I am in need of major assistance!!

[JJMom]

I am 32 years old mother of a 15 and 10 year old.. I have always worked hard to make sure my girls are taken care of and sometimes lack giving myself the appropriate attention. I have always been an athletic girl (even getting a full ride to play volleyball in high school) but once I had my oldest when i was 17 my weight has fluctuated along with my capability to stay active. In the last few months I had some health issues getting diagnosed with a blood disorder that causes my blood to clot unnecessarily, over the months it took to find this out I laied low.. ate when I could but rarely would work out go out anywhere other than to work. Staying active it one way to help avoid a clot from forming.. However, I tend to just go home and sit.. eat and sit... I lack motivation, I have a membership to the gym that I kindly donate my money to monthly but never go.... I feel like I can't go to the gym for two hours at night because that takes away from two hours of time I could be spending with my daughters as a single mom.. I wear my fit bit everyday but it has become more of an accessory anymore than it serves its purpose. I need a pick me up I need to get motivated!! I need to loose the extra 13 pounds I put on while waiting for my diagnosis just to get back to the weight where my initial program started from.. Now that's pathetic!!!!

[shipo · Accepted solution]

Are there some outdoor games you can play with our daughters?  Anywhere you can set up a volleyball net and play 2-on-1?  How about bike riding with them?

[garybartlett · Accepted solution]

 @JJMom  You don't say whether or not you already  have a Fitbit product** so I will tell you what I did.  My goal was not to lose weight, it was to maintain some level of fitness during a chemo program for multiple myeloma.  There are a more than a dozen good, solid reasons why exercising during a chemo administration program is highly recommended (not the least of which is preventing blood clots caused from just sitting around).

First I bought a Fitbit Charge HR and decided to use it to support a walking program (my age is 72 and past the stage of exercises like running).  The Charge HR will provide lots of data that will show the user how they are making progress in an exercise program (e.g., how much sleep you are getting;  how your pulse rate decreases as your heart gets stronger; how much your walking distance and speed are increasing; etc).

Then I decided I would not try to do anything fancy like integrating the Charge HR with any other devices like smart phones (I don't own one anyway) because much repeated observation has satisfied  me that if one is going to experience problems with the Charge HR or any other wearable fitness device,  they will occur when one tries to connect too many sophisticated computer-based systems together using wireless technology like Bluetooth.  You can do all those things later if you want but what I am doing with this post is aimed at the beginner.

Then one downloads a program from Fitbit which puts a dashboard on your laptop that lets you see and do a million things you never thought of, not the least of which is being able to see and measure your exercise program process and thereby keep yourself motivated.

My exercise program is simply walking.  I started off with a short distance and every day added to it by, say, the distance between houses on our streets or even by the amount of spacing between telephone poles.  Every day I would download the data from the Tracker, a device that looks and wears like a watch but which can be linked to your laptop.  Then I would use the Fitbit dashboard, using data read by Fitbit and stored in their cloud, to generate the graphs and curves and tables that showed me, unequivocally, that my exercise plan was working and which motivated me to go do my exercise again tomorrow to see what the benefits were.

Now this is a very simplified version of how Fitbit tool and a little ambition can produce wonders.  There is plenty of help documentation around and there is a help forum where a lot of people will generously donate their smarts and their time to bring a newbie along.  I started exercising in May of 2015 and as of today I have accumulated nearly 1.3 million steps on my Charge HR, a lot of those steps taken when I didn't really feel like it or the weather was rainy or the temperate was -20 degrees C.  Why?  One, because I didn't want to fall behind;  two, because I remained convinced that exercise during a chemo program will improve the effectiveness of the medicine; three, because it improved my mental outlook on life;  and four; because I can out-perform most of my friends who are 15 years younger than me and who are not sick (a.k.a. pride).

So:  there's one guy's opinion about how to motivate oneself.

Regards,

Gary.

PS **  I just noticed that you do have a Fitbit but I have decided not to re-write this material since it may be of benefit to someone who hasn't got that far.

PPS  More of my story is written up here.  https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Share-Your-Story/Exercising-with-a-walker-look-ma-no-hands/m-p/11277...

[Mukluk4 · Accepted solution]

Drop the gym membership, it's not doing you any good at this point.

I would suggest getting active with your kids; bike riding, hiking, sports, etc.  I'm sure they want to be involved and share that time with you.  There should also be no guilt with taking an hour of your day for you time to get to a healthier lifestyle.  It will increase time with your children and grandchildren over all.

[USAF-Larry]

You have to make time for yourself, @JJMom, because nobody else is going to do it for you!  Sitting and eating comfort foods because you feel sorry for yourself will not do your health any good!  When I was released from the hospital after a serious bout with Deep Vein Thrombosis, the doctor told me to get up and get moving, and to never set for more than 45 minutes at a time - circulation of the blood was absolutely necessary, he said. That "get up and get moving" mantra has resulted in me now walking 4 or 5 miles a day, and I never felt better!   I make time every day to do something, to go somewhere, to get fit. I'm sure that you, too, have time during the day when your girls are at school, visiting friends, chatting on the Internet, etc., when you can get out and walk. If you are dedicating 2 hours a day to your daughters, as you say, that leaves you 12 to 14 hours a day that you can dedicate to yourself. Just do it!

[Ukase · Accepted solution]

So, you've lost your "why" - as in "why do I bother to even think about getting in shape?". 

You're not alone. At one point in time or another, pretty much everyone has found a reason to cheat or disregard their diets altogether, not go to the gym for one reason or another. 

It all comes down to this: 

What happens to YOU if you don't get off your duff and become active on a regular basis? 

I do not know anything about blood disorders; I have no idea what your energy level is when you're feeling great, let alone when you're feeling lethargic. 

But - you must find your own reason "why". Without it - you may as well grab the spoon and the nutella and pig out. It's over without some internal motivation. 

You could think: If I don't exercise, I'll die early - then where will my kids be? 

You could think: Why don't I take my girls to the gym with me? They need good habits, too! 

One thing is for sure, if you do not change your habit of eating and watching tv, you will get heavier. You will become less healthy. This is not maybe, you will become more lethargic, the more you sit and watch and eat. The longer you do this, the harder it will be to stop doing it, even if you really want to. 

Progress may be measured in small steps. I recommend you start by just thinking of where you will be in 10 years - and where will your daughters be in 3 years and 8 years? They may need you. If you're health diminishes, what impact will it have on them? 

Until you figure out your "why" - knowing how or what is meaningless. 

[SunsetRunner]

as others have said, why pay for gym membership if you don't go? just a waste of money

try jogging on the spot whilst cooking and watching tv

I find watching something on tv takes my mind off the jogging and then steps just add up

jogging on the road gets boring watching the same scenary all the time

[shipo]

---

@SunsetRunner wrote:

as others have said, why pay for gym membership if you don't go? just a waste of money

try jogging on the spot whilst cooking and watching tv

I find watching something on tv takes my mind off the jogging and then steps just add up

jogging on the road gets boring watching the same scenary all the time

---

I think you have that backwards; jogging while watching the boob tube is boring; running on roads or trails is anything but.

[SunsetRunner]

Don't be too hard on yourself. Things happen that disturb your routine, but it's temporary if you are a fitness minded person so don't worry too much. 

Have you tried the FitStar app/website. I think that is really useful for days when you can't make it to the gym and only have a little window to exercise. Round trip to the gym can take up a few hours but with FitStar you can do a quick 7 min, 15 min, 25 min workout so you can quite easily sneak a workout in most days if you want to. 

There are loads of different workouts on there for whatever you want to work on and it can link to your fitbit too so you will be tracking your progress. 

Give that a go and maybe that will get your momentum back to perhaps mixing it up between gym and home workouts depending on how much time you have. 

By the way the short cardio workouts are hard! 

Good luck with everything. 

[SunsetRunner]

depends if you are a tv/movie nut or not I suppose 😉

[Corney]

You don't need to spend 2 hours a day with exercise to accomplish your goal.  I spend 45 minutes a day doing aerobic exericise and another 15 to 20 minutes weight lifting to maintain my present weight, I'm 69 years old and a retired Physical Therapist.  I have my aerobic equipment in my basement along with my weights. I recommend 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least 4 days per week and light to moderate weight lifting at least 3 days per week, my weight lifting takes about 15 to 20 minutes.  Instead of donating money to a gym, take that money an invest in a piece of aerobic equipment you can use at home along with a set of weights, maybe you can interest your children to join you in an exercise regimen, it's never to early to get them interested in health and wellness!

[shipo]

I cheat when it comes to my aerobic and weight lifting equipment:

• Aerobic equipment: 4-pairs of running shoes per year.
• Weight lifting equipment: The horses leave plenty of that for me to clear out of their stalls every morning.  😛

[Corney]

It doesn't sound like you need assistance.  I ran 6-7 miles every year for over 25 years and feel it's the best most efficient form of aerobic exercise.  I really miss my daily runs but Plantar Fasciitis cut my running career short.  Now I alternate 45 minutes per day on an ellipital, rower and stationary bike, I do lift moderate weight 3 days per week.  If you are going through 4 pairs of shoes a year then you are certainly running up the miles, no pun intended.  Mucking out stalls sounds like a good substitute for weight lifting along with aerobic exercise.  Keep it up!

[shipo]

Thanks Corney.  After years of inactivity due to a badly broken leg and partially torn off foot combined with working some horrendous hours (80-100 per week), I changed jobs in 2013 and started running again in ernest.  In the past my attempts to run all ended in failure due to some the very things which sidelined you, and many others brought on by the asymmetry of my stride (the surgeon who screwed my leg back together said I'd walk with a limp for the rest of my life and never run again).  This time around I concentrated on running on a soft dirt trail for the first six months, and in that period I was able to not only shake off the effects of the broken leg and resulting asymmetry, but to avoid plantar fasciitis, shin splints, knee, hip, and ankle pain.  By the end of that six month period I was logging over 200 miles per month, and with the exception of a non running related injury last fall which sidelined me for several months, I haven't looked back.

I told you that to suggest this; if you ever feel tempted to start running again, find a nice dirt trail or a golf course (at night) or some other soft/slightly irregular surface to run on, and start slow, like a half-mile at a crack slow, and work up from there.

[Corney]

You must be amazing, normally most running injuries occur because of some fault in your running style: Hyperpronation, tight heel cords, leg length discrepancy, lack of flxibility in the Great toe extension.  What led me to stop running was my Left leg is longer than my Right leg causing my Left foot to hyperpronate, because the body wants to be symetrical.  So I ran toward traffic because the roads are crowned so my left leg was on the down side of the road along with a lift in my right shoe, next came orthotics and choosing running shoes with a strong heel counter to control rear foot stability.  All my remedies kept me running for over 25 years, but in the end my body told me it was time to quit.  being a Physical Therapist I knew if I kept running my next stop would be with an Orthopedic Surgeon, which is a visit I avoid like the plague.  Keep it up, you must be blessed!  For several years I ran on a golf course early in the morning and it did seem to lessen my problem, but I moved away so that option was no longer available to me.

[shipo]

If you ever make it up here to New Hampshire and want to dip your toe back into it, I'd be happy to show you some great places to run.  🙂

[Corney]

Thanks shipo, I might take you up on it