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Just do it?


Fatso

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So,

I'm certain I'm not alone here, but I just crested 40, and I'm having the worst time getting myself to the gym / out to run.  I have never enjoyed running, and merely tolerated the gym.  I have only really done enough to just get by with the minimum acceptable PT standards in the Air Force (which, historically, isn't difficult), but I need / want to be faster (and shed this 20 lbs hanging around my waist).  I'm just not super disciplined at getting off my butt.

What do you guys use / how do you motivate to get out and "just do it"?  Gym membership?  Peer pressure?  Fitness watch that tells you to get off your butt?

Thanks guys!

FATSO

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Fitness watches only work for so long since eventually you'll just start ignoring them. I think the thing you need to do is give yourself a goal. Goal setting has been repeatedly shown to increase exercise adherence.

It helps if you have someone you can talk to about exercising since hearing someone else exercise should motivate you to also exercise. It shouldn't be peer pressure, but if it works for you, then peer pressure is fine.

For me, motivations are: 1) I am a kinesiology student so I feel "obligated" to stay in shape to fit the stereotype, 2) I study kinesiology so I know that physical activity is extremely important for maintaining a healthy life, 3) Being single is an extremely helpful motivator, I don't recommend divorce though, probably not the best option, 4) I set goals for myself in the gym to develop strength so I can better control my recoil. I've noticed huge improvements in recoil control through certain exercises in the gym.

For cardio, you don't HAVE to run. I would also argue that running extended long distances is not necessarily that helpful for USPSA either since you are doing something more like HIIT, running and slowing down, rinse and repeat. You may  like HIIT more since it is shorter and arguably more exciting.

Also, how far are you from your closest gym? Attrition rates increase significantly if you're more than 5 minutes from a gym.

Edited by SlvrDragon50
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1 hour ago, Fatso said:

I'm just not super disciplined at getting off my butt.

You're going to have to change this.

Motivation fades, discipline doesn't. There is more information out there than you can read in a life time, and while through experience I've weeded out what works for me and others I've trained, the most important thing is to just do something and do it consistently

The bottom line is you'll always be able to find an excuse to not do something if you let yourself. You just have to sack up and get started.

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I'm only 55, and never had much problem motivating myself to exercise because I mostly choose activities I enjoy. cycling and xc skiing, for example I do for fun and it happens that they are good exercise. I started playing hockey a few years and soccer before that, and both are constant exercise.

I do occasionally have to force myself to do something less fun, like a short lifting routine twice a week, or running when i'm deployed like this week, and I motivate myself to do those things by thinking about shooting, and knowing that the things I'm doing are going to help make more competitive.

As jake mentions, I think doing something consistently is a good idea. It becomes a habit, and since I have *always* worked out, it's just a habit for me, so maybe that's why it is easier.

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I'm no expert on the matter, but here's my personal experience and belief. Weight loss is at least 90% food control, arguably 100% in a perfect world. I've enjoyed lifting weights for most of my life and am still doing so after 52 years on this planet. I've noticed the older I get, the harder it is to lose a few pounds here and there. A few years ago I was growing out of my pants. Hating both spending money on clothes and shopping for them I decided I'd diet. I knew I'd get a mental hangup counting calories, and what goes with a typical diet, I chose my own diet, stuck to it and dropped 18 lbs in 2 months, which was all I needed. About 4 months ago, I shared my plan with a co-worker who was looking to lose a few pounds, and her husband needing to lose more than 100. They gave it a shot are having great success. The rules are simple:

You can eat as much as you want, whenever you want, but your food cannot be processed in any fashion. Your food must have walked or swam, grown on a tree, bush, or in/on the ground. This gives you a ton of variety, including sweets (fruits and berries). Spices are fine too as long as they meet the criteria above. Basically you can only eat single ingredient foods. Combining them is fine as along as they meet the criteria above. I know I didn't invent this, but I never saw it presented this way.

For those of you who have to have your coffee creamers, sugars, flour/breads, it's a bit of a challenge, but there are so many other foods you can eat. And again, you can eat as much and whenever you want. For me this eliminated the stress of dieting, counting calories, proportions between proteins, carbs and fats, and all that other stuff. It worked so well for me, I decided to see how this model fit recommendations with proteins, carbs and fats. I used the My Fitness Pal app and religiously entered all my meals, even when I cheated. I was surprised to find that I was oftentimes under the apps recommended daily caloric intake. It's pretty amazing how much food you have to eat if it's fresh, natural and unprocessed.

As for physical fitness, I think a little cardio is a good thing, but low impact is critical. Some folks can run and don't seem to show, or admit to, the pain afterwards, especially as we age. Elliptical, stair stepping, Yoga - there's a bunch of creative stuff out there that won't beat the heck out of your joints. Don't forget stretching!

Eating fresh and natural foods is not cheap. It's amazing how we can buy processed and packaged foods cheaper. Stick to the perimeter isles in your supermarket and you should be good.

This is worth what it cost you, but best of luck to you!

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If you're someone who is trying to lose weight, eating fruit is not a very good idea. I get where you're coming from, that it is better than other processed alternatives, and that is true....but fruit is still sugar and sugar is horrifying for weight loss. 

People get worked up about food like they do about politics and religion. I don't want to go too deep into it because of that, but what I will say is lean meats, healthy fats, and veggies (little to no fruit) has worked for everyone that I've known who has done it.

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This is all great info, and the processed food point is the real deal.

I did a 70 day tour in Thailand (I know, hardship tour), and the base was rural. Everything was farm fresh and crazy good. I ate (and drank) like a king & lost 15 lbs.


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You're going to have to change this.

Motivation fades, discipline doesn't. There is more information out there than you can read in a life time, and while through experience I've weeded out what works for me and others I've trained, the most important thing is to just do something and do it consistently

The bottom line is you'll always be able to find an excuse to not do something if you let yourself. You just have to sack up and get started.


That's the crux of the matter isn't it, and I know it. I'm disciplined enough to excel in my military career, sustain a great marriage, raise twin girls (lawd have mercy), and practice dry fire for hours.

It's the boredom aspect that is my big mental block here. Humping an elliptical for an hour is not fun or interesting. I need to find a way to do cardio that is lower impact than running on concrete, and isn't staring at a wall for an hour on a machine.

I'd think kayaking or open water swimming would be good, but I live in Tucson!


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I've never been a fan of long duration cardio as an effective workout method unless you are training specifically for those activities. I don't have a lot of time to respond atm, but here's the short simplified version. My observations are the generally higher average power output we sustain during activity the better the results. This means that most of my conditioning is done in the under 20 minute range because you'll practically never see a higher power output with a longer duration activity. Pick simple activities and go as hard as your current physical and psychological tolerances allow you. For the first month, let your body ease into the activity before you really try to put the hammer down. You can absolutely obliterate yourself by doing something like running 100 meters and doing 20 pushups as many times as possible in 10 minutes. I doubt your complaint will be of boredom. Keep the movements and time duration varied. Go hard and put effort into recovery by eating well, mobilizing (stretching), sleeping well, and doing work to keep your soft tissue in running order (foam roll, lacrosse ball, etc).

I'm a big believer in lifting, but I'm trying to keep this simple with very little needed instruction. You can certainly do bodyweight only stuff for awhile in your garage and make large amounts of progress.

Consistency is the key to life.

Edited by Jake Di Vita
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I've never been a fan of long duration cardio as an effective workout method unless you are training specifically for those activities. I don't have a lot of time to respond atm, but here's the short simplified version. My observations are the generally higher average power output we sustain during activity the better the results. This means that most of my conditioning is done in the under 20 minute range because you'll practically never see a higher power output with a longer duration activity. Pick simple activities and go as hard as your current physical and psychological tolerances allow you. For the first month, let your body ease into the activity before you really try to put the hammer down. You can absolutely obliterate yourself by doing something like running 100 meters and doing 20 pushups as many times as possible in 10 minutes. I doubt your complaint will be of boredom. Keep the movements and time duration varied. Go hard and put effort into recovery by eating well, mobilizing (stretching), sleeping well, and doing work to keep your soft tissue in running order (foam roll, lacrosse ball, etc).

I'm a big believer in lifting, but I'm trying to keep this simple with very little needed instruction. You can certainly do bodyweight only stuff for awhile in your garage and make large amounts of progress.

Consistency is the key to life.


Good stuff. I'll get after it then.


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2 hours ago, Fatso said:

This is all great info, and the processed food point is the real deal.

I did a 70 day tour in Thailand (I know, hardship tour), and the base was rural. Everything was farm fresh and crazy good. I ate (and drank) like a king & lost 15 lbs.


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my personal experience suggests that eating spicy vegetable-rich foods is good for you, but then i've been a skinny dude all my life.

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23 hours ago, Fatso said:

It's the boredom aspect that is my big mental block here. Humping an elliptical for an hour is not fun or interesting. I need to find a way to do cardio that is lower impact than running on concrete, and isn't staring at a wall for an hour on a machine.

I'd think kayaking or open water swimming would be good, but I live in Tucson!

Lots of fantastic hiking, mountain biking, and trail running opportunities around Tucson. 

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I think life would be better if 95% of the workout machines in the world were melted down and made into manhole covers. Humans are built to perform complex multi-joint movements and maintain their balance while doing it. Most machines restrict movement to a particular plane of motion and remove all requirements for balance and coordination. We just don't get the same result out of using machines that we do from using the body as it was built to be used.

I'm not a big fan of music during training. I think most people use music to try and distract themselves from the pain...I want my mind to be present in the moment and focused on what I'm doing. There's no way I could listen to a podcast while training and actually retain any of the information.

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Fatso,

Find what motivates you and hold on to it HARD for the first few weeks.  I think sticking with it gets easier with time because you're getting fitter and it becomes part of your lifestyle, instead of just "something you have to do". 

My motivation:  Feeling healthier, having more energy, improved self image & self-esteem, and "doing better" in USPSA.

I do one of those big-name Workout DVDs you can do at home with a few free weights, and the variety of the work outs helps keep things fresh and interesting. Having a work-out buddy to motivate and support you helps a lot as well IMO.  

And Armydad is right, working out is only 1 part of getting healthier and more fit.  Eating right is equally as important.  

I hope you find your motivation and stick with it!   You won't regret it if you do.  

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Bicycling is my workout method. 20 miles even in Louisiana's heat and humidity is more than enough pain and discomfort to make a difference for me.

Otoh, cutting out soda's, candy and about half the bread I used to eat has probably been just as important in getting me about 40 pounds lighter than I was a year and a half ago.

YMMV

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On August 27, 2016 at 7:52 AM, Fatso said:

... I need / want to be faster (and shed this 20 lbs hanging around my waist). ...

You do not need to work out to lose weight. It is the DIET that determines weight loss and weight gain (I should know, lost 30 lbs before starting to work out). Here is a blog site that can help with people in the same boat. https://talk.manvfat.com/t/welcome-to-man-v-fat-talk/8

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1 hour ago, tanks said:

You do not need to work out to lose weight. It is the DIET that determines weight loss and weight gain (I should know, lost 30 lbs before starting to work out). Here is a blog site that can help with people in the same boat. https://talk.manvfat.com/t/welcome-to-man-v-fat-talk/8

This 100%. you will never outrun a bad diet. they say it takes 3500 calories to lose or gain a pound of fat. To lose 1lb You can eat 500 calories under your maintenance calories everyday and do this in a week with no added exercise or you can run not jog run for an hour straight everyday to achieve this. For me that much cardio is impossible, so I lift weights and eat right. Every healthy meal is that much less cardio I have to do. 

To get started try a calorie logging app like www.myfitnesspal.com for you phone. Its free and they have a database of pretty much anything you could ever eat. It will be much easier to start off just concentrate on how many calories you eat not what you eat. This is more important for weight loss and will make it easier to follow then if you completely switch to eating all healthy food and less than normal at the same time. Once you get your calories under your limit consistently then start worrying about eating healthier things. 

At your age your metabolism is going to start slowing down so you are going to have to be twice as disciplined as someone in their 20's trying to do the same thing.

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I agree with most everything written above, but I believe there is another point that needs to be made. . . you have to make exercise and improved diet a habit. These activities have to become so much a part of your life that it really irritates you when you don't/can't do them.

How do you get there?  I have read a few books on habits, and some of them go into great detail.  Let me boil it down to what works for me:  start insanely, stupidly, ridiculously slowly.  You want to make exercise a habit?  Start with just 5 minutes a day, with an easy exercise like walking on a treadmill. Don't increase your workout time until you start to view yourself as "a guy who walks on the treadmill every day";  even then, don't increase your time until until you just can't stand doing only 5 minutes a day.  It may take you a month, or more.  Don't worry about it -- the goal is not to lose a lot of weight at first, but to develop the habit of daily exercise.  Its hard to describe how you know when its time to increase, but you will know it.  Just as importantly, as you slowly start increasing your workout time, if you ever find yourself hesitating to do the workout -- you increased too fast.  Back off on the time.  

Here's another trick I have used: if you have to depend on will power to exercise (or stick to your diet, etc) then you changed too fast -- you're doing it wrong.  You haven't made the changes a habit. When these changes become habits, you only need a bit of will power every now and then, otherwise you are on auto-pilot with your new behaviors.  Back off a bit, be patient, and develop the habits you need. This post is already too long, but I will throw out one more point without explaining it in detail -- try visualization along with building habits (a bunch of posts here about visualizing when it comes to improving your shooting;  try to do the same thing with improving your diet and exercise routines).

A few years ago, I rarely exercised and had a pretty marginal diet. I was on a number of yo-yo diets because I started them too fast, my will power wore out, and I fell off the wagon. It took me a long time to figure out how to build new habits, but once I did I made a lot of positive improvements. Today, its my habit to do 6k-8k every morning on an erg machine, and only eat one meal a day (typically composed of 10oz of protein and some vegetables).  I rarely need to use will power to maintain these behaviors.  The main point I wanted to make by sharing my specific diet and exercise routine is that if you think "there is no way I could do that" I want you to know I would have had the exact same response a few years ago. There is no way I could stick with this routine if I hadn't built up these habits extremely slowly. So if you are really serious about improving your behaviors, don't look for the quick fix.  Make a long term commitment and start really, really slowly.   

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5 hours ago, jroback said:

Today, its my habit to do 6k-8k every morning on an erg machine, and only eat one meal a day (typically composed of 10oz of protein and some vegetables). 

Hoooold on a second.....You only eat one meal a day and it only has 10 oz of protein and some vegetables? If that is actually all you eat, that's really not good. I've never met someone that operates well at that level of intake. Dear God man....I know 70 pound 12 year old girls that eat more than you do.

Edited by Jake Di Vita
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19 hours ago, alucardus said:

This 100%. you will never outrun a bad diet. 

+1,  Eating quality (fist size each, of protein and vegetables) smaller meals every 2-3 hours will stabilize your blood sugar and you won't be hungry.  Don't eat anything from a vending machine.  Stay hydrated for energy, especially if you drink a lot of coffee or other diuretics.  Change up your workout, try different machines or free weight exercises to work a body part so you don't plateau.

The diet (what you are eating), not how much is everything.  Your metabolism let's you get away with a lot when you're younger.   

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You need to find a better reason to get healthy other than "you want to". Everyone wants to be healthier, or get in shape, lose a pounds, etc. But most fall short or quit too soon. Find a reason that won't let you quit.  4 years of crossfit and healthy eating and I'm in the best shape of my life and getting better by the day. I don't do it all for me, I'm doing it for my 2 little boys.

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11 hours ago, Jake Di Vita said:

Hoooold on a second.....You only eat one meal a day and it only has 10 oz of protein and some vegetables? If that is actually all you eat, that's really not good. I've never met someone that operates well at that level of intake. Dear God man....I know 70 pound 12 year old girls that eat more than you do.

I'm with Jake, that's not enough food for any adult, let alone someone who is burning calories doing anything but laying in bed. What you eat in a day is less than one of my light snacks multiple times a day.

 

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