| Over the course of ~5 years I went from BMI=32 and completely inactive to BMI=23 (~15% body fat) and ironman/ultramarathon fit. I do realise that the weight loss aspect is not applicable to your case. Still, I hope that some of what I learned might prove useful to you or someone else reading this: 1. Try a bunch of active pursuits to see what you like. I find that only things that I really enjoy tend to stick, and discovering what you enjoy requires trial and error. 2. Start slow and gradually build from that. For example, to get into running, start by walking, then walking faster/farther, then jogging and so on. Partly to avoid injury, partly to only make small changes (next point). 3. Don't make any sudden, dramatic changes to your lifestyle. Instead, make lots of small tweaks over an extended period of time. I find that this is much more likely to stick and, if some changes don't stick, no biggie. This applies in lots of contexts: for example, I went from lots of sugar in my coffee to no sugar. The process was so gradual as to be almost unnoticeable; now the whole idea of having sugar in my coffee just doesn't appeal. Given that I drink lots of coffee, this makes a big difference to calorie intake with no negative impact on enjoyment. 4. What you eat is very important to the overall health. For me, simply learning about nutrition was half the battle. Now that I understand nutritional effects of what I eat, I can make better decisions: either reject stuff that's bad and has no redeeming qualities (e.g. trans fats) or at least have some idea of the enjoyment-vs-unhealthiness curve and have the freedom to pick my own operating point on that curve. My diet is now pretty balanced (not without certain excesses, but hey), I LOVE the taste and texture of what I eat (lots of fresh veggies etc) and feel that I have sufficient energy to support pretty arduous exercise. 5. For me, doing something active every single day is very important for keeping the momentum going. Some days it's just a walk around a local park, but even that makes me feel better and clears the mind. 6. For me, the ability to disconnect from work is important. If I don't, this often disrupts my sleep (next point). To this end, I operate as an extreme segmenter (two laptops and two phones: one for work and one personal). I never look at anything work-related when I'm not working (business hours on a weekday). 7. Sufficient, high-quality sleep. I think individual needs vary, but I go to bed at about the same time every night, have eight hours of generally high-quality sleep and wake up naturally (no alarm). It probably helps that I'm a morning person, and absolutely love being up bright and early. I imagine if I weren't, I'd probably have a similar stable routine, only shifted by some number of hours. |