I live with my elderly parents in a community of mostly retired folks. I'm in my early 40s. Just where I ended up.

I was very active during my mid 20s through my 30s. Fell off the wagon in my late 30s and then had a scare of very high blood pressure one doctor visit. Got back on a better diet/exercise and now am back to normal BP.

Seeing all the elderly people in my area is a stark reminder of what not being active over your lifetime can do to you. All our bodies degrade over time, but not equally. Many of them are in constant pain and frustration over their bodies simply not doing basic things like picking stuff off the floor or lifting relatively light objects (I'm talking less than 5 lbs).

Try and find activities that keeps your body moving and your mind active. It's just a better life if you pay the physical/mental exercise tax up front rather than try play catch up later. Even better if you can make it a social activity.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a panacea. Shit can still happen, but moving your body and keeping your mind engaged in the world is imho an essential component to living a fulfilled and engaging life.

My local community center has a child watch room where you can pay $6/child for an up to 2 hour block. You must stay in the building. So on Saturday mornings, my wife and I drop the kids off at the child watch room and hit up the gym for a workout. We help keep each other motivated, and we get 2 hours where our kids are stream of consciousness word vomiting at us. Wins all around.

I don't like sport but do like physical exercise and dance.

Motivation is fleeting, willpower is weak. Habit is what you need. Make yourself exercise for 6 weeks. Just commit to 6 weeks and make it happen. Something every day, whatever deal you make with yourself, keep it.

After 6 weeks, two things happen. One, you have built a habit. Two, you will now feel so much better on days you work out & that provides some built in motivation.

6 weeks to build a habit, you can do it!

I run three times a week. I have done this so long that it has basically become a routine. If I do not run, it feels... weird.

TL:DR - move with friends

When I started college is when I really started getting in shape and getting my life on order. It's no coincidence that that's when I started making solid friends. Everything's more fun when there's people to do it with. We joined our university's Table Tennis club and went religiously. Still play years later here and there because of it. It also made going to the gym and just yeeting weights easier. Everything is easier with friends.

I am terrible at finding the motivation for many things, including staying active. The only thing that marginally helps is doing an activity that is fun for me in some other way, like kayaking or indoor bouldering.

Desire for my body not to atrophy and wither away earlier than necessary. My hobbies and work are generally very sedentary, so I need to go out of the way to be active.

There are fun aspects - with weight training or running, you can track the numbers and watch them improve over time; it's RPG-like improvement fantasy. Sports let you focus on the game aspect and not notice the physical part as much. Walking lets you explore your environment.

The only time in my life I managed to in public was because I had fit it into my work schedule. The routine + the body high were the only reasons I went for as long as I did. It also helped to be planning by meals according to my exercise so I had the pressure to never waste any of that extra work I was doing. But that was before people constantly recording on their phones became a thing.

Now I just do whatever bare minimum I can at home

For me it was the feeling of feeling better. I've always been overweight but it's a downward spiral. The heavier I got the worse I felt and the worse I felt the less I felt like doing and the more weight I gained. You never want to get to that point and it happens faster than you think. Once I started losing weight I generally felt better and until I blew out my knee I was going to the gym regularly.

The gym can definitely help you lose weight but it's not how you lose weight. Your diet is how you lose weight, don't go on a diet, change your diet. Going to the gym will help you become healthier by building muscle, getting cardio, and staying active. Going to the gym will help you improve your health faster, your diet will make you fat or skinny but it will never make you healthy. Just be active and eat what your body needs, not delicious junk food.

Just start moving more in general. Once you feel you have plateaued then see if the gym works for you or not. Just move your body, as I'm typing this I'm reminded that I really need to move more often.

Haven't found anything so far ...

Nothing. I hate physical activity.

I try to do things that are fun for me, but underlying it all is that I treat my exercise regimen as a job. It's just something I do and can't miss. It's a habit. Whether or not I feel like working out is irrelevant, in the same way whether I feel like going to work is irrelevant, I know it is something that I need to do so I just do it.

In my experience if I keep on doing some activity eventually my body will crave it. Tried cycling a month ago sticking to a schedule of once per day and yesterday I couldn't do because it was raining very heavy. My body absolutely wanted me to cycle that day.

Fun/gratification. For me personally, it's mostly just riding bikes and some body weight exercises here and there. Once you acclimate to it, it becomes less of a chore and more something that you look forward to. If I go too long without some kind of physical activity, I actually start to feel shittier.

Ex-swimmer here. I miss parts of swimming, just not the toll it takes on skin and hair. And access to pools at workable hours isn't always easy.

So I got a rowing machine that I have to trip over every day. It's a lot easier to build up a 30 minute habit a day than it is carving out the time to go to the pool or gym regularly. Doesn't have to be a rowing machine. Kettlebells work great and you can be very creative with them. Don't chase motivation, be disciplined.

You don't even need do a full workout every day. Five minutes of one exercise before you shower is better than nothing. And once you start clocking the clarity of mind and ease of movement it brings you it's hard to go back to doing nothing.

You're young, so the effects of not working out are harder to notice right now. But as age creeps in the inertia of weight and lethargy really do take their toll on your body. Get ahead of the curve before you're climbing a mountain.

I know it betters my mental state, that will eventually worsen and evolve into a full on depression if I don't exercise. Also I'm not getting any younger, I like jumping out of bed in the morning without having back problems.

And finally women, i find it easier to get dates when I'm in better shape.

So yeah. Mental health, age and sex are my main motivation :)

Company.

My dogs need their walks. This is the main exercise I get.

For now I like being strong and agile. For the future all the old people I know who never exercised are feeble, while all the old people who consistently exercise any amount are active, cognitively sharper and have a better quality of life.

Team sports, mostly

Friends…meeting new ones through sports leagues and hanging out with old ones.