struggling to stay consistent with healthy living

sheakatherine23 wrote: »

littlegreenparrot1 wrote: »

It sounds like for you it is all or nothing, it might be more manageable to start small.

'Don't eat great' is a bit vague. To lose weight you just have to stick to your calorie allowance, it doesn't actually matter what you eat. Although longer term nutrition is obviously important.

Pick a thing for this week. Maybe it's to go to the gym three times, or go for a walk in the park if you don't feel like it, or try to eat an extra portion of fruit/veg every day.

Don't beat yourself up, we've all had a lot going on. Don't know where you are but I have found the latest lockdown in the UK brutal. Feeling much better now it's starting to lift and spring is arriving, these things have an impact. Just have to ease back into better habits.

Usually my intake is fine but yesterday i went over 1,205 cals like i feel horrible but i just couldn’t stop eating.

1205 is really a minimum number - if you're regularly eating under that, I'm not surprised it's hard to keep it up, which would make overeating to compensate more likely. How did you arrive at that as the correct intake? It's likely possible you can eat more and still lose weight.

sheakatherine23 wrote: »

No like i went 1205 cals OVER my already cal intake:/ i’ve been feeling gross all night and morning . I’m back home visiting my mom and was out and i haven’t been here in a while and wanted to grab some food i haven’t had in over a year.

Oh I'm sorry I misunderstood! Yes, I've had days like that before and it's really rough. If you have a day like that, you could take a weekly approach to your calorie budget - if you take 200 out of the next six days, then you've mitigated the overage. Or if that's too steep (depending on what your calorie deficit is now), accept that you're not likely to lose as much and cut out 100. Or just start over and know that today's a new day. One day, or even many, isn't going to spoil everything forever unless you let it. But I understand how easy it is to let your mind go there. Usually once everything works through my system, and I get a good night's sleep, I feel a lot better physically and can get going again with my mind in a much better place.

You can work up to including more intentional exercise. Most of my activity is part of my daily life. I have found, personally, that a fitness tracker helps me be more intentional about getting movement in through the day. I like having set times to just go be active, but due to the newness of living this way and the realities of my daily responsibilities, that doesn't always happen. Two mottoes I like to live by: "don't let perfection be the enemy of the good" and "comparison is the thief of joy."

I hope this is helpful!

Mmm, cadbury eggs. I'll have a bucket of those please.

I'm going to share a few things that I find helpful, this is the result of 20 odd years of trial and error.

I will not do things I hate. There is no point booking myself in for a hard core fitness class with jumpy music, flashing lights and someone shouting. Other people love it, I will leave after about 4 minutes. I will run for hours outside but not on a treadmill. If I can't bring myself to do anything else I always feel better after a swim and can cope with it. If you hate the cardio you're never going to stick to it. Try some yoga, trail running, a kettle bell class, a dance class. Eventually something might stick, or not and that's fine to.

I need some rules. During a period of depression years ago I decided that dinner had to be something my mother would recognise as proper food. Toast was not enough. Regardless of what I felt like doing I could not continue to just eat toast and chocolate biscuits (I know this is obvious, I was not in a good place at the time). It doesn't have to be complicated or take a long time.

I have to frame things carefully, I do better with what I will do, rather than what I won't.
So for example, I am not going to try to go for a swim after work today, I will. the decision has been made.
I have also already decided what dinner will be after I get home, if I'm floating about with no plan that is when I end up buying something massive on the way home.

I am maintaining these habits because I enjoy it, I feel better, I want to be able to have adventures for many years to come. It is not because it is somehow a punishment, because if I didn't like it I wouldn't do it.
I lose a bit of weight along the way, and that's great. But what I gain is about more than the number on the scale, so I benefit anyway and will keep them up. Win win.

sheakatherine23 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

sheakatherine23 wrote: »

hi all -- over the last few years... i've gained over 30 pounds. it's hard for me to look in the mirror and love the way i look. I used to love how in shape i was, and now it's tough because I don't eat great and while i go to the gym, i'm not consistent. some weeks i'll go all 7 days and have great workouts, but i can also go 2 weeks without going and eat horribly. is anyone else struggling? i keep giving into temptations:/

Maybe find somewhere between going 7 days per week or not at all. "Healthy Living" doesn't have to mean hitting the gym 7 days per week. I'm in the gym no more than twice per week for the weight room and that's it...if I was trying to fit in 7 days per week in the gym, that would just be a non starter isn't remotely necessary for "healthy living".

Do you see a weightloss or a toner body though? Are you eating healthier or just staying in budget?

I do a full body weight lifting program at the gym twice per week...where lifting is concerned, more isn't always better. Hitting each muscle group twice weekly is all that is really necessary outside of elite physique goals like being a body builder or a competitive lifter...and even then, the "magic" that comes with lifting actually comes with rest and recovery.

I lost 40 Lbs years ago and maintained that for about 8 years before COVID...I put on 20 Lbs during 2020 and I've lost 12 of those Lbs in the last 7 weeks or so. I don't count calories or prescribe to any particular diet...my budget is easily 3,000+ calories for maintenance and around 2300-2500 to lose weight. I eat what I consider to be a healthy diet in the context of my diet as a whole...I also have a pretty broad definition of "healthy" and it goes well beyond endless salads and plain chicken and steamed broccoli...in other words, it's not bland, it's not boring, and it is delicious.

I don't "workout" often...like I said, a couple days per week in the weight room for about 45 minutes and I usually do a couple of cycling specific workouts per week on my bike and indoor bike trainer...also about 45 minutes a piece. This for me is highly dependent on my goals (fitness goals). At one point in time I was trying to get my squat and deadlift up to 2x my body weight so I spent an extra day in the weight room for a period of time (and ran a training program commensurate with that goal)...mission accomplished, so I don't need to keep training that way. I was also very engaged in endurance cycling for 4 or 5 years which required many long hours and miles on my bike to comfortably perform my cycling events. That is not something that interests me any longer, so I don't train that way any longer...there are other things I like spending my free time on. Moral of the story is that I let specific goals (generally fitness related, not scale) dictate my training (if any).

Other than that, I'm just an active person as much as I can be and enjoy playing outside...regardless of specific training objectives, I've long been an outdoor enthusiast and most of my recreational activity is active. You don't have to be a gym rat to be lean, healthy, and fit. I enjoy hiking...dabbled in some rock climbing for awhile but it got too expensive...I often spend hours on a weekend chasing my kids around the pool and diving for "treasure"...I'm an avid scuba diver (though I haven't been able to go anywhere for awhile)...I enjoy riding my bike, mountain or road without any particular training protocol in mind...like I often just like to get on my bike and ride to the bike in coffee shop for a couple cups and ride back or take my hard tail to the mountain foothills and tool around on the trails for a couple hours.

I've been taking my boys to the skate park regularly for quite awhile as my youngest in particular is very good with his free style scooter and free style bike (he's a student of the sport and it wouldn't surprise me if he becomes very, very good)...bought myself a scooter as well, so I just go scoot around and play with them at the skate park for a couple hours a few times per week and I'm learning some fun tricks. Or we'll go down to the fields and kick the soccer ball around or throw the football around or play frisbee. I like spending long Sunday afternoons kayaking the river or up to the lake with the family. I walk my dog pretty much every morning while I watch the sun rise and drink my coffee, etc, etc, etc. Basically, I'm not much of a sitter arounder. If I'm not at work, I want to play.

TL/DR: Nothing wrong with being a "gym rat"...but it isn't at all necessary for being a lean, healthy, and fit individual...and frankly, the vast majority of the population isn't going to find spending 7 days per week hitting a gym to be very appealing or fun. Being active and participating in life is hella fun and has the added bonus of also being really good for your overall health and wellness.

Even if one fancies the gym (I'm not one of those people), there is a good happy medium between 7 days per week or just not going at all. That's called an all or nothing mentality and can actually be quite detrimental to one's goals...particularly long term.