Incorporate exercise into everyday life
I don't work out. Even with my back preventing me from cycling long distances, living in Amsterdam is exercise enough. Take for instance my third floor apartment in a building with no lift. Every day I scrupolously check that I have everything I need, in fear of having to go up the stairs again. Even taking the train raises the heart rate. Today my train got canceled. The metro also ran from this station and I decided to dash down the train platform stairs, over to the metro, and up those stairs to the metro. Then the news: a metro has gone bust. No metros for forseeable future.
But I knew there was another train that comes just after my normal train & from there I could transfer to another train/metro and get to work. I dashed back to the train platform only to just miss it. No worries, there was another train in ten minutes I thought I could also tranfer with. I walked back to the metro station in case the metro was up again to kill a few minutes. No metro, walk back over to train platform only to realize I was wrong about transfer possibilities - this train didn't stop anywhere near a stopover to work.
BACK to the metro platform. If you're keeping track, I've now been back and forth between the two elevated platforms five times. I am out of breath. The metro is still not showing any signs of rejuvenation. I spy from a distance that in fact the next normally scheduled train that would take me to work is not canceled like its predecessor. Finally! I run back over, and very happily sit down.
I am not sure if it's wholly a good thing, but this happens on a regular enough basis to keep me well enough to dash up a few flights of stairs. Fitness in every day life, sponsored by public transit.
