For the past 3 years, I have slowly gained weight- an aberration for me- and I was already...
*ahem*..."fluffy." Part of that is I'm cooking at home more often, part of it is that I have slowly but surely stopped doing all the little things like volleyball & bowling that got me any meaningful exercise.
So I'm trying to start slowly...
Step 1: take my doggies for daily walks. So far, so good! We have missed only 4 days out of the past month- 3 days due to weather, one lost to me being sick- so we're actually averaging a walk 6 days a week. And believe me, a circuit of 1 mile with 2 undisciplined border collies weighing in at a total of @100lbs, featuring 8-paw drive, an interest in absolutely everything, and a neighborhood full of bunnies can make you break a sweat. We cover it in about 20 minutes. I may not have lost a lot of weight yet, but the older dog (the red merle, below) has lost enough girth that her harness, once a struggle to put on her due to fat + fur now goes on easily.
While our red merle wants to see EVERYTHING- resulting in a zig-zag path that probably adds a half mile to her journey- she doesn't strain against the harness except at the walk's beginning. It's our blue merle who is the real challenge. The red is consistent in her variability. The blue, OTOH, walks straight & controlled most of the time...until she darts with full strength after Peter Cottontail & pals. Or a bird. Or something I can't see at all.