How do you all personally hold yourselves accountable? Whether its your diet / meal or workour plan, what checks or rewards do you have in place to keep yourself going? I’d love to hear what actually works for people rather than hit-or-miss suggestions from online articles.
EDIT: Thank you all for responding! Your points of view are really helpful, and I hope they’re helpful to others as well. I know that I need a change of mindset, once I get into it I really enjoy it, but keeping up the habit is difficult once you slip. Thank you all again
Consistency. At some point physical health became part of who I am. It’s as automatic as showering and brushing teeth
I have goal, but they’re different.
They are not lifting x kilos or weighing whatever. They’re clear, but kind of moving targets.
Since I started again almost three years ago, my main goals have been:
I don’t my body to hinder me from doing anything I’d like to do. (I used to hurt negatively walking up/down stairs. Sitting in some positions too long. Got out of breath easily. Didn’t have the energy I’d like to have etc)
I want to feel well (see no 1 for reasons, but I still believe it’s quite different as there is also a big mental aspect to this one, while no 1 is more physicality)
Both of these has allowed me to never feel like a failure and forced me to reflect all the way through this far.
Does this really make me feel better in the long run? Physically? Mentally? Both? Let’s stick to it. Was it too much for where I’m currently at? Well. I tried, I liked it, so maybe look at if I can integrate it in a different way. It started with walking and the gym 1-2d a week, and a light diet change where I stopped overeating as it made me feel sick during my limited workouts.
Now? I’ve changed my diet to a lot more protein than before and almost everything else. It’s not temporary, it’s something that made me feel better so now it’s my new way of life at least until something else makes me feel even better. I do 2 hiit, 2-3 strength and 1-2 yoga sessions a week, the walks just happen on top of nowadays. I still might ache, but it’s soreness from exercising, it’s a nice reminder – I’m not just hurting in a bad diffuse way I cannot place nor get rid of.
So stick to having goals, but consider the type of goals. Make them work for you. Make them so it’s easy to get started, and even easier to continue.
I simply refuse to just be some slob, or to age poorly. I don’t need to incentivize my fitness; being fit IS the incentive.
Although it WAS nice to finally get to throw away all my Medium t-shirts and buy a bunch of Larges that I liked.
I do use the RP Diet App to manage my nutrition, since it just works easily with my lifestyle and is one less thing I have to spend brainpower on.