Challenges to weight loss/fitness you have met and overcome

goldthistime
goldthistime Posts: 3,213 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Tell me about a challenge to weight loss or fitness that you have met and overcome (or are working to overcome). Time constraints? Injury? Unsupportive family? Cravings? Let's hear how you handled it.

Replies

  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    My biggest one was not liking healthy foods. I was one of those people who thought that healthy foods had to be "rabbit food" or things people think of when they think of dieting, like plain carrot sticks. I thought I didn't like veggies, too, because I'd had maybe six of them in my whole life and didn't like a few of those.

    I overcame this by getting over myself and working hard to learn how to make healthy foods in ways that were yummy. Long process, long road. Ate some food I didn't love. Tried some foods I couldn't stand. But I found new foods I like and ways to make healthy foods in ways that taste wonderful, so it was worth it. :)

    Also exercising, but that was just a matter of getting off my sorry *kitten* and doing some. Once you start, you enjoy it and don't want to quit. So that's not too hard.
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
    Finding the time to exercise. I used to think I could do it after work but then I realized that I found a million and one excuses not to work out. How I overcame that was to switch my workouts to the morning. I get up at 5 am to workout and for the past 5 months it's been working just fine for me. I'm not distracted by the kids or hubs since they're still asleep at that time.
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,213 Member
    I started playing tennis 13ish years ago and found out I LOVE it. When I'm healthy, I play seven days a week, sometimes even twice a day. My social life started to revolve around it. We moved, in large part to be closer to a couple of clubs we played in (my husband fell in love too). But sports/overuse injuries has been the bane of my existence in recent years. Whether it's an endorphin drop or a drop in endocannibinoids (as suggested by new research that @tufel brought to my attention), I'm MISERABLE when injury brings it all to a screeching halt. It's been a constant challenge not to gain weight when that happens, one that I have frequently failed at. Perhaps I'm lucky that it has happened enough that I've had plenty of opportunity to put together a working backup plan: cycling, rowing, swimming and lifting weights with any unaffected body parts. If, on the rarest of occasions, I can't do any of those, I eat less. If I'm too miserable to eat less, I eat at maintenance till I'm less miserable. I'm off right now and have been since mid-summer. Still ok though. :)
  • christinasoonmrsnewton
    christinasoonmrsnewton Posts: 22 Member
    My type 1 diabetes. It makes everything difficult and challenging. But I'm getting there and have lost 1 stone now :smile: I still have 3 stone to go though :-1:

    Also, having 4 children as I have a nasty habit of picking at their food
  • nmason4348
    nmason4348 Posts: 8 Member
    A challenge I have had is being disciplined throughout the week but not so disciplined on the weekends. I find myself wanting to be social and go with flow (eating out with my boyfriend). And as a result becoming discouraged at the start of every week.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    Declaring all of my adult life I was allergic to exercise, my body had one heck of a shock when I started exercising at 55.

    After being in a road accident at 14 and being told I wouldn't walk, after months of surgery and being in traction I proved them wrong. I'll never try to run, but have minimal problems in regular living. I just can't do a number of Pilate/ yoga moves, and couldn't do a parallel squat until I was 58. I can *kitten* to grass unweighted now; late onset mobility if ever I saw it.

    Cheers, h.
  • HippySkoppy
    HippySkoppy Posts: 725 Member
    Lol @middlehaitch with the aversion to exercise.

    I started out walking in late 40's and quickly progressed to pretty hard core Bushwalking with the odd climbing session in there, it has been said that I live on the most mountainous island in the World....I believe that lol. So I was amazed at what an older body is capable of doing.....not only that the whole mind thing too - changing the can't to yes I bloody will....still am scared of heights but have learned to trust others and the equipment....big deal for me.

    Now things have changed....I don't walk like I used too. Goals had to become ones centred around indoor activities so have taken to weights, Pilates and Yoga....trying Tai Chi but Oh I'm God-awful at I and look like a frog in a blender....rather than some gracefully Zenned out creature :p ....but with patience and persistence comes all things.

    All the best.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    @HippySkoppy a frog in a blender!!!

    Someone please find the gif and post it.

    I shouldn't laugh the first time I saw myself in the mirror doing Zumba I thought I looked like a wiggly stick insect and couldn't stop laughing.

    Cheers, h.
    Sorry for the detour OP.
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,213 Member
    middlehaitch wrote: »
    @HippySkoppy a frog in a blender!!!

    Someone please find the gif and post it.

    I shouldn't laugh the first time I saw myself in the mirror doing Zumba I thought I looked like a wiggly stick insect and couldn't stop laughing.

    Cheers, h.
    Sorry for the detour OP.

    Happy detours welcome!

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Being told by a professional that I had a low metabolism when I was 19. It was a lie, but basically until 3 years ago my thought about weight loss were 'why bother? I can eat as much as I want right now and not gain, but I'll have to eat like a bird to lose'. So 15 years wasted because of that. Nice.

    Wanting to buy a snack every time I go out somewhere. It's still tough to resist the apple cider donuts when I go to the farm with the kids (who are definitely not helping). I don't always succeed.

    Hurt my food when I started running a year ago. Still can't run, but now I walk at an incline instead (and probably burn more calories, so whatever).

    Realizing I hate lifting weights. Not overcoming that one anytime soon.

    Sweet tooth. Mostly managing it. Would probably have reached my goal months ago without it... which takes me to...

    And the worst, PMS hunger from Hell ever since I got 3 pounds away from my goal and increased hunger overall. I've still managed to maintain for over a year but it means going to bed hungry a lot, because I'll be damned if I completely give up my treats (which I have to limit to 200 calories a day now. I was able to eat more than that when I was losing. Sadface).
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    edited October 2015
    I'd like to join the women of a certain age who discovered exercise club in this thread!

    A diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis was a wake-up call for me. Inactivity makes things worse with my condition, so I hobbled out the door one day with a cane, and now, a little over a year later, I'm up to almost completing C25K (in week 8 right now).

    I also do strength training with a trainer, but I am terribly jealous of middlehaitch's squat depth! I have terrible ankle flexion, and can only get past parallel if I bend my torso forward as if for a low bar squat.
  • PinkyPan1
    PinkyPan1 Posts: 3,018 Member
    The first challenge was to lose 15 pounds...I lost 22 pounds. The second challenge was to walk a mile a day. I now walk 6-7 miles a day. I joined a walking group on here I just finished this months challenge of 100 miles and it is only the 19th of the month. Woot!
    Most importantly I have regained my health. I have had two spinal fusion surgeries that were less than successful and followed those up with a heart attack at age 53. In a few weeks I will be 55 and I am stronger and healthier than ever. I am loving life and have no plans on leaving this world anytime soon.
  • Bshmerlie
    Bshmerlie Posts: 1,026 Member
    A couple of things for me. I started my weight loss journey on April 1st, 2015. Four days later I injured my back and ended up bed ridden for about 3 weeks. So instead of delaying the process I just focused on counting calories. Which is how I got to this website. It took about a month and a half before I could really do any kind of exercise such as simple walking on the treadmill. By being so limited I discovered you don't need exercise at all. Its simply how much you are eating.
    The next thing I figured out over the last 6 months was that I would always go over on the weekends. For several weeks I kept trying to fight it. Instead of fighting it I eventually decided to lower my calories during the week so I would have more calories to eat on the weekend. I now look at my weekly calories consumed more than my daily total.
  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
    I have a history of stokes and TIA's. These have left their mark on my right side. When I started walking for fitness, I started having problems with my back, before my back was better I had a problem with my foot. All of this was because some of my muscles were not doing the amount of work they should, over working others and causing pain. I had to do physical therapy and even had to rest from walking for a while. When I couldn't walk and burn a few extra calories, I was hungry all the time. Now I am healing and getting stronger every where. I still love walking and do 5 miles a day, 6 days a week. Even better, I have learned to enjoy strength training and spend over an hour 3 days a week at the gym, lifting weights, doing squats and other things I never dreamed I would enjoy!
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