Balancing fitness and life

The key for me was finding something that was sustainable...as the person above me posted. Make small changes, a little at a time and see how well you handle that. It shouldn't be all-consuming to get exercise and good nutrition into your daily life, but when just start out (or restart) there is a tendency for that to happen because you are so excited and motivated. Just keep it simple and don't overthink it!

I think this is very common, and I think the other posts are correct about the small changes. What you have to remember is, this is for the rest of your life and not just until the weight is gone. You are trying to create new healthy habits one step at a time. Remember to celebrate the small accomplishments because they all add up in the end. We all want to see this to the end, but we have to remember a healthy lifestyle is never over. Good luck!

I agree with the others. Take it one day at a time, one small goal at a time. Allow yourself that one treat....then head back to tracking and moving. You cannot deprive yourself while everyone else is indulging, it never lasts. Don't be so hard on yourself, we are here for you, we are at the same place. Good luck.

I become so obsessed with making time to go to the gym, figuring out which vegetable would be healthier, eating and drinking at just the right time of day... I become irritable, distracted, disengaged from the rest of my life. How much I can lose, how quickly, becomes what matters.

This problem is solved by educating yourself better. There's no reason to be scheduling your eating at the "right" time of the day. As long as you maintain a calorie deficit (eat less than you burn daily), meal timing is irrelevant.

Also, there's no reason to spend 5-6 days per week at the gym unless you have a specific fitness goal in mind that requires that. 30-45 minutes 3 times per week is sufficient for general weight loss and health for most people. Just use that time wisely and do more efficient exercises (HIIT over steady state cardio or compound lifts over isolation exercises). If you want to do more, do home workouts or increase your overall daily activity level by being more active with your family, going for walks more frequently, etc.

Additionally, the whole notion of "healthier" foods is a bit of a misnomer. To one person, spinach may be healthier than a banana, but to someone else, it won't be. It's a silly thing to assign something like "healthy" to a single food item. Health is a state of overall wellness both physical and mental.

I think it's a good idea to take a step back and stop trying to overcomplicate things. Eat good food that you enjoy. Get some activity in. Stick to your calorie deficit.

ETA: If you do have a fitness goal that requires 5-6 days a week at the gym and strict diet that is interfering with your life, and you feel as though you can't stick to it, then it may be time to reassess the goal and scale it back to a more reasonable level. I believe that one of the reasons so many people fail at weight loss and fitness is setting huge lofty goals and diving in head first too soon. Give yourself time to adjust your life.

I become so obsessed with making time to go to the gym, figuring out which vegetable would be healthier, eating and drinking at just the right time of day... I become irritable, distracted, disengaged from the rest of my life. How much I can lose, how quickly, becomes what matters.

This problem is solved by educating yourself better. There's no reason to be scheduling your eating at the "right" time of the day. As long as you maintain a calorie deficit (eat less than you burn daily), meal timing is irrelevant.

Also, there's no reason to spend 5-6 days per week at the gym unless you have a specific fitness goal in mind that requires that. 30-45 minutes 3 times per week is sufficient for general weight loss and health for most people. Just use that time wisely and do more efficient exercises (HIIT over steady state cardio or compound lifts over isolation exercises). If you want to do more, do home workouts or increase your overall daily activity level by being more active with your family, going for walks more frequently, etc.

Additionally, the whole notion of "healthier" foods is a bit of a misnomer. To one person, spinach may be healthier than a banana, but to someone else, it won't be. It's a silly thing to assign something like "healthy" to a single food item. Health is a state of overall wellness both physical and mental.

I think it's a good idea to take a step back and stop trying to overcomplicate things. Eat good food that you enjoy. Get some activity in. Stick to your calorie deficit.

ETA: If you do have a fitness goal that requires 5-6 days a week at the gym and strict diet that is interfering with your life, and you feel as though you can't stick to it, then it may be time to reassess the goal and scale it back to a more reasonable level. I believe that one of the reasons so many people fail at weight loss and fitness is setting huge lofty goals and diving in head first too soon. Give yourself time to adjust your life.

This is great advice! :drinker:

I too started out wanting to do it all, and felt I needed to obsess about every food and calorie, and how much time I spend exercising to burn X number of cals. And I burned out and stopped, then restarted, then burned out and stopped and restarted.....

So 975 days ago I logged back into MFP and decided that there wasn't going to be any more "starting over". Life change needed to happen. I needed to keep a reasonable calorie deficit and a reasonable exercise schedule that didn't interfere with or completely take over my life. So I started doing just that - a small calorie deficit (I use the TDEE method, more info on my progress in my profile) and quality exercise - less than an hour a day. I still eat foods I love - pizza, burgers & fries, drink alcohol, enjoy dessert - they fit into my calorie goals. I workout 5-6 days a week, weights (dumbbells at home - no gym membership) three days a week, and a 3-5 mile run the other three. I try to walk my dogs for about 20 minutes every day, but doesn't always happen. I always take at least one rest day, and every 8-12 weeks, I take an entire week off.

I've surpassed my original goals, hit goal weight (and gone back up a few pounds, no worries though!) and continue to work on lowering body fat percentage a bit more while maintaining my lean muscle and keeping myself fit and stronger than I've been in over a decade.

I'm not an Olympic athlete or a competitive model of some kind - I don't have time for that sort of strict regimen. But I do have an hour a day to exercise and the time to plan out healthy meals and enjoy some treats along the way! My competition is me! I challenge myself to be stronger, lift a bit more next time, run a little faster, do something I've never done before. And it's awesome.

it's not a sprint to lose a certain number a pounds, it's a way of living that lets you enjoy life while dropping the fat and keeping it off. That balance you mentioned in your title. :bigsmile: You can do it!

A lot of people ignore the mental health aspect of weight management and fitness

Okay, yes, you have convinced me. I've definitely been experiencing this the last week, which is particularly frustrating since the first week was SO great for stress relief, and now I just feel the anxiety building every time I take a break from it -- which, you're right, is not healthy. at. all.

I hope I'm not sounding discouraging of your efforts here, as I'm not trying to be.

I started out the same way though. My first 20 lbs came off FAST because I was eating next to nothing and hitting the gym like I had nothing else to do ever. The problem was that after about a month of that, I had no energy and began to despise the gym instead of enjoying it. It became a stressful chore, not a thing I looked forward to that was going to help me improve myself.

I've been where you're at now, and it's no fun. Just do your best. You're going to screw up a lot. Just the nature of changing your life. Don't give up. Keep it simple, and you'll find great success. Best to you!

Lots of great advice here.

Mine, for what it's worth, is make small sustainable changes. If you try to go all out at once, it can become overwhelming.

Good luck with your journey!