slaraka
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Feb 28, 2012
Posts: 26
Location: A world my own.
|
 Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 4:37 am Post subject: First week of the rest of my life? |
 |
|
I have noticed that I am unhealthy, I am a tad overweight with a sedentary lifestyle, and I do other etc things that are just less than healthy. The only thing I do close to right is my diet, my diet would be pretty healthy but it is disproportional to the amount of excessive I do. So starting this week (well not quiet Sunday is over, but Sunday isn't too much of a concern for me, it is the day that I work and my work involves exercise and it takes up a significant portion of the day, so I feel this will more apply to Monday-Saturday this week (and hopefully forever on!). Here is a little list of things I will attempt to remedy.
Quit smoking (I don't smoke heavily, in fact I don't think I am quite at a "plateau" of sorts for this, which is to say I think I may be slowly slipping into a heavier addiction, so I will stop that right away)
Exercise 2+ hours per day (as apposed to 0 except Sundays)
Eat more often/ smaller meals (I hear that this is better than fewer large meals, my diet is OK consisting of a lot of fruit water and yogurt, other things just for whatever trace nutrients I might not get as well. As far as all the unhealthy things I have been doing the content of my meals isn't bad.)
Cut down on caffeine/ replace with healthier sleep pattern (I am pulling all nighter tonight, tsk tsk.)
Smoke cessation is pretty hard for a lot of people, I think that since I am still developing my addiction some I can probably nip that in the bud. Half of a cigarrette at about 2 AM (hour and a half ago). It was raining lightly for that and I got all wet, when rain picked up I extinguished, but it let down, re-lit and got to half. At that point I think "What am I doing? It is cold, wet, and downright unpleasant out here... And it seems like the intervals between doing this are getting shorter!"
For exercise it seems that the rain has stopped, and according to the weather app I have it seems like it will get pretty pleasant for a bit of walking around 6 (in hour and a half from writing this.) So seems like I should do that.
I have a lot of trouble with sleep, and yet I drink too much caffeine, seems like that may just be common sense.
This will represent a pretty big change in lifestyle, maybe it is an unrealistic goal. I tend to set unrealistic goals because I like to think that if I aim farther, even if I don't get all the way I get more than if I aim for something reasonable and miss, odd view I suppose. That being said no goal should be viewed as not happening, just ruins will power and what not, therefore I WILL do this.
Figure writing that and putting it here will encourage me on some level, if I didn't I could fail at some point and convince myself I didn't actually try. |
|
| Back to top |
|
SilkySifaka
Lemur
Joined: Apr 23, 2012
Age: 27
Posts: 1396
Location: UK
|
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 4:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
I think what you're doing sounds great. I really need to get back on track again too.
Quitting smoking is a good idea, that is one of the best things you can do. I think going from 0 to 2 hours exercise every day is a bit much. I'd maybe start with half an hour a day in the first week and then slowly build it up. That would be better than doing 2 hours everyday for one week and then giving up. If you have had a sedentary lifestyle you will need to increase your fitness slowly. I've been trying to do that because I was ill and got really unfit.
Caffeine disagrees with me and I feel better since I gave it up.
Good Luck. |
|
| Back to top |
|
slaraka
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Feb 28, 2012
Posts: 26
Location: A world my own.
|
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 7:21 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Yeah I am not doing 2 hours a day, that goal was further than what I figured I would accomplish. While on my walk/ bits of jog this morning I was thinking about how the American Heart Association (or was it health?) said that people who sit 11 hours a day have 40 times risk for heart disease as those that do 3 hours a day, but that those don't count if you get 5 hours of exercise per week, when I read that initially I figured that I might as well do more than the bear minimum, like 14 hours a week. But I realized that work on Sunday although just being one day a week should count towards that, and so I figure 2 hours is more than my initial health goal, so closer to 1 or 1 and 1/2 hours a day is closer. |
|
| Back to top |
|
1000Knives
It's not difficult if you know how.
Joined: Jul 09, 2011
Age: 22
Posts: 4545
Location: CT, USA
|
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 11:26 am Post subject: |
|
|
Well, congrats on your intentions. For me, honestly, the only thing that could keep me motivated to stay in shape was once I found a sport I wanted to do well in. It gives a nonabstract goal, besides just being healthy. Being healthy in this society is uncommon, and it doesn't really give you advantages, so it's hard to stick with a goal of just "health." Not trying to put you off, just that's thee way it works for most people.
What personally I saw success with was once I did a sport, you being healthy helps you in the sport, and the sport helps you be healthy. My sport is figure skating, I lost like 35lbs in 4ish months due to skating. It's not uncommon, I've seen women come in skating, and a couple months later, they're noticeably lighter. So I'd recommend finding a sport you find really fun, even if it seems impossible, like you can't do it, and try it, and devote yourself to it.
Good luck, though. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Stargazer43
Scruffy-looking Nerf Herder
Joined: Nov 07, 2011
Posts: 1328
|
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 8:45 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| 2hrs of exercise a day is quite a lot, really very few people get nearly that much unless they are training for a marathon or are an athlete. I'd personally say start off with like 30-45min 3 times a week, then after maybe 2-3 weeks start going daily and gradually working out for longer periods. If you can get a personal trainer or join an exercise class at a gym it will be invaluable, they can show you exactly what to do, how to do it, and how long to do it for! As was mentioned above, going from couch potato to 2hr a day is an extreme adjustment and will likely result in you just collapsing from pure exhaustion lol. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Wolfheart
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 18, 2011
Age: 23
Posts: 2971
Location: Kent, England
|
| Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 1:47 am Post subject: |
|
|
70% of the battle is nutrition so the more you learn about healthy foods and focus on your diet to shape the physique you want, the more you will get results.
Avoiding caffeine, sugar and smoking completely out of your diet is a great first step in doing so and it will definitely have a good impact on you. Also you burn more fat on a empty stomach, so be sure to train when you wake up. |
|
| Back to top |
|
SilkySifaka
Lemur
Joined: Apr 23, 2012
Age: 27
Posts: 1396
Location: UK
|
| Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 3:54 am Post subject: |
|
|
| slaraka wrote: | | Yeah I am not doing 2 hours a day, that goal was further than what I figured I would accomplish. While on my walk/ bits of jog this morning I was thinking about how the American Heart Association (or was it health?) said that people who sit 11 hours a day have 40 times risk for heart disease as those that do 3 hours a day, but that those don't count if you get 5 hours of exercise per week, when I read that initially I figured that I might as well do more than the bear minimum, like 14 hours a week. But I realized that work on Sunday although just being one day a week should count towards that, and so I figure 2 hours is more than my initial health goal, so closer to 1 or 1 and 1/2 hours a day is closer. |
I think that's a more reasonable goal, although I like the logic that made you aim for 2 hours. I hope it is going well. Your post motivated me to go swimming, so thank you for that  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
