Health and Fitness

Kaevan

My biggest problem (as in it arguably heavily influences many, many other facets of my own health) is the lack of sleep that I get or the terrible inconsistency of my sleeping patterns. If only the university's classes took place at night.

But, yes -- remember to get enough sleep.

Halios

Note to self... going to gym on christmas break and deadlifting 5 plates for a bunch of singles is not a good idea when you haven't lifted for 6 weeks

I'm sitting here in agony and my mom asked me if I needed an epidural because I was making "pregnancy sounds"

Zhisana

I lost 59 pounds this year and I think what helped me the most was keeping my playlist fresh (worked out 4-6 days a week.) 

I made my workouts more intense, not longer. I only work out for 30 minutes on average. I have a machine at home, but I still go to the gym or run around the block (2.5 miles) to vary what I'm doing.

I don't go to the grocery store hungry and I'm going to make a habit out of not going with my partner.

If I could recommend anything it would be that your pace is the only pace you need to worry about and don't do anything today you're not willing do for the rest of your life (juice fasting, vegetarian diet, working out twice a day) and good luck

Edit: Also, I didn't use any diet pills to lose the weight I did this year. They usually just made me feel too sick to eat and caffeine gives me headaches. Has anyone had any good experiences with them?

Silas

Have to lol at the idea of a health and fitness thread in a text-game forum.

Chryenth

I was going to post something helpful and on-topic, but Christmas.

Another helping of beef, and make ready the profiteroles!

Oceana

Chryenth said:

I was going to post something helpful and on-topic, but Christmas.

Another helping of beef, and make ready the profiteroles!

Chryenth

Exactly.

Except there were I think 48 between the five of us, to start. Not sure how many remain.

Iocun

Silas said:

Have to lol at the idea of a health and fitness thread in a text-game forum.

As opposed to a graphical-game forum?

Siena

Here's my advice for becoming healthier:

-Get at least 8 hours of sleep
-Diet versions have a lot of chemicals and are high in sodium which is not healthy at all. Avoid them and limit the regular versions.
- Work out at least 3 times a week. SLOWLY progressing in length and intensity. (I'm a runner so)
-Limit fast food/get rid of it altogether
-Choose healthier options of food. Avoid the center isles of the grocery store and buy stuff mainly in the outer rims inside the store.
-Water is good for you

Personally, I can't have caffeine, aspartame, and monosodium glutamate because they make me really sick. That cuts out the majority of soda, fast food and processed foods, and no sugar diet foods.

Before I started on this 40 hours a week graveyard job, I used to run 3-4 times a week and do a lot of core strengthening exercises like leg lifts, planks, superman, 4 sets of 30 crunches each way and air peddling.

I haven't started on my aqua jogging regime yet but I hope to soon. I've been told by marathon running friends that if you jog in the water, you get twice the work out in less time with less impact.

A site that I recommend with good support groups and healthy recipe ideas is Sparkpeople.com. I've been a member there for a few years and it really helped me.

Orklanishkal

Silas said:

Have to lol at the idea of a health and fitness thread in a text-game forum.

Amunet

^This is what I will invariably end up becoming when I grow frustrated with my slow progress and give up on my New Year's resolution. Or because I've spent the past week at my mother's house. Being an Italian mom, she forces food and liquor on me every time I come over. Tons of it. If I politely decline food, she either launches into a tirade about how long it took to make and how wasteful it is to leave it, or she worries that my fat ass has magically developed an eating disorder, since I always loved <insert name of delectable sweets here> before, and my sudden refusal must mean something is horribly wrong. 

Back at home, now, and all of the cleaning, packing, and repair work, as well as my now dramatically-decreased food budget, will ensure that I will manage to lose any holiday weight I may have put on. I'm admittedly too scared to step onto a scale and see the damage.

Argys

Halios said:

Note to self... going to gym on christmas break and deadlifting 5 plates for a bunch of singles is not a good idea when you haven't lifted for 6 weeks

I'm sitting here in agony and my mom asked me if I needed an epidural because I was making "pregnancy sounds"

Been there. Well, not with 5 plates yet (assuming that's 5 45s on each side), but... been there. Feel your pain, so, so much.

Argys

Amunet said:

*describing the Italian condition*

Lol. This. There are no differences between Italian mothers/grandmothers. Only varying levels of insanity.

Halios

Argys said:

Halios said:

Note to self... going to gym on christmas break and deadlifting 5 plates for a bunch of singles is not a good idea when you haven't lifted for 6 weeks

I'm sitting here in agony and my mom asked me if I needed an epidural because I was making "pregnancy sounds"

Been there. Well, not with 5 plates yet (assuming that's 5 45s on each side), but... been there. Feel your pain, so, so much.

Yea.

I've been doing competitive powerlifting for a while now, but law school took its toll and I hadn't lifted in forever.

All relative though.

Jules

Kaevan said:

My biggest problem (as in it arguably heavily influences many, many other facets of my own health) is the lack of sleep that I get or the terrible inconsistency of my sleeping patterns. If only the university's classes took place at night.

But, yes -- remember to get enough sleep.

I've been very surprised by how many people I work with have turned out to have some kind of sleep apnea once they got sleep tests done.  As for me, I finally started drinking decaf in the afternoons.  These days, decaf really does taste just like any other coffee, with the difference that I'm not up all night wondering why I can't sleep - all the while swearing up and down that having had at least two cups of strong coffee in the morning, and perhaps a Starbucks Doubleshot as a chaser before noon (the delicious ones in the wee cans, of course), those 2 additional coffees/cans I sipped on all afternoon and evening couldn't possibly be to blame.  My crap sleep patterns were affecting me more than I realized, too, which I could see once I started getting more of the sleep I needed so badly.  There are people out there who can go forever on 5 or 6 hours of sleep - or less, but I sure am not one of them. 

For those of you lucky enough not to have some horrible disease, or just horrible joints, it's still pretty hard to get into shape if you've never done it, or if you've gotten completely out of the habit.  It's especially hard if you've never enjoyed any kind of aerobic activity, because your brain is going to fight you all the way.  Some people *never* get that high from working out, even when they get in shape, and that has got to make it so much harder.  The good news is most people start to get at least some brain drugs once they start getting into pretty good shape, though.  Anyway, I've seen people who fit this bill do it.  They really had to get to a certain point though... fear is a good motivator, frankly.  A good career scare (military is using this to kick people out constantly in the past 10 years or so), or health scare sometimes gives people that initial push they need.   Vanity's good too - but often not enough.  It's really hard to stick with if you can't get some kind of enjoyment out of it.  The games and apps seem like a good idea for this crowd.  Not everyone loves running, or ever will, but there are people who find ways to get it done, or other workouts that keep them fit.  I also noticed that a lot of people I worked with really didn't have a feel for finding that sweet spot between "not working nearly hard enough" and "practically killing themselves".  They really just didn't know.  This is one reason I'm a bit skeptical of all those crossfitters.  I'm all about pushing yourself, but the attitude is "rawr, do burpees until you collapse" and then people who really don't know themselves enough to say "screw you, this is HURTING me" actually do get hurt and have a perfect excuse not to work out... I'll stop in the middle of a run (especially if I've allowed myself to get a bit out of shape) and stretch if my back hurts, for instance.  I'll even WALK And I'm back out at it the next day instead of telling everyone how much I hurt from running... And in a few weeks, I'm right back where I want to be.  Oh, and even if you don't have terrible joints/pre-disposition to injury, not getting good running shoes, and replacing them every 2, or at most, every 3 months, will also ruin them. 

Argys

@Jules

That's good that you pay attention to how your body feels. Never ignore it. Don't be afraid to push yourself, but if you feel -pain-, that means stop. A lot of people never understand that, or understand it after they've seriously damaged themselves.

Averi

Take dance breaks when playing achaea!  

Siena

@averi a good time for dance breaks would be whenever you have to embrace death!

Averi

@Siena Hopefully that doesn't happen too often.

Sometimes I dance when hunting though... then I have to embrace death. 

Darlah

I like this thread! Good timing, since I finally went and joined the gym closest to my house (haven't been a gym member for like a year) so I can get back into being fit and NOT die straight away when the zombie apocalypse happens (yay cardio!). Also thanks for the zombie running app!!! Gave me giggles.

I've lost 8kgs in the last 9 months without working out through a couple of things and hoping actually aiming to lose weight/get fit tone up etc might help this loss continue. I've started the new year aiming to be more organised in general and personally, I've found planning meals/meal prep lately to be a really big help with this as I know if I don't have something planned, after work when I'm exhausted and can't face the idea of waiting an hour defrosting/cooking until I can actually eat I normally end up caving and either ordering pizza (which accepts even on a maxed out credit card! so bad!) or eating something like toast, or a bottle of wine, for dinner. Now I just cook huge batches of certain things and freeze some so if laziness strikes, I have something ready to go. It also works out being a lot more cost effective.

Also what everyone else saying about incidental exercise is so true! Things like walking to the store when you need to buy something.

Zhisana

Congrats on losing the weight @Darlah , good luck on toning up

I can only cook variations of about four things, so heat-up meals save my life

Aktillum

I push wheelbarrows full of lava rocks uphill.

Jonathin

Skateboarding. I picked it up last summer and while I'm no pro-skater, I skate everywhere (weather permitting) now. Along with better eating habits (it's not so much about what you eat, but rather eating it in moderation), I lost nearly 60 pounds over the course of the summer. 

I don't have and probably never will have a 6 pack or anything, but I look better and feel great.

Ellodin

i walk to the cheaper grocery store (3 miles each way) and forget to buy things so i have to walk to the closer grocery store (1.2 miles each way) to live!

i actually do other stuff but walking a fair amount of distance daily/regularly is always good.

Chryenth

I walk everywhere. No car, no bike and I really hate the buses around here for no good reason.

This thread also raises the important point that I need to go shopping today.

Wysteria

For the record I haven't had bacon in about a year. Thought this was funny though.

Jespar

Halios said:

been doing powerlifting for a couple years now

haven't lifted for 4-5 months because of law school

so.. you dont even lift bro?

Cooper

Since I posted in this thread, I've gone from weighing ~164.5 every morning on the scale to ~159.0 (this morning was 157.0, but I didn't eat much after a late lunch yesterday so I think it's a fluke).

Basically changed up my eating habits. I don't eat until I'm super full now, try to watch fatty things, and replaced munchies like chips with fruit. Clementines are so easy to eat (you can peel them with your fingers in like, 5 seconds without getting -any- mess or juice on you) and super delicious, and pretty healthy.

Siena

That was a mango you were eating right? That thing can cause burns and discomfort if you don't prepare and eat it right. Anyways I've been sick with the flu this past week so I'm afraid to check the scale. I've been drinking nothing but water and eating only eggs, toast and hash browns. I think I'm on the mend now but I'm still very sleepy. I can't wait till i get better so I can work out again. I'm getting so sick of snow though. How do you guys get past the winter blues when you have cold icky weather?

Iphis

My new diet consist of bacon, eggs, fatty steaks, shit ton of butter/olive oil, and other wonderful things such as bacon cheeseburgers.

No sweet tea though.  

Since Jan 1, I've lost 12 lbs soley by changing what I eat.