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2024 Off-Season Getting/Staying In Shape Motivation Thread

woodsdog2 said:
I’m in my mid fifties and am in better shape now than I was ten years ago both physically and spiritually. My wife and I started E2M a year and a half ago and started off again into the new year into our first round for this year. This program involves an exercise and eating program. Before that I was doing keto/carnivore. Every other day we do 5, five minute cardio /strength circuits. Off days are 45 minutes of cardio whatever you want.

Besides that I scout/hunt/trap/bike/do firewood as it’s our primary form of home heating. It also provides an excellent workout. I try to split all chunks in the 15 inch and less range with a maul if possible (not too knotty).
In my thirties I ran a lot(nothing formal or organized) and have always enjoyed biking but again, I’m not one to get into groups and all that too much. I’m also not a gym person.

Mental/Spiritual fitness I enjoy the challenges at work at the same time that I loath them. I do think they keep our mind somewhat limber. My faith is important to me and am involved in a great Men’s Bible study which involves reading and studying about not only books of the Bible but also Christian and non Christian books that involve faith. Currently we are studying CS Lewis’s “Mere Christianity” which was written based on radio interviews he did on the bbc after WWII. For those who struggle with faith or have doubts as we all sometimes do, I would say this is a great book to augment your biblical reading.

Oh yes, and I still try to do 100
pushups a day.
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My favorite book!
 
Starting to ease into Tempo Thursdays so I put two miles of goal marathon race pace (8:30) in the middle of my treadmill run today. Got it done/didn't feel too bad but whew I've got a ways to go if I want to do 26 of them in a row in October. Thankfully I've got quite a few weeks (and miles) to keep building between now and then.
 
Some good info here about fitness from a hunter perspective. However I always chuckle when people a decade or more younger than me complain about being old

 
Becoming a Supple Leopard, read it, live it, love it teach it reference it. At this point in life I’ve been working out longer than I haven’t been so it’s no longer a plan it’s just what will be done and September will be 10 years no alcohol. For the ones finding it hard to quit alcohol take it from a recovered opioid addict, the alcohol is worse for your body just doesn’t hit as fast or hard. Quitting alcohol was the single most beneficial thing I’ve cut out of my diet even more so than cigarettes and sugar is a far 2nd. As far as marathon, easy way to train pace is run 800’s if you want a 4h marathon the pace is roughly a 4 min 800, 2hr Mar is ~ 2 min 800 etc.. finding and maintaining consistent pace during a run is high in importance only bad thing is best way to get good at gauging it to run a lot lol
 
BTaylor said:
Before my wife told me what my new year's resolutions are, my plan was to disprove the saying you cant out work a bad diet. Cant never did a durned thing. But I have been instructed that my diet will improve so I guess we'll see. Looking at making the jump from doing crossfittish type workouts to actually going to crossfit. Still on the fence about that a bit mostly from the cost perspective but feel like it would be worth it for the extra community push to get better. Like @NMSbowhunter Feb. til turkey season will be a lot of scouting. Will also continue to work on archery and see if I can continue to improve my shooting with the longbow. Finally be more consistent with Scripture study and work on being a better me.
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Been proving for years you CAN outwork a bad diet not about what you eat it’s about the amount a calorie deficit is a calorie deficit.
 
tylerray378 said:
The cold plunge / ice bath thing is very intriguing. The last two days I’ve taken my normal shower and at the end made the water as cold as I can to still have water pressure. Then got under it for a timed 3 minutes. I swear that you will really notice the difference. It sucks, but it’s worth it. My joints do actually hurt less, single digit temps outside don’t seem as cold, and I’ve been a happier person too. Give it a shot!
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I got into the cold shower thing after trying the Win Hoff breathing method a few years back. I also hoped it would help inoculate me to cold weather some. Being in MS, we don't get much natural exposure to cold. I feel it did help me adjust to colder weather. I still do the breathing every morning as part of my wake-up routine. I've slacked on the cold showers, lol, but when I was doing them, it was good. Part of the cold shower thing is physiological. Part of it is psychological. You are doing something hard that you don't want to do and when you do it you get a sense of satisfaction about achieving a small but uncomfortable goal.
 
The_Fit_Ness_Monster said:
Been proving for years you CAN outwork a bad diet not about what you eat it’s about the amount a calorie deficit is a calorie deficit.
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I agree. The reason people have difficulty with it is it is very easy to have the discipline to eat anything you want and very hard to have the discipline to burn it off.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
I agree. The reason people have difficulty with it is it is very easy to have the discipline to eat anything you want and very hard to have the discipline to burn it off.
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Exactly, I can’t put a number on the amount of people I’ve trained, taught or guided through fitness #1 problem by far as Americans is overeating like even when I tell someone fix what you think is a small portion, it’s still way too much. And also the work side people are lazy it’s a conundrum I’ll never wrap my head around and it’s mostly why I don’t do anything as far as consulting or training fitness anymore, I was tired of explaining to people how to get out of their own way and shift their perspective of what hard actually is. I consider myself average and yet of all the people I know personally (including my 14 years of military) I’m by far the most in shape person I know. I’m 35 in an infantry unit and the stock of these kids that are willing to join the military is sad at best i can’t imagine the ones that aren’t.
 
Overeating is a huge problem. Part of it is what we have to eat. Cheap mass produced food is high fat, high sugar, high salt. Many people eat for pleasure and also when they are stressed or just as habit. American's don't have a problem with hard work but hard work for most people has changed in the past 50 years. Working hard today equates to spending many hours sitting at a desk staring at a monitor. It's difficult, stressful sedentary work. That is a lot of negatives rolled into one.

In college I ate anything I wanted but I spent 3 hours a day at the gym and was doing 2000 crunches a week. I was 160 pounds and 3% body fat.
 
The_Fit_Ness_Monster said:
Been proving for years you CAN outwork a bad diet not about what you eat it’s about the amount a calorie deficit is a calorie deficit.
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True but I like to eat and I like to eat not really healthy stuff. It's not so much about weight loss for me as it is just putting cleaner food in the tank for general health reasons. I worked out lighter than normal through this season due to the wife having an achilles injury. Not really an excuse but just sorta what happened. I am a whopping 5 pounds over my normal range. Not a big deal to knock that off. At 55 it's becoming more and more obvious that there is a direct correlation to how I feel and perform based on the quality of the fuel going in.
 
One thing I have done for years and helps a lot is drinking a big glass of cold water about 10 minutes before each meal. It does several things. One it helps fill you up. Two, your body has to burn calories to heat up the cold water to body temperature, and third, it helps keep you hydrated.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
One thing I have done for years and helps a lot is drinking a big glass of cold water about 10 minutes before each meal. It does several things. One it helps fill you up. Two, your body has to burn calories to heat up the cold water to body temperature, and third, it helps keep you hydrated.
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East way to just keep that going is just carry a gal around. Lol I know I know some people don’t want to be the guy walking around with a gallon. Stay hydrated stay motivated.
 
My body would not hold up to the excercise needed to burn the calories of a bad diet.
 
Cotehex said:
My body would not hold up to the excercise needed to burn the calories of a bad diet.
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If it was a 1 for 1 exchange, possibly not. What you would likely find is that as you slowly increased your overall fitness you would likely be more mindful of what you were eating and eat smaller quantities of better food. Starting from zero trying to burning off 100% of a bad diet would be nearly impossible but I bet as you went your diet would meet you halfway.
 
You want motivation, you wanna get emotional? Find my buddy Ryan A at overhaul_fitness on Insta and go back to his story about losing his wife, breaking an engagement, and turning his life around. He's serious and funny at the same time....and the part about finding motivation is great. Seeing what he did to transform in 75 days is flat out amazing.

Calorie deficit is my problem. I burn hot. Every morning I wake up hungry. It's something that I have to really concentrate on. But I'm ripped...lol.

I think I'm getting a coach. Its about being accountable. A buddy of mine is a brand rep for 1stphorm. He tried to get me enrolled in the archery challenge last year, but I was too late. I'm talking to him now about the outdoors pro staff. I'm thinking that with my age (soon to be 48) and my size, 5'7, 140ish (average or below)...., there may be a spot for the right motivating individual.
 
(by the way, I am impressed by the kick-ass workouts you guys are doing!)

Adding to my earlier post, I am alternating my run days with some "rucking" days. Usually it is four running days (~3 to 4 miles each day) a week, and two rucking days (4 to 5 miles carrying 45lbs in a ruck sack). This seems like a good formula for my 65 year old body. Can do it without ibuprofen!
 
NMSbowhunter said:
If it was a 1 for 1 exchange, possibly not. What you would likely find is that as you slowly increased your overall fitness you would likely be more mindful of what you were eating and eat smaller quantities of better food. Starting from zero trying to burning off 100% of a bad diet would be nearly impossible but I bet as you went your diet would meet you halfway.
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I'm probably sounding like a novice with my post. I've been exercising and eating healthy for 20 years. The older I've gotten the more strict I have to be with my diet because to maintain my current weight I take in about 1200 - 1500 hundred calories a day. If I exceeded calorie intake by much my body would not hold up to the amount of excercise I'd have to do to maintain that diet. I keep it going because I like hunting and an active lifestyle more that food.
 
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