Life motivation

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nWo

nWo

Senior List
Chess Club Member
Nov 18, 2003
288
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Hi all

Long time lurker…..first time poster!

My story is the usual one - very active until early 20’s….had kids, got married, work etc. Weight has ballooned up to around 150kg (I am 192cm) Feel like s**t all the time….eat like s**t.

I know I need to change habits and lifestyle. I want to be fit and healthy by 50 (2 years time)

Totally lost….please help
 
nWo said:
Hi all

Long time lurker…..first time poster!

My story is the usual one - very active until early 20’s….had kids, got married, work etc. Weight has ballooned up to around 150kg (I am 192cm) Feel like s**t all the time….eat like s**t.

I know I need to change habits and lifestyle. I want to be fit and healthy by 50 (2 years time)

Totally lost….please help
Click to expand...
The best beginning tip I could give you, is to start walking.

Do it once a day, 7 days a week for 30 minutes. Thats all you need to do, to begin with.

Its not hard and its a fairly easy simple task to achieve. When you have done this for a month, came back here and tag me.
 
GROTTO said:
The best beginning tip I could give you, is to start walking.

Do it once a day, 7 days a week for 30 minutes. Thats all you need to do, to begin with.

It’s not hard and it’s a fairly easy simple task to achieve. When you have done this for a month, came back here and tag me.
Click to expand...

This is good advice - everyone needs to start somewhere and you don’t need to go from zero to gym junkie overnight.

walking is a good start - I would buy a smart watch (Fitbit or something like that) and set yourself a challenge each day and then try and beat it the next day. It may start out as being 2000 steps or 20 minutes non stop and then trying to better it by 100 steps or another minute the next day. I’ve seen people do this and as the weight drops off, it becomes easier and more of a motivation to keep going.
 

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Whatever form of exercise you choose I would recommend keeping it ridiculously easy early on and building up the intensity very slowly over weeks and weeks or even months and months.

Early on you just want to be building the habit, so by the time your exercise sessions actually become difficult they've already become an ingrained habit. If you try go all out right from the start it's just too hard to maintain motivation for most people.

For weight management though remember it's 95% diet.
 
On top of what the others have said, pick an activity (or multiple activities) that is enjoyable as it will make it a lot easier to stick to.
Also, what is your emotional motivator that is going to drag you outside (Or to the gym) when it’s freezing cold in the middle of winter and you could think of a 1000 things you’d prefer to be doing?
 
Walking for me is number 1. Get a cheap Fitbit and just see how many steps you do. Try to build on it. Beat it each day. By a few weeks in you'll be wanting to hit 15k 20k 25k a day. Take it easy with the pace for a couple of months and get some Nurofen. Your mental health will improve and you'll start to change the way you think about yourself.
 
Gotta say though I agree with what others have said. Just try walking 30 mins a day on relatively flat terrain if you're totally unfit, hills may kill your motivation if attempted too soon.
The Hobart Walking Club do some serious hiking so I should have done my homework before attempting their medium graded walk. They do some serious hikes.
IMG_20231231_063919.jpg
 
nWo said:
Hi all

Long time lurker…..first time poster!

My story is the usual one - very active until early 20’s….had kids, got married, work etc. Weight has ballooned up to around 150kg (I am 192cm) Feel like s**t all the time….eat like s**t.

I know I need to change habits and lifestyle. I want to be fit and healthy by 50 (2 years time)

Totally lost….please help
Click to expand...
is the job the thing that chains you to a desk ? ie. IF you can change job, to an active one, then you don't even have to 'think' about it...I had enough of being inside an office, now a gardener...don't need yet another device, just install any old step counter
on smart phone, average 10K - 15K steps each day (just on the job that is)
 
Speaking of devices though... if you are the sort who is motivated by data (as weird as that sounds to some people) it can be worth investing in a fitness tracker.

I have a Garmin watch (well, several actually) and I'd be much less motivated to go for runs etc if I didn't have all the cool data to look at afterwards. Things like looking at my running maps, seeing my monthly km's add up, checking out my heartrate zones after each activity, seeing my distances and times improve for the same amount of effort, seeing my resting heartrate getting lower as I get fitter, etc, etc.

I find all that stuff really interesting and very motivating.
 
CaptchaProofBot said:
is the job the thing that chains you to a desk ? ie. IF you can change job, to an active one, then you don't even have to 'think' about it...I had enough of being inside an office, now a gardener...don't need yet another device, just install any old step counter
on smart phone, average 10K - 15K steps each day (just on the job that is)
Click to expand...

Though interestingly occupational physical activity doesn’t have anywhere near the health benefits (and may even have a net negative effect) compared to recreational physical activity.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Leisure-time and occupational physical activity and health outcomes in cardiovascular disease - PubMed

In patients with CVD, LTPA was associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality, recurrent cardiovascular events and incident T2D. In contrast, OPA seemed to increase the risk of these outcomes. These findings support the existence of a physical activity paradox in patients with CVD.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Glorfindel said:
Though interestingly occupational physical activity doesn’t have anywhere near the health benefits (and may even have a net negative effect) compared to recreational physical activity.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Leisure-time and occupational physical activity and health outcomes in cardiovascular disease - PubMed

In patients with CVD, LTPA was associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality, recurrent cardiovascular events and incident T2D. In contrast, OPA seemed to increase the risk of these outcomes. These findings support the existence of a physical activity paradox in patients with CVD.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Click to expand...
It's hard to distinguish as if you've ever worked on a building site and looked at the average tradies diet/lifestyle those results could be skewered.

My doctor also told me golf isn't a really good form of exercise as you regularly stop. The aim of exercise is to raise the heart rate over half an hour. So a 30 min brisk walk is more beneficial than 18 holes of golf
 
I think a great saying someone recently used in relation to this stuff is "Become obsessed with the process, not the results".

As in if you learn to get into eating better and exercise, eventually, with patience, the results will just look after themselves.
 

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DickieKnee said:
It's hard to distinguish as if you've ever worked on a building site and looked at the average tradies diet/lifestyle those results could be skewered.

My doctor also told me golf isn't a really good form of exercise as you regularly stop. The aim of exercise is to raise the heart rate over half an hour. So a 30 min brisk walk is more beneficial than 18 holes of golf
Click to expand...

Yes; certainly difficult to account for the effect of other variables (socioeconomic is probably another big on - one the whole less educated people tend to work more physical jobs). The study also states that the negative effect of occupational physical activity is greater in men than women, and stereotypically on job sites I’d say men eat worse than the ladies. I more highlighted the findings to point out that it isn’t enough to simply say “work a physical job!” and expect improved health outcomes.

iirc the absolute bare minimum dosage for cardiac benefit is 20 minutes of continuous exercise where your heart rate is at or above 70% of your max (So it would be 0.7*(220-age)). This needs to be done at least every other day. It can get a bit complicated as most of the guidelines you come across will adjust dosage for high intensities etc.
The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand released new guidelines in July last year (had to update a bunch of presentation slides and our exercise information booklet for the cardiac rehab program at work).
 
Last edited:
GROTTO said:
The best beginning tip I could give you, is to start walking.

Do it once a day, 7 days a week for 30 minutes. Thats all you need to do, to begin with.

Its not hard and its a fairly easy simple task to achieve. When you have done this for a month, came back here and tag me.
Click to expand...
No good idea was ever thought of not walking.
 
Spending a month making no other changes than walking for half an hour isn't going to be enough and you will likely see no change in that month so could easily lose motivation like many do. First step almost certainly has to be fixing up your diet if you are eating like s**t
 
Jugada said:
Spending a month making no other changes than walking for half an hour isn't going to be enough and you will likely see no change in that month so could easily lose motivation like many do. First step almost certainly has to be fixing up your diet if you are eating like s**t
Click to expand...

In fairness; unless you throw out the kitchen sink as well most changes you make you’re not going to see results in the first month.
Probably just as important to set expectations about what is realistic vs the specifics of what you’re doing.
 
Glorfindel said:
In fairness; unless you throw out the kitchen sink as well most changes you make you’re not going to see results in the first month.
Probably just as important to set expectations about what is realistic vs the specifics of what you’re doing.
Click to expand...

Plenty of people will feel and see some sort of change inside a month if they make actual changes. Doing nothing but burning off the equivalent of one biscuit a day is setting the bar far too low even early on if you are serious about making changes to your lifestyle
 
I know myself it's all about how much and how often I shove food in my gob

I felt horrible over xmas/NYE coz I wasn't working and just eating non stop and drinking booze most days.

I've been back at work 1 day (yesterday) and already feel better because of the structure.

Going 12hrs+ without a meal is good for your body to use that fuel.

It's the grass is greener thing... When at work you dream of chilling at home, when at home I often get stuck into bad habits

On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
nWo said:
Hi all

Long time lurker…..first time poster!

My story is the usual one - very active until early 20’s….had kids, got married, work etc. Weight has ballooned up to around 150kg (I am 192cm) Feel like s**t all the time….eat like s**t.

I know I need to change habits and lifestyle. I want to be fit and healthy by 50 (2 years time)

Totally lost….please help
Click to expand...

you're married

its over anyway
 
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