Get Fit Slowly

21 responses so far ↓

• 1 Chris // Dec 8, 2007 at 1:44 pm

  Although I am not yet fat, I’ve been putting on the pounds over the last year and a half (since I got married…) Probably only about 15 total, but I went from around 160 to 175 pretty quick. I read your post yesterday and thought I really should get out there too and just get started getting back into shape. But you know… I’ve been saying the same thing every day. I’ve been putting off that first day of exercising for a few months now… I’ll go out for some exercise in the snow this afternoon - That way I start out showing some real dedication!

• 2 Dave // Dec 8, 2007 at 2:23 pm

  Every other day, alternate aerobic and strength training exercises, such as walking one day, then doing stuff like chin-ups, push-ups, dips, and crunches the next day. This is what I do, and the results have been great. If the weather is too bad to walk outside, you can jog in place on a small trampoline at home. I bought a chin-up station that I keep in my garage for my strength-training days, but you can do many weight lifting exercises just using your own body and the floor without any equipment at all. See the book Ultimate Fit or Fat by Covert Bailey for an entire chapter devoted to these types of no-equipment-needed weight-lifting exercises. Lastly, oranges are one of the Superfoods! Go, J.D.!

• 3 Leslie // Dec 9, 2007 at 5:34 am

  last year I decided that my weight had gotten out of control. I had allowed two pregnancies to balloon up my weight and I was still eating like I was pregnant despite my youngest child being 9 months old. It was early November and I knew I needed to start right then or the holidays were just going to add another 5 lbs that I didn’t need.

  I chose to do weight watchers but that was really just the tool to make me commit.

  I lost 40 lbs. between the first week in November and the end of April. I have gained 5 of that back but my weight is now stable and I feel realistic for me to stay at for the long term.

  All that is that I agree with starting your weight loss program NOW as opposed to waiting. There will always be some reason to wait (holidays, birthdays, vacations etc.). Those sorts of events happen everyday all year. No point in waiting because you need to learn to deal with them and not treat them as “special events” that derail you.

  I wish you the best of luck and look forward to reading about your journey. I know everyone says this but, seriously, if I can lose the weight than anyone can…

  Good Luck.

• 4 Dave Child // Dec 9, 2007 at 6:43 am

  It’s all too easy to spend time planning and procrastinating and not actually get on with doing something. Well done for getting started!

  I’ll be watching your progress with some interest - I’m also trying to improve my lifestyle and shed some pounds, and blogging about it. It’s a slow process (much like sorting our finances), but after a year (first step for me was stopping smoking in October 2006) I’m feeling much better (even though my weight’s not changed) - can’t wait to see what’s different in another year!

• 5 FinanceAndFat // Dec 9, 2007 at 9:11 am

  Hey J.D. I’m glad you found some of those comments helpful. Of course you know I said that only to be helpful, not to be snippy or antagonistic.

  I go through the exact same problem all of the time and thankfully I have taken my own advice and I’ve stuck with it, losing about 14 pounds so far. I started slowly, just walking a few times a week and that has gradually increased.

  There is no doubt this is a tough time of year to lose weight, but you know you will always feel better about your life if you can look back and say you started something rather than putting it off (if even for a short while).

  Good luck!

• 6 steven // Dec 9, 2007 at 9:42 am

  Get Rich Slowly has been a great blog to visit this past year, and I’m doubly interested to see how Get Fit Slowly comes along.

  Just remember, its about maintaining or losing weight over a long period of time. Start off simple and small, nothing overwhelming. You can’t lose it all at once, just like you can’t save $10k or pay off debt all at once.

  Start off by challenging yourself to do something like 10 situps or pushups or walking every day. Nothing drastic, takes less than a couple minute. Over time you can increase. Also, start substituting fruits for sweets, once every few days or so, then ramp it up to once a day over time.

  Good luck!

• 7 Brooke // Dec 9, 2007 at 10:45 am

  Hi JD,
  Congrats to you for starting on your Health Adventure!
  Last year on New Years Day I was at a friend’s house. We watched the entire season of The Biggest Loser (every episode was on TV in a row). I’m not a TV watcher at all but I was stuck to the TV that day. I found it so, so inspiring. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the show, but it’s amazing how much progress the participants made just because they focus on making changes for their health. The man who eventually “won” (although every one of the participants is a winner in my opinion) started out weighing 400 pounds, and ended up downright HOT. What really stuck with me was, at the beginning of the season, the trainer told him “I’m saving your life.” People don’t realize how staying in shape and taking care of their bodies can add years to their lives. Not taking care of our bodies can erase them.
  I too will be a faithful reader of your new blog. I need all the motivation I can get! And it is so much easier to be motivated with other people working on the same goals.
  Thanks,
  Brooke

• 8 SmarterFitter Blog » Blog Archive » Best tip of the year: “Start Now” // Dec 9, 2007 at 11:17 am

  [...] This is the stuff I’m talking about! [...]

• 9 rhbee // Dec 9, 2007 at 11:52 am

  Hi J.D.,

  I saw your post today at GRS and thought I should come over here to see what you were working on. As you have observed often, eating and spending are two peas in a pod - subject to our emotional state and usually more sub than conscious activities. With that in mind, I am sending along this link to my own plan - http://financeisfun.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/drink-up-the-diet-plan/ - with the hope that something in it strikes a cord. I have been developing this Drink Up Plan now for about three months. Results so far, 25 lbs lost, my older pants are all fitting fine, those shirts I love and never thought I’d wear again are out of mothballs, and finally for me the best thing of all, the sex is great.

• 10 Paula // Dec 9, 2007 at 1:44 pm

  JD, I know you’ll succeed.

  Fat habits really ARE just like spending habits. Two easy tips:

  1) Find exercise you don’t hate and do it at least six days a week for half-hour a day.

  2) Never eat mindlessly or without enjoyment.

  No better time than the holidays to get started, either. If you can toughen up then, you can do anything.

• 11 m // Dec 9, 2007 at 2:06 pm

  Actually, I disagree that it’s not much. It’s great, and it’s a lot. Do that every day and (depending on how much you were walking before, I don’t know the details), you’ll be walking up to 14 miles more a week than you were previously. That’s a big improvement right?

  I know numerous people who were not too phys. active who began dog walking just a few times a day (not long walks either) and in a matter of weeks each one of them had lost enough weight that it was noticeable.

  Of course ideally you’ll graduate to other exercise as well, but walking is great, especially if you speed it up, but even what you did is two miles of moving your body and that isn’t not much, it’s a lot.

  I think that’s how you succeed, make sure even what fees like little steps are acknowledged and valued.

  (p.s. is there a way to add a “preview” feature to your blogs’ comments? )

• 12 monica // Dec 9, 2007 at 2:27 pm

  Congrats, JD. As you can tell from all the comments, you’ve got tons of support. Getting started is the hardest part. My advice? Try not to see your fitness as “exercise”. But it sounds like you know this already - I love that you called your walk a “stroll”. I love walking, too - it’s such a great way to relax (especially with a good podcast - I recommend “This American Life” - it lasts an hour and keeps me strolling the whole time). The calorie burning is just a bonus.

  Thanks for this blog - I’ve been reading your updates with great anticipation. It’s a source of inspiration!

• 13 TosaJen // Dec 9, 2007 at 3:30 pm

  Anything’s always better than nothing, so good job on the start. Walking is terrific exercise, and you can add in other forms of exercise when the weather, money, and your mood cooperate. (For example, I’m back to cross-country skiing because it’s snowed 4x this week. It’s a nice change from running on the dreadmill.)

• 14 Andre // Dec 9, 2007 at 4:45 pm

  Didn’t Woody Allen say something about showing up being 80 or 90% of the work? Anyhoo, just like the money challenge that we all face, the physical fitness aspect has to be tackled one day at a time! Way to go for adding another source of inspiration for us JD

• 15 rhbee // Dec 9, 2007 at 8:15 pm

  Something to consider, if you do end up working at home, is that a change of venue can be handled actively. When I first started on home work, I spent about a month playing, reading, writing some, but not really going anywhere. It wasn’t until I figured out that I was now my own boss that I realized that meant I had to set up a work day for myself. Clock in, work, take a regular break, clock out for lunch, you get the picture. Of course, I had the power to set all this up on a flex schedule so that made it more fun but still the idea was to be productive. Planning for exercise helped too. Walk to the library. If I have errands, I stack them and then when I go I might have to drive there but once I park it’s back to walking. I also have two bikes. One with a banana seat and high rise handle bars - it’s just for cruising places. And a 21 speed Raleigh, that I ride on day trips up the coast or inland to the mountains. Oh yeah, I also try to go swing dancing at least once a week. But it’s the work schedule, now that I have one, that keeps me fit.

• 16 Adam // Dec 9, 2007 at 10:28 pm

  Hi JD-

  thanks for the interesting site. One site and plan that I’ve taken some good stuff from is called “The Hackers Diet”. This plan was devised by John Walker, founder of Autodesk. He uses stock-market and engineering principles in his approach to dieting, which I think would appeal to you.

  http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/

  Cheers!
  Adam

• 17 elisabeth // Dec 10, 2007 at 9:48 am

  Hi. The good news for you is that men tend to lose weight more rapidly than women, so I bet you’ll begin to see some results soon!
  At the same time, I hope that all of your practice on getting rich slowly will carry over and you won’t get impatient–it will take time to see results, especially ifyou want them to be lasting results.
  Finally, I hope you have or will see your doctor soon for a general check-up to be sure that your weight gain isn’t related to something else (if you were older and female, for example, you’d want to have your thyroid checked) and to get whatever advice your doctor may have that’s specific to you right now. If your general practitioner or internist seems clueless, a talk with a sports doctor might be useful… and maybe a nutritionist…

• 18 Lucas // Dec 10, 2007 at 11:05 am

  Congrats on getting started! That’s the biggest obstacle to overcome. I have a roommate who’s been saying that he wants to lose some weight for years, but every time I invite him to go to the gym with me, he says he’s too tired or he’s really interested in what’s on TV or he doesn’t want to get all sweaty before meeting friends for dinner in two hours. You’ve already gotten farther than he’ll ever get simply because you’re willing to make exercise a priority in your life. Kudos for that!

  One unsolicited piece of advice: don’t judge your progress by the scale alone. Weight is actually a pretty inaccurate measure of fitness or health. (Don’t get me started on that ridiculous BMI chart.) I’d encourage you to pay more attention to bodyfat percentage and subjective measures such as how you feel, your energy level throughout the day, how tired daily tasks make you, how your clothes fit, and the shape of your body. You’ll probably need to track your weight, if for no other reason than to post the information on this blog, but these other measures will more accurately reflect how “fit” you are.

• 19 BabyPop // Dec 10, 2007 at 11:23 am

  Hi there! I read your Get Rich Slowly blog and found this one after visiting recently. You provide everyone with such a valuable resource, and I want to return the favor in a tiny way.

  For the last year, I have been a member of the Web site SparkPeople.com. It’s 100% free and a valuable resource for those wishing to lose weight. It emphasizes, as you do, a gradual and sensible approach, not dieting, quick fixes, etc.

  The site has recipes, meal plans, message boards, quizzes, articles, “team” support groups for those with unique needs/interests (such as for parents, for people in their 20s, those with specific health problems, etc0.)

  With the help of the site, I have lost 40 lbs. in the last year (would’ve been more than that, but I got myself off track in July and am just now getting back on.)

  I highly recommend it and hope you and your readers will check it out.

  Best of luck to you!

• 20 BabyPop // Dec 10, 2007 at 11:26 am

  Oh, also, I’d like to add two more things:

  1) When trying to lose weight, planning is key. Otherwise, you overeat, make excuses not to work out, etc.

  2) I found that managing my weight, eating habits, and fitness better has helped me manage my money better as well!

• 21 MBC // Dec 10, 2007 at 1:42 pm

  Great job. Way to really start.

  I started on the Hacker’s Diet in early October, but derailed around Thanksgiving when I visited my sister in college. We ate out for every meal (no real choice there — we couldn’t cook) and I totally blew it when it came to making good food choices. I’m going to give the Hacker’s Diet another honest chance right this minute — I lost about 12 lbs in just a couple of weeks the first time when I was diligent.

  Once again, great job. Keep it up.

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