What do you do to stay fit after DC

[Unsureaboutitall]

I just need some motivation really. I need to lose 1.5 stone and always loved my food. I am not interested in weight loss jabs but rather in lifestyle changes as I have done it before and I know I can do it again. My main issues are laziness paired with a desk job so definitely need to be more active. I do one dance class a week which I love but have ditched the gym membership months agodue to budget and logistics. Could definitwly workout at home for example but I don’t.
So I am interested to hear how others make it work. If you are in you late 30s and 40s and have work and DC, what are the things you do to stay fit and slim (that isn’t mounjaro) and do you use anything to help you stay on track like apps or smartwatches etc?

I’ve never really desired to lose weight (I am overweight), but best thing I did was giving up alcohol (I lost a stone by doing nothing else - I also ate a lot of cheesecake at the time!) and regular exercise. I personally did a lot of hiking. I had a desk job at the time, but also a lot of flexibility. And I had time outside of work hours (evenings and weekends). I’d leave Dh to sort the kids and go do a 6 mile hill walk on a Saturday morning when they were all mostly still in bed. I do eat lots of fruit, veg, protein but never dieted. I lost about 17kg that way.

I don't like alcohol so my issue is really lack of activity + loving food a bit too much.
My job offers little flexibility and I already make the most of that for drop off and pick ups (DH doesn't have a flexible job) so I cannot go on long walks at lunch for example. I don't have hills nearby, it's just a residential area in London so could go for more walks but nothing particularly challenging. I assume you only did the evening walks in the spring/summer months? I think I just need to find the right motivation to fit more physical activity into my schedule as and when but currently struggle a bit with that. I used to be a regular gym goer and in decent shape pre DC!

Do you work 5 days? What does your average weekday look like schedule wise?
How old are your kids?
Just trying to visualise how you could fit workouts in, with or without kids!

Diet is far far more important than exercise obviously. Lifestyle change ideas:

• since you love your food, can you throw yourself into trying lots of new low calorie but delicious recipes for dinners?
• cook the same meals you currently eat, but steam a big pile of veg too. Family members can choose how much veg they eat, but you eat half veg and half of the main part of the dinner.
• tackle your breakfast and lunch on weekdays and aim to make them nutritious and filling but lower calorie. These meals are easier to control as presumably you can eat totally different food to your family.
• be slightly more relaxed at weekends so you don't feel restricted long term, but don't ever "blow out".
• - completely eliminate snacking on weekdays. Your body needs a few hours without food between meals to be healthy.

I lost 10kg in the past year by simply moving more and eating less. Still eat lovely nutritious tasty food just no junk. I do PT and hyrox classes 3x a week. That’s what made the difference for me

So I'm late 30's, 2 DC (DS8 and DD4), work 30 hours a week (every day for 6 hours). Do most school drop off and pick ups. Trying to balance my exercise needs with a DH who goes to Crossfit several times a week and alot of kids activities. Currently need to lose about 20kg to get back into healthy BMI. Its a working progress!

Things that I do are:

1. Calorie counting using Nutra check. Don't rely on the app to tell you the calories. Do some research into what you need to lose weight against maintain. Look at BMR and your output. Nutracheck gave me 1400 calories but really I need about 1600 to actually lose weight. Seems backwards but its working so who knows.

2. Attend classes you actually like 3-4 times a week. I stick to going to classes alot more by going to things I like - Clubbercise and Body Combat. I have sacked off the gym as I find it dull and never went.

3. Make smart swaps rather than eliminating things you like. E.g. choc covered fruit over a creme egg is my current go to for a sweet fix. Less carb element on your plate and more veg. Using low or no fat options than full fat option.

4. Prep where you can. I try to pre lunches for the week at the weekend and any dinners that can be pre prepped and cooked. Its helps with the lack of time in the week.

As a PP has said, its diet not exercise that makes the biggest difference. But exercise is also important. Try not to change everything in one go. I found it makes it harder to stick to. One change at a time is easier to follow.

All that said, it is a constant battle every week. There are ups and downs. I've been trying for a while and although my weight hasnt moved much, my measurements are going down so I'm taking that as a win for now.

I’m not fit currently but I can tell you what made me put on weight. Snacking in the evening. So I know i’ll lose weight if I stop doing it.

Yes, I work 5 days a week. 2 days at home and 3 days in the office, more or less.

Days I am home:

Wake up, get DC ready for school, walk to school, back home, quick breakfast and a coffee and start working. I sometimes go on a 30 min walk at lunchtime. Then 5pm get out to pick up DC and back home again. Once a week I go to a dance class and walk about 25 mins each way to get there as well.

Days I am in the office:
Walk to the station (deliberately choose to catch my train from a station that is a bit more far so I can walk for about 30 mins to get there), take the train and get into office.
Leave office, take train and walk to DC school which is about 20 mins away from the station. Then back home, DC, dinner, evening routine, reconnect to finish work.

I used to have a gym membership but I gave that up as I have started taking these dance classes which I adore but are quite pricey and I couldn't justify continuing to pay for a gym too as I barely had time to attend the exercise classes (as the ones I liked the most were usually at times I couldn't make due to work or DC). I could definitely squeeze in at least a couple of 20-30 min home workouts every week, I know. I just find it hard to find the right motivation when it's just me and the tv.

Re food, I go through ups and downs and I can definitely see my waistline shrinking after a few weeks of kcal tracking and mindful eating etc. Issue is that I find it hard to go back to being good after a few weeks of eating loads, typically after a holiday or Xmas for example so I often find myself losing a few kg and then back to square 1.

Re falling off the calorie counting wagon I understand that completely! I didn't suggest calorie counting because you asked for lifestyle changes which you can maintain. Calorie counting is very useful in the short term, especially if you have a skewed idea of what things contain, but it's not manageable long-term with a busy life. I guess if you are the kind of person who eats a couple of different breakfasts on rotation, and similar lunches every day, that it would be a good idea to calorie count them once so you know the ballpark calories and can check your whole day is not likely to be too much (once you guesstimate dinner).

Re exercise it looks like there are some good opportunities to improve fitness. Identify the walks where you don't have to look good after (the 30min walk when you're WFH and the walk after work for the school run?) and increase the effort. Run? Power walk? Add ankle weights? Make sure you push yourself so it's strenuous and you puff a bit. You'll cover more ground if you go faster, so you can do a detour in the same time slot. You'll burn a few more calories and increase your fitness.