I’ve been house sitting for a while now, and while I absolutely love it, there’s something that’s been on my mind lately. I’ve noticed that during longer sits, I can get a bit too relaxed, especially when I’m in a home with all the comforts – big couches, a good TV setup, and an endless supply of snacks. And with a lot of the house sits being in quiet, rural areas, I find myself not moving as much as I’d like. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s struggled with keeping active during house sits, right?
I feel like it’s too easy to get caught up in the house’s comforts and daily routines, whether it’s taking care of pets, doing some light gardening, or just enjoying the surroundings. Before I know it, I’ve gone a whole day without really getting outside or moving much.
One thing I’ve been thinking of doing is setting small, daily movement goals to make sure I don’t fall into a rut of inactivity. Maybe something like committing to a certain number of steps each day. I’ve recently been inspired by the idea of using a walking tracker – not in a heavy or intense way, but more as a gentle nudge to get out of the house and explore the area I’m sitting in. For those who don’t know, a walking tracker is a tool that helps monitor your steps, distance, and sometimes even the route you take. Some also offer online distance tracking for walks, which means you can see your progress in real-time, making it easier to stay accountable. It’s been surprisingly motivating for me to see how many steps I’ve done (or haven’t done!) and makes me more mindful about taking walks, especially with dogs or even just around the garden.
What I’d love to know is how others keep up their activity levels while house sitting. Do you find it difficult to maintain some form of exercise, or is there a specific routine that you stick to? For those of you who’ve been doing this for a while, do you have any tricks for keeping yourself on the move, especially when you’re staying in such comfortable environments? Your insights would be greatly appreciated!
Good post topic @GouyenJennigje! We go for a decent walk every morning even if we don’t have pooches on the sit. Then we also do sets of circuits every other day - squats, push ups, plank etc to get the muscles working, and on the alternate days we do 15 minutes of yoga and/or a swim if we have any type of water on offer Totally guilty that if it doesn’t happen first thing then it’s much harder so starting the day with some kind of exercise makes all the difference to mind set & happiness. Our reward is coffee and breakfast after the phyzz as the motivator We’ve been doing this 3.5 years and on the whole it’s every day wherever we sit and whatever the temps. #keeponmovin
@Cuttlefish I’m exhausted just reading your routine! Settle petal! (But you go girl)
But on a serious note, I have been experiencing the same thing as @GouyenJennigje and really needed to make a concerted effort to change things. I do force myself to get out now and walk, or go to the shops, or visit an attraction - anything, as long as it involves walking to and from. It is very easy to become lazy and fall into bad habits when sitting, for me it’s a constant battle as I’m a huge researcher and spend far too much time online also. But my clothes and the scales have now pushed me to make a conscious effort to do as much as I can outside the home. Instead of taking buses or trains, I now walk when distance permits, and once started I feel exhilarated to keep going. It’s the starting that’s the hard part! Oh, insofar as rural sits, it’s amazing how much pleasure you can get out of seeing a new flower, or tree, or animal etc when walking. The unexpected beauty of small things can change your day
Sorry matey @ziggy Promise it’s not as bad as it sounds & also totally get it that two makes it easier to motivate. One of us pushes the other one to do it (and confession time I totally wimped on circuits this morning and opted for gentle yoga & a dog walk instead). I frickin hate scales BTW, they’re mean! #movinmovinmovin
BTW tried learning a shuffle dance routine on YouTube as really fancy starting that. Man it was complicated! If anyone knows a good starting one tips please. #shuffledancelove
I do step bets. It’s much easier for me to stay motivated if money is on the line. Plus I get a little extra at the end. I’ve been doing them for years and putting my winnings into a health savings ETF and now I have a couple thousand in there. I always say that some day I’ll cash it in as a reward and pay for some amazing spa vacation but likely i’ll just keep letting it sit and grow. lol
@GouyenJennigje
It obviously depends on the pets and condition of the pets but if you have fit dogs under your care, I’m sure they would appreciate being out of the house for longer.
It need not be walking all the time, a walk then a leisurely sit for and while and repeat.
Leave the sitting on sofas for the poorer and wetter days and make the most of any good weather by spending more time outdoors.
The pets, and your lungs, will thank you for it.
I use MapMyWalk. I have set the target to be 28 miles a week, 4 miles a day. But it’s harder in the winter so I make sure I have dogs who must be walked which gets me out and moving.
Getting too settled has been a problem on long sits. I cook then eat then cook again then have to freeze half the things I’ve cooked. I do enjoy sits with well equipped/high tech kitchens.
One of the joys of this life (for me) is living like a local, slotting into someone else’s lifestyle whether it be an off grid island home, a rural farmhouse or a city apartment. It’s like having all the pluses of these lives but none of the negatives or costs. Can you tell I love my life!
I find that I’m ok with the get up out and moving part but snacking in an evening has definitely increased.
I’ve added a few llbs that need to come off
If you struggle to motivate yourself and want to really force yourself to engage in physical activity, then you can’t do better than a dog that’ll go bananas at you until you take it outside for a decent walk. We had a pair once who’d howl if they thought you’d forgotten their hour’s walk in the morning. It was a little annoying but it got you going.
Another tip I like is if you have a really good podcast our audiobook on the go, listen while you walk. If you really want to motivate yourself - set a rule that you can only listen when you’re walking (or doing something active).
I like to use my step count on my iPhone to keep track of how active I’ve been- then challenge myself to add another 1000 every day or something like that.
I agree that daily chores can quickly add up and where did the day go!?
I’m a very active person at home and continue to be on sits as well. I tend to apply on sits in a city rather than rural areas as I find it’s so much easier for steps to add up walking around a city. I usually walk about 15,000 steps a day at home (have the steps app). I enjoy zumba classes at home so look for classes when I do a sit. Also have my own playlist of music and routines I can do if I can’t find classes. If sitting with dogs, I usually walk more than I would on my own. I also love to swim so have been lucky to find some sits with pools in the summer which I’ve really enjoyed.
I also use Komoot and the Ordnance Survey App in the UK to find walks. I have challenged myself to walk 1000 miles this year and am on target so far. Sadly my Garmin watch fails to recognise the miles I walk in the swimming pool at work, and I’ve lost count of the number of times it has gone flat on a walk, so my true total will be much higher.
We also like geocaching and this gives a purpose to a walk, and sometimes helps find nice circular routes. We almost always find geocaches on dog walks on housesits. We even climbed most of the way up a mountain, on a route that had no paths to find a very old geocache!
I think our best mileage was the sit for 2 active spaniels, where the owners said “You won’t wear them out!”. We took that as a challenge! We were delighted when we could report that one was snoring and the other was fighting to keep his eyes open!
Well I found a different way of exercising today - I followed Google Maps the wrong way and ended up walking klms in the wrong direction before I realised it. Obviously had to turn around and go back the right way then back to the sit. Tired
Apart from walking the dogs that I’m sitting, I go for a run every day, or every second day. A half hour (5Km) should be just enough to keep your activity levels up. Doesn’t take up too much time, so leaves plenty of time for snacking
My current sit is for a cat, and of course I don’t have the dog walking. So I joined the local leisure centre (10 mins walk away), and yesterday went on an (separate to the leisure centre) introduction to open water swimming (being Oct in NE Uk I was so glad to have a wetsuit!).
Great post!
Here are mine: (1) YOGA Have my fave YouTube yoga video I can access on HO smart tv or my phone: just need a comfortable place & my yoga pants which take up very little room (2) Pedometer Like most things, too easy to lose track of how much you’ve moved so with a pedometer app on my phone I’m now in the habit of checking it to make sure I hit my daily goal AND it’s another reason to get me exploring my Sit location! (3) List of Places to Visit: Before a Sit I draw up a list of places to see while there. A slow traveller, not trying to knock of a ton of stuff every day, but on a 5 day trip if there are 10 things I want to see in the area, it encourages me to get out and about every day. If not tourism? There are usually local hiking maps or walking trails to explore
Totally guilty that if it doesn’t happen first thing then it’s much harder so starting the day with some kind of exercise makes all the difference to mind set & happiness. Our reward is coffee and breakfast after the phyzz as the motivator 
We’ve been doing this 3.5 years and on the whole it’s every day wherever we sit and whatever the temps. 
Settle petal! 
Promise it’s not as bad as it sounds & also totally get it that two makes it easier to motivate. One of us pushes the other one to do it (and confession time 
I totally wimped on circuits this morning and opted for gentle yoga & a dog walk instead). I frickin hate scales BTW, they’re mean! 
Plus I get a little extra at the end. I’ve been doing them for years and putting my winnings into a health savings ETF and now I have a couple thousand in there. I always say that some day I’ll cash it in as a reward and pay for some amazing spa vacation but likely i’ll just keep letting it sit and grow. lol
