PCOS

Hello, and welcome!

I'm old to this app (9+ years, loss and maintenance) and life (age 69).

I started getting routinely active when I was in my late 40s/early 50s. For me, that was after full bore cancer treatment, so I was pretty physically depleted plus still overweight/obese at that time. Since then, I've made decent fitness progress (even got some coaching certifications in my sport), and lost to a healthy weight (where I've now been for 8+ years, after around 30 pre-loss years of overweight/obesity).

So, I think I can empathize with where you are now, having at least been in a near neighborhood for some time back a few years; and I have some thoughts about how to create fitness improvement.

This is very non-radical: Start where you are. Progress gradually. Big - even surprising - things will happen with persistence and time.

I often say that the smartest sign in the world is one we see in many places: It says "you are here". Where we are is the only place from which we can take the next step. What we can control is which direction that step goes. You're heading for fitness improvement. Keep stepping that way, and you won't be sorry.

I think the sweet spot with exercise is a manageable challenge, always . . . but especially if trying to lose weight at the same time. Overdoing is counterproductive for either fitness or weight loss.

For fitness, we need adequate recovery after workouts. Exactly what that is varies with current fitness level: For sure, it's going to be more when new to working out. But recovery - rest - is where the magic happens. It's where our bodies build back better after the workout.

For weight loss, over-exercising causes fatigue, so we drag through the rest of the day(s), resting more and moving less, so we burn fewer calories doing daily life stuff, effectively erasing some of the exercise calorie burn.

So: Manageable challenge. "Manageable" avoids the fatigue, "challenge" creates fitness progress.

If 10 minutes on the treadmill is challenging right now, that's perfect. If it only seems feasible every other day (or whatever), start with that. In a bit, that will start feeling easier, less of a challenge. At that point, go to 11-12 minutes, up the incline or pace a little, or leave fewer days between - not all of that, but one thing that makes it manageably challenging again.

You could even switch from treadmill to something else at a reasonable point to get that manageable challenge, and that'd even be a good plan if the "something else" is more enjoyable for you personally.

Exercise doesn't need to be miserable to be effective. It just needs to be that manageable challenge. Fun exercise is ideal, but at minimum something tolerable and practical for you is a good idea. Those things make it easier to stick with it, instead of procrastinating or skipping workouts because they're unpleasant or inconvenient. Any exercise we do regularly is more beneficial than exercise we skip, even if the skipped thing is theoretically "better".

Just keep going in that way, persistently over time: Manageable challenge, switch up as what you're doing starts feeling easy to keep the challenge, try to find fun stuff. (Even sampling new things can be fun, when ready. Just give a new thing a fair try. It's absolutely normal to feel awkward at first, maybe even like it's impossible, and like everyone else is so much better . . . but they were new once, too, and decent people remember that and will encourage you. Things that seem really easy at first get boring faster, in my experience, though YMMV.)

If you do that "manageable challenge" thing persistently, I predict you'll surprise yourself with your progress over a few weeks/months, let alone a small number of years.

That's pretty much what I did myself, and believe me, there were some big positive surprises. In the long run, too, my quality of life was hugely improved. I started from near zero in my late 40s, but was fairly fit and even competing as an athlete by a couple of years later. Along the way, daily life got easier and more fun, because movement was easier in all ways. Now, at 69, I'm fitter than average for my age, and home chores that were an exhausting struggle for me at age 45 are easy and quick now. That's pretty magical, in my view . . . and I still enjoy my exercise activity so much that I'd do it even if it weren't good for me, but it is.

You can do it: I'm cheering for you. The results are worth the effort!