Hello I'm mitchell

mitchellmiller91

Hi my name is mitchell I'm returning to MFP After a bit of time away, I recently gained a bit of weight back, of course with the holidays, I just curious how you guys stay motivated I really wanna start reaching my goals but count calories had only gotten me so far, please I'd love some advice and help. Much love

JBanx256

Hey Mitchell, welcome back! TBH as far as the holidays go, I switched into maintenance so I don't feel as restricted and can enjoy meals with friends/family and all that good stuff. As far as motivation goes, it sounds trite but discipline is the only thing that will carry you through. Motivation waxes and wanes, but if you can develop the discipline to fall back on, you'll be set.

cwolfman13

I'm usually a little lax with things October - December. My last cycling event is usually at the end of October and it's just kind of a fun ride so any training I've been doing kind of winds down and then there's fall break, my birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas...so I just kind of let myself enjoy the season. I don't go crazy or anything and try to keep somewhat active, but I usually put on 8-10 Lbs over that time. I usually just get back at it in January training and nutrition wise to get ready for the upcoming cycling season.

This year is a bit different as I put on about 20 Lbs from 2020-2021 due in large part to basically zero training with all events being cancelled in 2020 and only a couple of my usual suspects in 2021 that I just didn't bother with. Everything looks to be a go for 2022 so I'll kick of January with my cycling training program and my nutrition so I can be good to go fitness wise and weight wise for my first event scheduled for mid May.

Nutrition wise, eating healthy doesn't have to be bland or boring and in the context of one's overall diet, there's plenty of room to eat well but also enjoy some not so nutritious but yummy things. Exercise wise, I enjoy cycling and mountain biking so it's not much of a chore...but signing up for cycling events helps keep my head in the game to actually train rather than just deciding to go for a bike ride or not. I think I'm done with 1/2 centuries and century rides as I don't quite have the time available to do the necessary training for those, but I have quite a few 1/4 century rides on my slate in 2022. Endurance wise, it won't be particularly hard to build back up to that, but I'm really going to have to work on my power output this winter as it's fallen off quite a bit.

I guess motivation wise, for me, it's having something ahead of me to work towards...but yeah, I usually chill out a bit at the end of the year and take a little break. I've been doing this for years, so at this point I just understand that it's a cyclical thing and that cycle always resets in January. Besides, a little break from training also helps me get into a better mental state as I'm always kind of "done" by my last event of the year.

cwolfman13

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