This is a path I’ve travelled before and I’ve fallen off the wagon many times! I’ve realised that in the past, I always went hard immediately, with fasting, low carb and exercise and then burnt out within a month.
I’ve decided to go sensible and slow this time and I’m a week in, tracking everything, 19:5 ratio (it suits my lifestyle better) and I’m 7lbs down.
However, I do know that I’m going to need to exercise at some point because I’ve lost all of my muscle and tone from when I was really quite fit. I don’t want to burn out though, I want this to be a continuous, so I’m asking when was it that you decided to start adding exercise to your routine (and where did you start!)
Exercise is something we should all be doing all the time, even if that’s just sitting in a chair and moving our arms. This is the origin of the HAES movement. Where ever you are you can do something to be a little bit healthier. Exercise has countless benefits, the least of which is weight loss.
When we keep walking the same path is helpful to take time to understand why we aren’t where we want to be. Why did you feel “burnt out” after a month? Change is hard. The only way to make lasting change is to push through the hard parts. Pick movement you enjoy and add that back. Go from there.
I keep reading the idea that it takes 21 days of doing some to make it a habit. Pick exercise that you enjoy doing, start doing it, and do it for 21 days until it becomes a habit. Your body will start to want to move more as you keep trimming down. After the habit is set, then you can start incorporating more or harder workouts.
Four times around my block is 1.5 miles. For the first two weeks, my goal was just to go several times a day and finish in less than 20 minutes. Then I started going faster each time - still only walking - but now I can do it in 17-18 minutes each time by walking as fast as I can.
Before I got this cold I’m dealing with, I starting jogging on this one 50 yard stretch and then going back to a brisk walk for the rest of each lap and I got my time down a 15 minute mile.
From there I’m going to work my way up to jogging a little further until I can jog half a lap and walk the other half, maybe even jog one whole lap and the walk the next.
I also need to do some against the wall push ups until I can do real push ups again. These stupid doodle noodles need to build some strength too.
I did it before I did fasting. I just played with my workouts too figure out what I did and didn’t want to eat before. Turns out I feel way better working out in the morning fasted. For lifting and cardio. But I have upper different issues and vomit easily. I’d rather not do that
If I start with a long fast, I stick with walking, then build up to strength training 3 days a week plus walking daily.
Since your goal is to avoid burnout, I’d be interested to know what the breaking point was for you that caused you to stop. For some people, going all in is sort a dopamine/novelty thing and once that wears off, it becomes a slog. Sometimes not having support is the thing that does it. Sometimes people fall off the wagon once and since they are perfectionists, they give up.
What do you think did it for you?