Trouble sticking to it

[tradmike]

How you all stay motivated?  I know what my goal is but seem to just be falling off the bandwagon.  My hangboard workouts seem to be getting harder, cause i'm putting weight on which is discouraging as i'm trying to lose weight.  I'm trying to follow the meal plan but keep messing up and eating something bad and then it throws away all the hard work i did.

Should i be doing more cardio to help with the weight loss, along with sticking to eating clean healthy food.  Or is more cardio just gonna make me more hungry etc?  I dont want to overtrain but i feel like i'm not doing enough at times, which i hear many people following rctm feel.

Just feeling discouraged having climbed my first indoor 11 a few month ago, and putting 12 pounds on over the holidays.  Feel like i'm losing sight of my goals here.

Any suggestions as far as the cardio or other healthy meals to make to keep it from not getting boring.


Thanks,  and i know no excuses just do it.

[heelhook]

I lost a bunch of weight before the holidays, even without trying, just from controlling (with MyFitnessPal) what I ate. I also put up a bunch of weight during the holidays, even though I was trying to control myself (its just so hard when you are away from home).

I used to do a lot of cardio, I was an avid runner, completed a full marathon and was into it, but, honestly, with running I lost weight to a certain point, then I stayed at the same weight for a few years, even though I continued running long distances.

In my experience, its better to just control what you eat than it is to do cardio to try to push your caloric goal higher. The key, for me, is tracking what I eat and eating consciously. A lot of times I'll log in MyFitnessPal what I plan to eat throughout the day and account for what I'll do that day. So on rest days I'll eat 30/35/35 (carbs, proteins, fats) and on training days I'll eat 45/35/20. Rest days make me feel lethargic so you might want to adjust your carb intake depending on how much energy you'd need for rest days.

Cardio is dangerous, the "I earned this meal" is a slippery slope.

Make sure you are getting enough sleep and controlling your stress level; issues in those areas will trigger an overcompensation with indulging in unhealthy foods (I'm pretty sure that my gaining weight during the holidays was mainly caused to the fact that my sleeping cycles were skewed). Self restraint is a finite resource.

Also, healthy eating is a double edged sword. You might think that the fact that you are eating healthy foods allows you to eat as much as you want. It doesn't, you still need to understand how many calories you are consuming. As with training, logging is essential.

You can do it!

[tedwelser]

Hey Mike- If you are hangboarding you are still early in your season and you have plenty of time to address weight before performance time. In terms of motivation, you might find it more motivating to record and assess your HB sessions as total weight X time per grip. So that is body weight minus weight off or + weight added X seconds held. You might find that, on the one hand your HB sessions are harder, you are actually improving.

I am in the process of recording my recent HB stats onto excel and will try that strategy to see where I am. You may well be making good progress in terms of weight held compared to last season.

To commiserate, I have less problems with weight, but more problems with connective tissue being fragile, and being 44 years old. I am constantly riding the edge of what I can do without new injuries or triggering old ones. So, I suppose, you can get lighter, but I cannot get any younger. lol