Author Topic: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?  (Read 15456 times)

Morning Glory

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Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« on: September 16, 2021, 11:52:43 AM »
I didn't see any weight loss gauntlets for this year (besides the crazy cheap unhealthy food one) and I want to lose about 15 lbs. I know what I need to do (protein and veggies instead of carbs, strength training instead of just cardio), just struggling with motivation lately and thought seeing other people report progress might help. I want to make this thread as welcoming as possible though, so anyone with any sort of health or fitness goal is welcome.






DaMa

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2021, 12:16:42 PM »
I'll jump in.  I came back to Michigan in March from a winter in Florida, having gained almost 20 lbs.  Got that back off, but really wanted to continue to make progress.  So I started with a personal trainer 5 weeks ago.  It's probably the best thing I've ever done.  Just two 45 min sessions per week, but I've had significant improvement in back and knee pain.  I plan to continue through the winter, at least.

My goal is to start daily walking again now that the heat is about over.  I was up to 3 miles a day in June 2020, but stopped once it got hot and never got going again.

CNM

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2021, 12:18:33 PM »
I've been on a health and fitness tear lately, and I'd love some cohorts to get motivation going!

I'm about to head into a very stressful time work-wise from now until mid- to late-October, so getting into a healthy eating pattern will be key.

TheFrenchCat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2021, 01:05:57 PM »
I've set two fitness goals for this month, that I plan to continue with through the end of this year at least.  Hopefully the end of this school year.  I'm exercising every day my daughter is in school for at least 15 minutes, to start.  I plan to increase that to 30 minutes in a month or two.  And at least half the days I plan to enter what I eat and how much I exercise into my fitness pal.  The only time I intentionally lost weight, all I did was use my fitness pal and try to stay under the calories it told me. 

I'd love to lose a lot of weight; I'd have to lose at least 60 pounds to get back to where I was 7 years ago.  But that number feels impossible.  So for now I'm not setting a number of pounds to loose, I'm just trying to implement good fitness habits and hope that will eventually lead to some sort of result.  And even though the scale and my BMI haven't budged yet, my waist-to-hip ratio went from .85 to .8 over the last two months.  So I think it's working.

seemsright

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2021, 02:14:45 PM »
I am recovering from a stupid injury that I got back in late June. I fell hiking and broke my pinky bone. Had surgery to put in pins then they discovered a bone tumor and then had pins in for 8 weeks, another surgery to have them taken out and now I am doing 16 weeks of hand therapy before they go in and do a 3rd surgery where they drill a hole into the bone and scrape out the tumor and then another 16 weeks of recovery. I will most likely not get my grip 100% back. And of course I am right handed.

I was training for a Tri and a marathon. I am no longer doing that. I am fighting hard to get movement in every day. I am also simplifying my food and that seems to be working pretty darn well. I am focusing on making sure I am drinking enough water and sleeping as much as I can.

I have about 20ish pounds I would like to lose but I am going to have to do it very slow as my body really likes where it is right now.

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2021, 02:59:49 PM »
I'm in, my weight is perfectly healthy, although it's about 8lbs above my ideal.

The problem though is that my metabolism is shot. Between losing a huge amount of weight, cycling through a ton of different meds, and losing my ability to walk much or do other exercise, my maintenance calorie level has gotten unpleasantly low. If I eat even 1600 calories a day, even with the exercise I'm doing, I'll gain.

I'm now eating less than I did when I was actively losing weight, and it's just barely maintaining as long as I stay religiously consistent.

I need to somehow fire up my metabolism a bit, because eating 1200-1400 calories per day with no exception is just not sustainable. That means even a short stretch of calories of a more normal 1700-2000/day is causing notable gains, and those pounds are almost impossible to lose unless I eat 1000 calories or less for several weeks on end, because my body is too fragile to exercise them off.

No thanks, not fun.

So I'm going to try 18:6 intermittent fasting to see if that helps. I was never able to do it before due to very low blood pressure, but I'm taking massive salt supplements now, so my BP should be okay.

I'm ideally hoping that this will actually allow me to increase my daily intake a bit, because it takes a lot of attention to detail to keep calories as low as I have been, and I don't appreciate having to monitor my intake so closely. It feels unhealthy to me, but the past two years have proven that that's what it takes to not just slowly, consistently gain.

We'll see. It's always just trial and error.

CNM

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2021, 03:16:21 PM »
@Malcat I've also started IF this past month.  I usually fast around 14 hours - so I stop eating after dinner and then start again at lunch.  It is still too early in the process to see how it is working. 

I find that sometimes I can feel a benefit-  not feeling bloated primarily -- but other times not.  It depends very much on what it is I end up eating during the eating window.  If I end up eating, say, a bunch of Milky Ways (this was me yesterday!!) it does not matter whether it's in my eating window or not, I end up feeling gross. 

Anyway, my plan is to eat more balanced and whole foods while also IF.   My weight is OK but it is right on the edge between normal and overweight BMI.  It'd be better if I lost 10 - 15 lbs.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2021, 03:16:53 PM »
I'm in. I've been consistently working out (90ish% of the time) every day. But, sloppiness on the eating side. I want to continue to slowly lose a few pounds, and not go through my standard "regain" during the winter months.

Freedomin5

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #8 on: September 16, 2021, 03:46:48 PM »
I’m in as well. I lost six lbs over the summer by walking 10K steps and cycling a few times a week. Then it got really hot and a few typhoons hit and work got busy, and I fell out of the habit. I’d like to get back into the habit of exercising regularly. Hoping to lose another 5 lbs or so. (I really need to lose 15 lbs, but 5 lbs is a less overwhelming goal.)

DaMa

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2021, 09:18:06 PM »
I had a weigh in today, and I'm officially down 7 lbs in 5 weeks (26 lbs since 3/1/21).  I'm happy with that.  I don't do diets -- I just try to stick with healthy eating habits.  Restriction just backfires on me.  I've been doing mostly low carb since March, but have added in small portions of carbs in the past few weeks and have still been losing.

After many years of forcing myself to eat breakfast, I stopped during shut-down.  I have no appetite in the mornings.  No breakfast motivated me to finally kick my flavored coffee cream addiction so I can do intermittent fasting.  I do a 16:8 fast now (mostly).  Evening snacking is still a weakness.

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #10 on: September 17, 2021, 04:58:15 AM »
I’m in. I gained about 20 lbs over the past 18 months between the covid lockdowns and then being unable to move well and losing all of my fitness after being badly injured. I’ve been doing hours of physical therapy every week for the past 6 months, but that kind of exercise doesn’t move the scale. I’ve regained enough mobility to add back some more intense low impact activity, so I’m trying to do more of that.

I’d like to lose 25 lbs, but like Malcat, I know my metabolism is a barrier and I have to eat far too few calories per day for that weight to be sustainable. I hate tracking calories because I feel like I start to get into a pattern of disordered eating if I watch too closely. And at less than 1200 calories per day I’m hungry all the time - which is no fun.

The biggest issue I’m having now is laziness at dinner. My spouse does all the dinner cooking, and I eat what is served. But I think I really need to eat differently at dinner to have success. Which means being less lazy and actually planning and preparing my own meal.

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #11 on: September 17, 2021, 06:32:01 AM »
I generally eat pretty well, but I started to notice that some junk was creeping into my diet, so I'm trying to be more mindful about that. 

I'm at a crossroads with my fitness right now.  I work out at home and at the gym.  Some things I prefer at one over the other.  My gym has cut classes and changed the schedule, plus added an instructor that I don't like.  I'm not getting there as often as I used to, but I go there for the things I love, but don't like doing at home.  I'd switch gyms, but everywhere else is much more expensive so I just grumble.  I either need to learn to love certain things at home or drop them (not going to happen) or accept that my price per class is going up.  Pre-Covid I was going everyday, so my PPC was about $1.50, now it is about $2.75.  I realize that is still cheap, but I'm mostly annoyed about the schedule and two intolerable instructors.  I like the other instructors so I'm trying to cram their classes in when I can.

GuitarStv

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #12 on: September 17, 2021, 07:11:48 AM »
I'm in, my weight is perfectly healthy, although it's about 8lbs above my ideal.

The problem though is that my metabolism is shot. Between losing a huge amount of weight, cycling through a ton of different meds, and losing my ability to walk much or do other exercise, my maintenance calorie level has gotten unpleasantly low. If I eat even 1600 calories a day, even with the exercise I'm doing, I'll gain.

I'm now eating less than I did when I was actively losing weight, and it's just barely maintaining as long as I stay religiously consistent.

I need to somehow fire up my metabolism a bit, because eating 1200-1400 calories per day with no exception is just not sustainable. That means even a short stretch of calories of a more normal 1700-2000/day is causing notable gains, and those pounds are almost impossible to lose unless I eat 1000 calories or less for several weeks on end, because my body is too fragile to exercise them off.

No thanks, not fun.

So I'm going to try 18:6 intermittent fasting to see if that helps. I was never able to do it before due to very low blood pressure, but I'm taking massive salt supplements now, so my BP should be okay.

I'm ideally hoping that this will actually allow me to increase my daily intake a bit, because it takes a lot of attention to detail to keep calories as low as I have been, and I don't appreciate having to monitor my intake so closely. It feels unhealthy to me, but the past two years have proven that that's what it takes to not just slowly, consistently gain.

We'll see. It's always just trial and error.

That sounds very frustrating.  It's very hard to maintain a high (or even normal) metabolism without regular exercise due to the muscle loss that occurs.  Is the not being able even to walk thing a permanent thing, and/or is there any way you can schedule some regular use of your body?  Doesn't have to be extreme, but some weight bearing exercise is really beneficial (mot just for muscles/metabolism either, but women often tend to develop bone problems as they age - this has been a bit of a concern for my mother who is also a small woman).

The other problem with very low calorie diets is that when you're sitting around 1000 calories a day it becomes more challenging to get all the nutrients and vitamins you need from diet alone.

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #13 on: September 17, 2021, 07:12:24 AM »
First day of new eating routine, but of course I decide to start on a day where I have a long dental appointment in the middle of the day. That's okay though, I can stretch to a 16:8 window whenever it makes sense to.

I was already pretty much at a 16:8 window for solid food, but was frequently having non alcoholic drinks in the evening. So if I just switched to herbal tea, that alone would put me my typical days at 16:8.

I'm planning to cut my dinner meal and eat more during the day, and I've read that one of the hardest parts of doing IF with a morning eating window is the awkwardness of socializing in the evening, but we already eat dinner so early and we rarely go out for meals, so it's really a non issue. Also, I already don't drink alcohol and have no issue with being the weirdo who just orders herbal tea.

This was recommended by my neurologist in an effort to control nerve pain as well that's been resistant to medication. We'll see about that, I'm willing to try, but not getting my hopes up.

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #14 on: September 17, 2021, 07:30:22 AM »
I'm in, my weight is perfectly healthy, although it's about 8lbs above my ideal.

The problem though is that my metabolism is shot. Between losing a huge amount of weight, cycling through a ton of different meds, and losing my ability to walk much or do other exercise, my maintenance calorie level has gotten unpleasantly low. If I eat even 1600 calories a day, even with the exercise I'm doing, I'll gain.

I'm now eating less than I did when I was actively losing weight, and it's just barely maintaining as long as I stay religiously consistent.

I need to somehow fire up my metabolism a bit, because eating 1200-1400 calories per day with no exception is just not sustainable. That means even a short stretch of calories of a more normal 1700-2000/day is causing notable gains, and those pounds are almost impossible to lose unless I eat 1000 calories or less for several weeks on end, because my body is too fragile to exercise them off.

No thanks, not fun.

So I'm going to try 18:6 intermittent fasting to see if that helps. I was never able to do it before due to very low blood pressure, but I'm taking massive salt supplements now, so my BP should be okay.

I'm ideally hoping that this will actually allow me to increase my daily intake a bit, because it takes a lot of attention to detail to keep calories as low as I have been, and I don't appreciate having to monitor my intake so closely. It feels unhealthy to me, but the past two years have proven that that's what it takes to not just slowly, consistently gain.

We'll see. It's always just trial and error.

That sounds very frustrating.  It's very hard to maintain a high (or even normal) metabolism without regular exercise due to the muscle loss that occurs.  Is the not being able even to walk thing a permanent thing, and/or is there any way you can schedule some regular use of your body?  Doesn't have to be extreme, but some weight bearing exercise is really beneficial (mot just for muscles/metabolism either, but women often tend to develop bone problems as they age - this has been a bit of a concern for my mother who is also a small woman).

The other problem with very low calorie diets is that when you're sitting around 1000 calories a day it becomes more challenging to get all the nutrients and vitamins you need from diet alone.

Yes, it is extremely frustrating.

I know you are trying to be helpful, but this kind of response is also extremely frustrating, even though I know you mean no ill will by it, but it's kind of like the stereotypical "have you tried yoga?" that disabled people always get.

My condition is highly complex and very dangerous. I put in an astronomical amount of effort to maintain my health as much as I can, and have an expert team of no fewer than a dozen medical professionals. I am in very good hands and in the very very best shape and health that my body can possibly be in. It's basically a full time job managing my health.


GuitarStv

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #15 on: September 17, 2021, 07:59:22 AM »
I'm in, my weight is perfectly healthy, although it's about 8lbs above my ideal.

The problem though is that my metabolism is shot. Between losing a huge amount of weight, cycling through a ton of different meds, and losing my ability to walk much or do other exercise, my maintenance calorie level has gotten unpleasantly low. If I eat even 1600 calories a day, even with the exercise I'm doing, I'll gain.

I'm now eating less than I did when I was actively losing weight, and it's just barely maintaining as long as I stay religiously consistent.

I need to somehow fire up my metabolism a bit, because eating 1200-1400 calories per day with no exception is just not sustainable. That means even a short stretch of calories of a more normal 1700-2000/day is causing notable gains, and those pounds are almost impossible to lose unless I eat 1000 calories or less for several weeks on end, because my body is too fragile to exercise them off.

No thanks, not fun.

So I'm going to try 18:6 intermittent fasting to see if that helps. I was never able to do it before due to very low blood pressure, but I'm taking massive salt supplements now, so my BP should be okay.

I'm ideally hoping that this will actually allow me to increase my daily intake a bit, because it takes a lot of attention to detail to keep calories as low as I have been, and I don't appreciate having to monitor my intake so closely. It feels unhealthy to me, but the past two years have proven that that's what it takes to not just slowly, consistently gain.

We'll see. It's always just trial and error.

That sounds very frustrating.  It's very hard to maintain a high (or even normal) metabolism without regular exercise due to the muscle loss that occurs.  Is the not being able even to walk thing a permanent thing, and/or is there any way you can schedule some regular use of your body?  Doesn't have to be extreme, but some weight bearing exercise is really beneficial (mot just for muscles/metabolism either, but women often tend to develop bone problems as they age - this has been a bit of a concern for my mother who is also a small woman).

The other problem with very low calorie diets is that when you're sitting around 1000 calories a day it becomes more challenging to get all the nutrients and vitamins you need from diet alone.

Yes, it is extremely frustrating.

I know you are trying to be helpful, but this kind of response is also extremely frustrating, even though I know you mean no ill will by it, but it's kind of like the stereotypical "have you tried yoga?" that disabled people always get.

My condition is highly complex and very dangerous. I put in an astronomical amount of effort to maintain my health as much as I can, and have an expert team of no fewer than a dozen medical professionals. I am in very good hands and in the very very best shape and health that my body can possibly be in. It's basically a full time job managing my health.

But . . . I'm from the internet!  I can help!  :P



Sorry, no offense was meant.

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #16 on: September 17, 2021, 08:27:21 AM »
But . . . I'm from the internet!  I can help!  :P



Sorry, no offense was meant.

No worries, I gave you the benefit of the doubt that you didn't know I have a very serious genetic illness. Lol, and perhaps forgot that I'm also a medical professional myself ;)

Incidentally, my area of expertise is treating complex chronic pain conditions.

Serendip

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #17 on: September 17, 2021, 08:49:05 AM »
I'll join.

I'd say I'm fairly healthy but have slowly been adding lbs as I age (now in my 40's). Could lose 5-10lbs but would like to accomplish this in a sustainable way.
Have been reducing alcohol consumption and am happy to increase fitness goals alongside everyone here.

I've tried IF before and liked it (16:8 works well for me) but I'd also like to incorporate some more strength work, yoga, cardio for an overall energy boost.


Anon-E-Mouze

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #18 on: September 17, 2021, 09:18:36 AM »
Count me in, too.

I'm very conscious of the need at my age (I'm 57) to develop and maintain a level of fitness that reduces the risks of wheels coming off in retirement. I have some good (and not-so-good) examples in my own family that are instructive. My mother-in-law and stepmother, for example, have kept active and are, all things considered, in good shape for their years (87 and 84, respectively) and that has enabled them to bounce back from surgeries and other medical problems fairly well. My dad, on the other hand, has never been into exercise and I watch him becoming frailer almost by the minute. (We've persuaded him to sign up with a personal trainer, though, so that's a win.) And then there's my sister, who medalled at age 57 (for Women 45+) in her first half Ironman a couple of years ago :)

Generally, I'm much less active than my sporty older sister. This is partly due to inclination and partly due to some weird biomechanical and vision issues that make me very prone to injury and accidents. So I have to be careful not to overdo my workouts, lest I end up sidelined by back trouble, shin splints, hip or knee trouble or stress fractures. (Among other things, I have broken my left arm 6 times, my right elbow (once), various toes, an ankle, and had major stress fractures in both shins. I've also torn the rotator cuff in my left shoulder, ruptured two discs in my lower back, severed the tendon in one of my fingers and broken bones in my hands.)

I used to be able to run-walk 10Ks and half-marathons regularly, but I've been having a lot more trouble with shin splints and knee issues in the past few years, so I think my race days are over.

Throughout the pandemic, though, I have developed some habits and acquired some equipment that are enabling me to make progress on my fitness goals. We already had a treadmill and elliptical machine in our basement, and I'm using those more consistently. More recently, I acquired an "arm-cycle" machine, which I use when shin splints or similar issues make it difficult for me to use the treadmill or elliptical machine. I also just got some resistance bands, and I'm incorporating those into my strength training.

Added bonus: my employer reimbursed me for 50% of the cost of the arm cycle and resistance bands!

I also discovered that a split workout schedule works well for me in terms of keeping me motivated to work out and reducing strain / injury risk. I used to find that the prospect of doing a 40+ minute workout (especially first thing in the morning before going into the office) was just too unappealing. It was far too easy to procrastinate and never get it done. Since I've been working from home, I've started doing twice-daily shorter workouts on my workout days. I tell myself I only need to do 20 minutes in the morning. And then I aim to do a second workout later in the afternoon or early evening. Those workouts sometimes stretch out a bit longer (to 30 minutes or so each), but I tell myself 20 minutes is enough. And it's easy to fit a 20-30 minute workout into my work schedule - I use it as a brain break. The only disadvantage is that I end up taking two showers a day, because I hate sitting around all sweaty.

I aim to work out 2 days in a row and take the third day as a rest day, which is helping reduce my injury risk, while keeping my workout routine regular enough to keep me motivated.

So, my goals for fitness for the rest of the year are as follows:

1) Above all else, stick to a sustainable workout program that reduces the risk of injury.
2) Keep up with my 2 days on / 1 day off schedule. (Day 1 is cardio, Day 2 is circuit strength+ cardio or just strength, Day 3 is a rest day.)
3) Continue learning how to incorporate resistance bands into my training.
4) Increase the intensity of my strength workouts.
5) Sign up with a personal trainer to have them finetune my workout. (I used to work out regularly with a PT, so I have some good foundations, but need some advice on my at-home workout.)
6) Add balance exercises to my regime, and do them at least every other day.

I would like to lose about 5 more pounds, to get to what I think is a happy and sustainable weight/size, but that's secondary to the fitness goals above.

On the food front, my DH and I are vegan and eat a fairly healthy diet. The vegan thing helps me say no to a lot of the addictive and readily available sweets, snacks and junk food that I used to crave (like dairy chocolate, cheesy pizza, etc.)  But I need to do a better job of saying no to chips at the end of the day - and I have to watch my carbs a bit because my lean DH (who is a runner) loves baking bread and can eat a lot more calories than I can. I also want to do a better job of incorporating a wider range of fruit into my diet more frequently. (I eat a lot of veggies, but eat fruit less frequently.)
« Last Edit: September 17, 2021, 12:17:43 PM by Anon-E-Mouze »

achvfi

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #19 on: September 17, 2021, 11:49:00 AM »
Last year I focused on improving my health with amazing results. I lost more than 50 pounds, gained significant muscle and resolved many health issues. My bloodwork improved greatly, very low inflammation, I dont snore anymore and look many years younger :)

I am not looking for weight loss anymore, rather focused on continue to improve my health. May be Lose a little bit of lingering belly fat and extra skin, so I can see rest of my abs when I flex :)

I listen to my body, I eat as much as I naturally want. I never starve my body anymore. I naturally do intermittent fasting few days a week. Secret is I eat diet high in natural proteins and fats that are naturally satisfying. I eat mostly non starchy vegetables, berries and some fruit as my carbs. Low carb diet, given enough time removed most of cravings for junk foods.

My workouts include strength training, spinning and long slow walks. Amazingly I recover so much faster from strength workouts now, typically in one or two days. I have so much energy and workouts are enjoyable now, I look forward to them.

My goals are
1) Continue progress on improving body composition.
2) Using too much keyboard and doing too many pushups are probably giving me carpal tunnel. Need to figure out a way to resolve it.

GuitarStv

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #20 on: September 17, 2021, 12:44:21 PM »
Using too much keyboard and doing too many pushups are probably giving me carpal tunnel. Need to figure out a way to resolve it.

How's your keyboarding posture?  I find that typing for a long time on a keyboard only gives me wrist problems when I get lazy/tires and tend to let my wrists collapse so that the hands are coming up at a funny angle while typing.

achvfi

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #21 on: September 17, 2021, 01:07:43 PM »
Using too much keyboard and doing too many pushups are probably giving me carpal tunnel. Need to figure out a way to resolve it.

How's your keyboarding posture?  I find that typing for a long time on a keyboard only gives me wrist problems when I get lazy/tires and tend to let my wrists collapse so that the hands are coming up at a funny angle while typing.

You are right, my wrists were collapsing. I make some adjustments how I type since. I temporarily stopped pullups and reduce pushups. I am now using dumbbells' when I pushup so my wrists are not in weird angle. Another important change is I have been wearing wrist splints when I go to sleep at night. It seems at night when I sleep on my side I am putting pressure on my wrist in weird angles and overtime causing some nerves to pinch I guess.

These changes have given lot of relief so far. Its not fully back to normal yet. I hope its just matter of time and I dont need to get any procedure done.


joe189man

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #22 on: September 17, 2021, 01:43:35 PM »
i will hop in,
 i want to either lose 10-20 lbs and/or adjust my body composition to what it was before we had kids. i had to buy some "covid" jeans and i want to wear the old ones,

i want to increase cardio fitness and start lifting again as well

joe189man

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #23 on: September 17, 2021, 01:44:56 PM »
But . . . I'm from the internet!  I can help!  :P



Sorry, no offense was meant.

No worries, I gave you the benefit of the doubt that you didn't know I have a very serious genetic illness. Lol, and perhaps forgot that I'm also a medical professional myself ;)

Incidentally, my area of expertise is treating complex chronic pain conditions.

is a vibration plate an option? i have one, i like it, very low impact

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #24 on: September 17, 2021, 01:57:17 PM »
But . . . I'm from the internet!  I can help!  :P



Sorry, no offense was meant.

No worries, I gave you the benefit of the doubt that you didn't know I have a very serious genetic illness. Lol, and perhaps forgot that I'm also a medical professional myself ;)

Incidentally, my area of expertise is treating complex chronic pain conditions.

is a vibration plate an option? i have one, i like it, very low impact

Nope, strictly contraindicated. It's all good, I have an excellent, specialized physiotherapy team that keeps me moving.

SquashingDebt

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #25 on: September 17, 2021, 02:37:47 PM »
Partly inspired by this thread, my partner and I started up our daily walks again this morning, after a long hiatus while we moved apartments, etc.  It was great!  I'm also excited that we're planning to get a treadmill so that we can keep things up when it gets snowy.  We already have an elliptical and I'm think we can have some good couple's workout time after our work from home days each afternoon :)

CNM

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #26 on: September 17, 2021, 04:59:03 PM »
I could use some tips on how to avoid junk foods during times of stress.  I am getting ready for trial, which is a stressful time, and I see my consumption of candy, prepackaged cookies, and chips skyrocketing.  I do not keep candy and chips at home, but my office is chock full of it-- in substantial quantities free for the taking.
I *know* that I'm just reaching for the cheez-its for emotional reasons and not hunger reasons.  It almost seems reflexive though? 

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #27 on: September 17, 2021, 05:05:36 PM »
I could use some tips on how to avoid junk foods during times of stress.  I am getting ready for trial, which is a stressful time, and I see my consumption of candy, prepackaged cookies, and chips skyrocketing.  I do not keep candy and chips at home, but my office is chock full of it-- in substantial quantities free for the taking.
I *know* that I'm just reaching for the cheez-its for emotional reasons and not hunger reasons.  It almost seems reflexive though?

I feel like a broken record, but I would probably seek therapy. That might sound excessive, but I'm in a lawsuit right now and there's no way I could keep my head clear without regular therapy. Also, I've always said that the best diet is a good therapist.

If you are eating as self medication, then "tips and tricks" aren't going to cut it. There's some important emotional need that isn't being met and that you are trying to self soothe with food.

It's not as simple as "I'm heading to court and I'm stressed." The court case is triggering some emotional instability that needs to be identified and processed in order to figure out what coping skills would actually be more beneficial and healthy.

You can't will power your way through unmet emotional needs. The unmet needs will win. You need to find a different way to meet those needs or your brain will keep defaulting to food.

Maybe you can do it with pure brute self restraint, but that's just adding stress to an already stressful time.

HastyTortoise

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #28 on: September 18, 2021, 09:16:40 AM »
As a recently retired Personal Trainer, just wanted to hop on and give props to all of you for your hard work! Sounds like you've all put great thought into your well-being. Awareness and intention are always the first steps toward positive change, so you're all on the right track! Keep up the good work!

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #29 on: September 18, 2021, 09:42:25 AM »
Day one of 18:6 IF went well despite being at the dentist for the bulk of my eating window. Today I woke up earlier so will finish eating around 1:30pm, so we'll see how that goes.

I got the official go ahead from my neurologist, and was surprised to find out that IF was on her list of things to try as my next steps. So now it's actually been officially prescribed for a 6 week period to see how my body responds.

Due to my work history, my body is very accustom to only being allowed to eat when possible, so I'm not having to go through much of an adjustment process because I've never been a grazer, it just wasn't possible.

The only thing I'll have to get used to is not being able to have calorie containing beverages in the evening, but I was already wanting to switch to tea because slowly sipping calorie containing beverages is absolutely terrible for your teeth.

Morning Glory

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #30 on: September 18, 2021, 10:01:32 AM »
Day one of 18:6 IF went well despite being at the dentist for the bulk of my eating window. Today I woke up earlier so will finish eating around 1:30pm, so we'll see how that goes.

I got the official go ahead from my neurologist, and was surprised to find out that IF was on her list of things to try as my next steps. So now it's actually been officially prescribed for a 6 week period to see how my body responds.

Due to my work history, my body is very accustom to only being allowed to eat when possible, so I'm not having to go through much of an adjustment process because I've never been a grazer, it just wasn't possible.

I'm glad that you're tolerating the fasting ok. I have a similar work history when it comes to only being able to eat at certain times. I gained a bunch of weight after switching to a job that lets me eat whenever I want.

jac941

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #31 on: September 18, 2021, 11:37:01 AM »
IF was recommended to me, but I find that I struggle with it because I would prefer to skip dinner over breakfast. For practical reasons, in the past I skipped breakfast to make it work, but unless I have coffee (with a little milk, no sugar - so breaking the fast), I can’t focus because I’m so hungry until my first meal of the day at noon.

Dinner time is late at my house (~7 pm), and I feel obligated to partake whether I’m hungry or not because it’s the “family meal”. When I’m really and truly not hungry at all, I sit with the family and don’t eat. But then this inevitably leads to me fielding endless questions about why I’m not eating (typically from my kids). When we have guests for dinner it’s even more of a problem. So usually I just eat.

So I’m trying to do this without intermittent fasting. I really think I’m going to have to just start making a separate dinner meal to make this workable. But I wonder about what I’m modeling for my kids if I don’t eat the meal served to them.

I honestly think I’d have a much easier time if eating were just about eating and not about meeting other social and family obligations.

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #32 on: September 18, 2021, 11:50:36 AM »
IF was recommended to me, but I find that I struggle with it because I would prefer to skip dinner over breakfast. For practical reasons, in the past I skipped breakfast to make it work, but unless I have coffee (with a little milk, no sugar - so breaking the fast), I can’t focus because I’m so hungry until my first meal of the day at noon.

Dinner time is late at my house (~7 pm), and I feel obligated to partake whether I’m hungry or not because it’s the “family meal”. When I’m really and truly not hungry at all, I sit with the family and don’t eat. But then this inevitably leads to me fielding endless questions about why I’m not eating (typically from my kids). When we have guests for dinner it’s even more of a problem. So usually I just eat.

So I’m trying to do this without intermittent fasting. I really think I’m going to have to just start making a separate dinner meal to make this workable. But I wonder about what I’m modeling for my kids if I don’t eat the meal served to them.

I honestly think I’d have a much easier time if eating were just about eating and not about meeting other social and family obligations.

Could you not give your children the option of also eating the kind of food that you want to eat? Or model for them that different people have different patterns of eating and that that's okay?

I don't think it models anything healthy if you are forcing yourself to eat food you don't want to be eating that doesn't serve your health just for the sake of optics.

There has to be a healthy discourse where your health needs can be met and where that can serve as a positive messaging for your kids.

jac941

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #33 on: September 18, 2021, 05:41:34 PM »
Could you not give your children the option of also eating the kind of food that you want to eat? Or model for them that different people have different patterns of eating and that that's okay?

I don't think it models anything healthy if you are forcing yourself to eat food you don't want to be eating that doesn't serve your health just for the sake of optics.

There has to be a healthy discourse where your health needs can be met and where that can serve as a positive messaging for your kids.

These are good thoughts. I used to do this to a degree when my kids were younger, and I did all the dinner prep so the foods were my preferred foods. The problem is that I did all the dinner prep. Which I hated.

Now my husband is in charge of all grocery shopping and dinner prep because he actually likes it, and he works from home so it’s logistically easier for him to do as well. So I think there’s a conversation here with him. He’s not terribly interested in eating my preferred foods — I think part of why he loves cooking is to make the things he likes. There’s probably a compromise here.

Unfortunately we have a few family members around our kids on a regular basis who have diagnosed eating disorders and very compulsive food habits. Part of my hesitation around skipping dinner is that I don’t want to normalize skipping meals and refusing to eat entire categories of foods. Maybe I’m overthinking it.

Morning Glory

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #34 on: September 18, 2021, 05:50:41 PM »
Could you not give your children the option of also eating the kind of food that you want to eat? Or model for them that different people have different patterns of eating and that that's okay?

I don't think it models anything healthy if you are forcing yourself to eat food you don't want to be eating that doesn't serve your health just for the sake of optics.

There has to be a healthy discourse where your health needs can be met and where that can serve as a positive messaging for your kids.

These are good thoughts. I used to do this to a degree when my kids were younger, and I did all the dinner prep so the foods were my preferred foods. The problem is that I did all the dinner prep. Which I hated.

Now my husband is in charge of all grocery shopping and dinner prep because he actually likes it, and he works from home so it’s logistically easier for him to do as well. So I think there’s a conversation here with him. He’s not terribly interested in eating my preferred foods — I think part of why he loves cooking is to make the things he likes. There’s probably a compromise here.

Unfortunately we have a few family members around our kids on a regular basis who have diagnosed eating disorders and very compulsive food habits. Part of my hesitation around skipping dinner is that I don’t want to normalize skipping meals and refusing to eat entire categories of foods. Maybe I’m overthinking it.

Some days the time gets away from me and I don't have lunch until 3pm, which means I'm not hungry at dinner. On those days I just have a salad so I'm still participating in the meal and eating some of the same things as everyone else. 

I think a little milk in your coffee won't defeat the purpose of the fasting.


Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #35 on: September 18, 2021, 06:16:32 PM »
Could you not give your children the option of also eating the kind of food that you want to eat? Or model for them that different people have different patterns of eating and that that's okay?

I don't think it models anything healthy if you are forcing yourself to eat food you don't want to be eating that doesn't serve your health just for the sake of optics.

There has to be a healthy discourse where your health needs can be met and where that can serve as a positive messaging for your kids.

These are good thoughts. I used to do this to a degree when my kids were younger, and I did all the dinner prep so the foods were my preferred foods. The problem is that I did all the dinner prep. Which I hated.

Now my husband is in charge of all grocery shopping and dinner prep because he actually likes it, and he works from home so it’s logistically easier for him to do as well. So I think there’s a conversation here with him. He’s not terribly interested in eating my preferred foods — I think part of why he loves cooking is to make the things he likes. There’s probably a compromise here.

Unfortunately we have a few family members around our kids on a regular basis who have diagnosed eating disorders and very compulsive food habits. Part of my hesitation around skipping dinner is that I don’t want to normalize skipping meals and refusing to eat entire categories of foods. Maybe I’m overthinking it.

Is this a possible teaching opportunity?

I would hope that there is another option than forcing yourself to eat when you don't want to, so that your kids don't interpret the wrong message.

Is there a healthy way to frame the message? How would you frame avoiding certain foods if you had an allergy or celiac? Or if you were a vegetarian? Or had a gastric motility problem?

I would think that there's some productive framing and dialogue that can be good for your kids to learn the difference between managing food as healthy self care vs the toxic over restriction of food due to body dysmorphia.

I could be wrong though, I'm not a parent of young children.

CNM

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #36 on: September 18, 2021, 07:38:46 PM »
@Malcat - Re. junk foods and stress-- Therapy is always a good start, and I went ahead and made an appointment for next week.

@jac941 Would you be able to change the family meal to breakfast instead? 

Also, about your concern about modeling- kids are different and families are different, so YMMV, but my children (9 and 2.5) do not seem to really notice what or whether the adults are eating while at the table, unless it is a highly preferred food, like ice cream.  My spouse frequently does not eat the same evening meal as us (he typically prefers only a light salad for dinner, not a highly preferred food for the children) and the kids have never seemed to notice it or mention it. Maybe, MAAAAYBE they would notice if I had absolutely no plate or an empty plate but they would not notice if or how much I ate.  So, I guess my suggestion is to fake it.

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #37 on: September 18, 2021, 08:26:42 PM »
@Malcat - Re. junk foods and stress-- Therapy is always a good start, and I went ahead and made an appointment for next week.

@jac941 Would you be able to change the family meal to breakfast instead? 

Also, about your concern about modeling- kids are different and families are different, so YMMV, but my children (9 and 2.5) do not seem to really notice what or whether the adults are eating while at the table, unless it is a highly preferred food, like ice cream.  My spouse frequently does not eat the same evening meal as us (he typically prefers only a light salad for dinner, not a highly preferred food for the children) and the kids have never seemed to notice it or mention it. Maybe, MAAAAYBE they would notice if I had absolutely no plate or an empty plate but they would not notice if or how much I ate.  So, I guess my suggestion is to fake it.

Come to think of it, my, dad has always eaten like a bird, doesn't eat breakfast, never eats fatty food, and doesn't eat anything processed or sugary, and I just grew up perceiving him as a finicky eater. Because it was never associated with any message of wanting to be thin, it never occurred to any of us kids to associate his persnickety food preferences with weight or disordered eating in any way. That's just the way he eats, and we never thought anything of it.

In fact, I wouldn't even have thought of it except that I just spent 3 days at a cottage with him and was reminded of how finicky he is about food.

Come to think of it, my mother never ate breakfast either, unless cigarettes and black coffee counts as breakfast, lol. So neither of my parents ever ate breakfast my entire childhood, but I doubt I've ever skipped a breakfast in my life. Nor would I have ever assumed it was for the purposes of losing weight. In fact, as a child, I didn't even know people could lose weight. I just thought big people were big, the way tall people were tall.

Every message I had about food revolved around needing nutritious food to grow strong.

jac941

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #38 on: September 19, 2021, 12:05:22 AM »
@Malcat Good thought on the food intolerances. Our kids know plenty of people with allergies as well as vegetarians, vegans, gluten free folks, etc. They understand the why when those people don’t eat certain foods, so I think you’re right that it’s all in the framing.

@CNM our family meal often switches to brunch on weekends - and no one eats before 10-11 am. But weekdays are too crazy to make breakfast work. My kids are 7 & 9 and they absolutely notice if I don’t eat - though they probably wouldn’t notice how much I ate, so I could keep it light. The boy is a bit more oblivious (in general), but the girl notices everything. By age 6 she had already picked up on a lot of the ideal girls bodies stuff in the media and among friends. She is very concerned about her appearance … already :-(

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #39 on: September 19, 2021, 06:59:19 AM »
@Malcat Good thought on the food intolerances. Our kids know plenty of people with allergies as well as vegetarians, vegans, gluten free folks, etc. They understand the why when those people don’t eat certain foods, so I think you’re right that it’s all in the framing.

@CNM our family meal often switches to brunch on weekends - and no one eats before 10-11 am. But weekdays are too crazy to make breakfast work. My kids are 7 & 9 and they absolutely notice if I don’t eat - though they probably wouldn’t notice how much I ate, so I could keep it light. The boy is a bit more oblivious (in general), but the girl notices everything. By age 6 she had already picked up on a lot of the ideal girls bodies stuff in the media and among friends. She is very concerned about her appearance … already :-(

If she's super observant, then even if you force yourself to eat, she'll eventually pick up on your stress around that eating, especially if you are at all stressed about your weight. She'll put two and two together, at least subconsciously, and see a model of someone who is stressed about eating because of weight. I think if your goal is to lose weight, the best thing you can do is frame that for her. Because even if she doesn't pick up on anything, if you lose weight, she'll be heavily exposed to how much people around you celebrate that. When I was losing, the comments were constant.

In that case, I would definitely take the opportunity to really broach the subject with her in a mentally healthy way. I'm sure there are excellent guides out there for broaching weight and eating with young girls in a way that helps them build the tools to cope with the endless onslaught of body image pressure out there. Or you could contact a child psychologist for advice.

The body image pressure for young people is off the charts these days, it's always been bad, but it's gotten really intense for both girls and boys, I just read a whole book by a competitive weight lifter doctor about how steroids and other appearance enhancing drugs are actually hugely popular among teens today, but doctors aren't taught anything about it, so don't even know the signs, and wouldn't know what to do if they did. It's called "Looks Can Kill".

Serendip

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #40 on: September 19, 2021, 06:01:41 PM »
Feeling pretty good these days.

Have installed the Zero app on my phone (which helps me stick with the 16:8 IF program). So far it's been surprisingly easy (3 days in a row)..I reckon I must've been overfeeding myself since I'm not feeling remotely hungry (usually I eat breakfast around 7am but now have been waiting until around 11:30).

Energy is increasing.
Alcohol consumption is WAY down.
And I'm back on my sporadic 20 mins of yoga program --and walking daily.
Plus cold-plunging, which my body *and brain* just loves.

bye-bye Ms. FancyPants

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #41 on: September 19, 2021, 06:58:54 PM »
I'm in! I'd love to lose 10 lbs before the holidays. I work out consistently. I want to keep that up but get the diet under control. More whole foods & less ice cream :)  I'm tracking macros on MFP. Let's do it!

Abe

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #42 on: September 19, 2021, 07:10:24 PM »
Using too much keyboard and doing too many pushups are probably giving me carpal tunnel. Need to figure out a way to resolve it.

How's your keyboarding posture?  I find that typing for a long time on a keyboard only gives me wrist problems when I get lazy/tires and tend to let my wrists collapse so that the hands are coming up at a funny angle while typing.

You are right, my wrists were collapsing. I make some adjustments how I type since. I temporarily stopped pullups and reduce pushups. I am now using dumbbells' when I pushup so my wrists are not in weird angle. Another important change is I have been wearing wrist splints when I go to sleep at night. It seems at night when I sleep on my side I am putting pressure on my wrist in weird angles and overtime causing some nerves to pinch I guess.

These changes have given lot of relief so far. Its not fully back to normal yet. I hope its just matter of time and I dont need to get any procedure done.

Had exact same problem you had, but from operating too much. Same symptoms with the keyboard and push-ups, though. I found doing free weights and slowly building up helped strengthen my wrists. Once you’re comfortable lifting moderate amount of free-weights, try pushups and pull-ups again.

Also try the curbed keyboards and vertically tilted mouse. Those helped me a lot.


Abe

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #43 on: September 19, 2021, 07:17:20 PM »
Thanks for starting this!

I need to gain some weight, lost about 15lb somewhat unintentionally over the last two years. Mostly due to poor appetite from stress. But I do want whatever I regain to be muscle rather than fat!

My goals are:
1) bike 20 minutes 5 times a week - so boring indoors during summer but should be better in the winter!
2) weightlifting every other day (takes about 30 min) - doing this every 2-3 days.
3) get my son and wife to bike with me!
4) eat no more than 300 calories of chocolate and/or ice cream per day. I don’t eat any other junk food but do think I’m eating more than this in ice cream at least.
5) get my calorie intake to be sufficient. I don’t like meat and it’s hard to get up there with mostly fruits and vegetables. Probably need more tofu since my wife doesn’t like lentils.

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #44 on: September 19, 2021, 08:29:39 PM »
Day 3 18:6 IF done, seems to be going fine in terms of transition.

I'm very familiar with altering my body's eating patterns. I used to think that I was so in tune with my body because I ate in a way that seemed to always be right on time with when I got hungry.

Silly me, I didn't realize that it works the other way around, I was getting hungry because my body expected food at a certain time, not because I had figured out some "ideal" spacing of meals.

So my body very much is expecting to be fed in the early evening and is acting a little pissy about it not happening, but I wake up feeling just fine, and I expect in a could of weeks it will just adjust to the new pattern.

I really, really couldn't tolerate IF before, but man, salt pills have been a massive game changer.

SquashingDebt

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #45 on: September 20, 2021, 05:45:52 AM »
This thread has inspired me to start my very low-key intermittent fasting again.  I mostly try to have at least 12 hours of fasting per day.  I believe I've read that 12 hours is a recommended minimum fasting time to see benefits, so I figure why not.  It's harder for me to do longer than that because of commute, etc. right now.

Mostly I think what this will achieve is to keep me from snacking in the evening when my partner does. I'm a daytime snacker and he's an evening snacker, but since we moved in together I've been snacking both times, which is obviously not ideal.  Last night I stayed strong and didn't have a single bite of his popcorn while we were watching a movie.  It wasn't even very hard once I decided not to - if he wasn't around, it wouldn't even usually occur to me to eat anything after dinner!

CNM

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #46 on: September 20, 2021, 08:32:05 AM »
I downloaded a free app called Daily Fast.  It is just a simple timer but it's been helpful in keeping me on track.  I started 16:8 and so far, so good.

Rusted Rose

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #47 on: September 20, 2021, 09:56:41 AM »
Joining in because I'd like to increase fitness and conditioning.

Feeling better physically boosts my everyday mood over and above the clear boosting benefit during/after exercise itself. I feel more like me, even, if that makes sense.

Baseline: Even though I think BMI doesn't say much, mine's 22 so this isn't about weight loss. I don't eat much junk or sugar (far prefer savory), naturally lean low carb, try to make sure I get enough protein (animal is best). I naturally IF as well, it turns out.

I've been going on nearly daily walks, but it's not really enough of course. I've fallen off in working with weights. Never been a monster about it, but I do even less now, oops.

Some post around here reminded me of the existence of the Fitness Blender videos, one of the big benefits of which is no annoying music! <3 I've started using those to get ready for the increase in seasonal indoor-ness going forward. They have a decent amount of free offerings.

And I might have to spend more on food, dammit, to increase the quality there. Like more grass-fed meat vs. conventional, and organic produce to reduce pesticide exposure. Ergh.

Metalcat

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #48 on: September 20, 2021, 07:29:25 PM »
Zero fasting hunger today, I don't know if that's just today or if my body is adjusting really quickly. Whatever, I'll take it.

Got my Pilates and physio in today, and an e-bike ride. My left hip is fucked though, I can barely put weight on it now, so we'll see how that plays out the rest of the week. The left is my "good hip", so I'm not pleased about it.

My physio also dumped another 20 minutes of boring as fuck gentle stretches into my routine, which I hate with a fiery passion, but I'll do diligently anyway because, well, the alternative is ugly. Literally, perma-slouch hunchback ugly, so I do stupid, boring, repetitive gentle stretches and lying for 5-15 minutes on a stupid ball under my spine so that I can maintain my lovely posture.

It's just a pain in the ass, because if the gentle exercises take up too much time, I lose motivation to do a whole extra routine of resistance exercises, but I need to maintain my muscle mass and strength. But those muscles are useless if I turn I to a gnarled, limping hunch back. So I fucking do them.

brandon1827

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Re: Pre-holiday health and fitness goals, anyone?
« Reply #49 on: September 21, 2021, 07:10:18 AM »
I'll play too :)

My weight loss goals are more tied to my running goals. The heavier I am, the harder it is for me to run. So if I can manage to lose enough weight or stay at a good weight for my frame, then I generally can run with no problems. As I creep up close to and over 200 lbs I immediately start feeling it in my knees and my back. My next race is in mid-November, so right before the holidays begin, so this group works with that timeline. What I really need to do is incorporate some sort of strength training...but I always struggle with that unless I'm going to a gym, and I really don't want to do that anymore. I love running at home, so I'm looking for inexpensive weight sets and other things I can use to strength train.

I've been on 16-8 intermittent fasting for a while now. I really like it and it has really helped me to maintain a good deal of my weight loss. There was an adjustment period where I would be starving by mid-morning, but now it's so routine that I couldn't eat breakfast if I wanted to. I do use coffee to get by during the morning hours though. My eating window is from noon to 8:00 p.m. and that seems to work well for me.