Same old title

[un2xs]

How have you guys gotten back into the game?

I know I am way out of shape. 60+ years old, just shy of 6-3 barefoot, large bone structure, at around 245ish pounds. My job has me walk a lot... rarely under 10k steps per day with some stairs. However, I do not get much cardio and no weights.

i know I would be more comfortable around 210-215. But it seems the last few times I have been there were the result of depression or a much younger gf.

I have a bicycle that I keep meaning to ride the about 1.5 miles to/from work. I pinched a disk 30 years ago that sometimes haunts me so I rarely run. I work at a university and can go to the rec complex fairly cheaply. Campus no longer has pools.

I really want to get back into better shape for general health... and it's been way too damned long since i played any paintball all, despite being only 20 minutes and 80 minutes from a couple of nice fields. (I have $2-$3k worth of paintball guns gathering dust... most pre-2000 vintage.)

Where do you start and how do you keep it going? The start motivation is weak in this one, yes.

[Cdn_Cuda]

The COVID years kicked my butt. Didn’t play any sports and my cardio went to crap. Used the treadmill a handful of times, but don’t care for running. I need a ball or a person or something to chase

Got back in to playing hockey last season and it’s helped a lot. I struggled early in the season due to conflicts with kids sports, and was kinda feeling out of it. As the season went on played a few more games and started to really enjoy playing, thankfully. Been playing with the same core of guys for close to 10 years now. I get the benefit of physical activity, cardio snd guy time all rolled up in one, so helps me physically and mentally.

Maybe look and see if there’s a team sport/activity you can join that helps get cardio but is also fun. It’s easier to be motivated as well as there is the team aspect.

[Daltech]

Get into a paid gym with a trainer. Start doing dead lifts. Play paintball as a treat.

[pintbuster]

I have found that when wanting to make a decision, it is easy to go back and forth trying to find a perfect solution.
The best move is to pick something and start. You might change it up in a month, but you will be closer to your goal.
Diet, sleep, and exercise should be your focus as a starting point.
Ride or walk to work early, and get to that gym.

[BigRed]

You had us at...

I have $2-$3k worth of paintball guns gathering dust... most pre-2000 vintage.

Knock 10 years off your description and that's me pretty much. I've started to eat better and lost about 25 lbs and walking more. Im starting small then the plan is to add in weights. Gotta agree that a membership at a gym is probably the way to go. It's the developing a routine part that is tough for me as I work shifts. Good luck in the journey!

[Grendel]

Funny thing is COVID lockdown helped my health as at the time my wife and I were living reasonably rural with over an acre of land bordering on public land. We spent a lot of time outdoors working on projects and just walking.

I have never really stopped playing paintball and generally being active in my 58ish years (not real positive how old anymore) outside of a couple of long hospitalizations for some serious problems. That said those hospitalizations really hurt me, it is so much harder to build back after things like this as you get older. For me it was working up a good sweat around home doing things, walking consistently while pushing for longer/further and now I am back to the point I am starting to run some to push my endurance. I have actually marked out for wind sprints on my long driveway. So I have started doing wind sprints before my walks, break up my walks with occasional running sections in the middle and end my "walks" with some wind sprints again. I am not looking to be my old competitive athletic self from decades before but just putting some spring into my steps and some endurance gains.

I would recommend Mark's Daily Apple ( https://www.marksdailyapple.com/ ) as a good source of inspiration and knowledge as a beginning. I would not say I am necessarily an advocate for what he does and does not do but he is knowledgeable, communicates well, done his research....etc. I feel much better when I eat right and get moderate daily exercise. I am not a gym rat by any stretch of the means. Actually I detest public gyms and always have. I have made use of them at times but never enjoyed it and much prefer getting my exercise through work and active hobbies/sports. Get truly active daily, occasionally sprint like your life depends on it, lift heavy things and improve your diet then your condition will improve. I have not mastered this myself but am a work in progress.

[Jonnydread]

I think the most important part of changing habits is just doing SOMEthing for X-amount of time per day. Like if you're sedentary, commit to a 30 minute walk every single day. After a couple weeks of that you can try adding weightlifting or jogging or biking or something to mix it up. Once you have the mindset "this time is exercise time" I think it becomes much easier to pivot to other healthy habits.

[un2xs]

I clocked in a little after 4 this morning. Its 8:45 and I have just shy of 10k steps. Pushed a little faster than normal where I could. Now in a building where I just plod along.. but keep going. I have scanned about 60 of the 340ish in this building.

EDIT: Its now 12:30. Phone says just over 15,000 steps. The last third were just steps, with the first 2/3 at a pace where I could scan barcodes and keep moving. NOW... the trick is to do it again tomorrow. And then the tomorrow after that.

[Grendel]

When I was still in our corporate office I set a timer for every 50 min. If I was at my desk I would get up, walk to the stair well walk down 4 flights across the building to the opposite stairwell, back up 4 flights and head back to my desk. Now I work from home, so 3 times a day I go for a walk around the neighborhood. Even helps the old mind clear away some cobwebs.

[Seajay]

So, in my recent get fit agenda I've learned that if the goal is to lose weight you need to focus on that. To lose weight you need to track what you eat and figure out what your daily caloric rate is. Reducing your food consumption so you land below your daily caloric rate = weight loss.
Luckily it's not a detailed science, you can be %80 accurate and still be effective.

Figure out what your daily calorie needs are and reduce that by 200-500 calories.

Fats make you less hungry. Protein builds muscle and helps with hunger. Carbohydrates help with energy but don't help with hunger. Find a balance.

Building muscle increases your caloric requirements. Aerobics (cardio) burns energy / carbs makes you more hungry. Cardio is excellent at general health improvements, but is not so good if the focus is specifically weight loss because it makes you hungry.

The hard part is changing what you eat, or realizing that Cheeseburger is %80 of your daily calorie needs and it's only 10am.
You can track on a weekly basis and still get results, as long as you keep in a caloric deficit you'll lose weight.

[BLachance75]

Recognizing that you need to do something is the first step. I got far bigger than you before I realized I needed to do something.

I've been fat my entire life. I was always one of if not the biggest kid in my class and as I got older I got bigger. Over the years I tried every diet and a lot of different miracle pills. I had varied success with each but they all ended up failing and I gained back more than I had lost in the end. Over the years of doing this I'd yoyo up and down 25-50 lbs but nothing ever stuck because I never changed my lifestyle.

8 years ago I had a mini meltdown when I couldn't fit into any of my pants. I knew I needed to try something new because everything I had done in the past had failed. My wife and I got hypnotized to help with weight loss. It worked great until it wore off. I lost close to 100 lbs but I never really changed my lifestyle. Yes I did lose close to 100 lbs but I never exercised or had a goal other than losing weight. When the hypnotizing wore off I was back to my old ways of eating to much and still not exercising. By not exercising and being in a caloric excess everyday I ended up gaining all of the weight back plus some.

This past winter I hit my heaviest, 286 lbs. I felt terrible and had no energy and I'd get winded going up a flight of stairs. There was a times where I'd be sitting on the couch eating and my Apple watch would give me a high heart rate alert. Meaning that just sitting and eating would elevate my heart above 120 bpm. I had a closet full of 2xl shirts that I couldn't fit into anymore and I needed to get 3xl. I knew that I needed to do something.

Knowing that hypnosis worked the best for me in the past I went that route again however I knew that I needed to change my lifestyle as well. In January I went and saw the hypnotist to get jump started on the eating. I set myself both weight loss as well as physical goals. My first goal was saying that I wanted to be able to fit into an xl shirt. As I reached weight goals I'd set new goals.

I have an office job so I start walking during my lunch break to start getting some exercise in. I work at an airport so I'd walk back and forth from one terminal to the next. When I first started I'd average 22 minute miles and that was pushing myself. Over time I was able to increase my pace and not feel like I had to push as hard to do it. Since it is nicer outside now I walk outside in the parking lots and can easily do 17 minute miles.

I had signed up for a charity bike ride in June and was determined to do it. I had signed up the previous 2 years but wasn't in shape to be able to do it. So I bought a bike trainer and set it up in a spare room so it was out in the open and started riding my bike in the house at night. I started out doing it 2 nights a week for 30 min then added a 3rd night and longer rides. I'm now routinely doing it for an hour or more a few nights a week and riding outside as well. I set bike riding goals and have been working at them. A few weeks ago I signed up for another charity ride in August that is much hillier so I will be working towards being fit enough to do that.

Last week I was talking to my wife about joining a gym so that I could start doing some light weight workouts. She also expressed interest so we looked at our options. In the end we decided that it would be best for us to buy a weight machine and put it right next to my bike in the spare room. When it comes in I will start adding some weight workouts in on days where I'm not riding my bike.

As of today I'm down 97 lbs and feel better than I can ever remember. The hypnosis has worn off however with the lifestyle changes I feel like I'm in a much better place. I look forward to riding my bike at night and really look forward to my long ride outside each week. It took time but I have a schedule and routine and it makes life easier for me that way.

[Grendel]

I never thought to try hypnosis as a method of getting started/help. This intrigues me I will have to look into it more. Eating really is not too much of my problem with weight/health other then resisting eating that which I know to stay away from that is offered to me. My family is carb-oholic and constantly bring into the house processed foods and making carb heavy meals (potato, rice and beans to them are vegetables and bread every meal). I am pre-diabetic so really try to watch my carb intake but constantly being tempted with carb heavy foods/meals. It would be nice to have some help for a while to help resist these foods. At least until my daughter and her family move out.

[BLachance75]

Grendel hypnosis might be worth a try for you. I'm a full on carb/sugar addict and would over eat constantly. The hypnosis stopped that immediately. It works on portions and not eating carbs. I have 2 meals a day, lunch and dinner, and no snacks.

For the most part I only ate meat and vegetables and small portions. I eat very slowly, take a bite of food then put my fork down. I wouldn't pick up my fork again until I completely chewed and swallowed the previous bite. This gives your body time to tell your brain that you've had enough food to be satisfied. I eat off of small plates and if I'm satisfied I stop eating and clear my plate immediately if there is any food left on it to help any possible temptations. I won't watch TV while eating either.

I stopped drinking alcohol as well. My charity ride on Saturday starts and ends at a brewery so I will have a beer after that as a treat but that's it until the next ride in August. I'm not a soda person so that wasn't an issue and I'm good with drinking water, seltzer and black coffee. I stay away from anything with artificial sweeteners like diet soda or other diet drinks.

I would have sweet potato, sauces and dressings so I wasn't completely carb free but I don't eat regular potatoes, rice, bread, pasta, fruit etc. Now that I'm happy where I am I will have something with carbs while on a long bike ride but that is the only time. I also look at the nutritional information and pick what I eat based on that. I try to pick things that are high in protein and fiber

[BLachance75]

un2xs I'd recommend that you log all of your food and what you drink. You can do it on paper or in an app. I used Myfitnesspal which is a free app. It will track all of your calories. You can create meals and recipes if you eat the same things often. This allows you to click 1 thing and it will add all the foods at the same time. I cook all of my meals for the work week at once so I usually eat the same thing every day.

Tracking your exercise is also helpful. I wear and Apple watch so I'll start and stop and activity when I do it. I then upload all of my activities to Strava so that they are all together.

[un2xs]

Out at the farm today with my positive reinforcement exercise equipment. Doing in stops and starts so I don't overdue it. I want a clear picnic spot on the dam, so it is something that is keeping me from stopping completely today.

Positive reinforcement tool - Bachtold Field and Brush mower... one of the old chain drives with no reverse:

[Grendel]

This my type of exercise regime, good hard work where you work up a sweat.

[Axel]

I found that the hardest part was deciding to take action. Once I did that, calorie counting was very effective for me. Within a month I was seeing results. In about 4 months I hit my goal and set another one. But it took me a solid 18 months of really knowing I should do something, to actually get off my increasingly large buttocks and do it.

Now I need to add some cardio and get generally fitter, but incidentally, paintball and running are already a lot easier, dragging around 35 fewer pounds of lard