Getting OLD & not healing

rosecropper

I eat myself fat because I like food & being lazy. Then my clothes stop fitting and I can't walk up a set of stairs without getting winded. I get sick of feeling like crap so I exercise hard and often to get back in shape. Everything is great until i rediscover chocolate and the couch.
Repeat above cycle ad nauseum.
This has been my life for 40+ years.
Sure, going from flab to fit is hard. Injuries are nothing new: bruises, scrapes, blisters, sprains, strains, fractures, toenails falling off, whatever- just work through & it'll heal.
Except now it doesn't! My knees always ache and swell. My ankles roll and the tendons slip. My hips pop out of joint. My heels feel like stabbing hellfire. My shoulders freeze up. My back is stiff ALL THE TIME. My freakin thumbs suddenly & painfully pop out of joint so I drop stuff- WTF?
Anyone else out there faced with the realization your body is wearing out? How do you lose weight and get in shape without strenuous activity every day?

jemhh

Eat in a deficit and ease yourself into moderate exercise. There's no need for daily strenuous exercise.

jgnatca

As my pastor used to say, "The older the model the more you have to spend on maintenance."

I'd say the party is over and moderation is now your friend. Do your warm ups before and your stretches after. Every single freaking time. And get your A1C checked just in case.

jgnatca

And Tai Chi. There's a reason old people swear by it.

emdeesea

Yep, I'm the same age as you and it takes me longer to heal up after a workout. You don't have to do anything strenuous though. I sure as heck don't. And as it takes longer and longer to lose weight it's better to not fall into that cycle. Don't gain any significant weight back to begin with. This is a lifetime maintenance now - sort of like taking care of your teeth every single day.

AmandaHugginkiss

I'm going to tell you what my doctor told me. "Your body needs protein to heal. Up your protein. If you only eat what the RDA says, you're not eating enough." Macros are important. Clearly you need to stay in a deficit to lose, but make sure you're getting a good amount of protein.

Sabine_Stroehm

jgnatca wrote: »

And Tai Chi. There's a reason old people swear by it.

And a gentle form of yoga.

Lleldiranne

Work on eating within your calories while allowing yourself some indulgences. Focus mostly on eating healthful, nutrient dense foods, but don't deny yourself chocolate. It will take a bit longer to lose the weight, but it'll be much easier to keep it off because you won't feel deprived. Many people keep logging here well into maintenance, so it's not that weird.

The same idea for physical activity - develop habits of activity along with times for relaxation. A daily walk can go a long way in helping overall health, including weight.

A lot of your discomforts can be alleviated by losing weight and daily physical activity (even arthritis pain can be eased by regular physical activity!). It also wouldn't hurt to have a checkup with the doctor to rule out any other issues.

Gamliela

Xigong if you feel the Tai is just too much. I would say work up slowly for some walks, maybe just do 2 a day 20 minuts each. Don't power walk, just stroll until you feel you can do that much painfree. Don't add speed or time just leave it at twice a day 20 minutes. Add some beginners xigong and see how that feels. Its not a race after all.

I lost 50 ponds in my late 50's and kept that off for 5 years. I did it with very little excersize except the xigong and a few walks a week. It took probably two years to lose it but it wasn't very difficult that way and I had no injuries. In fact I was recovering from serious back injury. So at any age its doable.

My advice: slow down and begin to enjoy things.

lithezebra

Before you blame age, make sure you've tried treating your injuries, and getting in shape, gently. My ankles rolled a lot when I was in my 20s. Standing on one leg at a time to strengthen my ankles and balance muscles fixed that. I had that thumb popping thing about 6 years ago, iced it, rested it, wrapped in at night, and it healed. My back hurts if I don't do planks, rows, and lat pulldowns. It doesn't take much, just a few minutes twice a week. I thought my knee was getting arthritic. It turned out that I had a stress fracture in my tibia - it healed when I dealt with it properly.

TavistockToad

you're 44 not 84...

as its already been said, start slow to avoid these injuries...

msf74

rosecropper wrote: »

How do you lose weight and get in shape without strenuous activity every day?

By trying to care for my body and treat it kindly rather than abuse it and treat it brutally.

You need to learn to eat like an adult, not a petulant child frankly.

Establish a sensible calorie deficit. Fill that deficit with varied and nutritious foods and leave some wiggle room for treats (if you want them, some people do not.) Do some moderate exercise regularly which challenges you but doesn't sideline you. Stop punishing yourself. Look towards a long term view of success.

Nikion901

Wait until you are in your 70's and still fat because you didn't stick with a maintenance plan ...

sllm1

I started CrossFit at 43. Holy moly. I was also advised to eat more protein to help with healing. It really does help.

I also take extra time to warm up and stretch after - something the "young folks" may or may not do.

I eased into it as well. I started at twice a week, making sure I had recovered before going again. Then three days a week, and now I'm up to 5. But I HAVE to hit my protein macros or I stay sore longer.

I have an old ankle injury that used to bother me, but it seems to actually be getting better. I think I'm building strength in my ankle so that it doesn't hurt as often.

I have strained a shoulder once (doing a stinkin' warmup exercise) and a quad (stretching in my bed the next morning - GEEZ - who does that), but I have continued to work on other areas while allowing these things to heal. I figure the stronger I get, the less I will have these issues.

So, I guess I'm recommending that you ease into it and take care of yourself by warming up and stretching more than use are probably used to.

And eat the PROTEIN.

ShodanPrime

I work out now so my body doesn't do that to me. My 2 hours a session are an investment in my future.


If you're healing poorly now, talk to your doc about how to better recover. Get a sleep study, try to eat better and actually be consistent. Try a run of sermorelin from an anti aging doc, try lower impact stuff until you take off the weight.

rosecropper

Grrrr- good advice is hard to follow!
Thanks everybody
Time to act like an adult.

rhtexasgal

It sounds like you are trying to do too much! I did this my first weight loss go around and it was one of the reasons why I got fat again. THEN I broke my left kneecap in multiple pieces. It is hell trying to recover from that when you are overweight. However, I did and as soon as I could, I joined a gym. For a few months, all I did was light cardio and tweaking my eating plan. After 4 months, I decided to go all in and hired a trainer and started weight training 2x a week along with the cardio at least 4x a week. The trainer helps me push myself just short of anything that would hurt me. I have been training with him now for two years and have never had an injury. Soreness? Yes! But no significant injuries.

Time is going to pass whether you sit on the couch eating bonbons or making the effort by eating healthy and exercising. Take it slow.Your knees likely ache and swell because you are trying to overdo. Same thing with your ankle. I discovered, while recovering from my knee and starting to exercise, is that if I worked on strengthening my core, I would have less pain in my back, hips and other areas. So that is what I worked on for the first few months along with the light cardio. By the time I started weight training, I was in a better place. I am currently 44 and now am in better shape than when I was in my 20s, and mostly that is because of my eating plan ... the developing muscles are just a bonus

rosecropper

sllm1 wrote: »

And eat the PROTEIN.

This might be a factor. Stopped eating animals about a year ago. Used to love em but now it tastes gross. My protein grams went from 100+ per day to maybe 30.

smantha32

rosecropper wrote: »

I eat myself fat because I like food & being lazy. Then my clothes stop fitting and I can't walk up a set of stairs without getting winded. I get sick of feeling like crap so I exercise hard and often to get back in shape. Everything is great until i rediscover chocolate and the couch.
Repeat above cycle ad nauseum.
This has been my life for 40+ years.
Sure, going from flab to fit is hard. Injuries are nothing new: bruises, scrapes, blisters, sprains, strains, fractures, toenails falling off, whatever- just work through & it'll heal.
Except now it doesn't! My knees always ache and swell. My ankles roll and the tendons slip. My hips pop out of joint. My heels feel like stabbing hellfire. My shoulders freeze up. My back is stiff ALL THE TIME. My freakin thumbs suddenly & painfully pop out of joint so I drop stuff- WTF?
Anyone else out there faced with the realization your body is wearing out? How do you lose weight and get in shape without strenuous activity every day?

Are you lifting? I hurt way less when I'm lifting. Running and cardio don't do it for me.

lemurcat12

I used to be able to ignore all sensible advice about how to ease into fitness or take care of myself when pursuing ambitious training goals (also used to be able to treat my body badly in other ways) and it was all fine. Now, not so much, but that doesn't mean I can't have ambitious training goals -- I'm 46 and in some ways doing more than when I was younger. It just means it's more important to be sensible in how I do them, take recovery seriously, eat well and -- hardest for me -- sleep enough.

My dad inspires me, as he's 73 and still very active and fit. He's definitely had to make some changes with age in terms of how he pushes himself and what he can reasonably expect (hard for him), but he is doing it.

I've also become a collector of books about fitness and age or people pursuing fitness goals at more advanced years. I listened to a podcast interview of Tom Foreman, who wrote My Year of Running Dangerously, and he also said that he was in many ways more fit as a 50+ person than in his 20s when he'd relied simply on his physical gifts and not followed a sensible training plan. Now he thinks of runs as running for the next day and if pushing himself too hard (when training) means he will have a physical set back/unplanned time off in the coming days, he won't, whereas in the past he wouldn't have thought about that.

dsmpunk

I was just reading about an 80 year old guy that can bench 300 lbs. It most certainly gets tougher with age, but it is possible for most people to stay fit and strong even at an "advanced" age.

If you aren't eating meat, you need to get your protein from beans, tofu, wheat gluten etc. I imagine this is a big part of your problem.