OFFICIAL 2026 New Year, New Me! Health and Wellness Accountability Thread

[Gerbs]

Spoiler!

committed to running 100KM on my bday if I am single at EOY, will report back in 10 months

Originally Posted by mikemhg

Before I met my ex I remember going on 5 dates in a single week, dropped like $800 in a single week alone on drinks and food.

100% will not be doing that this time

Have 3 single bros that reached out this week. We're taking each other to $100 meals instead of someone's undeserving daughter

[Traum]

I've been inspired by Gerbs, Evo, and RabidRat, so I went for a 20 min jog today since the weather was nice -- yeah, I know it's a jog and not a run, and it was probably slow even for a jog. I'm still too cheap to pay for any fitness tech to monitor my vital stats, but I felt like I gave my cardiopulmonary system a decent workout, even though I wasn't gassed afterwards.

The pathetic thing is -- about 10 min after my jog, I drove to pick up le wifey from work. Just as I was working the clutch, I realized my fine motor control of the left leg was lacking because it was actually tired out from the jog. The same goes for fine motor control of the gas & brake pedals as well. It was pathetic.

(and now my thighs are also limp as well, so that's doubly pathetic )

Assuming I want to build more resilence / endurance (for jogging as well as heart health), how often should I be jogging? From doing weights, I know jogging only once a week isn't gonna do shxt. I still want to put more focus on building / retaining muscle mass, since I deem that to be more important as I get old (and lose muscle mass). So what kind of frequency would work well to complement a 3x a week weight training regiment?

[underscore]

Originally Posted by donk.

Chiros are GODSENDS to this planet.

Some of them may have actually learned some medical work, but chiro was founded by a quack who claimed he had received it from "the other world" from a dead doctor and most of it is pseudoscience.

[red kryptonite]

11 days of strict calorie tracking kncoked off another 8 lbs.
-averaging 1100 cal/day
-30 mins weight training and 40mins swimming then 1 hour sauna in the morning
-2 hour walk then 1 hour steam at night.

17 more days to to go and ill fit right in with these victim weight ching chong mf hahaha

edit:
current mental state: too tired and hungry to keep up with all the RS activity.

[Badhobz]

Looks tasty !!! And healthy.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by Traum

I've been inspired by Gerbs, Evo, and RabidRat, so I went for a 20 min jog today since the weather was nice -- yeah, I know it's a jog and not a run, and it was probably slow even for a jog. I'm still too cheap to pay for any fitness tech to monitor my vital stats, but I felt like I gave my cardiopulmonary system a decent workout, even though I wasn't gassed afterwards.

The pathetic thing is -- about 10 min after my jog, I drove to pick up le wifey from work. Just as I was working the clutch, I realized my fine motor control of the left leg was lacking because it was actually tired out from the jog. The same goes for fine motor control of the gas & brake pedals as well. It was pathetic.

(and now my thighs are also limp as well, so that's doubly pathetic )

Assuming I want to build more resilence / endurance (for jogging as well as heart health), how often should I be jogging? From doing weights, I know jogging only once a week isn't gonna do shxt. I still want to put more focus on building / retaining muscle mass, since I deem that to be more important as I get old (and lose muscle mass). So what kind of frequency would work well to complement a 3x a week weight training regiment?

Don't kid yourself I'm just jogging as well, there's no full on sprinting.

I'm trying to get 3 days a week in, I don't have time for it on the weekend and I can't possibly do it all 5 weekdays cause I got other shit to do.

The whole reason why I started running was for the bone health, the impact of your step of running is meant to help retain bone density. I'm also trying to push my squats back up. I had been hovering around 115lb squats due to a knee injury. The injury is better now and I managed to push it up 155lbs yesterday.

On a side note, I weighed myself yesterday at the gym, still 172lbs. My weight hasn't changed in the last month or so, but I can definitely see myself getting more toned. The next thing I need to do is probably change my diet, I just blew through 600 calories of chips for my late night snack while watching TV the other night.

[unit]

Originally Posted by Traum

I've been inspired by Gerbs, Evo, and RabidRat, so I went for a 20 min jog today since the weather was nice -- yeah, I know it's a jog and not a run, and it was probably slow even for a jog. I'm still too cheap to pay for any fitness tech to monitor my vital stats, but I felt like I gave my cardiopulmonary system a decent workout, even though I wasn't gassed afterwards.

The pathetic thing is -- about 10 min after my jog, I drove to pick up le wifey from work. Just as I was working the clutch, I realized my fine motor control of the left leg was lacking because it was actually tired out from the jog. The same goes for fine motor control of the gas & brake pedals as well. It was pathetic.

(and now my thighs are also limp as well, so that's doubly pathetic )

Assuming I want to build more resilence / endurance (for jogging as well as heart health), how often should I be jogging? From doing weights, I know jogging only once a week isn't gonna do shxt. I still want to put more focus on building / retaining muscle mass, since I deem that to be more important as I get old (and lose muscle mass). So what kind of frequency would work well to complement a 3x a week weight training regiment?

jogging and running is definitely the same thing, don't sell yourself short there.
if you want to improve why don't you follow a couch to 10k program? you'd be running 3x a week but never for more than an hour, and most days more like 30m.
there are plenty of resources online. you can even target the sunrun which is in april, you have plenty of time.

[unit]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

On a side note, I weighed myself yesterday at the gym, still 172lbs. My weight hasn't changed in the last month or so, but I can definitely see myself getting more toned. The next thing I need to do is probably change my diet, I just blew through 600 calories of chips for my late night snack while watching TV the other night.

i've been out of the gym for like 1.5 months due to travel and then knee issues, then my membership expiring. gonna start judo classes next week so that should keep me fit, but no more heavy lifting for me. they have strength and conditioning classes twice a week which seems like mostly dumbbells and cardio, not real weightlifting. i sat in on a class a few days ago just to watch and yeah it's definitely a good workout and plenty of core strength required.

i weighed myself yesterday just because i wanted to weigh my cat. we've both gained weight . im 174ish. to be honest i dont really feel too fat though.

[RabidRat]

Originally Posted by Traum

I've been inspired by Gerbs, Evo, and RabidRat, so I went for a 20 min jog today

[...]

realized my fine motor control of the left leg was lacking because it was actually tired out from the jog. The same goes for fine motor control of the gas & brake pedals as well. It was pathetic.

(and now my thighs are also limp as well,

Lol! Nice. Unfortunately my germbag kids made me sick again so I am on a temporary setback. I will progress vicariously through you, as it sounds like we are in a similarly pathetic state.

Btw, I second unit's suggestion to sign up for the Sun Run. Having an end-goal helps with sustaining the motivation.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by unit

i've been out of the gym for like 1.5 months due to travel and then knee issues, then my membership expiring. gonna start judo classes next week so that should keep me fit, but no more heavy lifting for me. they have strength and conditioning classes twice a week which seems like mostly dumbbells and cardio, not real weightlifting. i sat in on a class a few days ago just to watch and yeah it's definitely a good workout and plenty of core strength required.

i weighed myself yesterday just because i wanted to weigh my cat. we've both gained weight . im 174ish. to be honest i dont really feel too fat though.

My friend has been trying to get me to go to jiu jitsu with him. I'm very interested but the time commitment together with a quite pricy rate has held me back so far.

[unit]

yeah you'd probably have to go like 3 days a week to have good progress like with basically anything else, but you might enjoy it a lot more than doing gym type workouts.
i chose judo over jiu jitsu because i felt like i would have less contact with smelly dudes. there's a lot of grappling and gi holding/tugging but you don't literally do the missionary position and cowboy with each other for the entire class.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by unit

yeah you'd probably have to go like 3 days a week to have good progress like with basically anything else, but you might enjoy it a lot more than doing gym type workouts.
i chose judo over jiu jitsu because i felt like i would have less contact with smelly dudes. there's a lot of grappling and gi holding/tugging but you don't literally do the missionary position and cowboy with each other for the entire class.

If I can have a hot instructor for judo I'll line up

Or I can invite that hot mom from the gym to be my judo partner

But yeah I get it, you need at least 3 times a week to see the benefit. I was going to the gym once and week and it made very little difference to my physique. I'm doing 2-3 days a week plus calisthenics and running right now and the results have been very strong.

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by unit

i've been out of the gym for like 1.5 months due to travel and then knee issues, then my membership expiring. gonna start judo classes next week so that should keep me fit, but no more heavy lifting for me. they have strength and conditioning classes twice a week which seems like mostly dumbbells and cardio, not real weightlifting. i sat in on a class a few days ago just to watch and yeah it's definitely a good workout and plenty of core strength required.

i weighed myself yesterday just because i wanted to weigh my cat. we've both gained weight . im 174ish. to be honest i dont really feel too fat though.

report back how judo is on your knees. from what i heard, judo can be bad on your knees b/c of the torque/twisting, but you may have a diff knee issue where that is not an issue.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by unit

i've been out of the gym for like 1.5 months due to travel and then knee issues

What kind of knee issues? I've been having problems with my inside right knee and been working with a physio - he thinks the problem is with my foot and hip, my foot rolls inward on landing and my hip isn't keeping my leg straight enough on landing so it's putting too much load on my inside knee. It restricts how much plyo work and squat work I can do.

He has me doing one legged stands with my eyes closed to improve my mind-body connection (super effing hard), one and two legged hamstring curls on a yoga ball, and side plank runners. All neat stuff though results are TBD.

[unit]

i have a slightly weird gait because of my scoliosis, so when i run my kneecap can come out of alignment and rub onto my tibia. of course i didnt really know this until i saw a physio about it last month.
it worsened when i was running while carrying bags and my awkward gait was compounded. up till then i never really had knee problems.
i got like 20 exercises from the physio... idk why they give so many, its impossible to sustain.

[GLOW]

probably give you 20, and if any you like and consistently do, it's better than nothing. i imagine the idea is to strengthen the muscles & tighten them up around the knee cap to provide support if your knee cap is moving around.

careful with pressure on your knees with throws, or movement on your knees. may be a good idea to invest in some patella knee braces to cushion around your knee cap and keep it in place if you end up doing judo long term.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by unit

i have a slightly weird gait because of my scoliosis, so when i run my kneecap can come out of alignment and rub onto my tibia. of course i didnt really know this until i saw a physio about it last month.
it worsened when i was running while carrying bags and my awkward gait was compounded. up till then i never really had knee problems.
i got like 20 exercises from the physio... idk why they give so many, its impossible to sustain.

I had a similar issue where my tibia would grind against the back of my kneecap, and the pain KILLED me. The doctor's prognosis was to strengthen my quads which would lift my knee cap further away from the tibia and give it some space before it would grind.

I was told to do wall sit, or otherwise just squat. This was also back when I was over weight right around 200lbs and not in shape.

[unit]

yeah i have a bunch of exercises that are targeting small muscles around the legs and also core stuff. tbh they take a long time and i don't really feel like they do much, but i guess i just need to trust the process.

also he showed me how to tape my knee to keep the knee cap in alignment, so maybe i will start doing that before classes.

[EvoFire]

I went out for a run today, I have two goals for this running paradigm I'm in, 5k 20mins and 10km total.

To get the stats out of the way, I did 6k in 32 minutes. The final 2k was hard and it was just pushing through perseverance. Having music helps, "We'll keep running until the end of this song"

Fuck it's cold in the morning to run. I was literally freezing for the first 2k. 3-4k was fine as I got into my groove. 5-6k I was sweating like crazy as I was still wearing the high pile sweater.

My cardio and legs both gave up around 5.5k. I started the run sore as I hit my squat max of 155lbs yesterday in like 5 years and I was recovering from that.

One observation and a small back story. I have a friend who is an avid runner. We were comparing notes 2 years ago, looking at costs between biking and running. One can buy a pretty nice road bike for around $5k. Not pro or top of the line, but still a nice bike. He was running marathons and stuff, he has a $500 pair of runners for marathons, and he trains on $300 shoes. He goes through about 2 pairs of trainers a year. I had thought running was cheap but at a high level it's not.

So back to me and runners. I run around the park where I hit the gym, and I run around the park near home when I'm not going to the gym. If I go to the gym I would be wearing my gym shoes. If I am running at home then I'll be wearing a pair of $40 Adidas runners from Costco.

I went to the gym yesterday so I ran with the gym shoes yesterday. I got around 1.5k and I was gassed on my first stint. Today I ran near home and I got 2.6k on my first stint with the cheap runners. So I learned that the shoes you are wearing can make a huge difference.

For @RabitRat and @Traum, you guys might want to look into the shoes you are running with. I'm sure @Gerbs knows what he's doing.

[RabidRat]

Remember in Dragonball Z when it turned out Piccolo got super strong, because he was holding himself down with a weighted cloak the whole time?

Maybe the move is to wear garbage attire during training, and then on race day you finally gear up.

I've been running around in hiking boots, costco sweatpants, and a ragged old patagonia sweater (leftover Bay Area uniform). Bonus points that the poorer I look, the less likely I am to get mugged!!

[68style]

You could even DO some mugging as a side gig

[Gerbs]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

For @RabitRat and @Traum, you guys might want to look into the shoes you are running with. I'm sure @Gerbs knows what he's doing.

In recent years, I've been paying to win for all fitness / sport related
- upgrading most comfy running shoes + race shoes to shed time
- buying nice court shoes so you don't blow a knee in indoor
- knee sleeves / sqwat shoes / deadlift shoes
- tasty protein you'd actually commit to and drink
- better fit + higher quality gym clothes so you feel good
- buying the nicer paddles, rackets, or balls

I spent maybe $3-5K total, but that's nothing compared to spending $4K on wheels or something for your car.

It threw me off that in 2021, I was stingy on spending tons of $$$ on fitness but was okay spending $5K+ on depreciation or gas/maintenance on sports cars.

Didn't have my priorities right

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by Gerbs

It threw me off that in 2021, I was stingy on spending tons of $$$ on fitness but was okay spending $5K+ on depreciation or gas/maintenance on sports cars.

Didn't have my priorities right

That one is fair.

[SSM_DC5]

So you sold the s2k to get your priorities straight?

[noclue]

Are you really running unless you flex your $300 Nike Vomero Premium shoes and constantly posting your (unimpressive) strava results on IG?

I've been really into incline treadmill at home for cardio. Less impact, but similar cardio.