of people, have made new friends, lost a bit of weight but am very much healthier all round, and of course there's the completely adoring companionship from my four-footed friend. Yes, she costs a bit, yes, I have to plan away-breaks around the kindness of friends to look after her - I reciprocate with their cats and dogs - yes there's mud and dog hair to deal with, but the benefits so much outweigh any disadvantages!

Of course, you must be prepared for a ten-plus year commitment and vet bills, but if you can do it, it's the best possible health plan, and there are many studies showing how beneficial to health and well-being generally that a companion animal provides. So I advise a trip to the local animal shelter, a good long think, then if you go for it, you won't regret it, and you'll be giving a loving little animal a second chance too!

Datchet

simples; dig a veg plot - it is very vigorous exercise and you get Garlic, Potatoes & Kohl Rabi !!!🍊🌽🍓🌱🐝

Lifes_Grand_Plan

Couch 2 5K is good and free, I think anyone could do that if they were motivated.

The other would be to get a fitness/activity tracker that will track your steps / workouts and sync to your phone. Its possible to pick decent ones up for just over £12 - I think most people would be surprised how inactive they are in a day especially if they work in a desk job like I do. A lot of days I can easily do less than 2000 steps which is terrible. The tracker tries to get me to do 10,000 a day which I have done for the last two weeks... that combined with eating sensibly should do the trick.

As a little aside, I have been out for pub lunches for the last two weekends and happened to check the websites of the (chain) pubs to see what calories were in my chose meals.... bearing in mind the recommended allowance for a man is 2500 calories a day, I was horrified to see that the "Ultimate Burger" meal I ordered was 2700 calories... so all of my calories for the day, and more, in one meal... and thats before a couple of beers and desert and my other meals for the day. It wasn't even a massive meal for all of those calories.

The second weekend I nearly ordered a pulled pork "(Wo)Man versus Burrito" thinking it would be more healthy than something that came with chips... I was wrong. It was 3500 calories, in ONE MEAL!!! Needless to say I didn't order it in the end.

robertoegg

Yttesfor wrote: »

Actually I got it for free as my friend wasn't using it but you can buy an old one quite cheaply. As I live in London and now cycle to work I estimate it saves me around £100 a month in travel costs. Definitely worth the investment.

definitely this, it takes me 40/45mins to do 12 miles whatever the traffic/weather. So with a quick shower at the other end, my "1hour commute" is actually my 400 calorie work-out, twice a day. Since July 2013 I've spent about £1500 pounds on bike, upgrades, cllothing, lights, reflectives, tubes, wheels etc. On a train, bus, car it would have been a lot lot more. Health benefits are great as well - resting heart-beat is now 40-43. And I've got great legs ;o)

Respect the laws of the road, always ask if it's ok when pulling to the front of stationary traffic, make eye contact with everyone, give clear indications and always stop at red lights and you'll be fine! Oh, and get bib shorts, but don't feel you have to lycra up. I wear baggies over the top which gives me pockets for keys, phone, spare lights a bit of cash etc.

You'll also begin to notice how often vehicles run red lights despite that being the no.1 comment made to me on a bike "you lot are all the same...." blah blah

IDProtected

Why is this crossed out in the newsletter?

Angry_Bear

Yttesfor wrote: »

Actually I got it for free as my friend wasn't using it but you can buy an old one quite cheaply. As I live in London and now cycle to work I estimate it saves me around £100 a month in travel costs. Definitely worth the investment.

^^ This.

I got one free (from my mum!) last spring and have been cycling to work since then. Between that and the 5:2 I'm down around 7 stone* and have saved money on petrol and parking :money:

* It's probably taken me closer to 2 years to drop the 7 stone, I've been doing 5:2 for a while - but there's no way I could have done 15 miles a day on a bike at my heaviest :rotfl: