So I know some of you will probably hate me for this...

Now that I've started really exercising and pushing myself, I'm just not happy/comfortable when I'm not at the gym. I lost 5 pounds last week (my first week) and my hubby says I need to exercise once a day and let that be it. I know he's probably right, but it's hard for me to do, hence my post.

When I look at myself in the mirror, I just think about how fat I am and how much weight I have to lose to get healthy---how long it'll take at a healthy rate. And I just hate staring at it and doing nothing. I know how to stop working out when I get tired; I just don't know how to "leave my work at work" as it were.

Advice?

It's a little bit of a disorder and one I also suffer from. I work out twice a day, seven days a week.

It does work, but you do need to listen to your body. For example, I used to run 6 miles a day and weight train. That worked for a few months but I got fatigued. Fatigued in the sense that my workouts became difficult to face and do. I felt tired.

So I have tweaked my run to 3 miles a day. And all is good. At least for now. I still work out twice a day on most days.

Listen to your body. And let that be your guide. And don't be afraid to take a rest day. Some will be enforced (like when I have to fly somewhere for work)!

I also have adjusted my diet to make sure I get enough protein and calories to fuel my workouts. It's a delicate balance.

But my family life has taken a hit...I will be honest there. Working out a lot takes time.

Even getting up early to go to the gym risks waking my kids.

But I need to do it.

Right go for it, but then work into something sustainable. Just don't want you to get frustrated, burn out, and it does take time and patience.

But I don't know if there's anything wrong with jumping in to jump start, then get to alternating workouts, spend some time enjoying the outdoors. Variety is good for you. Remember ultimately you need to maintain and sustain.

Have couple of sessions with a cognitive behaviour therapist. If you don't nip this in the bud you will end up getting sick if you keep on like this. People start to get stressed and anxious and this can escalate out of all proportion when they respond to dietary slip ups with more and more exercise.

I used to work in an eating disorders clinic and i remember a young woman who was a journalist for one of the women's magazines. She felt under so much pressure and this is the sort of thing she would do to keep her weight down. There were several people like that.

The thing is using exercise like that is considered an eating disorder when it starts to impact on your life. So nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand. you need to find healthier ways to lose weight.

Basically don't let the fear of gaining weight or not losing fast enough ruin your chances of success and create other problems.

I had a similar issue. My trainer called me obsessive! He said I needed to take time off to let my muscles recover. So I take Mondays off now. I worked out about 6 months straight and had good results but it can be addictive. I get irritable when I don't get my cardio in. I also have resorted to getting up extra early on weekends to get two hours in at gym before kids wake up. I live for my weekend gym time. I just need it and maybe it's obsessive but I prefer the word dedicated...feel like I am just making up for lost time. I do see my trainers point about recovery so I mix it up. but still I think the human body was designed to move! Our ancestors did not take days "off" if they were being chased by a tiger or hunting for food. Daily exercise is important. Also I get frustrated by all the advice I've gotten for decades "exercise 20 minutes 3x a week". Well that would do nothing for weight loss at all. I found it takes a lot more exercise to lose pounds, maybe not for everyone but for me.

If its not causing you any problems then fine. But when the day comes and you are unable to exercise will it all just pile back on? I don't want that to happen to me again. Its happened several times before. So that's why this time my weight loss is less dependent on exercise and a lot more on diet.

Yes i move but not a lot lol. I could do more its true but i also want it to be sustainable.

How long have you been doing this routine sassy? Just six months? Do you think you can do it for years on end. Some people can. e.g. my sister. But she's been at it for a long long time now, in fact doing more in recent years and i'd consider her a bit obsessive about it but she's managed to make it a lifestyle. She hasn't had a serious injury and probably won't but there can be other things that make it not possible to exercise. Then what?

On the other hand, diet is always within our control (subject to appetite pressures).

anyway if its working for you and you think you can sustain if forever…

Certainly as regards muscle recovery. That's true. You will feel better and function better from taking little breaks from intensive exercise periodically.

When i was trying to be a 10km runner just a year or so ago (the last time i did a serious weightloss program), i would go out for an hour or more every second day. It was great for weightloss and my fitness and i also found it easy. I never had to struggle with it.

after that i went on to a cycle tour when i would frequently ride 100 km or so a day. I still would need breaks usually at least one day off a week but more were better. By that stage i was already quite fit and it didn't take long or much pain to get my fitness up so that a day in the saddle was a problem. That tour there was my most fit one ever. (Usually i start a tour from a low fitness base) and it made a great difference. However when i got back from my tour, i couldn't maintain the fitness. I think it was because i got depressed because i was fighting with my sister a lot. So everything just crashed.

Since then, I am even more careful about how i incorporate fitness into my life. Fitness is great but i've always found it hard to sustain for extended periods because life gets in the way.

I know how difficult it is to stop when you have so much to lose. A few years ago, I worked myself into full on exercise bulimia. I exercised before work, through two breaks and lunch, exercise for 2 hours after work, then usually did weight training in the evening. I ran in the rain, snow, 100 degree heat, with injuries. I would think as I was running how many calories I was burning and when I could get to my goal weight.

I didn't start out this way. I got there with saying " just a little more " every time.

My self-esteem got a huge shot when everyone commented on what a Marine I was and how great I was looking. Skipping exercise made me feel like a failure, like I'd not only let myself down, but all those other people cheering me on. There's also that lovely exercise high, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself.

Anyway, long story short is that I injured myself in a way I couldn't just " walk off " and I fell into a huge depression. My eating habits weren't tight because I just exercised off everything I ate. When the exercise stopped, I gained 80 lbs.

This time, I'm planning my exercise daily, and when I'm done for the day, I'm done. Then I'm going to go read a book or do some other fun activity, because life doesn't just stop until we reach our goal weight.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Eh keep doing that until you get sick of it. Working out on a hamster wheel for the sake of burning calories while dieting gets real old real fast, but if you find some forms of exercise you enjoy, it can become one of the best parts of the day and something to look forward to.

Gym time for me is up there with bathtime and meditation sits. It's ME time!

I just want to comment here and say yes, I am very much watching my diet in addition to exercising. I talked to my husband some about this topic last night and it was helpful for me because it helped me reason out some of why I was feeling the need to exercise so much. I think some of it is fear of failure. I have tried to lose weight so many times and I've never kept it off. I really, really want this. Not to wear a bikini or for a certain event, but forever.

Some of it is that I'm a very impatient person by nature. I just have to hang on and try to see worth in the process rather than the end result, as hard as that is for me.

The reason why i call myself Pattience here is not because Patricia is my name or anything like that. Its just because i need to remember patience.

Firstly, nobody hates you for saying this. A couple of things you say in the bold statements and also how impatient you say you are make me think you're putting so much pressure on yourself that you may not be enjoying your progress or even the exercise you're doing. Remember that slow and stead wins the race and statistically speaking what you're doing neither works nor lasts. Have you ever watched the starting line of a marathon? When the race starts the runners start off pretty slowly, knowing of course that if they put the petal to the metal they'll run out of steam and cause 101 types of injuries within the first few miles. Think of yourself now as the start of that marathon. Do what you can to remain calm and enjoy it as much as possible. You'll run out of steam if you push yourself too hard.

In my opinion, exercise helps in weightloss but it shouldn't be the method you are relying on to help you lose weight. They say that fitness happens in your sneakers and weightloss happens in the kitchen. If you are exercising in a way that is too vigorously and not taking the proper enough rest for your body to recooperate you are making yourself prone to injury, restless sleep, and maybe compromising your immune system. There are 2 parts to exercise. Exertion and rest and they are equally important.

Yes the human body is designed to move. The advice about 20min 3x a week is probably outdated. It's difficult to make an assertion of that anyway because everybody's daily activity varies so much. If you're commuting in your car for 2hrs a day, sitting a desk job 40hrs a week and coming home and watching tv all night then yes, 20min a day 3x a week won't be enough. But if you walk or bike to work, are a teacher or a dental hygienist who's on their feet for the best part of their worday, and come home to vacuum, make dinner and take out the dog then it's a different story. In this case, 20min for 3x a week may be perfect!

It's great to enjoy the exercise that you do, and that alone is enough reason to continue doing it. But doing it in order to burn x-amount of calories is dangerous in the sense that it leaves the realm of fitness and enters the diet category. I like to focus on the benefits I gain from exercise (fitness, strength, agility, flexibility, stress reduction, endorphins, being outside, challenging myself etc). When I start to think about the calories it burns it takes all the enjoyment out of it and just becomes a chore.

I would say to keep an exercise journal. If you start to notice losses (in strength, lifting, endurance, etc.) instead of gains, you know it's time to back off. If you are pushing beyond the capability to heal from the stresses that exercise causes, you will eventually end up unable to exercise at all due to an illness or really bad injury. I know. I have done this many times. It is a HORRIBLE feeling to be unable to do anything at all because you were not listening to what your body is trying to say. Then you really get to sit around looking at whatever fat is plaguing you and contemplating the miseries of the impatient. I too, am incredibly impatient, and thus understand your enthusiasm perfectly. What I don't understand is my complacence during the regain of the weight I worked so impatiently to lose more than once. Exercise, but don't hurt your cause. Success is coming!

It's not out dated advice. It's just taken out of context.

That advice is based on the cardiovascular health benefits of raising your heart rate.

For health, brisk walking 3 x a week is good. You just have to increase your heart rate.

For me it's 40 minutes of cardio per day about 4-5 days a week, sometimes 6. I have to exercise more so to curb my anxiety than for just weight loss. I kill 2 birds with one stone.