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Fitness Weekly Discussion
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?
I've been on a long journey of weight loss, strength training and endurance training (cycling & hiking). Long boring story short, I've lost over 150 lbs, gained some strength and last night was able to do a pull-up for the first time ever at 42 years old.
Hell yeah man. That's amazing. I'm hoping to start my own journey soon and would like to do it the right way. Any advice you could give?
Sure, these things helped me:
Treat medical issues as medical issues. For me, my obesity (a medical issue) required more than just grit to beat. I spoke to my doctor and got a prescription for tirzepatide (Zepbound). It's a miracle drug. If you've ever tried just diet and exercise to lose weight, you will understand just how difficult that is.
Calorie tracking with my preferred app Macrofactor. I have a 473 day streak of logging everything I eat. Also weigh in every day. You lose weight in the kitchen, not the gym.
Strength training is great for you but don't try to change everything all at once. I did not start working out in earnest until about 6 months after starting to lose weight with medication and calorie tracking. I would recommend making your diet and lifestyle changes incrementally to avoid flaming out.
Find a goal that isn't just the number on a scale. That is hiking for me. I love to hike and backpack and my ability to perform those hobbies is directly tied to my health. It is amazing how different my experiences on the trail are after losing so much weight and gaining strength. Very motivating.
Find ways to motivate yourself that aren't food-related. Turning off the food=reward system is very difficult especially since that is so deeply ingrained in our culture (celebratory drinks, birthday cake, holiday feasts, etc.). For me, that means I give myself permission to have those "special" foods any time I want them instead of only tying them to an event. But I log those calories and they need to fit in with my budget. The other side of that coin is rewarding myself for achieving things- I got myself an Apple Watch Ultra when I hit my initial weight goal. I got new fancy lightweight trekking poles when I hit 100 lbs. down (Durston Icelines for the curious). I planned a solo backpacking trip with some other new gear for when I had lost a significant amount.
For fitness stuff, finding and removing friction is the number one thing to ensure you stick with it. For me, that means working out at home. I would never go to a gym- it would feel like such a chore to have to change, get in the car and go somewhere, etc. I'm lucky enough to have a spare bedroom that I can exercise in but I started with bodyweight-only stuff, then added resistance bands and now am using mostly freeweights and dumbells. Also a doorframe pull-up bar. For finding time to do this stuff, habit stacking is key. Find something you always do and then work out right after that. That's dinner time for me. I have about an hour and a half between dinner and my kiddo's bedtime- I use that time.
I found it fairly motivating to buy new clothes as I got smaller. Being able to fit in the next size down is pretty amazing and the total opposite of my general life experience of clothes shopping. It also makes you look smaller as you lose the weight which is pretty motivating. I bought every size of cheapo Levi's jeans on my way down from 46 to 32. It is a physical reminder of your hard work. I shopped cheap Gap/Old Navy stuff until I hit a stable size. Some people swear by thrift stores for this phase of weight loss as well.
The scale can be motivating if you let it. It's just data and not a judgement. Especially when you are just starting out, you will see the weight practically fall off as you lose water weight. This is helpful as well due to the so-called "paper towel effect". It's hard to see your weight loss at first, but like taking a sheet of paper towels off the roll, the roll gets smaller quicker as you near the core. Same for weight. So seeing that number drop even though you look the same in the mirror is motivational.
Other apps I used: Happy Scale, Withings with my Body+ wifi scale, Shotsy for weekly injection tracking.
Well that is a lot more than I meant to type. Hopefully some of this is helpful. I'm also happy to talk privately if you want. Good luck!
I’ve tried tracking my food before and just haven’t been able to stick with it. It’s just so tedious to enter everything, and it also feels ironic that prepackaged/processed foods are easier to enter by scanning the barcode as opposed to entering all the components of something home made. Any tips for this?
Yes, definitely. First, you are right that it is tedious to log calories. But it does get easier if you commit to a system. Most people tend to eat the same things, so if you have an app that lets you create custom foods, you can log those quickly when you repeat that same meal. You also get pretty good at knowing what's worth logging and what isn't, if that makes sense. For instance, I rarely log vegetables because it is hard to eat enough lettuce to impact my calorie targets. But I do log dressing. Same with homemade soup- log the chicken, beans, broth and pasta but don't worry about the carrots and peas.
Logging your calories consistently gives you good insight into not only how your diet is impacting your goals, but it is a skill that you get better at. When I first started logging, it felt like a pretty big effort but now it's almost an afterthought. Some apps also have good shortcut tools you can use, like AI image analysis, to help you log quickly.
I like MacroFactor a lot because it adapts to my logging habits. It works best if you give it perfect data, but it works well if you don't. As long as I log in a consistent way, the app will work for me.
And yeah, it is pretty ironic that the easiest things to log are prepackaged foods with barcodes. As you use your app of choice though, if it is a good one, it will surface the foods you eat regularly so logging an apple or a grilled chicken breast becomes just as easy.
Logging calories adds just enough friction to eating in order to help me avoid some pretty bad habits. Like when someone brings homemade cookies into work, I'm thinking "This looks good, but I already ate my lunch, plus how am I even going to log this? Just forget it then." Or the super easy snacking- I was portioning some crackers into a bag to bring on a hike the other day and was going to just eat a few as I did it, but knowing I would have to log like 5 crackers was just enough for me to avoid that.
So I guess my main tips are: pick a good app that isn't a pain to use (again I plug MacroFactor), suffer through the initial pain of logging with the knowledge that you are honing a skill, and commit to yourself to log as accurately as you can as consistently as you can.
I write this entry while in great (but very much manageable) pain from one very bruised knee and one shin lined with bruises...
I've gotten pretty lucky in these classes where there is exactly one other woman of similar stature attending so I can do the drills with a partner who isn't like, a dude a foot taller than me (though I'm sure they'd oblige! But it doesn't help that I'm still very new). Today's bruises are from starting off with the lighter bag and just constantly missing my shin on the bag (and ramming it with my knee instead). I'm reminded of a phrase from a Youtuber talking about how starting a new martial art, even if he had extensive training in other disciplines, would feel like playing a fighting game with the controller unplugged, and that is exactly how I feel for most of these drills that are slightly more complicated than just a 1-2 or a 1-2 and kick...
I may rethink doing the strength and conditioning class before the muay thai just because I don't have the energy to keep up for 2 hours straight! That or I can take it much easier if I know I'm heading to muay thai afterwards? Either way, today's exercises:
Warmup:
Workout:
Yesterday was my first day of holidays (now I have almost 3 weeks off) and I am in Thailand.
I already went to the gym or on a run almost every day before, but I want to now also explore other sports.
I went Kite Foiling yesterday which was tons of fun. I also want to do muay thai while I am here, as well as freedive.
As for the gym, I notice a ton of improvement in my fitness. I started taking it more seriously about 6 weeks ago, and I can almost bench press my bodyweight now. (I haven't tried a 1RM)
I want to move away from all the weights and do more calisthenics, so I have been training L sits after some sessions and I also am looking to train my balance using a slackline
As for the wing foiling: it's so much fun. I am shocked by how sore I am. I have done 4h in total now, and I managed to go upwind quite bit, too!
I’ve come to a realization today as I was doing my workouts that I was lifting too much weight for all of my strength training and it had done me a great disservice. I’ve been sick a few times in the past 2-3 months (maybe even 4), and it’s ruined my inertia. But I realized today that part of it is that I was really ruing the idea of the hard work I was doing. Lifting lighter really helped me feel like I was getting back into the swing for the first time.
The thing I hate about this is that what made me realize this was a passing idea that I should ask AI for pointers on my routine and it passively noted something like “add weight when it feels too light” instead of “lift as much as you think you can”. Really, I was being let down by my own hubris.