I want to get fitter and lose some weight - my goal when I hit 50, in two years time is to lose about 10kg, and I don't want to feel puffed out when running for 20 minutes straight. It would be great if I could complete a half marathon. So I don't think my expectations are that high given the time span.
First a bit of background.
I'm 47yo and currently weigh 94kg, I've smoked for the best part of my life, but now take nicotine pills, which seem to work for me pretty well. I still have the odd puff, but seem to manage, with my addiction. I enjoy drinking and would consume 4 or 5 bottles of wine over a weekend, and not that keen to give that up.
For the past 4 or 5 months I've been running/walking approx 2.5km three times a week (20 minutes per session), I also ride my bike 40 minutes a day to work. I think I eat quite healthy. I'll start the day with a freshly squeezed juice, maybe have a white coffee at morning tea, and eat a salad or soup for lunch and eat what my wife puts on the table for dinner - usually, meat and three veg - she's a bit of a hippy so I believe I eat well.
I've been losing some weight - but it seems very slow, maybe 1kg per month. More recently I've been doing my run/walk everyday - and I've had better results, but it's been a bit of a hard slog. I also go for a surf maybe once a fortnight, I'd surf more often but conditions are not always what I want. I refuse to go to the gym as I don't believe I need to go to an institution to get fit, and would prefer some home grown techniques to achieve my goal.
I guess there are a few other seabreezers like me. Does anyone have any other tips or tricks that I can do that will get me into shape a little faster, without adjusting my lifestyle too drastically.
Diet - it's what you eat. Stock the fridge and cupboard with healthy food - no crap and enjoy the wine as you still need a life.
Slower weight loss is permanent weight loss - I reckon losing 1kg a month is good. Maybe can step it up to 2kg p/m with better diet and smidge more exercise but I reckon you are doing great!
Try and add a resistance body weight circuit a couple of times
Per week.
It will kick start your Metabolsim and increase how many calories you will burn doing your other activities.
Create your own circuit with compound movements and mix it up so you don't get bored.
Breakfast is important and so is mixing things up a bit, don't stick to the same routine as your body quickly adjusts and adapts so the exercise becomes less effective..run, swim, surf, cycle, try weights at home...building muscle is good, burns more calories then fat, lets you sort of diet while your just sitting around
. At the end of the day it's basically an equation...if you put to much petrol into your car and don't drive it round enough it's gonna leak out into the boot. I don't like to be the one to bring it to your attention but running 20 min=250calories out, one bottle of wine=approximately 500 in....climbing down off my box now...
. At the end of the day it's basically an equation...if you put to much petrol into your car and don't drive it round enough it's gonna leak out into the boot. I don't like to be the one to bring it to your attention but running 20 min=250calories out, one bottle of wine=approximately 500 in....climbing down off my box now...
I'd like to add that being fit, feeling healthy, lots of fresh good food, sleeping well, stretching (i don't do enough), avoiding drugs and alcohol, ...the result of all this is quite probably better than being wealthy. I am quite sure I'd rather be fit and poor than the opposite.
Society doesn't put enough emphasis on this, although a lot of sci-fi or futurists from the early 20th century really emphasised the idea that in the future everyone would be like an Olympic athlete. What happened?
Just find something you love doing and get fit accidentally: why I windsurf (not enough).
. At the end of the day it's basically an equation...if you put to much petrol into your car and don't drive it round enough it's gonna leak out into the boot. I don't like to be the one to bring it to your attention but running 20 min=250calories out, one bottle of wine=approximately 500 in....climbing down off my box now...
Sounds like your getting interested in taking care of yourself and getting more out of your body into the future. Im the same age and have the same niggles and the same goal. I'd like to gently suggest that you do a little research into the effects of the wine consumption you have reported. Theres more to it than just the calories vis a viz your long term health. If you research it a bit and find afterwards your still happy with it then that's cool. On the other hand you might see some advantages for you in going in a new direction.
^^^^bang on.A unhealthy liver wont help you lose weight.
Im sure life can still be fun and enjoyable without 5 bottles of wine on the weekend.
as I take a sip of my double bourbon and coke
Maybe go for 3 bottles of wine spread over the whole week.
I know when I didnt touch the grog for 2 months I lost 10kgs without even trying.
I think its all about finding a happy balance, which get harder with age unfortunatly.
I have gone completely overboard. In fact I am a complete and utter pain in the arse to cater for so it is fortunate that I am single if you do not count the dog.
I have stuck with my pH diet religiously. The only thing that I have lapsed on is sugar and coffee and I reckon I drink the coffee so I can put sugar in it. I get almost uncontrollable sugar cravings.
Anyway, aside from that I have lost all of the fat that I had and got myself down to the weight I was when I was 24.( 57 now). Since then I have put on a few kilos but have been doing lots and lots of Hot Power Yoga, 27 sessions in a row in February, which really firmed me up and I reckon the additional kilos are muscle. On top of that I have been cycling to work and clocked up over 2500ls since the 7th of January.
I have stopped smoking completely, both dope and tobacco and not looked sideways at alchohol.
I find the company of drunks quite intolerable which is probably mutual.
I am heading up to Gladstone to prostitute myself for some gas or mining dollars and to avoid the winter.
When I have got enough accumulated I am thinking quite seriously about going to do one of those Muay Thai courses in Thailand so I can be rude to people with confidence.
I am now also firmly of the conclusion that I could have made my life a lot less painful while playing quite a high level of Union and League if I had paid more attention to my diet. My energy levels and stamina are at an all time high which is something I could have done with twenty years ago.
^^ Yep ^^ and yep to the post above that.
4-5 bottles of wine is pretty excessive. I'd be just as happy with three.
I gave up alcohol last year for 3 months, and I was dead bored.
There would be a few less drunken right-wing rants on seabreeze, which would be a good thing. I could still get drunk one night per week - I could live with that - I'll give it a try.
I'm not sure why, but I reckon alcohol makes me become more right wing, homophobic, racist, inflexible, intolerant and extremely moody in the morning - I wake up some mornings feeling like Alan Jones, full of anger - what's going on with that?
Bought some f+v from an organic shop last week. The apples were crunchy for once.The apples from the big two are probably up to a year old.
Try the Gerson diet.
Get a good pair of walkers/runners and take the dog for a daily one hour walk on grass.
And no soft drinks.
Adolf, if you don't mind reading, get a copy of "in defense of food". It is not a diet book, it is more guidelines for eating.
The basic message is, "eat food*, not too much, mostly plants"
* Not everything humans eat is actually food, some of it is 'food like substance'.
^ That's anyone that ****s with me and stands perfectly still and doesn't punch back.
...and I think I'll just stick to the bags/not progress to fighting. : o
Yeah the alcohol...
I'm starting to reallly go off it. My flat mate has never drunk, Muslim, and his comments like "why do you want to turn into a dickhead and feel sick?" have hit a chord with me.
At first I tried to explain that being drunk isn't anything like that, but as I live in the city 5 nights/week I noticed that, to my horror, that is actually exactly what it is like. Spend one night as a designated driver or similar and you'll see what I mean. I guess I have just become so accustomed to it I didn't see it.
Search youtube for 'drunk'.
I did a dry February and while the first two weeks were really hard by the fourth I was actually a little sad about going back to drinking twice a week again, with the occasional binge. So I haven't exactly. For sure I liked my first wine, but not as much as I did before my dry month, and I don't think I'll ever enjoy it as much again.
Without even trying I don't drink more than a glass to go with my meal. Drunk me is not the person I really want to be any more.
I eat healthy snacks abour 30 minutes before supper.
Esp. when I'm the one doing the cooking.
Like an apple, a carrot, some cheese. Large portions too.
When comes time for the real meal, I'm less hungry and eat less.
Sleep like a baby, never stuffy.
Don't know if what I'm doing is healthy, but seems to work...
There is a govermnent health initiative on the tv at the moment, asking people to become a swapper, that is swap large portions for smaller portions.
I guess the message is, all things in moderation
just a theory but i think the evening meal is the worst
Just for me if i have a big meal at nite then sit down tv computer bed etc.. all that energy from that meal is converted to fat as its not used.
if however you have your main meal at breakfast /lunch the energy from that meal is used immediately thru work during the day
Some little tips:
Keep pushing yourself when you are exercising so a bit longer each week for the runs or pushing yourself. Energy in = Energy out. So you can become stagnant and improvements plateau if you're just maintaining your exercise and diet.
If you are feeling stiff, do some stretches to improve your flexibility. It may not help with the delayed onset muscle soreness but will help none the less
As one of the others said, losing weight slowly is better than fast. Look on tv, all those people on the weightloss shows pack it all back once they're out in the real world. Your body needs to slowly adjust inorder to maintain the weightloss physiologically not to mention mentally too.
In terms of your office job, you could grab a fit ball and sit on that? Works your core muscles and improves your balance too.
What Mark and Greengriff said, I reckon. Eat less at evening meals, cut down on the alcohol a far bit more (Im not sure what kind of effect alcohol has on actual weight loss, but it cant be good to drink that much that quick.
Like Mark said, sounds like you're already doing great.
