Fat down, Money up
Working my way toward my New Year’s Resolution.
This week I would like to talk about why I am doing this?
Of course, there are many reasons to begin exercising and to lose weight, for me, though, the main reason for putting exercise on my list of priorities is that I have really felt my body age over the past couple of years; and by age, I mean that I feel stiffer than I have ever felt before, and more prone to injury as well. It also seems to me that my stomach, which really isn’t that big, is interfering with my movements more and more. When I bend over to tie my shoes, I feel it pushing into my legs and pressing inward against my organs. When I move quickly up or down a staircase, I feel it moving heavily in the opposite direction of my body: up when I’m going down, and down when I’m going up.
I don’t like this. I don’t like not being able to crouch down comfortably. I don’t like feeling like there is something getting in the way of my natural movements. And I don’t like the way that my hips, legs, and back feel after dealing with the extra weight that I am carrying.
As I have said, I’m not that big, but if I know that if I don’t begin making changes now, the problem, which I am already uncomfortable with, is only going to get worse.
For much of last year, I saw a physical therapist. He treated me for what appeared to be a case of frozen shoulder. It began without incident and gradually became worse—an ache in my shoulder that led to a severe lack of motion for more than six months. It’s hard to say what began where and which problem led to which, but throughout much of last year, I suffered from increasing stiffness in the hip and shoulder joints on the left side of my body and also from an increasing stiffness in my lower back.
Everyone ages differently, I know, but at 38, I can’t help but feel that some of the issues I’m encountering are premature. I don’t want to lose mobility. I don’t want to become stiffer. And I don’t want to go to my annual checkup this summer and be told that I’m another kilogram or two heavier, or that my waist is a few centimeters bigger. These two very things have been said to me year after year for the past five or six years and I’m finally ready to make sure that I don’t hear them again.
We may not have complete control over how and when we age, but our actions definitely have an impact on these two things. This year, I’m determined to start doing things a little differently. I’m determined to act and behave in a way that will have a positive impact on my body so that I can be loose and flexible, quick and energetic, and so that I can move with ease and comfort.
This Week’s Accountability Report
Exercise: Four out of seven days
Weight: Slight weight loss (from 82.4 kg to 81.3 kg and back to 81.8 kg this morning)
Waist Measurement: 107 cm
Thoughts: Exercising everyday continues to be a difficult goal to achieve. I’m not convinced that it’s one hundred percent necessary to exercise everyday to achieve the results I am looking, but it’s an ideal that I initially decided to work toward (even though I don’t have a particular reason for doing so).
Over these past three weeks, I have felt myself get stronger. The added strength shows in my workouts. I can do more reps now than I could three weeks ago, and I have much better control over my movements. I don’t yet feel like I’m ready to change my current routine because the increased number of reps that I am doing keeps the workout challenging. At some point, though, maybe when the weather gets better and the sun comes up a little earlier, I want to add a cardiovascular activity to my current exercise routine. If I do that, I think it will be much easier to exercise everyday because I will be able to walk or jog on days when I am not doing nine minutes of interval training. We will see.
Keep it up! Starting out your workout journey is always a series of ups and downs and it's easy to feel like you've plateaued. If you're feeling a bit more adventurous, I'd suggest trying the Insanity videos. It's a bit crazy all at once but you could work yourself up to do the first 10 minutes, then slowly the first 15, then first 20. The key is to keep up the intensity and your form more than timing! Keep us posted on how things go!
Thanks. I’ll look at those videos. Having a little guidance would be nice. To begin, I just wanted to try something I felt pretty confident about being able to fit into my schedule and keep up with. In that regard, I think I’ve chosen well.
I don't think you need to exercise everyday. I guess it depends on what you are doing and what your body needs though.. but from the sounds of it it's already having a decent impact and once you start jogging, or walking you will notice a different positive change too.. I myself just try to stay active. I go play Frisbee golf, or basketball sometimes. Go out and run around throwing a football with my nephews, or skateboarding or bicycling around. It feels less like a workout for me so it's all easier to do.. or I go and hike and climb up crazy mountains to see crazy things and appreciate awesome vantage points.. I need to do reps and do all of the things that happen in a room though, I need to lift weights, do push-ups, pull ups, squats, jump roping, and etc. That kind of stuff is hard for me
I much prefer your approach, but I’ve found it harder and harder to get away from family and work responsibilities to do such things. I hope that I can get back to mountain climbing and cycling when my children get a little older, so for now I’m doing the indoor workouts to keep my health for later, when I will hopefully have more time. It’s a struggle every morning, but making myself accountable is helping me to continue.
Honestly I think it's a confidence thing, after taking some time off from lifting and working out it's become much harder to find the motivation to start a consistent regime. Feeling weaker and stiff makes the workout not really feel good, but I know after a week or two I'll see some improvement and be more motivated. I'd say start slow with bodyweight exercises. Just do like one set of each, and build up each week
Have you heard about the crypto coin that pays you for exercising. "Sweat coin". It uses a gps to track your movements so it won't work on the threadmill. **Fat Down Money Up ** :-)
I hadn’t heard of that. That makes me want to make another cross country bike trip. At the moment, I’m mostly staying in one place, but that could be extra motivation for running or walking. Thanks.
If I found something like that, I do not know if it was the same or it was another, it still exists, I also knew and used a cryptomoneda that was shaking the mobile was to go to do sports with the mobil in hand and every time the mobil noticed with the sensors the mobimiento added a few coins (that was the special form of mining that I had) are very interesting ways to mine without using electric power, also as steemit where we write when we are mining.
I love seeing people who are motivated enough to see a change in their life. It keeps me motivated to improve myself.
From my experience (2 years of body weight training + 3 years of weight training) you don't have to workout daily to see the results that you want. Just increase the intensity of your workouts and (as you mentioned in your post) improve your cardiovascular strength in order to raise your fitness standard.
I really suggest you try body-weight training for additional benefits. I recently wrote a blog on body-weight training. You should check it out:
https://steemit.com/fitness/@mujtabazahmed/why-body-weight-workouts-are-worth-it
Keep up the good work!
I will. Thank you. One thing that I don’t fully understand is when people say increase the intensity of your workout, does that mean I should go all out for as long as I can, which might only be thirty seconds, or should I pace myself to last the full minute, but pace myself in a way that is intense and challenging over the slightly longer period of time?
Both ways work. However, I'd suggest to pace yourself to last the full minute since this way you're forcing your body to fight till the end (which really burns a lot). This way your endurance also improves.
Once you're stamina is up then you can change your focus onto shorter high intensity workouts. This is what I did and it really paid off.
As we all know it is easy to lose track of all the good intentions that the start of a new year brings us. This year started off as a new month, in a new year and on a Monday. You are doing what most have already given up on or lost the motivation to keep going. Keep up the good work. Holding yourself accountable and to a higher standard with pay off dividends.
Accountability is huge. Without it, it’s too easy to lose sight of things, as you said. That’s why I trying to make myself accountable to as many people as I can. Thanks for dropping by.
My husband started cycling in the gym last year, an hour a day, 5 mornings a week and lost 5 kg in the first 3 months . Maybe you can try that as well
I would like to get to a gym on a regular basis. Right now, though, I have to make breakfast for my family in the mornings and get my children ready for nursery school, then take them there, go to work, pick my kids up in the evening, work or eat dinner with the family at night, wash the dishes, bathe the kids, brush their teeth, read to them, and put them to bed. By that time, there isn’t much time left in the day. For now, I have the hour between 5:00 am and 6:00 am to work with, so I’m trying to stay close to home. That limits my options a little, especially with the winter weather my town gets. We’ll see. Maybe I can find a way to get to the gym moving forward.
Has your husband continued to lose weight, or has he leveled off?
thank you for sharing your brilliant article.
yeah exercise is good for health. for keeping fitness one must do regular exercise.
Do you think everyday exercise is necessary?
Nope, I don't think so! Not for general maintenance anyway. It really depends on your goals. Just gonna also add that diet counts for a big chunk as well. We don't like to admit it but even with exercise we usually tend to be eating more or more unhealthily than we should.
Great work so far, anyway. All the best! :)
Thanks. My goals are to lose weight and gain strength and mobility. I’m my house, tackling diet also means reaching agreements with my wife, so that isn’t quite as easy to start as exercising is;) I may have to tackle that though soon.
Good experience
For me, yes, it is.
Thank you for sharing.your experience is very good.
Join me if you like.
It's a wonderful medicine for our bodies. It can create energy, power and beautiful poetry in the heart of people. It increases our happiness and if money added in its mixture, it become a blessing to live life fully and freely. Thanks for great sharing, I think whenever we meet in reality, I can meet a most excellent friend .Good luck for your mission.
Right now it isn’t making much poetry in me, but I sure hope it begins to. That would be great!
Man o day these kinds of results from consistency and determination are inspiring. The everyday initiative is tough, but effective if done well. Just make sure to target specific muscle groups and give others time to rest. Rest and nutrition are essential for long term success in a plan as aggressive as yours.
I’m only trying to do nine minutes a day: one minute of squats, one minute of mountain climbers, one minute of push ups, then a one minute rest. After that I do two more three minute sessions with different exercises. It definitely wears me out, but is it aggressive? I have no context for judging. That’s why I ask.
I prefer the muscle group splits. If you are going full on with leg workouts each day, you wont be giving yourself time to fully recover.
Try focusing on a muscle group each day then allow at least one-two days of rest for that group before working it again.
For me, working leg muscles has always been a group that needs 2 days of rest. I go full on with squats, lunges, jump-split squats, and burpees. It works the muscle group to exhaustion. So the next day I'll typically do back and biceps. Then chest and triceps. Abs are something i try to do a little bit of each day. Focusing on just abs for an entire day can make it really hard to get out of bed the next day!
That sounds like solid advice. Thanks! I’ll look into breaking things up a bit.
I work out for the same reason- not to get beach body, but for the health. Well, of course, if I will get my six pack as an extra, I don’t mind😂😂😂
I hear ya. Ending up with a six pack would be a nice extra;)
You're doing awesome, tomorrow I'm back in MT and will be getting started on getting a good routine down. I'm going to start with bodyweight exercises, jogging, and foam rolling.
PS. not sure why it won't let me upvote your post, but I'll come back
No problem.
Foam rolling? I’ll have to look that up. I’m not sure what it is.
Best of luck getting started!
Myofascial release, it's basically self massage using various tools
Sounds interesting.
swimming is a good sport and very bearable, if you do a little swimming 2 or 3 times a week and take care of your diet with a good Mediterranean diet every day you will find more energy.
now...
Why do not you propose a challenge? Because you do not do something with steemit and you help you play sports and want to force yourself to meet your goals? A crazy idea but one that could work is that besides putting your progress here as you are doing , promise your followers that you will fulfill your daily goals and in case one day you do not comply or eat things that are not good for you then you will have to give some sbd distributed to those who are active and comment as a penalty
for failing to meet these objectives, in case you meet them, you will be on the contrary in health and also in $ for the votes of us.
hahahaha I hope you do not take this too seriously is just a little crazy idea.
and it is possible that when translating this with the translator, almost nothing of what I say is understood and less than what I am trying to say. ;)
That’s not a bad idea. It might get expensive, though;) I’m not very good at meeting my goals one hundred percent, but I’m decent at keeping high goals in sight.
I would like to swim, but I don’t think I can fit it I You my current schedule. Currently, I’m trying to keep up a consistent workout at home where there a fewer excuses for me to not work out.
thank you for not taking me like crazy, hahaha after writing my comment I regretted and was about to delete it because it sounded like a little stupid idea but then I thought about quitting just out of curiosity to see you answer me.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my comment and if the idea could really be expensive;)
PS: I miss your initiatives contests etc etc
My contests? Do you mean Amidakuji? I still do them twice a month.
if I'm honest now I do not remember well if they were in your account or another user's, I remember some contests where I guess what location you were taking as a reference for a photograph, but this contest I'm not sure if I saw it here now that you say , which if I remember was an interesting conversation of 11 / s was not a contest but it was interesting, I feel if I'm wrong we are many users and I have a bird memory;)
Now that I think about it, if you are from Japan it is almost certain that you like videogames and that you know the Konami brand, if it is so it would be super interesting if you could talk about all that if you feel like it, I would really like it a lot.
I love Japanese and video games but especially the konami brand in the 80s and 90s
my favorite game was and is salamander and the whole saga of nemesis, of course for the msx computer, do you know them?
This post might interest you.
https://steemit.com/japan/@rt395/let-s-go-to-super-potato-in-akihabara-80-s-gaming-flashback
thanks the e looked over and I love it, thanks again, I'll look more closely.
Keep up the great work! I haven't gone jogging in a few years, but I know I have to get my yoga stretches in everyday or I will be so stiff the next day my muscles will ache. With all my movement to and from various jobs, I do end up logging over 10,000 steps a day in the health app on my iPhone , usually closer to 20,000. So I guess that helps, though I think a lot of that is the computer guessing step count for bike rides.
Anyway, keep up the good work. I am right ahead of you, at 39, and I want to keep my body in shape as much as possible to avoid any of those middle-age problems so many folks run into.
I wonder how many steps I take a day. I’ve never tried using a pedometer. I’ often on my feet for at least half the work day and am constantly walking around classrooms, but I don’t use my body for transportation much these days, unfortunately. I’m in charge of taking the kids to and from hoikuen so I drive a lot these days.
I tried doing yoga in the morning a few years ago but found that if I wasn’t really awake, it was too easy to just lay down in the floor and go back to sleep;) Then one day I overdid a stretch and strained something in my knee that took months to heal, so I gave yoga up. I’d like to try it again someday, maybe in a class setting to begin.
Yeah, that is definitely a danger, over-stretching. I injured my knees overdoing jogging in college (speaking of overdoing things) and so they are very sensitive to over-stretching—and very sensitive to not stretching at all, so it's a balancing act.
haha going back to sleep. I can't say I have that problem with yoga, but if I am tired in the least my meditation sessions can quickly result in sleep. Actually, my reading does too. Hmm... anything that involves sitting does, come to think of it.
Thats why you sit in lotus posture :) That being said, i have overdone it last year and have to take a step back, yoga humbles you, it shows you merciless where your place is.
Gosh, I haven't exercised in awhile... reading this makes me feel a lil guilty! Lol.. I didn't ever have a dedicated exercise regime but having high metabolic rate helped a great deal. And having a job that kept me relatively mobile helped too. However, as one ages, the rate obviously comes down and now wrecks havoc on that said 'tummy' (ugh!) And being a freelancer now adds to that sluggish-ness... Well, enough about me...
Good luck for your exercising and losing weight, I am totally all for feeling better and healthier!
No need to feel guilty. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another. For me, so many of my habits changed after I had kids. I never used to have to worry much about exercise because I was always on the go and a bit younger, but these days it has come to this:)
Thanks for the well wishes.