What the hardest part of maintaining your fitness goals

Always keeping my health as my top priority.

There are always priorities that fall by the wayside when life gets demanding. If health isn't among the very top priorities, it's easy for those habits to drop off under times of stress and overload.

Other things can come to feel much more important: busy schedules, career goals, social demands, etc.

I am always reminding myself that literally *nothing* is more important than my health. So if there's a crunch and something needs to give, it's not going to be my core healthy habits.

Taking care of my body is just something I have to do. Like getting to work on time, feeding my pets, or filling my car up with gas.

It just can't be less important than those things.

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

Fitness goals and weight goals are not the same. Your list has mostly weight issues. Gaining a few pounds doesn't mean losing fitness.

The main problem I have with maintaining my fitness is injuries. When I lift weights, I sometimes hurt my shoulder. When I run, I have to deal with chronic hamstring and glute pain. Squats and lunges hurt my knees. Because fitness is a priority for me, I often choose to ignore the pain that staying fit can cause, but I certainly understand why people would not make the same choice.

That was my reaction, too. I was reasonably fit - in athletic capability terms - for well over a decade while still obese (and not just "obese because muscles"). That's statistically unusual, I guess, but not in any way impossible. Weight loss to a healthy weight (now in the mid-range of the normal BMI range at 21-point something) came later.

These days (all days!), what is hard generically is wrangling my own deeply hedonistic nature.

In the fitness realm, that makes it difficult to switch from a summer routine I utterly love (on-water rowing, and recently some biking on trails) to some kind of much-less-fun Winter indoor regimen (machine rowing, stationary biking, usually some strength training). I always go through a period of denial, laziness, and crankiness where I do pretty low volume. I've learned to trust that I'll eventually snap out of it, because I feel crummy when I do nothing for too long.

On the eating/weight side of things, it's mostly just managing my hedonic impulses to take care of future Ann well, not just make current Ann feel good. In Fall, I also seem to have some extra urges to over-eat as it gets cold and days shorten . . . maybe my Scandinavian genes wanting me to fatten up for Winter? Dunno. I just have to wrangle it, win sometimes, lose sometimes. This is year 7 of maintaining a healthy weight, so I suspect this'll work out OK in the long run, too: Up a few pounds, then need to lose them. NBD.

My goals are entirely fitness related so my hurdles are injury/illness and weather.

My favourite activity is walking outdoors and that isn't going to be possible very soon as temperatures drop. I'm not interested in a treadmill.

I also do weight lifting and sometimes have to give it up for a while or do very modified lifting for periods of illness or injury.

journey2ahealthierme wrote: »

Xellercin wrote: »

Taking care of my body is just something I have to do. Like getting to work on time, feeding my pets, or filling my car up with gas.

It just can't be less important than those things.

I LOVE THIS!!! Can I nick it as my motivational saying from here on in? That's just so spot on. I can't believe how simple, but how easily missed, that objective is...!

Go nuts.

It's a very simple concept, but it takes constant commitment. The world doesn't make it easy or intuitive to put ones health and well being first. So it takes a bit of a radical spirit to staunchly commit to doing so.