Gym vibes. Looking for Success stories for the long haul
carlaringuette
Posts: 158 Member
Am I the only cray cray one who thinks this way....in March I hit the gym hard and felt like Rocky when he gets to the top of the steps. I was unstoppable.
Fast forward to this week and I am near tears looking in the mirror at my snow white chunky legs, knowing I am the oldest (57) and fattest person in my HIIT , Soin & Zumba classes. Felt not quite as bad at 5 am Spin class this morning but still felt funky. Nothing like Rocky this week.
I have 3 goals I am working toward
#1. Beach vacation
#2. Biometric Screening which is the most important one to have those numbers in check
#3. My son is getting married in January
Is 56 pounds gone by January feasible?
A little backstory. My fil was living with us this past month or so. We had to sell his house right after my niece's wedding. He's no longer able to stay by himself. He stays with his kids a few months at a time. He just left Saturday.
So I should have my energy back and be on fire again. Nope not happening right now.
Maybe I am just to a point where I thought I would see bigger results by now. I take classes at the gym everyday Mon - Thurs and on Fri I do cardio + upper body machines Sat cardio+ lower body and Sun full body workout the trainer gave me when I joined.
Joined in October but it was hit or miss. Probably 3-4 times a week. Then November I started a couple of classes.
December was insanely busy so I squeezed in 1 workout. I also work full time.
January started upping the workouts and by March did 31 workouts in 31 days. Go me! April my fil moved in workouts fell to 12. This month I am back on track at 14 for 14 but it doesn't feel the same. What does feel good is getting one workout per day. That works for me.
I have a plan now for when we have guests because we also have my son and fiance' visit occasionally. I get to the gym before everyone wakes up. That way it's done. I get grumpy when I don't get my gym time even if it's just 30 minutes on the bike.
So where is this funk coming from and more importantly how do I get Rocky back?!
Fast forward to this week and I am near tears looking in the mirror at my snow white chunky legs, knowing I am the oldest (57) and fattest person in my HIIT , Soin & Zumba classes. Felt not quite as bad at 5 am Spin class this morning but still felt funky. Nothing like Rocky this week.
I have 3 goals I am working toward
#1. Beach vacation
#2. Biometric Screening which is the most important one to have those numbers in check
#3. My son is getting married in January
Is 56 pounds gone by January feasible?
A little backstory. My fil was living with us this past month or so. We had to sell his house right after my niece's wedding. He's no longer able to stay by himself. He stays with his kids a few months at a time. He just left Saturday.
So I should have my energy back and be on fire again. Nope not happening right now.
Maybe I am just to a point where I thought I would see bigger results by now. I take classes at the gym everyday Mon - Thurs and on Fri I do cardio + upper body machines Sat cardio+ lower body and Sun full body workout the trainer gave me when I joined.
Joined in October but it was hit or miss. Probably 3-4 times a week. Then November I started a couple of classes.
December was insanely busy so I squeezed in 1 workout. I also work full time.
January started upping the workouts and by March did 31 workouts in 31 days. Go me! April my fil moved in workouts fell to 12. This month I am back on track at 14 for 14 but it doesn't feel the same. What does feel good is getting one workout per day. That works for me.
I have a plan now for when we have guests because we also have my son and fiance' visit occasionally. I get to the gym before everyone wakes up. That way it's done. I get grumpy when I don't get my gym time even if it's just 30 minutes on the bike.
So where is this funk coming from and more importantly how do I get Rocky back?!
4
Replies
-
Sorry so long0
-
It's a good post. Thanks for sharing it.
I'm a 59 YO trail runner + strength training.
I wish I had some magic sprinkle dust for you. But, I dont. I would have used it for myself instead.
You've experienced some ups and downs with your training. Fitness like everything else has it's ups and downs.
The good news is that you've taken the right steps. But, fitness is a long term thing. I want and hope to live to my 90's at least (God willing) and my family genes are favorable. So, you and I have to look at these activities long term.
Get back up and get back on the fitness horse. Forget the misses. Congratulate yourself on the good stuff like getting in there where so many at our age dont or even worse CANT.
You are going to have days in the gym where you are superman and days that your not feeling it.
My one piece of real advice is rest. You should bake in 20-25% reduction in your effort/strength every fourth week to avoid the burn out and injury.
4 -
This content has been removed.
-
Expectations set for an event are a sure way to be disappointed. Three things about your post strike me. You're working out hard. That's fantastic! Good for you. You're likely much stronger and better shape than you were before.
The other two things are you're setting yourself up for two events (summer swimsuit and wedding and if you include the screening, three things. The screening is by far the most important!). You also haven't talked at all about food and calories in, only calories out. Weight loss happens in the kitchen, not in the gym.
If you're not measuring everything you eat on a food scale, start to do that. Track religiously. Everything.
Lose the number in your head for the wedding. Forget about it. Just do one thing. Weight loss is all about habits. You've built one great habit already -- working out. But it's not helping budge your weight it sounds like. Or is it? Perhaps you're losing, but slowly. Studies show one habit at a time (until it's established) is all we can handle. Try one thing for a month, like weighing all your food on a food scale or logging everything you eat without exception. Once you do that, move on to something else. But work that habit like your life depends on it for around a month. Only do one thing, that's it. I think everyone on here should just track for a month before they worry at all about cutting calories. Just honestly track and weigh food. That's hard enough. Add in exercise and then cutting back calories and no wonder people fail. Research has shown if you do one thing at a time, you stand around an 80% chance of success. Add in one more thing and it's already less than 40%! Most on here try to change four or five things at once. It's no wonder we set ourselves up for failure.
Give yourself a break, take a breath. Pat yourself on your back for exercising. Pick one more thing to work on. Forget about your ideal number.7 -
Thank you! Great advice. I will take it to heart. May will be the time to weigh everything. That and continuing my workouts.
I have been on 3 food programs in my life.
Not diets but "lifestyle changes "
The first was an allergy rotation diet which was insanely hard to follow because I was allergic to everything. But I lost so much weight I had to ask if I was losing too much. Doc said my body would level out eventually. That was 30 years ago. He has since gone on to glory .
The second and several other attempts were after my daughter and son were born.
They are in their mid 20s now.
Weight Watchers Lifetime member. The biggest thing I got out of that was 3 servings of veggies with each meal and portion control. I reached my goal and kept it off for 3 years and then life got in the way and it found me AGAIN.
The past few years we have dabbled with whole food plant based which requires a lot of prep work. We did vegetarian for5 years, no one got sick I lost weight and my very underweight hubby gained weight without trying. I would still like to make that our norm in a perfect world but when you work full time, commute an hour each way and take care of my Daddy age 86 (mostly just checking in and a family lunch on Sundays) and my fil who will be 89 this summer & who stays with us 3 months at a time usually, well, we need more hours in the day. Lol
At this point I don't even want to think about food. But I will.
Thanks so much for your pearls of wisdom!3 -
It's a good post. Thanks for sharing it.
I'm a 59 YO trail runner + strength training.
I wish I had some magic sprinkle dust for you. But, I dont. I would have used it for myself instead.
You've experienced some ups and downs with your training. Fitness like everything else has it's ups and downs.
The good news is that you've taken the right steps. But, fitness is a long term thing. I want and hope to live to my 90's at least (God willing) and my family genes are favorable. So, you and I have to look at these activities long term.
Get back up and get back on the fitness horse. Forget the misses. Congratulate yourself on the good stuff like getting in there where so many at our age dont or even worse CANT.
You are going to have days in the gym where you are superman and days that your not feeling it.
My one piece of real advice is rest. You should bake in 20-25% reduction in your effort/strength every fourth week to avoid the burn out and injury.
Thank you! Even though I have tried this before I still feel like a newbie. I appreciate your advice!1 -
Good for you for getting started! I started at 59 when I was barely able to walk 1/4 mile or make it up my own steep driveway. I never expected to be Rocky. I just wanted to walk 1 mile without stopping. Fast forward 5 years, I lost 145 lbs and have maintained, I can now walk as far as I want to without rests (10K+), completed my first triathlon sprint last month, biked 50+ miles last week, and swam 1 mile this morning. I have made steady progress every month for 5 years, and keep improving. Consistency, not heroism, is the key. Stick with your workouts, paced at a reasonable for you level, increase them in small increments as you are able, and stick with your eating plan. You don't say how much you've lost so far, but it seems that 56 by January is realistic if you stick with your calories plan. If you don't quite make it, you will get close. Just don't be too aggressive in your rate of loss or it will backfire.
Set up you MFP profile, your lbs per week goal (1-1.5 per week at this point is reasonable), get a food scale and weigh ALL your food, eat back about half your exercise calories. Stick with your eating and workout plan regardless of whether you feel Rocky-like or in a funk. We all have those days and you just have to do what works and keep going. Read the sticky posts at the top of this forum and the General Weight Loss forum for the "best" MFP tips and guidance.
Good luck to you!7 -
You never said what specific results you're looking to see while you're in the gym. Is it just to be more energetic? Strength increase? Stamina increase? Better 5K time? Not having to rest during spin class? More muscle definition? Better sleep? Less fatigue?
The thing it took me a long time to learn is that going to the gym just to go to the gym doesn't really get you much. You need to set goals and walk into the gym with a plan to achieve them. You may be feeling like you're getting nowhere because you're doing the same things you were doing when you started out at the gym, the novelty has worn off, and now you're just rinsing and repeating.
Also, you will have bad weeks. You will be older than many people and probably younger than quite a few. You'll have low self-esteem days. You just kind of have to ride them out. Find a workout plan that gives you measurable, achievable goals and work toward them. And don't use the workout the trainer gave you unless your trainer was another woman your age. If you're a 57-year-old woman, I can almost guarantee that that workout is way below your ability level because young trainers think older women are going to crumble into dust if they lift a weight heavier than three pounds.3 -
56 pounds by Jan probably isn’t feasible, given there are 33 weeks between today and Jan. 1 and if you’re losing a pound a week that’s only 33 pounds. You said you are 57, so you may have trouble losing more than a pound a week. I’m 59 and am only managing half a pound a week - BUT I only have 7 pounds to go, and that makes a difference. Good luck!0
-
Pardon, but did I miss something, or are there zero rest days in your schedule? Muscles grow during rest. If you never rest, no wonder you feel burned out and aren’t seeing the results you hoped for. You can knead the dough all day long, but it won’t rise until you leave it alone!
In other news, you are the oldest person in your classes! That makes you a badass!
Add at least two lower impact days to your week for recovery.
I lost 56 lbs in the time frame you’re proposing but I started out morbidly obese. For someone at or near normal weight that’s a very rapid rate of loss. Regardless of the specific numbers, if you stick with it, you will look much better by next January!4 -
I second this!rheddmobile wrote: »In other news, you are the oldest person in your classes! That makes you a badass!
I don't have any good advice for how to get rid of your funk, though. I don't love seeing myself in the giant mirror at the front of the room, but it doesn't make me stop feeling strong when I work out.
Be as patient as you can; weight loss and fitness both take time. I'd encourage you to check out the Success Stories board, especially some of the Before and After posts; I find it very encouraging and motivating!2 -
I also saw that there were zero rest days in your routine. Rest is actually important for recovery. You can burn out if you exercise every single day and are on a large calorie deficit.
There is no need to work out 7 days per week. Do 5. Have two "active rest" days where you just go for a walk instead of actual gym workouts.
Also, remember than slow and steady wins the race. Don't get too caught up on a specific number by a specific date and suffer in order to get there.
But, that being said, good luck with it all!2 -
Thanks everyone for all your tips and encouragement! I think it's just been a hard week physically. My allergies were on overload so I took Wed. off from the gym took a benadryl and went straight to bed as soon as I got home from work and then on Friday when I woke up I was feeling better so I took a nice long full body stretch and BAM my knee got all wonky. Man I was ticked. Seriously I do HIIT, Zumba and Spin just fine but I wake up I mess up my knee?! Well I hobbled along on it all day. I have a desk job so I would get up ever so often and walk back and forth very gingerly and do some stretches. By the end of the day it was a little bit better so I had a decision - go home and have a pity party or go to the gym and very cautiously see how bad it really was.
I am happy to report I went 30 minutes on the recumbent bike and did upper body Friday. I talked to the trainer and got a stretch for the knee, went home and iced it and today headed back to the gym for lower body which I was very nervous about. It's much better but I didn't want to go overboard and mess it up more. So I did 30 minutes on treadmill very slow and lowered all my weights for each machine and very gingerly tried a couple before I went into reps.
Made it through like a trooper. Hoping to be all well by tomorrow. The chest tightness and burning ears have straightened up too. Do have a sinus headache but that's norm for me.
So I think it was just a physically hard week and it bummed me out that I couldn't go full force.
Learning to listen to my body and back off when it yells at me. Lol
Thanks again for all your tips.2 -
I’m only 5 years younger than you. You seem to be doing a lot of different classes. Do you actually like them? It seems like you might be making this more complicated than it has to be. But if you love and enjoy every bit of these classes that’s different.
You likely learned a lot of great tools with Weight Watchers to help you stay in a calorie deficit. I personally try to follow the Weighf Watchers Good Health Guidelines but count calories instead of points. I’d recommend starting there. And instead of working out every day all the time maybe choose one or two things you really enjoy 4-5 times per week. If you insist on doing something on your rest days just take a leisurely walk.
I personally don’t weigh my food but use measuring cups. I recognize it’s less accurate. But I’m still losing weight at my expected rate. I might change strategies if it stops working for me.
I’ve lost 30+ lbs in the past year intentionally at a slow sustainable pace. Most of that I’m the first 6 months. I’m currently losing about 2 ponds per month and am 10 pounds from a healthy BMI. I started at a size 16 ladies pants that were tight. I now easily wear a size 8. I am 5’1”2 -
carlaringuette wrote: »Thanks everyone for all your tips and encouragement! I think it's just been a hard week physically. My allergies were on overload so I took Wed. off from the gym took a benadryl and went straight to bed as soon as I got home from work and then on Friday when I woke up I was feeling better so I took a nice long full body stretch and BAM my knee got all wonky. Man I was ticked. Seriously I do HIIT, Zumba and Spin just fine but I wake up I mess up my knee?! Well I hobbled along on it all day. I have a desk job so I would get up ever so often and walk back and forth very gingerly and do some stretches. By the end of the day it was a little bit better so I had a decision - go home and have a pity party or go to the gym and very cautiously see how bad it really was.
I am happy to report I went 30 minutes on the recumbent bike and did upper body Friday. I talked to the trainer and got a stretch for the knee, went home and iced it and today headed back to the gym for lower body which I was very nervous about. It's much better but I didn't want to go overboard and mess it up more. So I did 30 minutes on treadmill very slow and lowered all my weights for each machine and very gingerly tried a couple before I went into reps.
Made it through like a trooper. Hoping to be all well by tomorrow. The chest tightness and burning ears have straightened up too. Do have a sinus headache but that's norm for me.
So I think it was just a physically hard week and it bummed me out that I couldn't go full force.
Learning to listen to my body and back off when it yells at me. Lol
Thanks again for all your tips.
Have you ever torn your ACL? I’m missing the ACL in one knee, and weirdly enough the most likely time for me to put my knee out is when I’m relaxed in bed. If it’s a frequent problem for you, a knee brace with side supports during workouts can protect you from doing more damage.
Glad to hear you’re feeling better!1 -
rheddmobile wrote: »carlaringuette wrote: »Thanks everyone for all your tips and encouragement! I think it's just been a hard week physically. My allergies were on overload so I took Wed. off from the gym took a benadryl and went straight to bed as soon as I got home from work and then on Friday when I woke up I was feeling better so I took a nice long full body stretch and BAM my knee got all wonky. Man I was ticked. Seriously I do HIIT, Zumba and Spin just fine but I wake up I mess up my knee?! Well I hobbled along on it all day. I have a desk job so I would get up ever so often and walk back and forth very gingerly and do some stretches. By the end of the day it was a little bit better so I had a decision - go home and have a pity party or go to the gym and very cautiously see how bad it really was.
I am happy to report I went 30 minutes on the recumbent bike and did upper body Friday. I talked to the trainer and got a stretch for the knee, went home and iced it and today headed back to the gym for lower body which I was very nervous about. It's much better but I didn't want to go overboard and mess it up more. So I did 30 minutes on treadmill very slow and lowered all my weights for each machine and very gingerly tried a couple before I went into reps.
Made it through like a trooper. Hoping to be all well by tomorrow. The chest tightness and burning ears have straightened up too. Do have a sinus headache but that's norm for me.
So I think it was just a physically hard week and it bummed me out that I couldn't go full force.
Learning to listen to my body and back off when it yells at me. Lol
Thanks again for all your tips.
Have you ever torn your ACL? I’m missing the ACL in one knee, and weirdly enough the most likely time for me to put my knee out is when I’m relaxed in bed. If it’s a frequent problem for you, a knee brace with side supports during workouts can protect you from doing more damage.
Glad to hear you’re feeling better!
That's the first time it ever happened. Hopefully the only time.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 426 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions