What's something you wish you started doing sooner/knew earlier in your fitness journey?

colwyn

New member
I still regret not eating better during my early fitness days. I started a year ago, and I haven't seen a lot of progress until I started watching my food intake.

I was also doing a lot of cardio at the beginning of each workout, which usually was leaving me p*oped, and my actual workout was at a 50% all the time. Now, I do a 15-20 minute cardio session a few days a week, but at the end of my workout.

I'm still trying to be better each day, and have a better understanding of the process, so I hope this post will not only help me, but everyone else who still hasn't got it down to a T!
 
@colwyn That 1200 was really really really not plenty. Lost my period the first month in and I still haven't got it back after almost a year and being in mantainence for about half of that.
 
@colwyn How psychological it can be. In March 2020 I started running again after years of inactivity. I started slow with walk-run intervals, and I stuck with it for ~9 months. I was really frustrated with my lack of progress because I felt like I shouldn't have needed the walking breaks at that point, but I was still convinced that I did. Then in January of this year, I decided "I'm just going to run as far as I can without stopping." That day I ran 2 miles with no breaks. Less than two months later, I ran 6. The whole time I had been telling myself that I couldn't do something without ever even trying, because I was too afraid of trying and failing.
 
@colwyn Protein guilt. I don’t worry so much about protein unless I’m trying to lose weight and spare muscle. Trying to meet the inaccurate guidelines for protein made me gain size and weight that I didn’t want. I focus on healthy carbs for getting vitamins and nutrients, keep fat lower, and let the protein chips fall where they may (it’s always plenty). I have a more sleek, lean look new and haven’t lost any strength.
 
@colwyn #1 is nutrition!

I started getting fit to drop weight/improve overall health and I focused too much on calories in/out with no other knowledge about food/dieting/nutrition and was unintentionally starving myself.

I spent a 4 years cycling 6,000 miles a year and underfueling daily. I lost my period (and have not gotten it back... been working on this for over a year), and gained very little fitness over this time. A year ago, I started structured cycling training and was really struggling to improve.

With no intention to, I lost almost 10 pounds between September and January. I freaked out, got a DEXA scan, and took 2 weeks off from exercise. During this time, my husband started calorie counting to skim off a little extra weight. He was very careful to get enough protein and keep his deficits minimal and it was really helpful to reframe my eating habits. I had been closet calorie counting for 4 years because I was embarrassed and afraid people would think I have eating issues. Once my SO started counting and weighing his food out, I started to feel like I could let my secret out and found out that I was sorely misjudging my portions and undereating when I thought was fueling properly.

When I returned, I was determined to properly fuel the work (eat before and during exercise), to meet my daily needs, and eat very soon after exercising. It's been such a huge difference! I'm finally getting stronger and my mood has improved so much.
 
@colwyn Working out and lifting doesn't have to take place in a gym. Which sounds dumb but I'm a heavy lifting only kind of exerciser. I rarely do cardio unless it's part of another workout, I don't run, etc. When quarantine hit, I spent it not doing anything because I knew there was no way I'd be able to manage to stay focused for a whole 45 minutes or so any kind of decent strength training in my living room (I have adhd so focus/mindset are a huge thing for me). Well naturally I lost so much muscle I feel like crap even going to the gym because I know I can't touch the weights I was doing a year ago.

Now? I work from home and I've started supplementing going back to the gym with home workouts by doing one set of some kind of lift of a 40lb bag of solar salt in between tasks at work, all day long. I end up getting from 15-25 sets of lifting in throughout the day. It's a way better option than trying to force myself to stay focused through one whole workout, and miles better than not doing anything at all
 
@colwyn I wish I'd gone plant-based sooner. I used to stuff myself with animal products because I didn't realize you could overdose on too much protein and actually mess up your ability to gain muscle by doing so. I also didn't realize how sensitive I was to those foods till I gave them up for what I assumed would be a short time. Turns out I run 100% better on plants than I ever did on an omnivorous diet, I finally dropped enough weight that my thighs don't chafe together when I walk, and gained enough muscle (especially visible in my arms) that other people have either asked me for advise about what vegan foods I'd recommend so they can start changing their diets, or asked to be my workout partner.

Dealing with my weight and health always felt like an uphill battle, now I can go a week or so being lazy about my diet and routine, but so long as I'm only eating plant-based foods, I don't seem to immediately backslide like I seemed to constantly even when I thought I was being healthy with meats, dairy, and eggs. It basically feels like I can do less work and see more gain, but now I actually have more energy, so I often can put in 30-60 minutes of work then still feel energetic afterwards. Not something I could even imagine before I made the change when my energy was constantly low :p
 
@colwyn Honestly I eat a lot of the same stuff I used to, you can make chili, spaghetti, or shepard-less pie by using TVP, vegan meat, lentils or beans. Instead of beef bullion you can use high-umami foods like soy sauce, not-beef bullion, or even marmite if you're not gluten-free.

We eat loads of curries, stir fries, and other ethnic foods. Instead of chicken and other meats, we often use proteins like tofu, tempeh, tofu skins/bean curd, but boiled edamame and other beans work great too.

Rice is a pretty standard vegan carb, but since I'm on gluten-free diet for medical reasons I gotta really work hard to squeeze in my potassium, so my carbs of choice are anything high in protein and or potassium. Lots of potatoes, taro, cassava, yucca, beets, and other roots. There's also fruits like bananas, raisins, and anything from the gourd/squash family. Bean or whole grains like quinoa, millet, sorghum, and teff are also highly worth fitting into your diet. For pasta I highly recommend checking out soy/chickpea/lentil/quinoa/bean-based pastas. If your local grocery has a gluten-free and/or health section, you might be able to find them there.

You can get really creative and make stuff like legume-based pasta with soy milk or silken tofu blended up to make a high-protein Alfredo or "cheese" sauce with options like vegan meatballs, chick'n, green beans, peas, or even vegan shrimp to top it all off.

For a really low effort lunch (other than left overs) I prep things like pasta salad or quinoa salad. Or I microwave a potato and eat it with the vegan tuna shown in the link above. Just throw in some veggies like lettuce or anything that might be lying around your fridge, then add some spicy mustard, nutritional yeast, and maybe a handful of raisins. My housemate got me into adding sriracha too!

For breakfasts, snacks, or desert, I like to make protein shakes, or porridge out of things like whole grains or mung beans, then I load each serving up with a variety of fruit, nuts, seeds (chia is especially great because it's so high in omega fatty acids!), and even spices like garam marsala, cinnamon, or cardamom.

If you like baking, basically all dairy can be easily replaced with plant milks, butter with margarine or vegan stick butter, and eggs can be made from store bought powders or at home with chia or flax meal (which gives your recipes a nice bump of nutrition).

If you are worried about nutrition, I strongly recommend cronomter, and not worrying about getting 100% of everything every day (if you eat right you'll be getting 200-300% of many nutrients most days) except B12, which you should try to get 100% of or more each day, since it flushes from the body very quickly. You can find it in marmite, most vegan milks, nutritional yeast, many fortified cereals, energy drinks, and other fortified foods, but if all else fails you can also get it in multivitamins or often in iron pills. For the other nutrients, I focus more on making sure I get to 100+% of all my nutrients each week buy checking "Trends" then "Nutrition Report". That way the days I get 300% of my iron or calcium tend to even out with the days where I only get 67% of said nutrient.

If you're just starting out, I'd focus on one shopping trip at a time, one meal at a time and work up from there. Think about what vegan foods you might already love like PB&J sandwiches, or ones that can be easily adjusted like orange chicken with tofu instead of meat, and maybe start a recipe collection to help you find the ones you know you definitely like. Use apps like Happy Cow to find new restaurants or markets, the foods at these places often inspire me to make similar or better things at home. Some great places for recipes include https://www.forksoverknives.com/ which focuses on healthy recipes, while minimalist baker isn't fully vegan, but has loads of pretty easy, very delicious meals. These sausages and these spring rolls being among my favorite recipes :)
 
@colwyn 20 minutes of cardio (10 before lifting 10 after) is my perfect amount where it’s discipline and enjoyable. Any more and it becomes a drag and I hate it. Do what you like
 
@colwyn If you’re just starting out running, go for time spent running and/or mileage and not speed! I used to tire out so quickly before I realized if I went slower, I could go longer, and eventually got faster!
 
@colwyn I wish I squatted and deadlifted twice a week or at least at all during the first two years even if they sucked. I never really understood what real progress was until I did
 
@colwyn Cutting out / really limiting alcohol. I spent years eating fairly healthy and working out daily/almost daily just to watch the weight slowly creep up despite that. It was so infuriating. When I cut out those evening beers and weekend hangouts with friends that always involved copious amounts of junk food and drinks, the weight comes off effortlessly even when I'm not being strict with my diet.

And really committing to drinking more water, but that's something I still kinda suck at tbh.
 
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