Mid-forties are a decision point. It's when you decide to either get healthy, and stay healthy the rest of your life, or... you don't.
Your body starts falling apart faster if you don't maintain it. Unlike the years before, the health losses are forever.
Fair warning.
Starting to lift was the best decision I ever made at 40
Same but cycling. Stumbling into a workout that I look forward to was game changing.
That is me with running. I feel like I could do a zone two run forever. Just such a refreshing activity.
I ran. It took me a while, but I started to enjoy it. Then my achilles tendon and knee started to hurt and I stopped for a short while until it would get better.
That was over a year ago and I still can't walk properly when getting out of bed. Friend said I need to lose weight to be able to run again. Well, yeah, how the fuck is that supposed to happen then?
Gotta work on that diet. Best way to lose weight.
Unless you're already eating the perfect diet, then I have no idea. I suppose it would be time for a doctor at that point.
I would argue it's the only way. Can't outrun the fork.
Seriously! I have the best physique I've ever had and look five years younger. It costs me three hours a week and a little effort.
Care to share your workout regime?
I have a real problem of keeping it up for more than 2 weeks...
3 hours a week sounds manageable though
Not who you asked but I think the absolute best bang for your buck would be a simple barbell program. 531 for Beginners you could run this program for a year and It will completely change your physique. To make a dead simple I would install the boostcamp app and use it to track your sets/reps/progress, it has instructions for the exercises which are easy to learn
Thank you very much for the input
I've never seen myself much as a weight pusher.
I do have some weights somewhere, but I always was a proponent of just using your body weight.
And although a part of the motivation comes from looking good naked again, it's not so much about that - and that's what I've always associated with weight lifting.
But I'll look into it.
Trying something new is always additional motivation anyway and my prejudice here is very probably wrong anyway.
So thanks for that, will read into it :-)
No worries I'm always happy to help someone get started. I have always been skinny 165lb runner and cyclist. But I wanted to try lifting a barbell and a few years later I'm sitting at 220lbs with a powerlifting gym in my basement feeling better than I did in my 20s.
Yeah, I'm in my very early 40's now and after being really skinny for all my life, I'm suddenly getting a beer belly
Having some emotional hardships in the last 2 years didn't help with that either.
So, my first step will be to stop drinking and smoking daily, and start to do some sport, with surfing on holidays being the motivation.
But every time, I'm getting back from a (usually demanding) business trip, I can't do anything, but lay flat.
Like many times, I'm now suffering with a fever and some sinusitis since a week as I got back home.
Every fucking time, I've build up some physical condition, I'm getting sick with something and seemingly lose everything I've won.
This is really frustrating and I'm not sure, how I can break that cycle.
Obviously food (besides stopping to drink and smoke) has a major impact.
But as my wife is a vegetarian, everything I'm cooking is usually vegetarian and healthy already.
On business trips though, they aren't those romantic business trips with good food, wine and just networking.
I'm working in industry warehouses and all the restaurants around are usually rather shit.
I usually don't have lunch, as it makes me too tired in the afternoon. So I tried to have something like Soylent (in my case, I stuck with Plenny + milk and fresh fruits instead of just water) and that felt better.
But it gets quite boring after a few months.
I think, finding a goal, like being able to surf and not just die breathless on the board, is the way to go for me.
But every time, I start for such a regime, I'm getting sick and it feels like everything was for nothing, because all the condition I've build up is seemingly lost again...
Would be very much open for suggestions, because I can't really find a way out, but I have to.
I'm getting more and more unhappy with myself.
It sounds like you could be pushing yourself too hard and too often. I find that typically happens when I've trained hard for about 2 months without a proper deload period, where you continue to workout but reduce the effort by like 75%. Recovery is extremely important.
Diet can have a huge impact on your recovery and fatigue levels. You might be lacking in the nutrition area so its probably worth having a consult with a Dietician - not a nutritionist.
Also water, it can actually help with energy levels if you drink the correct amount of water that your body needs.
Stick with it mate, your body with adapt in time. Just take it easy on yourself and give yourself small goals that you can achieve without specific timelimits. Goals like, I'll go to the gym twice this week or I'll get to bed by 8pm etc etc - nothing huge but its more behavioural goals rather than saying I'm going to squat twice my bodyweight in 2 months or something.
44 is the average age we start to fall apart rapidly, then again at 60. There are periods of rapid deterioration compared to the 50s or 70s.
It's the same thing as a growth spurt in your teens, except tragic and with crunching from the knees.
Im 42 and im just happy i have Head full of thick, long, black hair without a single grey. And I look more attractive than I ever did. I hated looking younger when I was in my 20s and 30s but I love it now. I don’t think I have a wrinkle more than i did in high school.
Im poor as shit and hate my job, but I have my hair!
Wow, you're the complete opposite of my partner. She's 23 and has about 20% gray hair. Apparently runs in the family because her uncle was fully gray by his college graduation.
Your 40s are where your life situations and choices seem to catch up to you
In your 20s people largely look young and energetic, regardless of whether they exercise, how they eat, whether they smoke, etc.
By the 40s, the smokers look terrible, the people with poor diet and exercise aren’t no longer getting away with it as their metabolism slows, etc. These are the years where you start to see the trajectories diverge.
By the 60s, I see people who are as spry as they ever were, and people who are resigned to the end being near.
Millennial: "Socialism is my retirement plan!"
[proceeds to participate in no direct action whatsoever]
Weirdly accurate. Early 40's and about to get a divorce and start over. Losing the house I've been in for 12 years and will likely see my children much less. I'm excited and petrified of whats to come.
The journey is shit but the destination is worth it. Keep your kids in mind with everything you do and you'll always be ahead.
I was one of those lucky elder millennials who got to own a home by my mid 20s. Bought cheap, the market exploded and several years later made bank off the sale of the property. I thought for once in my life I would treat myself and wife and go after our dream home. I successfully did it and it was great, but real life caught up, had to take care of my grandmother and disabled sister since no one else in the family would. It drained our bank account and had to sell the house at a massive loss and am now living with in laws in a converted shed in their backyard. Now, strapped with debt, I barely see a way back to home ownership, even renting is not in the cards for at least a couple years.
It's awful that in the span of 3 years I went from the happiest, most comfortable I've been in my entire life, to the most stressed and on the verge of homelessness, all due to fucking shit healthcare and shit ass family.
'murica yeah!
Cynicism aside, I am sorry things are so fucked up for you (and also increasingly so for everyone).
Sorry.
I’m old enough to remember selling Tupperware as a viable economy.
By the way, Tupperware is crap now. They deserve to go bankrupt. When a friend started selling Tupperware, I saw stuff that my mother still uses and I remember seeing at home when I was a kid. Now, we bought some stuff that two years later I had to throw away. It’s super shitty now. Not worth the money.
46 here. I just got engaged, never been married no kids. My bff is 47, her daughter graduates high school this year. His bff is 47, his kids are in elementary school. The oldest child of my friend group just graduated college, the youngest was born last year.
I'm the guy who didn't sleep right for the last 3 years. Anyone wants to trade? You get a lot of extra time that you don't spend sleeping!
52 now and I'm so glad that I picked up weightlifting as a hobby when I was younger. It's like cash in the bank for when I get older.
Am 43, can confirm.
As someone in his mid-40s, yep. I don't think that's all that new, though.
As a 44 year old, I remember my aunt throwing Tupperware parties.
Also yes to all the branches of lifestyles. I’m single and enjoying my freetime consuming media. Meanwhile a mutual friend of a friend I know has 3 kids, a wife and pets, and a weekend timeshare out near the beach.
It’s p wild.
It was strange being first time parents at that age, while meeting younger couples who were becoming grandparents
A big part of the reason we didn’t have a third kid was the “advanced maternal age” classification, and scary increases in potential genetic issues when the mother hits 40
We were considered geriatric on the paperwork at 35 with our second.
Advanced was 30 with our first.
I don't even know what 40 is these days. They just write "Cooked"?
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