Tell me how you turned your health around!

[HeyDougie]

I’m at an all time low about my health and appearance. I’m 64 and about four stones overweight. It’s just accumulated over the past 15 years if I’m honest and it makes me utterly miserable. I hate the way I look and it makes me avoid doing a lot of things as a result. I lost two stones fifteen years ago and was a size ten, but I cannot motivate myself this time. I’ve had enormous amounts of stress in my life and feel like I’ve been fire fighting for a long time.

I am pre diabetic and have high cholesterol. I am afraid for my health. I lack energy and drive and feel exhausted a lot of the time. In general my life isn’t the way I would want it to be but until I get my weight and health back under control I can’t see the rest of my life improving.

I need some encouragement and motivation. Tell me how you turned your life around and what helped you do it. I lost about ten pounds around Xmas due to a virus but it’s all come back in due to various reasons and I’m so annoyed with my myself. My self esteem is rock bottom. I walk several times a week but it’s just not enough. I have back issues so swimming and weightlifting are out .

The cauliflower Rosti’s sound nice @Crikeyalmighty. Do you make those yourself or buy them?

I'm not hot on motivation at the moment, and definitely couild do with losing (luckily only) a few pounds, but things that really worked for me in the past, and I'm trying to remind myself of now, is the privilege of being generally healthy, able, fortunate enough to be able to afford to exercise in different ways etc.

It's quite Polyannaish, but it actually came from when I was doing Peloton (I had a free trial on the app during Covid, we already had a bog standard spin bike at home which I used with my Ipad), and one of the instructors said how lucky they felt to be able to teach the class etc. It was quite a mind changer on exercise - instead of thinking 'ugh, must do some exercise, this is hard, I hate it', I started thinking, 'I'm choosing to do this, I'm so lucky that I can, my body is amazing, etc'.

I'd really advise a PT, it keeps you accountable, they'll always push you harder than you would push yourself, but in a safe way (and it's really motivating to be pushed to do something you don't think you're capable of), and they'll create a plan to meet your aspirations.

'Normally' though, in a perfect week I do 2 boot camp sessions a week, at least 1 yoga class, see my PT fortnightly, and try to walk with friends at the weekend, so I'm fairly active. My job is pretty demanding, and I don't manage to get away from my desk as much as I'd like (I used to be able to fit in walks at lunchtime or before work, but they've become much harder to fit in). I finds having sessions scheduled makes me MUCH more likely to turn up, plus I tend to go with friendsw, which is another good motivator.

I think anyone looking for motivation - which relies on willpower - is going to come unstuck.

Habit, routine and consistency are much more helpful.

None of us need to motivate ourselves to brush our teeth twice a day - we do it because it needs doing and it's our routine.

Most of us don't need to motivate ourselves to walk the dog - we do it every day because it needs doing and it's our routine.

What those habits are will look different for everyone. If the OP wants to focus on exercise, she needs to resign to doing aquafit every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6pm (or whatever) and take the attitude that she would if it were a job (ie, I go on those 3 days no matter what, because it needs doing and that's my routine).

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@KPPlumbing I’m certainly with you on the habit, routine and consistency . That’s what has worked for me this time- I’ve never been consistent enough before for months and months on end - I have also eaten quite boringly this time, a lot of repetition but again it has worked .

I don't think motivation depends on willpower. I think it's the opposite, isn't it? You're more likely to make yourself do something that you want to do. I have to go to the gym at 7am, and I don't want to get up at 6am but I do want to experience the post-exercise high. So the thing that motivates me is also the thing that gets me out of bed three times a week.

@KPPlumbing I'm with you on consistency and commitment, but I think what helped me to build consistency was motivation rather than willpower, which I would see more as forcing myself to do something deeply unwelcome.

There's a good podcast by the Van Tulleken twins with Kimberly Wilson on willpower that is really interesting and which I found very helpful and (sorry) motivating!

You need to change your diet. You will not lose weight through exercise alone (although that comes with it's own benefits obviously).

Make sure you are in a true calorie deficit - many people think they are but they are nowhere near because they don't factor in things like oil, or mayo for instance which adds a huge amount of calories. You might think you are eating healthily but if you want to lose weight, you need to reduce calories.

As we get old we need less - for example, I am 46 and my calories to maintain weight is no more than 1550 a day. (That excludes any exercise, I don't eat my exercise calories, if I did, it would be nearer 1750 but people grossly overestimate how many calories they are burning).

I listened to a Mel Robbins podcast with Dr Syms recently. It's totally transformed my approach to fitness and nutrition.

Now, I have a protein-based breakfast within 30 minutes of waking. This is a major change for me after months of intermittent fasting.

She (Dr Syms) explains why intermittent fasting is not the best approach for women in terms of strength and long-term fitness.

It's really worth a listen.

Calorie counted to lose weight
Joined the gym to do aqua fit, low impact aerobics and have now progressed to Zumba and line dancing too plus a high impact aqua.
High cholesterol so eventually went onto statins
Low dose estriol cream which improved vaginal atrophy soreness and improved my irritable bladder
Gave up alcohol completely
Gave up eating meat other than chicken

All of the above improved my life, made me feel better physically and helped my self esteem. I have increased the activities that I enjoy and life feels much better. It was baby steps and I would say that having excellent support from my local surgery who always listened to me and sent me for the whole works, and blood tests to rule out just about everything after I was struggling post Covid infection last October.

Best wishes to you x

What I did when at 50 I was getting a bit flabby, depressed, low in energy, chronic fatigue and achy all the time and feel v. v. old and stressed.

Reduced alcohol
Went full carnivore (as in only meat and full fat dairy)
Fast for 24 hours once a week, and try to eat once a day only, but defo between 12-5
Went swimming 3 times a week. I cant afford that anymore so now I do 100 kettlebell swings a day (I have a frozen shoulder so both of these help otherwise it seizes).
Reduce stress (I have developed a stronger 'fuck you' attitude which has helped me enormously).
Started taking folic acid and electrolytes daily.

Worked for me - Im fitter, thinner, less stressed, have more energy, I hurt less. Im not perfect and not as strong as id like but im a hell of a lot better.

Oh and I listened to Mel Robbins Let them theory on audible. Game changer.

Stopped drinking my calories , only water , tea and americano coffee with skimmed milk, no diet drinks no lattes or syrup or full fat milk . And couch to five K.

I tried the protein breakfast before exercise but it didn't work for me. Felt I would be sick on my morning walk/while doing weights. I can't exercise after food. It just keeps coming back up.

But I thought her rationale was very convincing.