The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: jeromedawg on December 23, 2014, 01:44:11 PM
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So I've unnecessarily gained a happy 15 or so lbs in my first 5 years of marriage. A slow but steady increase that definitely isn't warranted, even if "being happy" could be an excuse...lol. I think I took my crazy metabolism for granted when it was still crazy. After I hit 30 everything changed (I'm sure many of you can reminisce and relate).
I'm looking to drop around 20 or so for starters. It's really hard for me to be motivated to do anything these days though, which definitely doesn't help. There are a lot of things that I probably could do around the house that might help me shed off some lbs (e.g. laying pavers in our small yard, build out new shelving in the garage, build out a new kitchen pantry, etc). I could also bike into work as well. Now, I say all of these things very idealistically, thinking about how great it would be to accomplish each of these 'small' feats. But a combination of my laziness and fear (of the unknown) prevents me from doing any of it. And especially in the name of "fitness"
Outside of those things though, I have no routine. I never did growing up and even through a year of cross country (I was the slowest on the team, go figure). Basically, very little to no physical discipline has been instilled in me. Part of this I attribute to the lack of not participating in team sports in middle school or high school - that is one of my biggest regrets. In either case, I've been trying to identify sources of motivation to actually make me get off my lazy butt.
My wife and I tried a free group fitness thing last year that met down the street every other morning at like 6am. It was good but apparently not good enough for us to want to wake up that early. So many people in that group really LOVE it for the fact that it's free and offers opportunities for encouragement, support, etc. It's a really neat concept but after falling off that horse, I feel guilty about re-joining. I'm sure it's just a self-confidence/esteem/psychological thing ala that chance of being scornfully asked "where were you all this time?" In any case, we feel like there's something wrong with us with how much we hate exercising and fitness. I don't understand the people who get all crazy addicted to it... I guess if you see real tangible results though, that can be addictive - but everyone's body is different too when it comes to "results." I guess I'm just not one of those people who enjoys "challenging" myself or "pushing harder" at hard things.
I do like shooting hoops, kicking around a soccer ball, hackey sack, etc (anything requiring some form of coordination) but I'm not really into the competitive nature of sports as much either (again this comes from my lack of playing any team sports growing up). Even with this, it's really hard to get myself out of the house, and I barely keep in touch with friends who like to do any of those things.
So I've also started looking at [free] weight loss and fitness apps (Noom, My Diet Coach, Google Fit, Lose It!, etc) but there's so many of them and some seem overly complicated. I guess if you want to lose weight though, it takes the extra effort to count calories (outside of exercising). I've also thought about getting a FitBit device but wonder if it's really necessary (probably not when I can use my phone as a pedometer). I think I'm going to give Noom a try and get back into my daily walking routine (around 1.5 miles) at work - basically it's a 30-minute walk down the street and back that gives a mild sweat. I was doing this for a while but then it's so easy to sit here at the desk and keep working while ignoring taking longer breaks.
In any case, what works and what doesn't for you guys? Feel free to chime in with anything: methods, apps, programs, groups, etc... especially the FREE stuff.
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Are you me?
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For me:
Works: Paleo and Crossfit
Doesn't work: Counting calories and home gym
YMMV.
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Some of the things we do. Not a fitness buff, relatively lazy
Get a dog (not free). Walk it 30-60 min, twice a day. If not, a destructive dog and pee in the house will motivate you..
Crossfit (very not free!). Good general fitness workout. I like the no-bullshit strength training aspect. Good community, except some paleo/cult-like nonsense.
Basement gym (cheap-ish). Jumprope, sandbag for squats, some dumbbells. Do quick 20-30 min workouts. Require motivation, but smaller time investment.
I don't see much value in fitness band gizmos. Seems like a fad to me. My reasons for skipping workout is not that I can't count my calories..
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You can't out exercise a bad diet. After 30 it's 80% diet.
I've used Noom and My Fitness Pal. I prefer My Fitness Pal. Counting calories is good to get started and see where you are.
For fitness, you just have to find something you like and stick with it. I'm a joiner - I like group fitness, and I like the gym. But I have kids, so the gym is my only "me" time.
I'm 44 and losing the 2nd baby weight and I have to say - I've had the most luck recently by doing high intensity intervals with weight training (mostly body weight training), and decreasing my carbohydrate intake.
So my workout today was swimming.
This afternoon I'll probably do:
50 burpees (5 sets of 10)
30 pushups
90 squats
90 seconds of planks (3x30?)
110 crunches
The burpees serve as intervals and the rest as strength training.
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Some of the things we do. Not a fitness buff, relatively lazy
Get a dog (not free). Walk it 30-60 min, twice a day. If not, a destructive dog and pee in the house will motivate you..
Crossfit (very not free!). Good general fitness workout. I like the no-bullshit strength training aspect. Good community, except some paleo/cult-like nonsense.
Basement gym (cheap-ish). Jumprope, sandbag for squats, some dumbbells. Do quick 20-30 min workouts. Require motivation, but smaller time investment.
I don't see much value in fitness band gizmos. Seems like a fad to me. My reasons for skipping workout is not that I can't count my calories..
LOL! I was trying to convince my wife to let me get a dog but she's not really onboard (though she says she'll let me if I really want it but I have to do all the work to clean up after it, etc). My parents and I also currently co-own and I don't think they're fully on board. But they are planning to transfer ownership on paper next year, as far as I know, in which case a dog may be on the horizon (barring the possibility of a baby)
I like the basement gym idea - although we have no basement. But I do have a jump rope, dumbbells and an EZ curl bar. I also have bag of rice for squats...LOL
It's good you're trying to get healthy. One thing I notice is you're focused all on exercise. I always look at fitness as 80% nutrition and 20% exercise. Exercise is good and necessary, but to really see any results, you need to focus on what you're eating. No amount of exercise is going to help if you're still eating fast food, pizza, drinking soda, etc. every day.
From my mid-20s until now (32) I have slowly been eating better and better. The first thing I cut out was anything with high fructose corn syrup. After that I started replacing processed foods with whole foods. Finally I tried to "fine tune" a bit more as I gathered new information. I don't really follow any particular diet, but the closest thing would be Wheat Belly. If you follow along with what that book recommends, you should be able to drop a good amount of weight without even working out. Of course you'll want to work out (right??) to help boost your metabolism and build muscle, but the main focus is your nutrition.
You're right - I think I often disregard the nutrition aspect of things. In many ways, that's much harder than the exercise part. I rarely drink soda and try to get in at least 8 glasses of water a day (I have a 64oz bottle that I fill twice during the work day usually). The food part I definitely need to watch out for - we don't eat a ton of fast food but will have our splurges. I have to be careful too because I have high cholesterol and blood pressure (I guess that *should* be motivation enough for all this but strangely it doesn't motivate me as much as it should). After getting married, my wife and I also cut out high fructose corn syrup and avoid anything with "hydrogenated oils" - I think there's more but we try to avoid that stuff if possible. It's hard when you eat out though because you can't really tell what kinds of things they make the food with.
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Ain't nothing to it but to do it.
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I have been working out for 5 years, the first 3 were my mistake years. I'm only 22 so maybe I'm wrong but I don't believe metabolisms slow, I think the explanation is as people get older they tend to become more sedentary, and make more money(=more food.) anyways, I guess that doesn't really matter. My goal when I started was to gain muscle, hopefully to someday look like a fitness model. I kept hearing muscle grows slowly, and you can't expect it overnight and give up, so I tried for 3 years and made hardly any gains. The problem was I told myself that because I was young (and likely had higher hormones) that I had the privilege to not worry about my diet. Didn't work, all those 3 years taught me was that your body works on an energy in energy out model. In order to gain weight I had to eat more food (calories is the measuring unit) otherwise those hours spent in the gym went to waste (as far as my goals.) To lose weight it is the same principle, in order to lose weight you need to eat less calories then you use. Once I found my fitness pal and began counting calories I found it liberating. Instead of feeling like it was tedious, I finally felt like I had control over my body weight. There are no longer excuses, simply a math formula that I can manipulate whichever way I choose, much like a budget.
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Sorry but hacky sack or bag of rice ain't gonna lose you 1lb, yet alone 20lbs. Little owl and I are pretty big into lifting weights, we do it every week day. No disrespect to anybody else (hey, whatever works) but fad workouts or burpees or fake chin-ups or whatever don't really do it for me. What I've found for myself:
1. You have to work out at the same time every day and make it just as regular a routine as going to work or eating dinner. It's gotta take priority and can't be something that you try to do in your spare time. If you're serious about it then you have to treat it just as seriously as you would showing up to work on time every day.
2. I find keeping the same weekly schedule helps since I know exactly what to expect every day of the week - Monday is chest/calves, Tuesday is back, Wednesday is shoulders, Thursday arms, and Friday legs. On any given week I know exactly which day of the week it is just by knowing what workout I did in the morning.
3. The morning... I hate bodybuilding in the morning. I'm tired, grumpy and relatively weak. But it's the best time to do a workout on a busy schedule. Since getting up and going to work every day is a routine, I just build that into my workout routine. Wake up at 4:20am and be at the gym by 5:30am. Work out, shower at the gym (save hot water$$$ at home), then go right to work. It's a routine, part of my job - clockwork. Then the afternoons are free. Otherwise there are too many excuses not to work out after work.
4. Keep a workout log book. Every rep of every set I do is recorded in the log - cardio too. My current log book goes all the way back to the year 2000. I can seriously look back to march 1st, 2001 and see what chest workout I did on that day. Tracking progress is critical every week. You need to be fighting for every lb or every rep, week in and week out. On Monday I can look back to last Monday's chest workout and know that I need to either do an extra rep or add a couple lbs onto my bench. Without a workout log my workouts would be a waste of time.
5. Be objective about your goals. If genetics have given you a milquetoast physique and skeletal structure then you're not going to look like an IFBB pro bodybuilder no matter how much you work out. Have a strong vision of what you realistically want your body to look like. Remember your vision and turn yourself into it over time.
6. Working out is easy - diet is the hard part. If you're serious about looking better then get serious about your diet. If you can't show enough discipline to reform your diet then you have nobody to blame but yourself when you work out an hour a day but still look in the mirror and see a tub-o-lard staring back at you. If it was easy then everybody would look like Schwarzenegger.
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I've never been at my "goal weight", ever in my life. I've tackled the 'home gym' idea from multiple angles, and found that I usually don't stick to it on my own. I do best when using the buddy system. Here are the things I've done that dropped the pounds:
Works for me:
Active Job - I worked in the Garden department at Home Depot over one summer and lost 20-30lbs. I walked 2 miles to work, 8 hour shifts moving dirt bags and stones, walked 2 miles home, for five days a week. Maybe a part time active job is in order? Best part: No cost - earns $$$ :)
Rec Center Classes - I did aquacise three nights a week last winter/spring and lost 10lbs in a few months. I went to the evening class with an older instructor and lots of older people, so the work out wasn't even that intense. Some days I came early or stayed later and practiced some of the workout moves I learned in the class. Cost: To pay for my admission and my mom's/husband's admission 12 times a month came out to like $30-40, similar to a gym membership but more 'pay as you go'.
Bodyweight exercises - Free! Do them at home. I use this chart to figure out where I am, and what move I should switch to when something gets too easy:
http://strength.stack52.com/periodic-table-of-bodyweight-exercises/
Tip: Click on the exercises you don't know how to do to be redirected to a Youtube instructional.
Doesn't work for me:
Home treadmill - I just don't get on it. I feel more like a hamster on a wheel than anything else, it it breaks my heart more than being a fatty.
Recommended in any case: Track what you eat and all of your exercise using something like MyFitnessPal's app. I find that even if I'm not working out, I can usually completely halt any weight gain by using this app daily. There's a barcode scanner and a recipe builder, so no excuse not to track everything. While you are working out, this app will tell you what your net calorie goal is, and calculate how much more you can eat based on how much you've been exercising - just like FutureNurse says above is 100% true and excellent advice, you actually have to eat while you work out. Likewise, MyFitnessPal has great forums where you can make weight loss buddies and get lots of support and help. :)
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/
Good luck!
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It's hard when you eat out though because you can't really tell what kinds of things they make the food with.
BINGO! This to me is half the battle of weight loss. The act of preparing your own food I feel will make one naturally want to eat healthier foods. I mean I can't imagine anyone wanting to put all the lard, fats, salt, preservatives, and other chemicals in their own food if they had to prepare most of the processed foods sold in fast food and some restaurants.
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It's hard when you eat out though because you can't really tell what kinds of things they make the food with.
BINGO! This to me is half the battle of weight loss. The act of preparing your own food I feel will make one naturally want to eat healthier foods. I mean I can't imagine anyone wanting to put all the lard, fats, salt, preservatives, and other chemicals in their own food if they had to prepare most of the processed foods sold in fast food and some restaurants.
My personal story with this is finding out that the entire Big Daddy Bacon Cheeseburger meal (large fry, spoonbender ice cream follow up) from Good Times tops out at over 2500 calories, thanks to MyFitnessPal having that info on file. I wouldn't buy a $500 Gucci handbag ever in my life, so why in the hell was I eating a day's worth of calories in one sitting!? Tracking stuff puts that in perspective!
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Speaking of calorie-counting, how do you guys track foods in Myfitnesspal, etc that don't show up in the database? For example, I really like the Chinese green scallion pancakes from the shop around the corner and had some the other night (you will NOT find that in any of these food databases I'm pretty sure). How do you go about determining how many calories, etc it is? Just guess? And if you are guessing, how you come up with a guess that is actually accurate?
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Just echoing what others have already said-
Works for me-
Paleo (primal Blueprint specifically)- low carb
Lifting weights 2-3 times a week
Mountain biking and skiing - my 2 favorite past times - do not feel like "exercise" feels like fun
Does not work for me-
low fat - always hungry can't sustain
running - makes me crave carbs too much; gets me in shape for a race maybe but never helps me lose any weight as I just eat too much with it
Absolutely believe it's 80% diet and 20% exercise. New years 2012 I pledged to lose 42 lbs (was at 242). I proceeded to brake my foot in a bachelor party accident on the first Saturday in January. Was a couch potato in a boot for 8 weeks and lost 22 pounds on the Primal diet. That's when I became a believer. I hit 195 lbs by mid June (I'm 6' 2") and have stayed around 200 lbs ever since.
Would love to do Crossfit but just cannot afford it at this point. But I have tried to model my workouts around some of its principles.
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Speaking of calorie-counting, how do you guys track foods in Myfitnesspal, etc that don't show up in the database? For example, I really like the Chinese green scallion pancakes from the shop around the corner and had some the other night (you will NOT find that in any of these food databases I'm pretty sure). How do you go about determining how many calories, etc it is? Just guess? And if you are guessing, how you come up with a guess that is actually accurate?
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/en/food/calories/114989000
Like this? I usually find something similar, and go with that. This might not be Chinese Scallion Pancakes from Pang Huang's Thousand Walking Woks in Metropolis, USA, but I bet you can find a "Chinese pancake" that is similar to what you're buying. Basic recipes don't vary that much. Ask how it's made/what's in it if you want to, and weigh it before you eat it to get a good idea of how much you're eating (how many servings/weight in grams). For things I make at home, I can usually find my ingredients easily by scanning barcodes or finding similar entries from other users, compile them into a recipe and I'm good to go.
Edit: Then again, if you don't know what's in it and how many servings of it you're really eating, maybe you should rethink that decision all together? I mean, would you ever buy with something with hard working dollars you didn't actually know the full cost of?
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Here's what works for me now (this has changed over my life - I went from team sports to running to just being active)
1) Eat food, real food and not too much.
2) Build as much 'active' into daily life as possible, take the stairs, situps/pushups during tv, walking further, and biking everywhere I can.
3) for a planned workout - do the first 5 minutes no matter what, if you still want to quit then quit guilt free... I have turned around after a few blocks into a run but it is rare! Strapping on your shoes and getting going is the hard part of the battle.
I used to work out because I played team sports and it sucks to suck wind and let a team down
Then I trained and ran races, you start out making yourself do it, then it becomes habit, and then you miss it when you don't do it. But this unconscious habit of just walking to the grocery store, running around playing with my kid, and biking to work are really working AWESOME!
Now if I could cure my alcohol habit I could probably cure my extra 10lbs...
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http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB79F66077E9510FC
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Speaking of calorie-counting, how do you guys track foods in Myfitnesspal, etc that don't show up in the database? For example, I really like the Chinese green scallion pancakes from the shop around the corner and had some the other night (you will NOT find that in any of these food databases I'm pretty sure). How do you go about determining how many calories, etc it is? Just guess? And if you are guessing, how you come up with a guess that is actually accurate?
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/en/food/calories/114989000
Like this? I usually find something similar, and go with that. This might not be Chinese Scallion Pancakes from Pang Huang's Thousand Walking Woks in Metropolis, USA, but I bet you can find a "Chinese pancake" that is similar to what you're buying. Basic recipes don't vary that much. Ask how it's made/what's in it if you want to, and weigh it before you eat it to get a good idea of how much you're eating (how many servings/weight in grams). For things I make at home, I can usually find my ingredients easily by scanning barcodes or finding similar entries from other users, compile them into a recipe and I'm good to go.
Edit: Then again, if you don't know what's in it and how many servings of it you're really eating, maybe you should rethink that decision all together? I mean, would you ever buy with something with hard working dollars you didn't actually know the full cost of?
Thanks! I don't know why I didn't see it last night when I was searching. Maybe I thought I was searching for it when I was looking for something else. Ah well, good to know they pretty much have almost everything out there.
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As the saying goes, you exercise 1 hour/day, what do you do with the other 23? (Referring to diet being 80%)
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BTW, buy a food scale to help you track calories. After a week or two of learning to use it efficiently, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
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Well, having lost 50 pounds and more or less transforming my body in the last several months, I'll share the basics of how I did it. I basically started this the moment I ER'ed...
My diet completely changed. Zero fast food. Less processed food. Tons of whole wheat pasta, breads. Fruit and vegetable intake way up. Cut alcohol consumption by about 90% (I drank WAY too much). In the initial 2 months of my "new life" I probably ran a large caloric deficit on most days. I tried to be OKAY with feel a little bit hungry most of the time.
In terms of exercise, I signed up for the gym a few blocks away and went EVERYDAY... except Sundays. Typically a gym session for me in my "lose fat fast" phase was 90 minutes of intense cardio. I did not touch weights for many months. Now, that I've lost the excess body fat, I've reduced my cardio to around 30 to 45 minutes, and will weight train for 45 minutes to an hour. The need to pack on some muscle is obvious - I was so strict with my calorie intake in my first few months of weight loss, that I lost a fair bit of muscle mass. I'm now into the protein powder/supplement thing, and my muscle strength is now responding.
Good eating and exercise are now a part of my life as sleeping is... I feel great. My wife also approves. :)
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BTW, buy a food scale to help you track calories. After a week or two of learning to use it efficiently, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
+1,000,000
It took a food scale to show me that one chicken breast weighs, on average, 9 ounces, and is therefore 2.25 servings of meat, not one.
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BTW, buy a food scale to help you track calories. After a week or two of learning to use it efficiently, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
+1,000,000
It took a food scale to show me that one chicken breast weighs, on average, 9 ounces, and is therefore 2.25 servings of meat, not one.
I purchased a scale not too long ago for weighing packages. I'm wondering if this would work... I think there's a setting to change the units of measurement but will have to double-check.
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I've mentioned this before on this forum, so at the risk of being a broken record: I learned a lot from The Hacker's Diet book, available here (there's a PDF link if you scroll down a ways). http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/ It does a good job of explaining how people will inevitably gain weight over time if they're not vigilant. It starts slow, but if you get past the first chapter I think it's worth it.
As always, shoutout to forum member ohyonghao for the reference.
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Exercise has to be consistent. Most any workout plain will get some results if done daily, no exercise plain will work if done once per week. Track it in some way, even just a simple note in your calendar, so you can look back and see for no shit what you did last week.
Can you get a stand up desk at work, love mine? 1/3 of the people have them where I work. amazon: "MultiTable ModTable Adjustable Height Standing Desk with Manual Base" 500$ is not cheap but it is how you spend half your waking day. (manufacturer direct has a volume discounts.)
You cant out exercise bad diet. Bad diet will harm exercise. I gorged on Chinese takeout at lunch today and had a shit run because of it. yeah I know fuck me in two ways...
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I lost 30 lbs by doing Turbo Jam. I bought the DVDs off eBay for $9 and used them for about three years. Then, I got involved in taekwondo. That's an expensive hobby, but it got to the point where now I get paid for teaching the classes. The most important thing is to make sure you have a workout buddy to push you and keep you honest (and motivate you to keep going.)
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Are you me?
+ 1.
I was wondering the same thing!
I'm not sure I"m really qualified to answer this, but things that have helped me in the past were:
(1) Awesome music for boring things like treadmills and bikes. Could almost forget I was exercising.
(2) A fun activity that disguises the exercise. I took a fencing class once that I enjoyed. I'd practice that until exhaustion but would wimp out super early on weights. I also like rock-climbing, so I plan on trying to get into that a little more.
(3) Riding a real bike outside is way funner than a spin class. Plus, there can be "extra" cycling built in because once you feel tired, there's still the ride back home!
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I'm a CSCS and work in the fitness industry, and I can assure you diet is way more important for weight loss. I highly recommend Chris Kresser's website and book. The book will help you figure out what works best for you, personally. Not just give you generic advice. If you want to save money, you could start with a paleo diet and just read everything on the website to fine-tune it without buying the book.
I am unaffiliated with Kresser, just a fan.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031632289X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=031632289X&linkCode=as2&tag=chrikres-20 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031632289X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=031632289X&linkCode=as2&tag=chrikres-20)
http://chriskresser.com (http://chriskresser.com)
I also do not recommend crossfit. There are some very good crossfit coaches out there, but they make up such a small percentage of the community. The only qualifications you need to be a certified CF coach are $1000 and a weekend seminar. It's a sick joke. You could research it and find a great coach with an onramp program, but otherwise it's a crapshoot. For fitness, if you really want to be serious about it, you need to become a researcher and learn about it yourself. People whose work I like include: Ido Portal for overall movement/philosophy, Eric Cressey and Justin Lascek for more traditional lifting and strength & conditioning for performance. All of these three have websites and materials available for an interested researcher.
Another mustachian option would be to purchase Christopher Sommer's Foundation 1 and Handstand 1 series. I don't think they're perfect, but they're a really great resource that outlines your program very clearly based on your performance, and it starts at square 1, not square 247 like crossfit. It'll likely take you a year or two to exhaust Foundation 1 as a newbie, maybe more. Lots of bang for your buck.
My favorite resource and I believe the guy who sees the biggest picture of the human body is Ido Portal. Sadly, he is quite expensive, but you can learn a lot from watching his interviews and videos.
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+1 for Primal.
I'm a lazy exerciser - lots of walking and really short weight training sessions.
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BTW, buy a food scale to help you track calories. After a week or two of learning to use it efficiently, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
+1,000,000
It took a food scale to show me that one chicken breast weighs, on average, 9 ounces, and is therefore 2.25 servings of meat, not one.
I purchased a scale not too long ago for weighing packages. I'm wondering if this would work... I think there's a setting to change the units of measurement but will have to double-check.
I use a postage scale bought off Amazon, so it will work if it's designed to measure small items (like letters).
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It's good you're trying to get healthy. One thing I notice is you're focused all on exercise. I always look at fitness as 80% nutrition and 20% exercise. Exercise is good and necessary, but to really see any results, you need to focus on what you're eating. No amount of exercise is going to help if you're still eating fast food, pizza, drinking soda, etc. every day.
Agreed esp on 80/20 but for me it's more 70/30. Diet is more diet than exercise but it helps to have more muscle than fat. It all takes trial and error. It took a quarter century for most of us to learn how we currently eat. It will likewise take time to re-learn how you really should eat. I believe most people with desk jobs consume far too many carbs and do not make it a priority to use it. Aside from that, use IG. Lots of helpful FREE recipe and exercise stuff. That's what I use it for! I'm aiming to do a free standing handstand for 2015!
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I find when I am exercising I actually weigh more but feel better than when I'm just watching what I eat. The thing that motivates me is training for races and having a training partner. Nothing will get me to run 10 miles except knowing that if I dont I am screwed on race day. It's also a lot harder to not train when there is someone counting on you to train with them. Besides racing, finding a fun class at the gym that works for my schedule helps.
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body weight exercises, body weight exercised, body weight exercises.... did i say body weight exercises? Get a cheap pull up bar and do 10-20 sets of the following: 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 air squats. You'll be sweating before you know it an it doesn't take much time. I have been trying to do it every day when i get home from work. Usually work up a sweat fairly quickly.
Also, try a diet higher in fats (think avocados). Monosaturated fats seem to provide better energy than carbs and help me build muscle faster.
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There's a husband wife team who as a site called fitness blender. Some seriously intense exercises.
http://www.fitnessblender.com/
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Might have missed it but didn't see anyone mention P90X. Started a couple years ago with my wife and we have seen great results (lost weight, gained muscle and strength, improved overall fitness). We love it because we don't have to go the gym - which with two young kids and two careers is near impossible - there just isn't enough time in the day. And with a relatively modest upfront cost (videos, some dumbbells or bands, exercise mat and a pull up bar) we have saved thousands of dollars over the cost of gym membership. Very mustachian.
If I have one complaint its that Beachbody is constantly trying to sell extremely overpriced supplements to go with the exercise program. Avoid those silly extras, stick with program, get a decent protein powder supplement and you will see results.
Curious - anyone had good / bad experience with P90X?
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I tried to be OKAY with feel a little bit hungry most of the time.
This. I've lost 4 pounds lately with little else beyond purposefully letting myself be hungry and really noticing when I wanted to snack and not doing so.
FWIW this has also been my experience. If you're going to lose weight, you have to completely lose the mindset that you can eat whenever you're hungry. You can't. It sucks but you can't.
(With the caveat that of course not everyone is the same. But the above was definitely exactly what I experienced.)
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Ride a bike to work. Ride a bike to the grocery store. Ride a bike to the library. Ride a bike to the park. Ride a bike to church. Ride a bike to school. Ride a bike to the bus stop, ride the bus, and ride the bike to the museum. Ride a bike to the lake. Ride a bike to get your hair cut. Ride a bike to pick up the dry cleaning. Ride a bike to pick up your prescriptions. Ride a bike to the bank. Ride a bike to go shopping. Ride a bike to a friend's house. Ride a bike to go house hunting. Ride a bike to a local community farm.
I lost 35 pounds and barely touched my food intake. I didn't have to schedule workouts. The pounds didn't melt off in a flash, but the scales gradually eased down a pound at the time until I had lost a shirt size and a pants size.
"Working out" is just that for most folks---work. For many, the enjoyment is in the abstract, an image one wants to achieve at some point in the future by doing this routine today. This is a hard sell for the majority of people. Going for a ride is more pleasurable in the moment, less strain. No hamster-in-a-wheel feeling when you're outdoors running errands or riding through the countryside. No need for a TV distraction. Nature is a better distraction without the CNN drama and negativity.
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I tried to be OKAY with feel a little bit hungry most of the time.
This. I've lost 4 pounds lately with little else beyond purposefully letting myself be hungry and really noticing when I wanted to snack and not doing so.
FWIW this has also been my experience. If you're going to lose weight, you have to completely lose the mindset that you can eat whenever you're hungry. You can't. It sucks but you can't.
(With the caveat that of course not everyone is the same. But the above was definitely exactly what I experienced.)
I did this too, when I was in weight loss phase. Lately I've noticed that I'll maybe eat like, 2 bites of a carrot when I'm hungry, go ride my horse (because I'm at the stable and stealing their carrots), and totally forget that I was hungry at all for another two hours. It's when I'm sitting around at my desk that I want to eat All The Things and have a harder time ignoring hunger. However, gnawing on a couple raw veggies works really well for this if I can remember to keep them around.
The first suggestion that came to me when I read your OP, is for you to take up a running or walking streak. Get inspired by MMM's blog post today, and challenge yourself to walk (or jog if you want) for a minimum distance each day for as many days in a row as you can. I did this last winter as a running streak with a 2-mile minimum. It's a good way to just get the exercise habit ingrained, and get off the couch and get the blood flowing each night (or morning), and impress upon yourself that you won't die if you go outside and exercise in the rain or wind or whatever.
There are lots of good ideas in this thread, but my suggestion is don't start out too big. Just aim for one or two humble goals at a time, and then build on them once sticking to them starts feeling easy. This is how I lost 50# over about 18 months (and have kept it off for about two years). First I quit soda and challenged myself to get 20 minutes of any kind of exercise each day, and just built from there with little dietary and exercise tweaks. Now I run, lift weights and eat a somewhat paleo diet and it feels easy and habitual. Good luck!
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I agree with what others have said, but I also want to say that fitness really starts in the grocery store. You have to have enough healthy food on hand to be able to control your eating. If there's nothing in the house but peanut butter crackers, I'll eat my weight in peanut butter crackers. ITA with whoever said that fitness is 80% nutrition, 20% exercise. It's the sad fact of the matter. Hunger is not an emergency, and fear of hunger is what used to keep me fat. I used to eat before going somewhere, "in case I got hungry." That really doesn't work.
I have a home treadmill and I hate it. It's in our furnished basement, which has a low ceiling, so my head is about two inches away from the ceiling. I much prefer going to my work gym in the morning. My main issue right now is that the work gym is closed on the weekends. When I belonged to a gym, weekends were when I would get my long, hard workouts in. So I really do miss that. I quit my regular gym when the work gym opened. I am thinking about joining a cheap gym just for the weekends.
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I tried to be OKAY with feel a little bit hungry most of the time.
This. I've lost 4 pounds lately with little else beyond purposefully letting myself be hungry and really noticing when I wanted to snack and not doing so.
FWIW this has also been my experience. If you're going to lose weight, you have to completely lose the mindset that you can eat whenever you're hungry. You can't. It sucks but you can't.
(With the caveat that of course not everyone is the same. But the above was definitely exactly what I experienced.)
So true. So sad. When I lost 40 lbs two years ago, I was somewhere where we were asked to come up with a native American name that fits us. The one I chose was Sits with Hunger.
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I did really well on T25. Liked it better than P90x because 30 mins daily is more convenient to my schedule. It isn't easy, certainly I had to work my way up with the modifiers but in the end lost 20lbs and continuing to maintain. As others have said diet is extremely important. It is a pain the first couple of weeks to count the calories but once I had the meals down I stopped having to count because I knew about how much I had to eat.
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I've found I'm more of a stick than a carrot type person when it comes to exercise, so I joined PactApp. For every time I do not work out that I committed to, the App will charge me $5. If I meet my goal for the week, I get a small reward ($1.62 last week). I do not like paying fees, so I work out :). When my rewards build up to a goal I've set, I buy it - could be a race entry or a piece of clothing or equipment. I just got a foam roller with my rewards for my aching pregnant hips.
I use my fitbit that we got as a promo for work to track steps when I don't make it to the gym. You can also use the run keeper or map my fitness apps for walks and bike rides.
I didn't like P90X, but I do like Insanity and running. I also love soccer, but there is no adult league where we live. We do play volleyball with a team. There are usually rec level teams that anyone can join, no experience required.
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Youtube: You can search just about any workout routine that you can think of.
Personally I search High Intensity Training (HIT) cardio, kickboxing and ab routines but you can narrow it down to HIT upper, lower or total body routines. These are great, vary in length, and you don't have to leave the house.
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I'm purely a work-out-at-home kind of guy. A few years ago someone gave me P90X and I have found them to cover the bases very well. Obviously that is not a free option, but with some digging you can find rips online (not recommended) or you can get used copies. Right now I'm focusing on the strength aspect of the program.
I'm also a vegetarian. This has helped me really think about my diet on all levels. Will this food provide me with enough fiber, energy, protein and other nutrients? And so forth.
All I drink is water, save the occasional beer. No soda, coffee, tea, energy drinks, lattes, sugary juices, etc. Water gives you life, detoxes your system, keeps your immune system up and all sorts of things. Why not make it the primary beverage of choice?
I also bicycle to a certain degree, which I'm sure doesn't hurt.
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Embrace a bit of daily hunger. As others have said, this is a lifetime practice in self-awareness. Many of us fear hunger, yet regularly eat ourselves into a state of real discomfort. Why are we OK with the pain of too much food, but not a few stabs of hunger?
Spend some time researching your own hunger--you may be surprised to find out how it feels and how long it takes to actually kick in.
I also find that all food tastes better after you have allowed yourself to feel hunger.
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I stay healthy by eating very little processed food. I'm allergic to gluten, so that also helps keep my food choices in line. No goodies for me! I also run 4 times a week with my dog for at least an hour and then have a long run on my own. I occasionally lift light weights and admit I should do this more often, but am currently recovering from a shoulder injury and have been hesitant to push it. I also try to bike when I run close errands and to work whenever I can.
I've never liked the gym and do not like working out/running with other people. It is so peaceful to just throw on my shoes, grab the leash and my dog, and head out the door. If I hit the beach just at the right time, it can just be me, my dog, and the birds. Lovely!
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I'm gonna get a few facepunches for this, but I went and bought myself a fitness tracker. I need something to hold me accountable, since I've tried and failed too many times just on my own. I got the the jawbone up move on Amazon with some Christmas gift money for $50. It tracks your steps, exercise, sleep, and if you sync if up with MyFitnessPal (free), your food score. I've only had it for about a week but it's already motivated me to wake up early, work out, and take an extra walk if I'm below my step goal. I've lived a very sedentary life, so for me it really helped me become aware how inactive I am. Perhaps it's not the most mustachian method, but I needed something to kick me in the ass. Reviews say it's just as good as the more expensive options, and it's certainly cheaper than getting a trainer to yell at me.
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I'm not in the best of shape, and my goal is to drop 20 pounds. What has held me back is a lack of consistency, so definitely recommend that no matter what plans you make, if you can't stick to them they will not help.
I love going for walks and running when it is nice out. Minnesota winters aren't conducive to this, so I will use my gym's treadmill instead. If I get a really interesting audiobook, I can generally zone out and just move, which makes it far more enjoyable. If I have to think too much while I am on the treadmill, then I will hate it and be counting seconds. That in general is my thoughts on exercise, if you have to force yourself to do it, you won't do it long-term. If you enjoy it, you will be more likely to do it.
My goal for the rest of the year and for 2015 is to go to the gym at least 3 times a week and spend a minimum of 30 minutes there. This is deliberate, that isn't enough time by itself for me to get a good workout in, but getting in is the hardest thing for me. Once I am there, I don't mind spending extra time to lift weights. My biggest hesitation to working out is the time factor, so by telling myself that I can be done in 30 minutes, I know that I am more likely to actually go. I do need to check out the spin classes and other classes that they offer.
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My girlfriend is down about 50lbs from her "official start weight" (which was definitely lower than her peak before that) when she went 100%. Still losing weight. And her skin has improved, and is overall healthier and happier.
What's worked for her:
Eating real food. 95% homemade. Minimal "snacks" (even healthy snacks). Lots of vegetables and (pasture-raised) meat/eggs. Some fruit. Some high-fat dairy. No grains/sugar/juice/soy/junk. Paleo/primal essentially.
The best exercise for her in terms of weight loss results has been consistent daily walking. It's the main exercise that doesn't for her stimulate additional hunger afterwards to "make up for it." She's also done some barbell weight training with me.
In the past, she'd tried things that didn't work for her at all (or lost her 5lbs and then nothing else):
Low-fat diet
Strict low-carb diet with no attention to quality/nutrition of food.
Calorie counting
Cardio
Some sketchy caffeine appetite suppressant pills from her wacko younger sister
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Not what you asked for, but I found joining an actual gym to be useful, primarily because it is NOT free. I do take my showers there so I get some small financial benefit, but the main driver for going to the gym is my mustachian determination that since I've PAID for this damn thing, it's going to pay me back, big time.
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Might have missed it but didn't see anyone mention P90X. Started a couple years ago with my wife and we have seen great results (lost weight, gained muscle and strength, improved overall fitness). We love it because we don't have to go the gym - which with two young kids and two careers is near impossible - there just isn't enough time in the day. And with a relatively modest upfront cost (videos, some dumbbells or bands, exercise mat and a pull up bar) we have saved thousands of dollars over the cost of gym membership. Very mustachian.
If I have one complaint its that Beachbody is constantly trying to sell extremely overpriced supplements to go with the exercise program. Avoid those silly extras, stick with program, get a decent protein powder supplement and you will see results.
Curious - anyone had good / bad experience with P90X?
I love P90X. When my first child was around 3 or 4, my hubby started traveling a lot. This meant that I missed my gym days, esp if he was gone a long time. So I asked for it for Christmas. It was great!
On weeks when he traveled, I did it every morning. When he wasn't traveling, I did it on HIS gym days (we take turns).
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A bit of a longer answer - I've had the MOST success this year with lowering my carb intake. I wouldn't call myself paleo or primal - I love beans, and I do eat grains.
Mostly, I gave up wheat.
For fruits, I eat -2 servings a day.
For beans/ grains/ potatoes, I eat 0-2 servings per day.
That is relatively low-carb compared to the typical American diet.
I have also had much better luck lately with intervals (hence my mention of the burpees before, it's an interval workout I can literally do at home in 10 minutes) and weights. I can get a decent workout in 15 minutes that way. But I'm pressed for time with a full time job and two kids. YMMV.
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One more thing! Sorry, I'm home with the boys and the toddler does NOT want me to type right now.
You may have to try different things. What works for you may be different from someone else, and it changes over time. I have, in the past done:
running (half marathons)
triathlons
weight training (I used to be able to bench 115, which is a lot for a 5'2" female)
walking (did 3 Breast Cancer 3 day walks)
Spinning
Swimming
P90X
Yoga (always did this with the running)
PiYo
21 Day Fix
Body weight exercises
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Someone mentioned rec center for cheap classes - some community colleges have them also (mine are $30 for a semester, so about $2 a class). It helps me to be accountable to someone, and in a class there's a teacher harping on you about attendance! Another suggestion is to find ways to work activity into the things that you do normally. Can you walk or ride bikes to a grocery store? Can you take an extra 20 mins to walk around the building if you're out shopping? It's not the cardiovascular you need to lose weight, but it does affect your aversion to activity.
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Since you mentioned that you are already walking I would up the amount. When I worked I walked a mile on each break & 3 miles on my lunch break. I also park in the far end of parking lots, take the steps, etc & try to build as much exercise as I can into my day. I also use the Fitbit to track my steps, calories, etc. If I am eating out I check the menu for where I am going & plan what I am going to eat. I also cut my meal in half when it comes & take the other half home. I rarely have dessert & if I do I split it with someone. Mainly just drink water most days. Also if you limit your calories everyday eventually your body will adjust & your metabolism will slow so one day a week eat as many or more calories then what you burn. It confuses the body. The Fitbit shows me everyday how many calories I have burned & then I keep track of how many I ate so I can see a daily deficit which will equal a slow & steady weight loss.
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This is often considered extreme, but many MMM readers seem to have no problem with being extreme. I'v been following a High Carb, Low Fat Plant based (Vegan) diet for about a year now and had great results. The greatest result being, feeling amazing, and full of energy, I can't help but want to workout constantly, go for bike rides and runs.
Apps:
working out: jefit - super awesome
biking and running: strava - even more awesome
Diet info: lots of fruits and veggies for breakfast and lunch, and then something strarchy for dinner like potatoes, pasta, rice. I sub oatmeal for breakfast during the winter when it's hard to find sweet fruit. and yes, no calorie restricting. ( I eat about 4k calories a day, it can take some time to heal your metabolism if you have damaged it)
Ignore that carbs = diabites propaganda, my blood sugar went from 120 to 80 by switching from the standard american diet to a high carb low fat plant based died.
Another perk, is pasta, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, are all super cheap.
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This is often considered extreme, but many MMM readers seem to have no problem with being extreme. I'v been following a High Carb, Low Fat Plant based (Vegan) diet for about a year now and had great results. The greatest result being, feeling amazing, and full of energy, I can't help but want to workout constantly, go for bike rides and runs.
Apps:
working out: jefit - super awesome
biking and running: strava - even more awesome
Diet info: lots of fruits and veggies for breakfast and lunch, and then something strarchy for dinner like potatoes, pasta, rice. I sub oatmeal for breakfast during the winter when it's hard to find sweet fruit. and yes, no calorie restricting. ( I eat about 4k calories a day, it can take some time to heal your metabolism if you have damaged it)
Ignore that carbs = diabites propaganda, my blood sugar went from 120 to 80 by switching from the standard american diet to a high carb low fat plant based died.
Another perk, is pasta, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, are all super cheap.
I'm sorry, but this is very likely a personal genetic thing.
My blood sugar stabilized and I lost weight pretty much effortlessly when I finally gave up wheat and most grain.
I found that after 40, I simply can't eat the amount of carbs that I ate when younger. So I stick to low GI when I do (beans, some fruits).
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Hey guys, sorry to resurrect but just wanted to update things here... as of late my levels are even higher than when I posted before. Blood pressure is higher, cholesterol is pretty high, and hemoglobin (diabetes) is on the higher side. I'm probably about 15-20lbs overweight than where I really should be.
Just had a baby so now it's hitting home harder that I need to do something. I'm probably gonna start running again. For a while, while my car was broke, I was biking into work (for a couple months) but while that was great, it probably wasn't contributing *that* much in the overall picture since I didn't do any other form of exercise. I do have some weights laying around the house so will try to get back into lifting.
I don't know... what do you guys do to stay motivated? And also, what routines would you suggest? I know everyone's body is different and that different exercises work for different people. The workouts ingrained in my head from the past are basically running a couple miles and then lifting weights and or doing the most basic body weight exercises: crunches and push-ups. Any tips on improving the regimen or mixing it up? I was doing the group exercise thing and the 'addiction' only lasted for a little while before I got lazy and didn't want to wake up early anymore. Didn't mean I had to stop and that I couldn't workout later in the day or at night though, which is pretty much what I'll probably end up doing moving forward.
It's time to stop trying to find excuses and just to go out and do it. But any advice along the way would be helpful too...
Thanks all!
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First off, people saying that fitness is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise, you're wrong. It's the other way around, 20% nutrition 80% exercise. However for weight loss, it's 80% nutrition and 20% exercise.
Next, OP, If you want to lose weight, eat less calories than you use. Find out what your TDE (total daily expenditure) is, then eat 750 calories less than that much. Yes you will have to count calories, if you go out and have a big lunch and fill up your calories for the day, then don't eat dinner. You should lose a little more than 1lb per week this way, weigh yourself at the same time every day, if you don't lose a pound for 2 consecutive weeks, your metabolism or TDE could have changed, start eating even less calories. Good Luck!
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A reason from within. Like how u want to FIRE. Support system or at least via social media (Instagram). I find u really have to motivate urself and this is coming after working out for over 2.5 yrs. When u don't want to, go/do it bc you'll never regret that u did, but u may quickly forget that u didn't go & it turns into a habit. Exercising does become a good habit after a while, but really to me being internally motivated is best. As for the exercises just try everything until u find something u like & even then switch it up. For me food kills me more than the exercise but really food is 70% & exercise is like 30% (for weight loss) Good luck!
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I've struggled with my weight since childhood. With the added benefit that I have to stay within weight limits for my job. I get to the right point before weigh-ins, but not in a healthy way.
About 6 months ago I decided to fix myself for good. Tracking calories has always, always, always failed for me. Because of the scallion pancake factor. I'm too anal, and possibly too disorderd for the imprecision. Instead I decided to learn how to put the fork down when I was full.
As said, I suspect I had an eating disorder, so perhaps I'm a one off, but stopping exactly when I was full was surprisingly difficult to learn. I now eat without any stimulating distraction. I can listen to music, or an audio book, but TV, real books, and the computer can't be allowed. At first I resisted my own program, because I love eating while reading. I thought I would lose pleasure in my life. Now I find the food itself an experience. Zen types have been telling me this for a while, but it only took me about a decade to get with the program <durh>
For the first time in my life, I actively don't want food when I'm already full. There's no sacrificial denial, I just don't want food when I'm not hungry. It's amazing and wonderful. So, if you find counting calories makes you throw-things-and-scream crazy, there are other methods out there.
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What has worked for me:
Intermittent fasting.
Google Michael Mosley 5:2 diet.
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Just want to add my two cents in how I manage to lose the excess weight.
I read a few diet books as a start to find out which one I could stick with. I don't strictly follow any of the diets, but has taken certain aspects and created a hodgepodge version that works for me. One change at a time until they become a habit seems to work really well.
1. Started with giving up sugared beverage (e.g. soda, OJ, smoothie, bubble tea).
2. Increase water intake by having a full glass at all time on my desk.
3. Shorten my feeding time to 10 hours (no food before 9am and after 7pm).
4. Aim for two salads for lunch per week eventually increasing to four salads (from M-Th with Friday being my binge day).
5. Incorporate volumetric eating (e.g. eating cucumber for snack flavored with tajin instead of chips).
6. Walk everywhere with a goal of reaching 10,000 steps 5x a week (M-F with weekend break)
7. The hardest part - cut back (but not eliminate) bread, pasta, rice and noodles.
8. Recently added a strength training session (40 min.) during weekend (may eventually increase this to twice a week).
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Is there a decent and free Tabata/HIIT/Circuit Training app that has countdown timers as well as an editable list that you can add exercises to and just goes through the timed workout according to the list you created? There's so many stinkin apps out there it's hard to find one that specifically does this.
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I can't help but notice you said biking to work "was great" - is that not an option anymore with the baby? Otherwise, why don't you start with getting back into that routine?
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First off, people saying that fitness is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise, you're wrong. It's the other way around, 20% nutrition 80% exercise. However for weight loss, it's 80% nutrition and 20% exercise.
Generally, this has been my experience. The trick is figuring out what your body really responds to in terms of nutrition. I have to exercise A LOT more eating a diet heavy in simple carbs, to retain good metabolic parameters and not gain weight more easily. However, eating a diet lower in simple carbs and sugar, but higher in healthy fats, tends to rev my metabolism to the point where I have to be careful of dropping weight via exercise (which is my current issue).
I have much more trouble sticking to exercise than my diet habits, though. I finally started doing a lot better a few years ago by reminding myself that my youthful ideas of a workout (endless aerobics, swimming, etc) needing to last at least an hour were blocking me from doing ANYTHING. I started a really simple rotation of short sessions with hand weights (or body weight), lower rep/higher weight if possible, along with brisk evening walks of 20-40 minutes alternating with short yoga sessions. If I feel lazy, I just tell myself I can do 10 minutes only, and then stop. Usually, I do more.
It's just a mental block I have: if it seems like too much of a time commitment, I'll procrastinate forever. If it's just 10 minutes of aerobics, or 2 or 3 short sets of weights, I can nearly always motivate myself.
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I can't help but notice you said biking to work "was great" - is that not an option anymore with the baby? Otherwise, why don't you start with getting back into that routine?
Well, once my car was fixed (and especially the A/C), driving into work became a lot easier LOL! It has been tougher with the baby so far since I've been working from home. I probably could get back into it once I start going back in though.
Speaking of my earlier request on a good app, turns out the first one I blindly installed a little while ago fits my needs as far as I can tell - "Tabata Timer" by Simple Version
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I joined Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program. Lost about 40 lb, ran my first marathon ever, and my body naturally re-adjusted to a healthy diet. You can't eat garbage then go out and run 10 miles! Anyway, I raised about 2 grand of other people's money to help people with leukemia, got healthy at the same time, and made lots of new friends in the process! I'd highly recommend it.
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I joined Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program. Lost about 40 lb, ran my first marathon ever, and my body naturally re-adjusted to a healthy diet. You can't eat garbage then go out and run 10 miles! Anyway, I raised about 2 grand of other people's money to help people with leukemia, got healthy at the same time, and made lots of new friends in the process! I'd highly recommend it.
Nice! One of my friends from college who was pretty overweight, got into running about 6 years ago or so and ran his first marathon. Soon after, he started running for Team World Vision and now raises money from each race for clean water in impoverished areas. I think he's at least on his 5th or 6th marathon by now. He lost a ton of weight (to give you an idea, he was a linebacker in HS and at least around 250lbs... he's probably around the 200lb mark now)
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date things here... as of late my levels are even higher than when I posted before. Blood pressure is higher, cholesterol is pretty high, and hemoglobin (diabetes) is on the higher side. I'm probably about 15-20lbs overweight than where I really should be.
JPlee3 you are in trouble, you know this right?
You need 3 things, diet exercise and please keep going to the doctors and take your meds if prescribed, you are heading into diabetes type two ( evidenced by high hemoglobin A1C), high blood pressure and cholesterol frequently come with the package, google metabolic syndrome. I suspect part of your problem is genetic which is not a choice/lifestyle that you can control( but actually you can control with meds).
I am not a doctor but I see a lot of people who are youngish and sick in the hospital and they have the same problems you do and develop kidney failure as a result and or heart disease or both. I'm no expert but but if you see your doctor maybe you can get professional help from a dietitian, insurance may pay.
In my humble opinion you should be scared of your future health problems, and work with your doctor to monitor your health, diabetes is no joke, it attacks the kidneys and cardiovascular system insidiously and that, as well as high cholesterol and you are set up to have a heart attack.
Sorry to be so harsh but wherr you gonna be when your kid is ten and you have been unmotivated. Try that group again, it takes practice to create healthy habits you can fail but you have to try again, people motivating eachother sounds like a start Maybe make a commitment to your partner or kid, baby steps You just have to get started.
good luck I wish you the best.
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How long ago did you have the baby? You have to give your body time to recover from pregnancy/birth. And if you're breastfeeding, that will affect your dietary requirements.
As far as motivation, what has worked for me is signing myself up for something. If I know I'm signed up for a 5k in a month (or two), then I'm much better about getting my workouts in. Or having an online group that was all doing the same workout, and checking in with them when I'd completed it. In the past I have done the following at home, with good results as long as I keep it up:
30 Day Shred (Jillian is annoying as hell, but the workouts are fairly effective and SHORT) - DVD
Couch to 5k (there are apps for this)
The New Rules of Lifting for Women (requires equipment, like a pretty comprehensive weights set, but REALLY good workouts) - book
Also, telling myself I'm going to work out during the afternoon nap (or whenever) and then doing that as soon as the baby is asleep has worked well for me. I can't give myself time to check email or sit down, or I will get sidetracked and lose motivation fast.
I also try to avoid processed foods, but this takes a ton of planning. Once A Month Mom or some other similar batch/freezer cooking might be helpful.
Congrats on the baby!
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As far as motivation, what has worked for me is signing myself up for something. If I know I'm signed up for a 5k in a month (or two), then I'm much better about getting my workouts in.
This works well for me too! Right now I'm training for a 35 mile Mountain bike race and a 10K turkey trot Thanksgiving morning.
Also for me doing something you enjoy is a huge key. mountain biking once week is the highlight of my week, feels nothing like exercise. I used to try and work out/lift weights with kids and even set up some toys in the barn where I work out. But now I've found I would rather get up early (6:00 am or so) and work out on my own before DW goes to work without the kids. Then I can blare my music and focus on the workout instead of keeping an eye on kids.
Takes some experimentation to find what works for you/your schedule.
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I disagree with the people who are saying not to count calories. Knowing the cost of the food your eating is important for weight control. You check your spending habits in order to save more money?
Once you understand the calorie cost of each food, its easyer to maintain your weight with out doing much work to figure out your caloric intake.
Start with one daily habit and replace it with a lower calorie option. Keep doing this and watch the weight go away effortlessly.
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date things here... as of late my levels are even higher than when I posted before. Blood pressure is higher, cholesterol is pretty high, and hemoglobin (diabetes) is on the higher side. I'm probably about 15-20lbs overweight than where I really should be.
JPlee3 you are in trouble, you know this right?
You need 3 things, diet exercise and please keep going to the doctors and take your meds if prescribed, you are heading into diabetes type two ( evidenced by high hemoglobin A1C), high blood pressure and cholesterol frequently come with the package, google metabolic syndrome. I suspect part of your problem is genetic which is not a choice/lifestyle that you can control( but actually you can control with meds).
I am not a doctor but I see a lot of people who are youngish and sick in the hospital and they have the same problems you do and develop kidney failure as a result and or heart disease or both. I'm no expert but but if you see your doctor maybe you can get professional help from a dietitian, insurance may pay.
In my humble opinion you should be scared of your future health problems, and work with your doctor to monitor your health, diabetes is no joke, it attacks the kidneys and cardiovascular system insidiously and that, as well as high cholesterol and you are set up to have a heart attack.
Sorry to be so harsh but wherr you gonna be when your kid is ten and you have been unmotivated. Try that group again, it takes practice to create healthy habits you can fail but you have to try again, people motivating eachother sounds like a start Maybe make a commitment to your partner or kid, baby steps You just have to get started.
good luck I wish you the best.
Yeah, I just went through a Tabata routine yesterday in the garage. I think the garage is gonna be my new workout room. My doctor already prescribed BP medicine but is slow to submitting it to the online/mail pharmacy we use. But yea, my grandmother suffered diabetes and both my parents have tendencies towards higher BP and cholesterol levels. My dad already had an angioplasty and was on the verge of a stroke before getting triple bypass surgery. So my outlook isn't good. For a while a couple years back I was relegated to a healthier diet and exercise, and then it dropped off when the fall and winter holidays came around. But my levels never reached as high as they are now either - for the most part I was just borderline high on cholesterol. The BP and diabetes are recent developments, and now that all these things have stacked up, I seriously need to exercise and go run (I can tell that even my body is *screaming* for it). Yesterday, I had my first workout session in a long time. It wasn't crazy long but it was pretty intense. I hope to get more of those in every day. And maybe a run every other as well. And as for my diet, I've been eating pretty crappily for the past month. we had a panel at work at my cholesterol levels were *way* lower. But after that we were just eating out and not caring... so gonna have to get back to my oat bran, greek yogurt, and vegetable/chicken/fish-centric diet. Good thing is, as far as diet, those things were working for me previously for cholesterol. And I think they'll work again, so I'm gonna give it a shot. It does take a ton of discipline to keep up though.
But if none of this helps much, which I hope is not the case, I will have to be relegated to meds. At this point it's more the sugar levels and BP that concern me than the cholesterol. So I think prioritizing getting those down is higher up on the list. I have a lot of reservations about being put on statins [especially since it's a "for the rest of your life" kind of a thing].
Thanks for the butt-kick and facepunch. I need more of this poor-health shaming, so pour it on guys!
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I disagree with the people who are saying not to count calories. Knowing the cost of the food your eating is important for weight control. You check your spending habits in order to save more money?
Once you understand the calorie cost of each food, its easyer to maintain your weight with out doing much work to figure out your caloric intake.
Start with one daily habit and replace it with a lower calorie option. Keep doing this and watch the weight go away effortlessly.
I was using MyFitnessPal for a while, and I noticed I was losing some weight. For a time it was a lb a week I think, and then it sort of plateaued. Then I just got lazy and unmotivated and stopped tracking all together. It was just tedious for me to log everything I ate... but that's also a good sign that I probably might have been eating too much. I feel like, psychologically, journaling not only records your intake, but it indirectly helps you only eat what's *necessary* - and usually when I was journaling, I would "plan" out what I was gonna eat for the day. It would really suck if I snacked on a bunch of crap and then had to journal it all - that's probably why I stopped! This is another one of those things that takes a lot of discipline but I do think it helps as well.
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How long ago did you have the baby? You have to give your body time to recover from pregnancy/birth. And if you're breastfeeding, that will affect your dietary requirements.
As far as motivation, what has worked for me is signing myself up for something. If I know I'm signed up for a 5k in a month (or two), then I'm much better about getting my workouts in. Or having an online group that was all doing the same workout, and checking in with them when I'd completed it. In the past I have done the following at home, with good results as long as I keep it up:
30 Day Shred (Jillian is annoying as hell, but the workouts are fairly effective and SHORT) - DVD
Couch to 5k (there are apps for this)
The New Rules of Lifting for Women (requires equipment, like a pretty comprehensive weights set, but REALLY good workouts) - book
Also, telling myself I'm going to work out during the afternoon nap (or whenever) and then doing that as soon as the baby is asleep has worked well for me. I can't give myself time to check email or sit down, or I will get sidetracked and lose motivation fast.
I also try to avoid processed foods, but this takes a ton of planning. Once A Month Mom or some other similar batch/freezer cooking might be helpful.
Congrats on the baby!
Haha thanks. My wife is the one recovering right now, so I definitely have no excuses as far as that is concerned. I never really got into the Youtube/DVD workouts - I find it's easier for me to get frustrated when I can't keep up and they've already on the 10th exercise by the time I'm on the second. So group exercises generally bode better for me. But DIY Tabata isn't bad either - I've found the best thing that keeps me accountable to keep going, for the most part, is a timer - not someone screaming in my face to keep going (although that can help sometimes). It's kinda like when you're sick and feel really terrible but figure out ways to get through it, and one of the ways that just pisses you off is when your SO or parents check on you and talk to you every 30 seconds thinking it'll make you feel better... I digress. Signing up for a race is a good idea, though I tend to get overly competitive with those things and get really hard on myself when I don't do as well as I wanted to. Self-workouts tend to be best for me I think, but it's just a matter of getting off my butt.
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While there is a lot of good advice in this thread, much of which has worked with me (paleo, activity vs. exercise, etc.), there is another factor altogether that we haven't discussed.
You are specifically asking about motivation. In my experience, you cannot force yourself to be motivated. Things in life have to line up. When I am struggling with my eating, when I cannot seem to get motivated to do my workout, when I'm not sleeping well, etc... it means there are other things going on in my life, different possible types of stress, that really need my focus before I can get on track. I only have so much energy.
Right now, I'm going through this - while normally a very active person and a very clean eater, I have not been able to motivate myself to workout, and all I want to eat is crap food. It doesn't matter how much I know this is bad for me...I got some shit going on. I am going through a massive amount of professional stress, have been interviewing and figuring out what I want to do with my life, and all of my energy is going to get this sorted out.
Based on experience, once I "fix" that problem, get back to an even emotional keel, the rest all comes back and maintaining a healthy life style is, well, not effortless, but doesn't feel like so much work.
If motivation is your issue, I'd look at other areas of stress in your life and address them. If you have a new baby...well, there's a glaring red flag that you've had some major life changes, lol.
(The catch-22 is that regular exercise and healthy diet can help you deal with stress - but sometimes you just gotta focus on one thing at a time and cut yourself some slack if things have gotten too out of hand).
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I am not overweight (never had a weight problem, my body type is slim but runs to flab if not exercising) for me it is more 80% exercise/activity and 20% diet. That said I generally eat reasonably well (my Dad is Greek American so was raised on a Mediterranean influenced diet) with a few weaknesses thrown in.
Anyways I think the percentage of what is more important would really vary by person. For me how I look and feel depends a lot more on my physical activity/exercise than diet. This may also be my prejudice because the people who are telling me it's all about diet, are the ones who are always struggling with their weight and are on different diets.
Now that I am in my later 40's, I basically have to do much more intense exercise (aerobic, weight bearing) to continue how I looked when I was younger. No diet is going to get me there.
That said if you have an issue with eating too much, not good foods what any nutritionist would say is to keep a log of what foods and the amounts of what foods you are eating. Include everything such as snacking, drinks, etc. It may also be helpful to not go out to eat during this time and cook at home you have control over what you are eating. Good luck! If you are successful with your changes and make them a new lifestyle I wouldn't be surprised if you can kick those meds as well.
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As others have said, flab control is MOSTLY about diet. Instead of counting calories, get the following out of your life (except maybe for a few holiday meals):
1. White flour (this is metabollically like sugar).
2. Sugar/corn syrup/fruit juice (it's all the same: sugar). DO Eat FRUIT, don't drink juice.
3. Processed meats.
4. Cakes, cookies, candy, sweets.
5. Drink as little as possible while trying to shed. If you have to, no more than 2 non-sugary drinks.
6. Processed carbohydrates (Fritos, nachos, poptarts, hot pockets, etc.). Best carbs: Think Oatmeal, sweet potatoes, fruits, nuts (watch the portions!).
Your diet needs to be mainly PLANT BASED (veggies and fruits)!! Small lean meat portions (size of a deck of cards).
As far as exercise, what do you enjoy? Find something you like and do it. If you don't like anything, find something. For example, I HATE treadmills, but enjoy cycling and stairclimbing. Do it consistenly.
You should get weight training into the mix as well. Find a buddy to partner with you or some videos/magazines or MAYBE hire a trainer to get you started. This will help as building muscles builds up your metabolism rate and tones you.
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As others have said, flab control is MOSTLY about diet. Instead of counting calories, get the following out of your life (except maybe for a few holiday meals):
1. White flour (this is metabollically like sugar).
2. Sugar/corn syrup/fruit juice (it's all the same: sugar). DO Eat FRUIT, don't drink juice.
3. Processed meats.
4. Cakes, cookies, candy, sweets.
5. Drink as little as possible while trying to shed. If you have to, no more than 2 non-sugary drinks.
6. Processed carbohydrates (Fritos, nachos, poptarts, hot pockets, etc.). Best carbs: Think Oatmeal, sweet potatoes, fruits, nuts (watch the portions!).
Your diet needs to be mainly PLANT BASED (veggies and fruits)!! Small lean meat portions (size of a deck of cards).
As far as exercise, what do you enjoy? Find something you like and do it. If you don't like anything, find something. For example, I HATE treadmills, but enjoy cycling and stairclimbing. Do it consistenly.
You should get weight training into the mix as well. Find a buddy to partner with you or some videos/magazines or MAYBE hire a trainer to get you started. This will help as building muscles builds up your metabolism rate and tones you.
I totally agree with this post. ESPECIALLY if you have problems with blood sugar. I have a metabolic condition similar to diabetes, which puts me at risk of diabetes. I got it under control and really improved my blood sugar swings by essentially cutting sugar and simple carbs, and doing light, regular exercise. I had trouble with pounds creeping on in my 20s and 30s, but now after a decade of eating this way...in my mid 40s I struggle to GAIN weight eating the way I do; hell, I have to glop 1/4-cups of nut oil or olive oil onto meals, or lift heavy weights, to push my weight up even a few pounds.
One problem with metabolic syndromes is that there tends to be a chicken/egg type cycle, where you either 1) gain some weight and this exacerbates the poor glucose processing, abnormal metabolic profile, which in turn makes weight gain even MORE likely; or 2) you eat crappy, simple carb heavy food, which in turn leads to crappy metabolic profile, and thus predisposes you to more weight gain. Then you start number 1 and the cycle worsens.
It's really insidious. To improve your health: YOU HAVE TO STOP EATING CRAP. And (I'm not sure this has been emphasized enough)...YOU CAN'T APPROACH IT AS A 'DIET'. You have to change how you eat PERMANENTLY, or the problems will come right back at you.
So take one thing at a time, as noted in the quoted post above, and work it until it's a permanent change. Then go on the the next thing. It's actually astounding how much sugar is hidden in food. ONE friggin Yoplait yogurt (one of the tiny ones) is nearly the entire day's worth of recommended added sugar.
My own experience, unfortunately, to really get control of this, you essentially have to cut out entire groups of food: simple carbs (sugar, white rice, white flour, baked potatoes, etc) and substitute in more nutrient dense, lower glycemic stuff: brown rice, sweet potatos, whole grains, tons more veggies. I still occasionally indulge, but it's like once every few weeks, not once per day.
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I agree with the above advice and would like to add that I find MarksDailyApple an excellent resource http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101
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As others have said, flab control is MOSTLY about diet. Instead of counting calories, get the following out of your life (except maybe for a few holiday meals):
1. White flour (this is metabollically like sugar).
2. Sugar/corn syrup/fruit juice (it's all the same: sugar). DO Eat FRUIT, don't drink juice.
3. Processed meats.
4. Cakes, cookies, candy, sweets.
5. Drink as little as possible while trying to shed. If you have to, no more than 2 non-sugary drinks.
6. Processed carbohydrates (Fritos, nachos, poptarts, hot pockets, etc.). Best carbs: Think Oatmeal, sweet potatoes, fruits, nuts (watch the portions!).
Your diet needs to be mainly PLANT BASED (veggies and fruits)!! Small lean meat portions (size of a deck of cards).
As far as exercise, what do you enjoy? Find something you like and do it. If you don't like anything, find something. For example, I HATE treadmills, but enjoy cycling and stairclimbing. Do it consistenly.
You should get weight training into the mix as well. Find a buddy to partner with you or some videos/magazines or MAYBE hire a trainer to get you started. This will help as building muscles builds up your metabolism rate and tones you.
Quoting everything here for truth, except I'd say don't be afraid of meat, even fattier cuts like chicken legs/thighs and steaks. I find that I am able to keep from gaining weight best when I'm on a high-protein diet, around a pound of cooked meat per day. I get my fat portion from the meat and cooking fats (coconut oil, olive oil, butter), and carbs from sweet potato, rice, bean, and oats. Lots of green veggies on the side that I don't bother to count (brussel sprouts, broccoli, bell pepper, green beans, etc).
For people who have no idea where to start, I find that entering your daily food into Wolfram Alpha to see the calories and macronutrient ratio is really helpful. Start with super simple foods. For example, here is a typical day for me this week:
serving sizes (total: 1570 g)
egg: 4 eggs (140 g)
bacon: 2 slices (14 g)
chicken thigh: 16 oz (454 g)
white rice: 2 cups (410 g)
refried beans: 2 cups (480 g)
raw quick cook steel cut oats: 60 g
butter: 1 tsp (5 g)
honey: 1 tsp (7 g)
total calories 2597 | fat calories 944
% daily value^* |
total fat 102 g | 157%
saturated fat 29 g | 146%
trans fat 2 g |
cholesterol 1 g | 325%
sodium 4 g | 166%
total carbohydrates 236 g | 79%
dietary fiber 25 g | 98%
sugar 16 g |
protein 172 g | 344%
I get my 1g protein per lb body weight, and don't eat much variety, but that's perfect for keeping it simple.
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Besides exercising regularly and eating healthy (clean) the only thing I can add to all of the great suggestions people have already given you is to drink a lot of water..... I mean a LOT!
Start out drinking at least 1/2 gallon and work up to 1 gallon per day. Many times people snack and eat thinking they're hungry, but in reality they are dehydrated.
Good health to you!
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Besides exercising regularly and eating healthy (clean) the only thing I can add to all of the great suggestions people have already given you is to drink a lot of water..... I mean a LOT!
Start out drinking at least 1/2 gallon and work up to 1 gallon per day. Many times people snack and eat thinking they're hungry, but in reality they are dehydrated.
Good health to you!
+1000 - I tell my wife this ALL the time. Even in the morning she will go right to eating breakfast; I'm like aren't your thirsty? I drink 2 glasses of water every morning before I even drink my coffee.
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Consistency is key, find out what makes you stick to things.
Here's an example from my life: I currently rent in an apartment that has a terrible (but free) gym. 1 universal cable machine and a few pieces of cardio equipment that essentially nobody is ever in. In college we had a full weightroom.
I thought I was being super thrifty and mustachian by saying: "I can just walk across the street to my apartment gym and work out for free!" *pats self on back*
... I could never go with any consistency, it sucked. I wanted to do my heavy barbell squats, my deadlifts, my cleans, hell even dumbell curls.
I joined a gym within walking distance (~1 mile), ends up being $40 bucks a month with my corporate discount. I've been steady for a few months now and am consistently adding weight to my sets day after day. (I was much stronger in college than I am today, it's like beginner gains all over again).
Find what works for you to make you consistent. One thing I like to do is print out an entire year paper calendar and hang it on the wall. (http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/create.html?year=2015) every day I go to the gym I highlight the date green.
If I miss a day I color it in red. I haven't missed a day yet but I assure you there's a mental urgency in my head to keep the greens going.
Best of luck to you!
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I disagree with the people who are saying not to count calories. Knowing the cost of the food your eating is important for weight control. You check your spending habits in order to save more money?
Once you understand the calorie cost of each food, its easyer to maintain your weight with out doing much work to figure out your caloric intake.
Start with one daily habit and replace it with a lower calorie option. Keep doing this and watch the weight go away effortlessly.
Not to discount the importance of switching to healthier foods, but I agree that calorie counting also has its place. When one is trying to lose weight, it's easy to eat too few calories, and then you end up hungry and quitting the diet. That's one thing that Weight Watchers does really well -- the point system is designed for slow and steady weight loss, and helps you figure out appropriate portion sizes.
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I would say the easiest and least time-intensive way to be fit is to limit carbohydrate intake and take on a basic powerlifting program. 2-3 days a week of squats, deadlifts, presses and bench presses. Then stop buying bread, pasta, etc. That and get a bike and drive as little as possible.
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I agree with a lot of the paleo/primal leaning advice here. First step is simply to remove the crap from your diet. Grains, sugar, and alcohol. Even if the rest of your diet/exercise is perfect, these things can/will wreck it.
I'm not anti-starch or really even low-carb. I think starches are fine, just use things like tubers, bananas/plantains, beans/legumes, and even rice as long as it's parboiled (which is high in resistant starch).
I've tried a bunch of different exercises, gym memberships, hell I even played football, basketball, and ran track in high school and college. As a mustachian, the best resistance program I've found is Convict Conditioning - it is all based around old body-weight training and starts you off in a very basic and easy (very easy) manner, and slowly builds up your skill/strength over time. Personally I love it - I lifted heavy weights in a gym for many, many years and I find the body weight training to actually leave me MUCH more fit from a "dealign with whatever life throws at me" standpoint. It's one thing to be able to do some bench presses in a gym. It's quite another thing to be able to do actually move your own body around under control via well-executed pushups or pull-ups, etc... The body weight work doesn't just make you stronger, it also gives you much more control over your body.
For aerobic exercise, I have fully embraced my bike-riding mustache. Any/all errands within a 5 mile radius of my house get done via bike, period. On days with no errands, I take it for 2 laps around the local lake. I love the bike because if I'm riding on flat land I can just crank it in to 5th or 6th gear and still some additional resistance. Or, if I'm feeling weak/lazy, I can leave it in 2nd or 3rd gear and still get my ride in.
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You can't out exercise a bad diet. After 30 it's 80% diet.
+1 especially for fat loss. Weight loss is mostly about diet; weight maintenance is mostly about exercise. It's great to get into good exercise habits while losing weight, but the difficulty many have is that their calorie consumption increases with their activity levels, sometimes even moreso, and all the extra exercise doesn't lead to much weight loss (though it may lead to some fat loss). Moderate exercise and strict diet (note: this does not necessarily mean counting calories) to lose weight; moderate diet and consistent exercise to maintain your new setpoint.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-fundamentals-of-fat-loss-diets-part-1.html/
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-fundamentals-of-fat-loss-diets-part-2.html/
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I agree with a lot of the paleo/primal leaning advice here. First step is simply to remove the crap from your diet. Grains, sugar, and alcohol. Even if the rest of your diet/exercise is perfect, these things can/will wreck it.
I'm not anti-starch or really even low-carb. I think starches are fine, just use things like tubers, bananas/plantains, beans/legumes, and even rice as long as it's parboiled (which is high in resistant starch).
I've tried a bunch of different exercises, gym memberships, hell I even played football, basketball, and ran track in high school and college. As a mustachian, the best resistance program I've found is Convict Conditioning - it is all based around old body-weight training and starts you off in a very basic and easy (very easy) manner, and slowly builds up your skill/strength over time. Personally I love it - I lifted heavy weights in a gym for many, many years and I find the body weight training to actually leave me MUCH more fit from a "dealign with whatever life throws at me" standpoint. It's one thing to be able to do some bench presses in a gym. It's quite another thing to be able to do actually move your own body around under control via well-executed pushups or pull-ups, etc... The body weight work doesn't just make you stronger, it also gives you much more control over your body.
For aerobic exercise, I have fully embraced my bike-riding mustache. Any/all errands within a 5 mile radius of my house get done via bike, period. On days with no errands, I take it for 2 laps around the local lake. I love the bike because if I'm riding on flat land I can just crank it in to 5th or 6th gear and still some additional resistance. Or, if I'm feeling weak/lazy, I can leave it in 2nd or 3rd gear and still get my ride in.
RE: Convict Conditioning... is this it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVpJ-zZleac&list=PLAJF1I8DuU3JOYEtcTIRtmyXA6ZqbCZOr ?
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I agree with a lot of the paleo/primal leaning advice here. First step is simply to remove the crap from your diet. Grains, sugar, and alcohol. Even if the rest of your diet/exercise is perfect, these things can/will wreck it.
I'm not anti-starch or really even low-carb. I think starches are fine, just use things like tubers, bananas/plantains, beans/legumes, and even rice as long as it's parboiled (which is high in resistant starch).
I've tried a bunch of different exercises, gym memberships, hell I even played football, basketball, and ran track in high school and college. As a mustachian, the best resistance program I've found is Convict Conditioning - it is all based around old body-weight training and starts you off in a very basic and easy (very easy) manner, and slowly builds up your skill/strength over time. Personally I love it - I lifted heavy weights in a gym for many, many years and I find the body weight training to actually leave me MUCH more fit from a "dealign with whatever life throws at me" standpoint. It's one thing to be able to do some bench presses in a gym. It's quite another thing to be able to do actually move your own body around under control via well-executed pushups or pull-ups, etc... The body weight work doesn't just make you stronger, it also gives you much more control over your body.
For aerobic exercise, I have fully embraced my bike-riding mustache. Any/all errands within a 5 mile radius of my house get done via bike, period. On days with no errands, I take it for 2 laps around the local lake. I love the bike because if I'm riding on flat land I can just crank it in to 5th or 6th gear and still some additional resistance. Or, if I'm feeling weak/lazy, I can leave it in 2nd or 3rd gear and still get my ride in.
RE: Convict Conditioning... is this it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVpJ-zZleac&list=PLAJF1I8DuU3JOYEtcTIRtmyXA6ZqbCZOr ?
Yes, that is exactly it. My strong advice - start at step 1 for every exercise and do not skip ahead or try to rush through them. There are lots of important things that your body learns in the easier steps that are hard to get right if you skip ahead to the more advanced steps. It's a slower, more methodical approach than most programs, but that IMO is it's strength.
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I agree with a lot of the paleo/primal leaning advice here. First step is simply to remove the crap from your diet. Grains, sugar, and alcohol. Even if the rest of your diet/exercise is perfect, these things can/will wreck it.
I'm not anti-starch or really even low-carb. I think starches are fine, just use things like tubers, bananas/plantains, beans/legumes, and even rice as long as it's parboiled (which is high in resistant starch).
I've tried a bunch of different exercises, gym memberships, hell I even played football, basketball, and ran track in high school and college. As a mustachian, the best resistance program I've found is Convict Conditioning - it is all based around old body-weight training and starts you off in a very basic and easy (very easy) manner, and slowly builds up your skill/strength over time. Personally I love it - I lifted heavy weights in a gym for many, many years and I find the body weight training to actually leave me MUCH more fit from a "dealign with whatever life throws at me" standpoint. It's one thing to be able to do some bench presses in a gym. It's quite another thing to be able to do actually move your own body around under control via well-executed pushups or pull-ups, etc... The body weight work doesn't just make you stronger, it also gives you much more control over your body.
For aerobic exercise, I have fully embraced my bike-riding mustache. Any/all errands within a 5 mile radius of my house get done via bike, period. On days with no errands, I take it for 2 laps around the local lake. I love the bike because if I'm riding on flat land I can just crank it in to 5th or 6th gear and still some additional resistance. Or, if I'm feeling weak/lazy, I can leave it in 2nd or 3rd gear and still get my ride in.
RE: Convict Conditioning... is this it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVpJ-zZleac&list=PLAJF1I8DuU3JOYEtcTIRtmyXA6ZqbCZOr ?
Yes, that is exactly it. My strong advice - start at step 1 for every exercise and do not skip ahead or try to rush through them. There are lots of important things that your body learns in the easier steps that are hard to get right if you skip ahead to the more advanced steps. It's a slower, more methodical approach than most programs, but that IMO is it's strength.
Nice. I'll check it out. But does it give you a decent 'cardio' workout like if I were just to do Tabata/HIIT? I wonder if it would be a good idea to alternate and do Tabata/HIIT one day and Convict the other.
BTW: is that Youtube playlist the *full* series of Convict Conditioning? Or is there a ton more footage/exercises?
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Yeah, it's just 6 movements - Pushups, Pullups, Squats, Abs, and Bridges. Here's a good cheat sheet:
http://www.4hourlife.com/2012/08/20/the-6-workouts-tim-ferriss-would-do-in-prison-convict-conditioning/
CC is not cardio at all. Just strength.
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Yeah, it's just 6 movements - Pushups, Pullups, Squats, Abs, and Bridges. Here's a good cheat sheet:
http://www.4hourlife.com/2012/08/20/the-6-workouts-tim-ferriss-would-do-in-prison-convict-conditioning/
CC is not cardio at all. Just strength.
ooh I'm going to look into this. I want to get a routine that works the core but is simple enough I will not blow it off. My favorite exercise video (flow yoga) is great but I skip due to time. Be nice something shorter I can alternate with.
ps here is my favorite yoga program, his "flow" program.
http://www.amazon.com/Element-Hatha-Flow-Yoga-Beginners/dp/B005QUQRDS/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1442871464&sr=1-2&keywords=flow+yoga
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There's a husband wife team who as a site called fitness blender. Some seriously intense exercises.
http://www.fitnessblender.com/
+1 I have been doing Fitness Blender workouts for about a year now, and I can't get enough of it. I used to do a similar HIIT workout called Prime Mover but when I reached the highest level, I started to look elsewhere. Fitness Blender has it all, from a short 20 minute HIIT to a 40 minute HITT/Cardio. I do a daily workout and I have never felt better. I can't recommend it enough.
I would recommend this 37-minute workout, modified if needed, for a beginner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcN37TxBE_s
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There's a husband wife team who as a site called fitness blender. Some seriously intense exercises.
http://www.fitnessblender.com/
+1 I have been doing Fitness Blender workouts for about a year now, and I can't get enough of it. I used to do a similar HIIT workout called Prime Mover but when I reached the highest level, I started to look elsewhere. Fitness Blender has it all, from a short 20 minute HIIT to a 40 minute HITT/Cardio. I do a daily workout and I have never felt better. I can't recommend it enough.
I would recommend this 37-minute workout, modified if needed, for a beginner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcN37TxBE_s
I started following this guy and following his 35min 500calorie HIIT workouts - https://www.youtube.com/user/yaboymillhoy
He's pretty intense and 3/4 of my shirt gets drenched in sweat every time I do his workouts... I know sweat isn't a good indicator of how good of a workout you got in but it doesn't hurt give some sort of satisfaction/motivation lol; I'm also doing the workouts in my garage, where it gets stuffy and hot so that probably is another factor.
Anyway, I do like his intensity but it's kinda hard to clearly hear what he's saying a lot of the time. But it's not too hard picking up and following most of the moves. Some of the moves are just ridiculous but I just try to 'modify' or simplify them a bit if I can't do them. There's one where he does high jumps and touches his knees, then his toes, then the inside of his feet and then the back sides like for each jump... it's so ridiculous if you're not super-coordinated - I lost quite a bit of coordination after I stopped consistently playing bball years ago; I'm scared to step foot on another court cause I'll probably get lit up and my ankles broken hahaha.
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After reading too many articles about sedentary working conditions I sprung for this:
http://www.amazon.com/Height-Adjustable-Standing-Desk-VARIDESK-Black/dp/B00JI6NCCK/ref=sr_1_1?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1442948350&sr=1-1&keywords=varidesk
Would have liked a full standing desk, but that won't fit into my cubicle blueprint.
Obviously it wasn't cheap but my health is worth it.
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Hey guys, sorry to resurrect but just wanted to update things here... as of late my levels are even higher than when I posted before. Blood pressure is higher, cholesterol is pretty high, and hemoglobin (diabetes) is on the higher side. I'm probably about 15-20lbs overweight than where I really should be.
Just had a baby so now it's hitting home harder that I need to do something. I'm probably gonna start running again. For a while, while my car was broke, I was biking into work (for a couple months) but while that was great, it probably wasn't contributing *that* much in the overall picture since I didn't do any other form of exercise. I do have some weights laying around the house so will try to get back into lifting.
I don't know... what do you guys do to stay motivated? And also, what routines would you suggest? I know everyone's body is different and that different exercises work for different people. The workouts ingrained in my head from the past are basically running a couple miles and then lifting weights and or doing the most basic body weight exercises: crunches and push-ups. Any tips on improving the regimen or mixing it up? I was doing the group exercise thing and the 'addiction' only lasted for a little while before I got lazy and didn't want to wake up early anymore. Didn't mean I had to stop and that I couldn't workout later in the day or at night though, which is pretty much what I'll probably end up doing moving forward.
It's time to stop trying to find excuses and just to go out and do it. But any advice along the way would be helpful too...
Thanks all!
I have not read all the comments, so I apologize if I am repeating someone.
You don't need motivation, you need discipline. Motivation means you need to "feel like it" before you start working out or eating right. Easy at first, but quickly wanes. You need to make a plan and stick to it. Find out a good accountability system that works for you. Everyone is different, so specific suggestions are not always going to help you. Are you better with a new habit if you tell someone about it or have a workout buddy (external accountability) or do you function best by keeping a calendar and marking the successful days or some other way of keeping yourself going on your own (internal accountability)?
I would also suggest reading Better than Before. It deals with how to form new habits, which is what anyone trying to lose weight really needs. It will help you identify methods that work best for you, not what works for someone else.
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In your first post you said that it is difficult for you do do things in the name of "fitness". I agree with this 100% and I have never really done things in the name of "fitness", I do them because they are fun and I enjoy them.
Riding Bike - Fun, easy to do when you enjoy pedaling down a country road for a few hours.
Hiking - Going out for a walk seems boring, in the name of fitness even more so, hiking is fun. Carrying a heavy pack while hiking further increases the exercise you will get. For real bonus points do water carries, fill up a few 1 gallon water jugs and hike up in elevation as much as you can, when you reach your high point dump the water to save your knees while descending.
Climbing - The only gym I go to is a climbing gym, it is FUN, and I end up doing core work and weights just because they are there. Climbing outside usually involves walking with heavy pack (see hiking)
Mowing Lawn - i've got a reel mower, while maybe not fun I still kind of enjoy pushing that thing around
Swimming - swimming is fun, and even better if the pool you go to has sauna and hot tub
Sex - yeah i said it