Our dog Finn is still quite young- only two years old. I tried using him as my motivation to walk, but found that he is more of a demotivator: generally I find the process of walking a dog to be rather… frustrating? Worrisome? I am always thinking about the struggle with the leash as he is quite a large dog and, despite dozens of hours of training, is not great on the leash. My wife likes him to ‘free range’ unleashed when we walk him together, and I think he is used to that. But I worry too much for off-leash walks, so… it is stressful.

For me, the vast majority of my adult life has been completely sedentary. I worked in IT and spent my leisure time playing computer games and reading. A somewhat fast metabolism and stress kept me fairly slim until my early 40’s, but I’ve been reducing stress levels since that age. Now that I’m retired I’m almost stress-free, and the pounds are starting to stick more readily.

I live in a beautiful area with real seasons, forest, wildlife: always something different to look at even if I walk exactly the same path every day. I don’t think it is boredom that keeps me from walking, but rather my excessively strong avoidance / procrastination abilities. Also, being unfit means that even a light walk ‘hurts’ to some degree, which also acts as a demotivating factor.

Thanks for the good thoughts, though: I suspect this is a battle I will have to struggle with for a while.