Has improving your physical health made you over all more productive in your daily life?
avotoast1765
Posts: 1 Member
Hi MFP.
I’m not struggling with my weight but I’m struggling with feeling good and healthy. I’m constantly exhausted and lack energy. I’m mentally excited about a ton of things (hobbies, not chores) but I’m always too tired to do them and end up feeling unfulfilled because I don’t have the energy to do the things I love. I always hear that improving eating habits + regular physical acitivity will give you an over all energy boost but I haven’t experienced it myself (granted I’ve only maintained those habits for no more than 3 weeks at a time so maybe it didn’t kick in?)
Have you noticed over all better energy levels? Are you more productive in your daily lives? Do you think it’s because of your macros or your physical activity? I just started to take vitamins daily- has that helped any of you or am I wasting money?
Thank you!
I’m not struggling with my weight but I’m struggling with feeling good and healthy. I’m constantly exhausted and lack energy. I’m mentally excited about a ton of things (hobbies, not chores) but I’m always too tired to do them and end up feeling unfulfilled because I don’t have the energy to do the things I love. I always hear that improving eating habits + regular physical acitivity will give you an over all energy boost but I haven’t experienced it myself (granted I’ve only maintained those habits for no more than 3 weeks at a time so maybe it didn’t kick in?)
Have you noticed over all better energy levels? Are you more productive in your daily lives? Do you think it’s because of your macros or your physical activity? I just started to take vitamins daily- has that helped any of you or am I wasting money?
Thank you!
1
Replies
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Log your food and exercise accurately for a few weeks. You'll be able to extract clues about your energy level and your nutrition from an accurate diary.5
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When I started all this 7 years ago, I was morbidly obese, I couldn’t carry more than a single can of food at a time, I had to rest going up a flight of stairs, I was fatigued after walking down a couple aisles of the grocery store (even leaning on the cart for support). My everything hurt all the time. I was winded just standing up and walking across the room. I was exhausted. Life was exhausting and I had “workarounds” for everything because I was too large to fit, too weak to do things, or didn’t have the stamina to walk more than a few minutes.
Over time, through a process of slowly improving my fitness and my strength, losing weight by eating fewer calories than I burn (a diet comprised of mostly “healthy” foods but still treats and things thrown in), I’ve made it my personal life goal to never turn down an opportunity because I lack the physical ability to do it. I now plan vacations around being active, my life is about being active and celebrating all the things I can do, I wrestle my own angry-greased-buffalo-giant (100+ lb) dog into and out of the bathtub, I carry nearly all the groceries into the house in one trip, and run long distances for fun.
Do I have a giant surge of energy? Not exactly. But normal everyday life no longer exhausts me-so I’m not using all of my available energy to just move around the house. I move around easily now, so I have a lot more energy to do other things.
It’s been a very long process. When I started, there were some weight lifting movements I wasn’t able to do with weight at all. Now my 3 big lifts total 500 lbs.
When I first started “running”, I could sort of “jog” for about 10-15 seconds then needed to walk “briskly” (at about a 30 min mile) for 5 min to recover so I could try again. I just ran my first marathon 8 weeks ago.
It’s taken me years to get here. That includes a lot of ups and downs with life circumstances.
As for is it the food or the activity? Yes. Primarily, my quality of life is improved because of my fitness efforts. Being strong enough and fit enough to navigate life and do cool stuff has improved my life immensely. Losing enough weight that I now fit in airplane seats, restaurant booths, amusement park rides, etc. and don’t weigh down my joints with every step, or exceed weight capacities for everything, has also made a huge impact in on improving my quality of life. However, I do feel better overall when I eat more nutrient dense foods and less “treats”.
As with everything in life, YMMV.
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Have you noticed over all better energy levels? Yes
Are you more productive in your daily lives? Yes, more productive and feel better (at 50) than I did at 44 when I started exercising and eating better (including losing weight for me).
Do you think it’s because of your macros or your physical activity? My macros do affect how I feel. As for exercise/activities, it took many months before I started feeling better. Doing something new took mental preparedness, time to work in my schedule (getting up earlier, little less sleep etc) and of course doing the actual exercise. All this took time to become an inherent part of my day to day. Starting at 'very unfit' (and overweight) I was only able to exercise 20-25 minutes 3-4 times a week in the beginning but increased over time.
I just started to take vitamins daily- has that helped any of you or am I wasting money? Have you had a check up recently, including blood work to see if you may be deficient in anything you may be lacking your diet? Are you getting adequate sleep?1 -
Duck_Puddle wrote: »When I started all this 7 years ago, I was morbidly obese, I couldn’t carry more than a single can of food at a time, I had to rest going up a flight of stairs, I was fatigued after walking down a couple aisles of the grocery store (even leaning on the cart for support). My everything hurt all the time. I was winded just standing up and walking across the room. I was exhausted. Life was exhausting and I had “workarounds” for everything because I was too large to fit, too weak to do things, or didn’t have the stamina to walk more than a few minutes.
Over time, through a process of slowly improving my fitness and my strength, losing weight by eating fewer calories than I burn (a diet comprised of mostly “healthy” foods but still treats and things thrown in), I’ve made it my personal life goal to never turn down an opportunity because I lack the physical ability to do it. I now plan vacations around being active, my life is about being active and celebrating all the things I can do, I wrestle my own angry-greased-buffalo-giant (100+ lb) dog into and out of the bathtub, I carry nearly all the groceries into the house in one trip, and run long distances for fun.
Do I have a giant surge of energy? Not exactly. But normal everyday life no longer exhausts me-so I’m not using all of my available energy to just move around the house. I move around easily now, so I have a lot more energy to do other things.
It’s been a very long process. When I started, there were some weight lifting movements I wasn’t able to do with weight at all. Now my 3 big lifts total 500 lbs.
When I first started “running”, I could sort of “jog” for about 10-15 seconds then needed to walk “briskly” (at about a 30 min mile) for 5 min to recover so I could try again. I just ran my fist marathon 8 weeks ago.
It’s taken me years to get here. That includes a lot of ups and downs with life circumstances.
As for is it the food or the activity? Yes. Primarily, my quality of life is improved because of my fitness efforts. Being strong enough and fit enough to navigate life and do cool stuff has improved my life immensely. Losing enough weight that I now fit in airplane seats, restaurant booths, amusement park rides, etc. and don’t weigh down my joints with every step, or exceed weight capacities for everything, has also made a huge impact in on improving my quality of life. However, I do feel better overall when I eat more nutrient dense foods and less “treats”.
As with everything in life, YMMV.
Love this. I could’ve written most of it!5 -
Yes. I've been doing this for about 3 months now, and I've noticed a big overall improvement in my energy levels, emotions, overall body feel.
For me, the biggest drive on energy levels and my emotions has been my exercise. I feel so much higher overall energy level than before I started exercising. Some of it is from improvements in my body. Some of it is specifically the type of exercise I am doing. I train in the martial art of Krav Maga, which in addition to helping my overall fitness level, makes me feel confident, powerful, and in control. I've gone in three months from barely even being able to complete the warm up without feeling like I was gonna die to being able to handle myself pretty well in full contact sparring session. All of those things help my overall mood. Usually when I get home from the gym, I feel like I can take over the world. I still do get an increased energy and mood feeling when I do other type of exercise, such as weight lift at the gym or do a video at home, but it's not quite the same.
I think eating better has also helped how my body feels overall. I definitely notice a difference when I am putting better things into my body. Especially when I eat more fruits and vegetables I notice the biggest difference in how I feel.
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It's hard to tell for me because my true fitness/health journey happened after I had kids
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Just to be sure... have you had a physical lately? Exercise can certainly help energy levels, but if there’s something underlying going on, that needs to be addressed before tackling an exercise routine. If you’re getting enough sleep and at a healthy weight, I’d definitely get a simple blood test just to be sure, if you haven’t had that done in the past year. I thought of this because your description sounds like me when I have anemia.0
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Look at your nutrition ... meaning are you eating a balanced healthy diet? Are you eating enough calories? meaning you are eating enough calories for your weight and height...not under eating like at 1000 or 800 calories a day? Are you drinking water? being dehydrated can be draining.
btw? how tall are you..and how much do you weigh? Also are you dieting right now?
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Just to be sure... have you had a physical lately? Exercise can certainly help energy levels, but if there’s something underlying going on, that needs to be addressed before tackling an exercise routine. If you’re getting enough sleep and at a healthy weight, I’d definitely get a simple blood test just to be sure, if you haven’t had that done in the past year. I thought of this because your description sounds like me when I have anemia.
Yes, I have crippling fatigue when my anemia gets out of control.
@avotoast1765 I recommend blood work rather than self treating for anemia as too much iron can also cause problems. Also, there are many forms of iron and the first two my doctor recommended did not get both my energy and iron levels back up. A multi with iron wouldn't suffice for me.
After you have any underlying deficiencies taken care of, yes, eating better (as my body defines it) and regular exercise do wonders for me. If I don't get my lunchtime walk or whatever, I am sluggish in the afternoons and prone to the munchies. I'm committing to bundle up and walk (or snowshoe) at least three days a week all winter long. (I'll lift weights on rainy days.)
I'm doing the Walking to Mordor challenge: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10613108/walk-to-mordor/p10 -
For me, I had to get some health sorted before I had enough energy to even think about diet/fitness. Once I did that, yes eating better and exercising makes me feel even better, but the underlying problems had to be sorted first.
I had tried to add some exercise, tried taking vitamins, tried all sorts of things, but things were getting worse, not better, and I was just dragging myself through the days. Glad I talked to my doctor - I feel like a different person!0 -
Absolutely.
Fatigue comes and goes for me (fibromyalgia), but instead of dragging through it I can at least function a whole work day without falling sleep at my work desk. I have less pain and better endurance. Also less knee and lower back pain.
I live in an urban area with an elevated subway on an unreliable schedule. I often have to run 3 blocks to the train, run up the stairs, stand all the way of a 1 hr trip, then run 3 blocks to work to make it on time. All with a backpack. Trying that with the extra 70 lbs In lost, I doubt I'd make it.
I don't melt in hot weather anymore, and I can walk my errands easily.
So yes getting healthier has improved my daily life.2 -
Hikes that were hard for me ten years ago are warm ups now.1
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Definitely! I thought I had insomnia because I've been waking up way too early for awhile and no matter how hard I try, I can't sleep in on the weekends. I finally figured out that now that I'm living a much healthier lifestyle, I no longer require as much sleep.0
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