Because I care!!!!

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

I've been running with a 25 pound rucksack on my back for a while now.

Count yourself fortunate that you can do that.

[AngelWings]

I've been running with a 25 pound rucksack on my back for a while now.

Count yourself fortunate that you can do that.

I do. It's tough, but I am too. I'm able to get healthy, so I am going to. I do not have any reason to take for granted my overall good health.

[CAP4117]

Amen. Never take your health for granted. I've been learning that over the last few months, unfortunately.

At the risk of being labelled a "troll," I get a sense of shaming going on for those who aren't able to get out and run a decathlon.

CyBorg, you sound like a very strong person. I really respect you for what you have overcome. There's never any shame in that.

[Devil Doc]

For those of you dusting off the gym membership cards or your personal home exercise equipment, I'd like to mention that if you're trying to lose weight DO CARDIO!  20 minutes is NOTHING.  When I was at my peak weight (almost 40 lbs heavier than I am today) I spent between 40 and 60 minutes doing cardio at least 5 days each week.  On the days of 40 minutes I would spend 20 minutes working out with some weights.

And FWIW, 90% of all home exercise equipment ends up not be used after 90 days.

I can only run for 20 minutes on the treadmill. If I run anymore than that I will have to pop pain meds. I have a very sensative back. Let me explain: so you have a better understanding.

When I was injured I was hit by 3 155 tank rounds, which blew my door off and I went flying with it. I landed about 100 feet away.

I now have a Herniated Disc in my lower back. Along with a Pinched C9-T1 Cervical Nerve. I get muscle spasms at random. They have also spotted a few bone spurs along with DDD in my spine. I can walk and run just fine, if however, I tweak my back wrong, I will be out for the count for a day or two. If I sneeze or cough wrong, my arms and upper back go numb, along with my grip. If I bent more than 40 degrees my back will start to spasm, or a muscle with tighten up and I will be stuck in that position for a few minutes. I cant even hold my newborn without support, because my arms will start going wreak.

These may all sound like excuses. I will tell ya, when you have "Mental" issues along with these it will really mess with your head. It will make you depressed  because running the 3 miles or doing 5k and 10k are no more. I wish everyday I was with my men in Afghan instead of keeping the couch warm. This is why I joined CAP to help keep me Motivated, to use my skills, and to feel like I am apart of something again.

Running that "20" mins on the treadmill is a feat for me it is a small step for weight loss, a bigg step for my psychy.

[Stonewall]

Doc and others, I come across as an a-hole and I know it.  I used to be worried about it, but I got over it.  But none of my comments are directed at any one person on this forum or elsewhere.  I have become desensitized to excuses after experiencing my own set of excuses along with thousands of others from the top down.  The fact is, people who don't even have a legitimate excuse still have excuses. 

Only YOU (no one in particular) know what you're capable of and know YOUR limits. 

My physical issues
- Ankle hasn't been right since 1996 due a nasty fall in the Army
- Left shoulder still requires surgery due to a 2006 training accident
- Left arm has nerve damage (goes numb and my fingers tingle) following a 2011 incident in A-stan
- L1 compression fracture in back due to trauma
- Herniated disk in L5 which was corrected to 70% via surgery
- Knees haven't been the same since 4 years in the Infantry and crackle every step I take

Emotional issues
- I'll admit it for the first time openly, right here.  I was diagnosed with PTSD and I 100% disagree with it.  But the docs say so, and I continue to argue it.  I'll get over it.

I'll go back to what I always say, time and again...IT'S 80% DIET/NUTRITION!!!!  If you are incapable of performing physical activity for an extended period of time, you can still control your food intake.

[NIN]

I'll go back to what I always say, time and again...IT'S 80% DIET/NUTRITION!!!!  If you are incapable of performing physical activity for an extended period of time, you can still control your food intake.

True. I exercise very little (so far) and on Wednesday I officially hit 45 lbs down solely based on dietary changes and choices.

I know I'm always going to have to eat. But I'm not always going to be able to exercise. Better choices, limiting intake, eating out less, etc has done wonders for me. Ultimate goal is 55-60 lbs (who knew I had that to lose?) total with running and other aerobic exercise thrown in as the weight on my knees gets less (my knees are my weak link. Family history of crappy knees coupled with knowing I need to make these knees last...)

I hate working out, hate running. Always have (made life in the Army tough). But as I joked to Ned Lee once while discussing his penchant for running: "Your hour long run burns the approximate equivalent of a Big Mac. Why not just not eat the Big Mac in the first place?". That's where I start.

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

Doc and others, I come across as an a-hole and I know it.  I used to be worried about it, but I got over it.  But none of my comments are directed at any one person on this forum or elsewhere.  I have become desensitized to excuses after experiencing my own set of excuses along with thousands of others from the top down.  The fact is, people who don't even have a legitimate excuse still have excuses. 

I'm not going to call you an a-hole or anything else, but the fact is that if you know you come across that way, and that it is offensive to others, the only one who can change it is you.

My own opinion is that you are overzealous and you commit the logical fallacy of hasty generalization.  You have added a disclaimer that you're not directing your comments to any one person...but you do not seem to take into account that not everyone metabolises food in the same way.  Are you an endocrinologist?  If not, then you commit the logical fallacy of appeal to false authority, by making a statistical syllogism reducing the general to the specific.

When you present your opinion about people who don't have legitimate (in your opinion) "excuses" as "fact," then you commit the logical fallacies of errors of fact (since you or I cannot possibly know everyone's individual circumstances to know if they are "making excuses" or not...you can only speak for yourself) and argument from personal astonishment.

[SarDragon]

I'm going to repeat Stonewall's bottom line, because this still what it's really all about:

I'll go back to what I always say, time and again...IT'S 80% DIET/NUTRITION!!!!  If you are incapable of performing physical activity for an extended period of time, you can still control your food intake.

That is fact. It is inescapable. There's no opinion there at all. No matter how he, or I, express it, that's one of the great rules of life.

[Varga Guy]

Well, this is a timely discussion. Here's an article from a blog I follow....pretty much runs along the same theme.

http://soldiersystems.net/2012/10/06/canipe-correspondence-the-fitness-debate/

As for myself, lost some weight by changing my diet, but I can't call myself fit. Been a long time since I've been in some sort of fitness program. Want to get back into running, got the shoes, but have yet to hit the trail. Reading all this is giving me renewed impetus to actually plan out the when & where to run, which has been a major weakness of mine.

[NIN]

I can only run for 20 minutes on the treadmill. If I run anymore than that I will have to pop pain meds. I have a very sensative back. Let me explain: so you have a better understanding.

Then do 20. Hell, just do 15.  But doing something is better than doing nothing, in most cases.

(obviously, if you have medical issues that preclude certain activities, thats different)

Guys, I was 237 lbs 11 months ago. I'm down to 192.  20 of which is in the last 60 days.

Slow and steady wins the race.  There are more benefits to more fitness than disadvantages.

[Stonewall]

I'm not going to call you an a-hole or anything else, but the fact is that if you know you come across that way, and that it is offensive to others, the only one who can change it is you.

I come across as an a-hole and I know it.  I used to be worried about it, but I got over it. 

As I said, it used to concern me, but then I realized it wasn't worth it.  It's called tough love.  I found, through my almost 20 years of military service, that a) the truth hurts, b) being brutally honest is tough, c) most people say they want you to be honest with them until you are. 

But as I said, nothing I said was directed at anyone in particular on this site.  I have met but a few people on CAP Talk, and the ones I have, I trust them more than I trust most people.  Again, I don't know anyone's personal situation, nor do I pretend to.  I have given examples of people I have come in contact with over periods of time and their excuses are all the same.  If anyone takes offense to what I say, know that it is NOT directed at you.  If you feel that it is, that's on you. 

[Stonewall]

I can only run for 20 minutes on the treadmill. If I run anymore than that I will have to pop pain meds. I have a very sensative back. Let me explain: so you have a better understanding.

Then do 20. Hell, just do 15.  But doing something is better than doing nothing, in most cases.

I have a rule about starting out with a workout regimen.  "Go in a straight line!"

What does that mean?  Well, if you want to get some exercise and if walking is your thing, then walk  (slog, jog, run, ruck) in a straight line for a period of time.  Don't do laps, go in a straight line.  Why?  Because you have to do the exact same distance to get back home!!!!  If you walked 20 minutes, you have to walk 40 minutes by default.  If you can only run for 10 minutes, then you'll end up walking back, and more than double your cardio exercise to roughly 25 minutes.

Define slog?  Sure, a "slog" is a slow jog...an airborne shuffle of sorts.

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

It's called tough love. 

One must be careful, because the line between "tough love" and haranguing someone is quite blurry.

I found, through my almost 20 years of military service, that a) the truth hurts, b) being brutally honest is tough, c) most people say they want you to be honest with them until you are. 

I have found, through a lot of life experience, that:

a) "Truth" is often in the eye of the beholder.
b) The difference in being "brutally honest" and just plain "brutal" is very much down to the way you present it.
c) Fallacy of hasty generalization.

Saying that it doesn't bother you about how you come off to others, on this or any other topic, could be a way of avoiding responsibility for one's behaviour and its possible effect on your fellow human beings.  I know I'm an a-hole myself sometimes.  It is one of my worst faults.  I try to avoid it...but I also try to make amends to the one who has been harmed by my behaviour when it happens.

That is fact. It is inescapable. There's no opinion there at all. No matter how he, or I, express it, that's one of the great rules of life.

Where is it written, or codified into law or Holy Writ, that one's opinion on food intake is one of "the great rules of life?"  When I think of "the great rules of life," I think of the Ten Commandments, the Magna Charta, the U.S. Constitution.  I had never heard the equation of food intake expressed as one of "the great rules of life" until you expressed it as your opinion.

And you are incorrect, sir.  There is opinion there.  Your expression is an expression of your opinion, just as mine is.

[Walkman]

I agree about the diet thing. I've don't have much time to work out with two jobs among other things, so I've been working on diet. I eat a lighter breakfast & lunch, avoid "bad" carbs as much as possible and I've really turned around in portion control. It's helped. I'm now straddling the line on Blues/BDUs wear, some days I can wear 'em, some days I can't. But, I'm working on it.

My wife is a great success story. She's been overweight her whole life, except for a short time in HS/college, but she got there in unhealthy ways. After 5 kids, she had almost given up on losing weight. She even applied to The Biggest Loser show (didn't make it, she wasn't big enough, lol!). Last year she got into a local Biggest Loser contest at a gym and lost ~30 pounds. Then she did another similar contest, another ~30 pounds gone. She's now down ~70 pounds, has kept it off for a year and is getting ready to do another contest. She's run two 5Ks now and looks amazing. Her whole lifestyle and outlook is different now.

From what I've seen with her, achieving good health is doable. Note that I didn't say getting skinny. I certainly agree that there are some medical conditions that prevent people from being slim n' trim and make exercise difficult. But I really feel like everyone can improve their health in one way or another.

From Ned's thread about CAP having some sort of program for SM fitness:

BTW - we technically already have a weight program - it's the table in 39-1 that says who can, and cannot, wear the USAF-style uniforms. 

This really is true. I really wasn't all that happy with my weight until I joined CAP. I needed to lose about 10 pounds to wear the AF-style uniforms. Before that, while I wasn't super happy, there wasn't much to motivate me either. The right motivation is huge in getting healthy! One thing my wife has taught me is that along with diet, there's a HUGE mental component to weight loss.