I think that after being stalled at home during the first lockdown I started to appreciate how needed was to exercise. There was only one time in my life (pre-pandemics) when I started running, kept being consistent and somehow I got fit. Same at the beginning I was dead after 500m but it was such a pleasure to see challenges achieved and finally to see a healthier stronger me running for five miles. Then some health issues, the pandemic, was back to square zero. Indulged a little bit too much like almost everyone XD but above all I felt lazy to be consistent again, I used to start and give up :). Last year I started mindful walking, as my baseline due to reasons is that I'm more tired than usual I decided to give long walks and track it and at the same time do a mindful meditation along, ended up covering longer and longer distance and still not ready for running but more motivated to remain active, or at least to comply with a minimum even in those days where I feel like a coach potato. It helped, I shed the weight and has been stable since Summer @hedac gifted me just yesterday a band to keep track of my steps, sleep and such things, which makes it even easier. I honestly do not do it as much because of the weight but because of endurance, I was tired of losing my breath after going upstairs. :)

Note also when I started to run for me it was important to alternate walking and running in intervals, I would run, get tired, walk until my heart paced back to normal, jog again and so on. But not that I'm discovering anything new. Stay motivated!

And really for me mindful walking was a life changer, I mean I used to listen to my fav music or tutorials or useful things but I found it was best for me to just DISCONNECT, and use something to guide my walk and breathing NOT THINKING ABSOLUTELY on anything at all, just emptying my head and letting thoughs flow... life can wait you're taking a break... :) feels very much like training and resting at the same time. (at least mentally) I made an article around here like half a year ago or so, if you are interested I'll come back to drop the link