How Do You Stay In Shape?

[Flix]

I'm looking for, not necessarily general advice like eating right and exercising, but specifically, what do YOU do to stay fit and in shape? What do you eat? What kinds of exercises or workouts do you do/have you done in the past? Focus on the muscles? Aerobic and cardio exercises? Restrict fats or carbs? Do you focus more on how good you look or how well you perform? Any super-foods/dishes you know about? Are you lucky enough that you can eat whatever and surf the net and still look great? Let me know.

[Hildor]

Everytime I ride a bike, I always try to do it in a sporty way when I can. Give everything I have so that I get home earlier and maybe gain some stamina. Sometimes I also go mountainbiking, both for sport and the kicks of speeding through narrow forest roads on a bike.

More for psychological reasons than anything else, I also do some pushups regularly. Anytime I feel myself becoming lazy, uninterested and without any will to do something I get down on the floor and do 20-30 pushups. It's a great boost for your energy and mind. It "keeps your blood flowing". Ofcourse it gives some extra stamina and muslce, so as long as I don't become a bodybuilder it should be okay ;D


All in all, it's not that much workout and sport that I do though.

[kilgoretrout]

Eat a whole pizza , a sub , and just try to eat as much tasty fatty foods , and then I hustle , make money just be active .

[Flix]

Inspiring, really.

[LaFille]

I bought a dog and learned to make the difference between hunger and the taste to eat.

I don't take any special food (unless it tastes great) aside from yogurt with probiotics as snack.

[kilgoretrout]

Round is a shape.. just kiddin , really but I do not abstain from flavor. I could use to lose ten pounds , I fluctuate at times throughout the year , it all depends how much activity I get involved in.

[kitty]

I'm naturally slender and petite - but I get older so before I even start to see changes I rather do something

I danced from the age of 3 semi-promfessionally, so I have lots of legmuscles, but I need to keep them trained or I get 'cold turkey' signs like cramps etc, so I do stop-and-go runs.

I do hate endurance running so this is the way, it goes as follows:

Start sprinting (as fast as you can) for a minute, then jog for 2, sprint for 2, jog for 3, continue until you jogged 11 min and sprinted for 10.

Gets your pulse up in no time. I repeat that routine 3 times, with 30 min regeneration between (in which I do stretches) about 3 days a week, or whenever else I feel like it.

I do pushups every second day of the week, at least 15 in one setting, 3 repetitions with 5 minute breaks. I usually do that when I have to sit on the pc a lot, mainly because I hate the feeling of my butt sitting too long

I occasionally go to fitness centers - but I don't like the year-contracts so I go to different ones and do the testing sessions that are usually between one week and a month

I lift weights every second day aswell. (the days that are not the pushup days) I'm mainly interested in the muscles on my shoulders and my upper back (because one of my legs is shorter than the other and if I lack muscles, I get backproblems), no bodybuilder thing ^^ just various excercises for different parts of my backs, shoulders and upper arms (I never go over max. 7kg per side).

I do heaps of stretching when I have nothing else to do, lets say when I'm reading, I do it in a semi-split, I'm terribly paranoid to become unflexible when I get older

Other than that do I run around a lot - I know I'm too old for that but... BF and me like to play catch ;D best to do that on a beach, the sand makes it harder to run and one works out without even realising

I measure my 'success' with a mirror and certain clothes. If I wear some tight jeans and a tight shirt and there's no muffin top or a belly popping out in the front, I was successful.

I'm more interested in the shape I see in the mirror than my weight, also I try to not go over 48kg (I'm only 1,58m/5"2), simply because than there would be the famous muffin top and I dislike that greatly.

My diet is no real 'diet'... I do eat at least one kind of veggis a day as well as one kind of fruit.
It's not so hard for me to eat healthy because I'm a terriby picky eater I like poultry (chicken, duck, goose, turkey) beef minced meat and that's about it, I only eat pork in the form of sausage because I'm.. german , I do not eat any meats that are 'babies' (lamb, veal...) or somehow exotic or in my perception not for eating (rabbit, horse, crocodile, roo...)
So I usually have chicken or minced meat really, which are both, prepared well, not overly loaded with fat but protein rich, which is very important to me (because I like my subtle muscles).

I have one cheat day a week (or I might call it a 'pleasure day' ;D) where I eat whatever the heck I want. Important holidays are always cheat days, naturally.

I'm lucky enough to not be a fan of fizzy drinks. I don't MIND a coke or fanta etc but I don't love it, when I'm at Maccas I'm more likely to ask for the OJ.
Calories in drinks are often udnerestimated, so I drink water, tea and the breakfast juice (OJ, apple, grape, currant berry) only. It's just useless to drink calories when you can eat them!

I weakness is Ramen (crazy amounts of sodium), red currant berries (carbs carbs carbs) and gounda (fat) but these things are just not-restrictable

I try to eat at least 1400 cals a day and not less because I don't want my metabolism to slow down, and in every meal (which is 4 in my case, one is a snack in the afternoon) at least 15g of protein to build muscle (which is very hard to do at times!) and much less sodium than I Used to because sodium doesn't do me any good

A usually go for wholemeal options in everything, simply because it tends to have less fat and more protein (and usually more flavor).

Ok, I probably forgot half of what I wanted to say.. sorry for the essay

[Jackyau]

For me never eat too much no mater how hunger you are. Doing exercise weekly (for few hours) is good enough to stay in shape.

[Glance A'Lot]

How about "Walk a mile in your shoes!' instead of 'If it's longer than your car - drive!"?

[fughawzi]

Because of how my body loves to be evil, I try to convince myself to focus more on how I'm feeling rather than my weight or how I look. I don't have as much control over that as most people and if my thyroid decides it's going to be evil that week, someone accidentally glutens me, or my fibromyalgia acts up, my weight can go up slightly. Sometimes it will go down suddenly as well, which I'm much more pleased about. I have struggled with eating disorders for years because of it, so not always the healthiest ways are used to keep my weight down.

I work out multiple times a week. I do pilates, yoga (Hatha either when I wake up or before sleeping and Kundalini), belly dancing, bike riding, walking, light weight training, aerobics, lots of random stuff..

I feel best when I'm consuming lots of fresh fruits and vegetables; basically when my diet is extremely colourful. I drink Vega and do green smoothies (I need to get into that again).. Lots of salads.. I try to restrict all fats but healthy ones, which I have to have to feel full; usually cashews or avocados. I don't worry so much about carbs as I can't really consume the unhealthy ones because of my celiac disease.

The last couple weeks I have been super sick, so there hasn't been much exercise and my eating habits haven't been so great. I feel like crap. I can't wait to go to the farmer's market!

For anyone, I think the best bet is get into a regular exercise routine and keep your diet as colourful as you can.

Now I really want kale. Dammit.

[kitty]

You want what? What is kale?

[Flix]

Kale is a green leafy vegetable. Like cabbage.

Thanks for responses everyone. I was just curious, as most people I know live a lazy sitting-around life, eating whatever, but yet aren't the archetypal fat Americans - instead they look like healthy, normal people. This lifestyle does NOT work for me - it's a constant uphill struggle of building muscle to keep lean body mass, cardio to burn calories and not be out of breath when I go up the stairs. And a pretty damn strict diet most of the time (with a guilt-free cheat day once a week to give my metabolism a kick in the pants). Lot of work. It's hard not to be bitter at genetics, the way you were fed as a child, or a million other things.

[twoheadedragon]

As for me, I'm an amateur bodybuilder (just a slight step-up from "fitness freak" ;D ). I do fitness (various alternations of push-ups, pull-ups, and weights) for a streak of 2 days, then don't do them on the 3rd day, do them again for 2 days, rest them again for 1 day, etc.

My muscles focus varies on different days, but my primary muscle foci are: Arms, Chest, and Abs. I also do some leg workouts, but I think running already does what your leg muscles need.

Every day, I make sure to have some time to exercise. Whether it's fitness, badminton, swimming, running, basketball, football, tennis... Exercise is extremely important for your health, I recommend spending a minimum of 1 hour a day of solid exercise (the kind that gets your heart pumping, whether outdoor or indoor) for a minimum of 5 days a week.

As for my diet, It's about 80-90% Vegetable and Fruit. I don't take any steroids, supplements, protein shakes, etc. because I don't want to get any sort of negative side-effects. Besides, the muscles built from steroids are "artificial" looking.

Plus I make sure to eat some meat every day, and not processed meat (like salami), but whole meat (like fish, chicken, beef, etc.).

The general rule to staying healthy is consistency. Yoga, Bodybuilding, Dancing, Running, Diet... You HAVE to be consistent. You can't slip in and out, you gotta stick. Many of my friends tell me "I wish I had muscles like yours." I always answer "you can have muscles just like mine, if not better, just by doing a simple, consistent workout program."

Oh yeah (almost forgot to mention), generally, if your workout program is good, you'll look good and perform well. If you only look good but don't perform well, you probably were lifting weights that were too heavy. I place performance above looks any day, because ultimately that's what counts.

[rockergrl]

lots of walking and when it gets cold out I just be sure to walk around the house, good thing about living in a 2 story house, you can just go up and down the stairs a lot! I like to dance and do sit ups. Having a cat also keeps me in shape lol!