Health & Fitness • Page 146

get your own home gym slacker

 

I’m broke after buying a house dyl tf

 

duuuuuude let’s go

 

I'm on vacation which I never ever do and my main takeaways so far are that while excercising consistently hasn't translated to any massively observable gains in strength I can tell my endurance seems better? I'm with a group and I'm the only one who excercises regularly. I noticed I'm also the only one not totally beat after an activity and the only one not rly napping during the day. I feel like my energy levels are overall just higher

Not a shocking revelation but it's wild how much energy and endurance I also have when I'm not working the entire day. We'd be so much more fit as a society if we had more time for leisure and activity. I'm getting 2-4x more steps daily than usual and have time to do multiple methods of excercise. Today I did kayaking, walked around a lot, and swam laps in a pool. When I work I barely muster the energy for a 30 min jog. It's just depressing how we're set up to fail and then media makes individuals out to be the problem.

 

I never really “diet” but I am right now and Jesus I’m always surprised to find how much I overeat when I’m not paying attention

 

Question for the room. If you have a daily calorie limit and work out too, do you count those calories burned towards your goal? Ex: you burn 200 calories so you get an extra 200 calories to eat within your day. I’ve heard this is a recipe for miscalculating your numbers but I’m just curious if others do it.

 

Depends. I do not count my lifting calories because apple watch and other apps are notorious for overcounting those (you're not burning ~300 calories doing a 45 minute weight training routine) but I will count HITT/cardio calories since those are usually tracked pretty accurately based on effort and duration if you have a chest monitor/apple watch.

 

Same. Depending on how much I am trying to cut (or bulk) I’ll add back some weight calories but cut them basically in half / never more than add back like 100.

 

So I can have 3/4 cup of special k, as a treat.

 

Is there a good “how to start being healthy again” post in here? Want to try and commit (work out/eat healthier) but never know where to start in a way that i won’t instantly resent lol

 

idk about an old post, but I had a weirdly, surprisingly productive 2023 in that regard. Didn’t intend for it to align with the new year or month-to-month, but because of some other health scares I slowly started adding more “healthy” things one by one. For example, in January I started by brainstorming healthier foods I generally like but don’t buy, especially to replace snacks. Then I bought them. Replaced chips with carrot sticks and peanut butter. Added better greens to things I was already eating like burgers. Cheese or fruit instead of candy during the day. Ate a single reeses for dessert instead of several higher carb cookies. I found that eating healthier snacks or sides with my meals helped me feel more responsible in the moment, so I found myself then eating smaller desserts. Drank more water throughout the day. And overtime that built up to leaving more time for making meals, adding more healthy things, cutting out eating out a bit, etc. I relapse here and there, especially over the last couple months it’s been bad, but for the most part it’s been sustained change.

Last December I got a peloton. expensive, but as somebody who loathes running and going to the gym it was transformational for me. I knew I liked cycling more from my past because it was less agonizing but still easy to quantify progress. It was easier to cycle for a longer time than to run for a shorter time. Bursts of more exertion were more tolerable. Now I do more cardio now than I ever have since high school. Can’t definitively tell you why it worked better now than previous attempts, but I think it was the right combo of a present need and the peloton just being novel (and adjustable to comfort level) enough for me to keep going back to it. So I guess the advice there is lean into what you like and what’s convenient for you, even if they’re “easier.” For the same reason, I got adjustable weights. Also expensive, but I see them every day and I set up a work out spot in direct line of the Tv and loud speakers lol. I clean something or get meal ingredients together between sets so steal some time back from the day. Working out just feels like something accessible and easier to make time for now.

over the rest of the year I set aside time to get my financials in order, started going to bed earlier (this part I’m still garbage at), etc.

I guess the short answer is make as basic a change as possible to make it feel like it’s not taking effort and ride the endorphins and sense of self-accountability to the next step.

 

As someone who exercises very regularly, to me it's more about eating healthy than it is about exercising (although both are very important).

I was very unhealthy - eating-wise - for most of my life until I hit about age 30. In my opinion, the biggest things to cut out are pop, fast food, candy, junk food snacks, processed meats, bread, etc. I even cut out 'healthy' drinks like Gatorade and Powerade zero. Drinking lots of water is also key.

For dinner, I started focusing on eating grilled chicken or seafood most nights (salmon, cod, catfish, perch, tilapia, etc) with steamed veggies or a small side of potatoes/rice.

I personally never eat breakfast (drink a ton of coffee throughout the day- which helps with decreasing my appetite) and for lunch I typically just eat fruit (grapes, sugar free apple sauce, peaches, bananas, strawberries, blackberries, etc) and like, pretzels or wheat thins with a cheesestick.

Oddly, I have never cut out alcohol, which doesn't seem to shift my weight as I still drink a few craft beers 4-5 nights per week.

To me, switching up your eating/drinking habits is key to 'start' being healthy again.

From there, there are dozens upon dozens of ways you can choose to work out/exercise. The best way imo? Find a hobby and stick with it. Some people enjoy lifting weights or running or biking or whatever. But you can also get really good exercise playing tennis, basketball, soccer, etc. Exercising should be fun, and not something you feel like you have to do just to do. Personally, I love biking in the summer months and my main source of exercise is playing full-court, 5 on 5, basketball 3x per week all year-round.

 

diet is 90% of it i've found.

I used to do HIIT work outs, endless cardio, etc. I have made more progress in counting my calories and staying near maintenance level or in a slight deficit, focussing on getting .8-1g of protein per lb of my body weight, strength training and getting 8-10K of steps in every day. ive lost around 30 pounds over the course of the year and I do not really restrict myself from anything.

 

I've lost 7 lbs in two weeks, trying to watch what I eat while working in a bakery is brutal lol. But I've kept myself to a couple Kodiak granola bars, couple servings of almonds, and two vegetable spring rolls and carrots for lunch that whole time during work.

Also up to 42 minutes and 3.06 miles on treadmill at 15 incline. Was planning to cap myself at 45 minutes but may aim for an hour twice a week.

 

Cutting out soda (still drink plenty of diet to be clear) and beer for the most part was the biggest and easiest calorie loss thing for me. I still have a very varied diet and allow myself some fast food or local restaurants once or twice a week, it's been way more sustainable than diets in the past

 

I feel like portions are a huge thing. Usually you end up eating way more than you think because you have a huge portion or you end up going back for seconds. I’ve found when I lost weight in the past after I have my initial portion for dinner I would Try and distract myself as to not get more and after a few minutes passed the urge for more was gone

 

I agree with the small changes first. It's easy to set goals too high, feel defeated, then give up

I just try getting more steps in than I normally would. It sucks to see tiktoks like "I get at least 10k steps a day. If i can, you can. No excuses!" I just try getting more than I otherwise would and reframe it positively. If it's the end of the day and I only have 4k because I was in meetings all day sitting and it drained me and I'm exhausted I might not get to 10k. Sue me! But I'll walk in place or to my mailbox and get an extra 1k I wouldn't have gotten before. Not gonna beat myself up for not getting 10k but instead be proud of extra steps I wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't pushed myself. 10k daily would be great but not always doable. Just gotta try my best. Sometimes I even find myself getting a 2nd wind when I set out to just do my best and I end up getting 10k anyway!

Likewise with exercise some ppl do best with a strict regimine. I don't. If it's leg day but I don't feel like doing legs, I'd rather do arms or skip weights for cardio if that's what I feel like. Better than not doing anything at all, which is typically what I'd do if I wasn't feeling it. I just put it off until I realize it's bed time and I didn't do anything. So I do what I feel like. I try to keep it balanced as possible while also giving myself leeway to change it up if I'm not feeling it.

Counting calories worked for me. The first week or two I didn't make any changes and just ate normally and counted. It was a big wakeup call to see how many I was eating. My portions were kinda ridiculous. I'd be like oh but it's healthy cause it's yogurt, fruit, granola. But when it's a huge bowl it's soooo much calories. Learning portions really helped. It felt defeating at times too. I love mac n cheese and realizing a serving size was like 2 bites really sucked. I was treating what was meant to be sides as big entrees. It also forced me to look at my poor relationship with food. My brain would convince myself I'd like die if I just ordered a burger without fries. It took me doing it a few times to realize I was totally fine. Not that I can't eat fries ever, but just getting the burger I'd still be full and content and it was less empty calories. Or I can get a small fry instead of a large. Just try to make small positive changes

The best diet/excercise are things that are sustainable. I hear so many ppl say certain fad diets worked great for them before they gained all the weight back and when we talk further it was often that the diet wasn't sustainable. So did it rly work if they gained it all back ans couldnt do it long term and didnt teach them good long term habits? I counted calories and lost weight and maintained for a while but then gained some back. I realized the amount of calories I set daily wasn't sustainable. It "worked" for a while but the amount of calories i set for myself was too low to do forever. Now I'm trying again but with a higher daily calorie allotment that feels more doable long term

Basically my tl;dr is be kind to yourself and just try your best.

 

I was doing roughly 4 elliptical sessions a week at an hour each until I started lifting at the gym again, and found it was harder to have the energy to do it to the same capacity.

But yeah, not beating myself up about it, just trying to get back on that horse, lifting has been rewarding and not as scary as I feared it was going to be after being away from the gym for about 4 years.

I have been slacking on my diet though and I need to get back to that lol

 

The first time I really really got in shape I cut out regular soda and candy, I lost 40 lbs in two months and that was just doing like 10 to 15 minutes of stationary bike a day lol

 

I feel this very hard hah, I'm a big fry guy and would get them for every lunch with a handful of sauces, that alone in calories is probably double what I have for most lunches now. I do still get fries on FRYday as a nice little treat to myself, but boy I miss them still!

 

The first answer to this question is that it depends on what your goals are. What do you mean by "being healthy again"? Your goals will directly inform what kind of habits and activities you want to look at.

I really like just about everything you said, but I would offer the counterpoint that you don't have to enjoy exercise. It is perfectly fine if it falls into the category of "things I do just because." Finding something fun at the outset is useful in that it helps you build good habits without much resistance—but as someone who also exercises very regularly, at least half of my workouts are things I genuinely would rather not do but I do it anyway because it's just something that I do in order to achieve my goals.

I guess my point is—finding useful motivators and fun activities to help build habits is great, but it's also important to recognize that achieving a goal often requiring doing things you'd rather not do, and that's okay. You're not doing things wrong if you're not loving every second.

 

I've been doing more cardio and less weight lifting ever since it got really cold here. Every winter it seems like I resort to more weightlifting and my cardio drops by like half. I can't stand running outside in the cold and running on treadmills is dog water. Gotta keep running at least once a week though.

 

I've been super irritated cause my apartment gym is shut down for maintenance and has been for weeks with no timeframe for completion. Like worst time of year for that cause the weather isn't great for jogging outside. I did today and it was raining and I was soaking wet by the end. My therapist said she can help me get a gym membership thru my health insurance tho so I am gonna try that I think. I kinda do miss going to a commercial gym. Closest thing to a "third place" I rly had in my hometown.

I've been doing dance workouts again in the meantime which is always fun

 

Definitely recommend a peloton for people who don't want to go to the gym and need some structure to work out (if you can afford one). Only exercise I've ever done consistently. Almost 700 workouts since June 2020.

 

At the beginning of the year I set a 225 bench press as my 2023 goal. Finally reached that mark a couple weeks ago. I’m more lean/fit than bulky weighing at only 160 pounds. So I’m pretty proud of finally reaching the 225 benchmark.