My best friends Husband has been told by his Dr. to lose weight.(3.5 stone).
Being 45 and in a job that involves long hours and with 2 small children at home, he say’s he can’t find the time.
Instead on his way home from work he bought a box of ‘special K’, some slimming pills and a couple of magazines on how to lose weight.
Last week he visited a nutritionalist (sp?) to work out a healthy eating plan.

For a small fee I could have to told him to : halve his intake of food and beer, instead of spending time on these fads ( e.g reading the actual magazines) taking part in a tiny bit of exersise.

He lives 2 miles from work and I have tried to persuade him to cycle there.
I’m getting nervous incase he keels over and has a heart attack leaving my friend to pick up the pieces.

How do you busy guys and girls manage it?

I dont. I’m uselessly unmotivated.

Tell him to buy a dog. Job done.

2 miles to work? Thats walkable in a decent amount of time, too as a start. And if the threat of heart attack isn’t motivation enough welli’llbeblown

How do you busy guys and girls manage it?

By not having a job so not being busy! 😉
Working exercise into your daily rouotine is so easy! No-one is asking him to go and run a marathon. It’s just a case of walking to the shops, cycling to work, even just doing some DIY or housework is better than nothing.

Mmmm the energy he used up to think of excuses not to cycle to work had burned off at least 500 calories.

Crazy-legs can you come over and try and tell him, as he sure as hell won’t listen to we women?
He has a bike which is gathering dust in the garage. Loosly called an mtb).

If the guy lives two miles from work and doesn’t walk or cycle then he might be a tough nut to crack.

Hide his car keys?

walk/cycle/run to work, get a dog, get kids to joins scouts/guide and volunteer to be a helper (the little bastards will run you fit). Either that or find something he can do with the kids (swimming) so he can combine activities.

If you have limited time, running burns a lot of calories in not much time, however its a steep/painful learning curve, but getting decent shoes helps, but alternating driving/running into work if the route is OK to run would be any easy thing to work towards.

3.5 STONE ?? that’s 25L of flab, almost 3 buckets full 🙁

The trouble with exercise is, it’s very very very boring… so I never do it, I just ride my bike (for fun)

Get up an hour earlier & go for a run

how heavy is he now? as if he is seriously big then running could knacker his knee’s pretty quickly though.

Needs a forceful approach. Took a family member of mine to have a heart attack before he realised.

Steal car keys. Take him to the pub, get him drunk and discuss it with him. Make him a challenge (like booking a biking event or something).

Don’t do exercise, that is boring

Do manly sporting things that blokes find cool and women find attractive (that is exercise described to someone who hasn;t done it for a while).

The cycling to work thing might not be the big deal you guys are making it. If he works in a suit and tie and has to meet clients and potentially take them out during the day makes riding to work inconvenient. Find ways to make exercise convenient.

Just try walking to work for starters and then move onto somethign more vigorous when he can get to work in about 35 minutes without sweating his guts out, take it easy to begin with.

If that doesn’t work take the sly option, invite them round for a dinner party, get drunk and tell him if he really fancies seeing his kids get married / graduate / have kids then he better buck his ideas up and loose some weight / get fit quick smart.

if it causes offence appologise a few days later saying that it was the wine talking, but if it does make offence you know he’s actually listened!!

what about

http://www.britmilfit.com/locations.aspx

or join a sunday league football club.

It can be hard to actually lose weight and exercise more. I am about 3.5 stone over weight. My job involves sitting down and talking. I spend a lot of time flying around Europe and staying in hotels, often having to entertain clients at lunch and dinner. When I do get home I like to spend some time with the wife. An ankle injury prevents my walking more than 1/2 a mile without a stick. I can normally ride a bit but a couple of rides in this cold weather has fecked that up for a couple of months at least.

So far I have cut down on the drinking and tend to go for fish or the veggie options in hotels as part of my weight loss plan.

That’s the point, if he’s already a fat unfit biffer then he’s going to think that “exercise” involves pumping iron down the gym or putting on lycra and going for a run/ride. It doesn’t.
At his level, “exercise” involves walking to the shops and not drinking/eating as much (or eating more fruit/veg) etc. Not going for a run/ride. Maybe not even going swimming with the kids if he’s embarrassed about his size/how he’ll look in swimming trunks. Even just doing the hoovering round the house will be better than nothing!

YEARS ago (when I was at school) I often used to go cycling round the local park in an evening. There was a guy I used to see there most nights, HUGE bloke on a Brompton, really fat. He wore what was supposed to be a baggy tracksuit but was bulging at the seams. Tyres on his poor bike were almost on the rims. He’d puff and pant round one lap in the time it took me to do 3. Every night this guy was there and within 4 months he was slim and a real racing snake. By then he was in lycra and actually had muscle tone and definition. Hour or so a night in summer, that was it. He lost LOADS of weight.

Even just a 10min walk round the block, walking to pick the kids up from school – when you’re that unfit, ANYTHING helps!

Even if he wears a suit to work he can easily ride in, if he does it 2/3 times a week it will make a difference.
He can take stuff to change into on the other days when he could easily walk in.
But unless he actually wants to do it then there’s not much you can do.

The big thing is building it into your normal routine. Apparently you have to do something 7 times before it becomes routine.

Walking would be the best way for him to lose weight. I’d defo suggest walking to work if time allows – or even walking at lunch time. The important thing is to keep it up so it becomes routine – then the benefits will become obvious.

Stop drinking for a few months. The weight will drop.

Eat less move more – its the only answer.

For me cycling to work is the thing that I do that keeps me fit. 20 mins each way a few days a week. Thats your recommended exercise done with added stressbuster elements and no extra time taken

That’s a grand story crazy-legs.

🙂

Okay, so we tend to agree the guy needs to eat/drink less and exercise more. I reckon the walk to work once a week and build up from there is probably the best way. He can call it Power Walking if it helps.

What should I do to lose weight then?

Cut down on beer – Tick
Reduce food calories – Tick

Can’t walk or ride or put repeated pressure on my right foot so what exercise?

“Cut down on beer – Tick
Reduce food calories – Tick”

Thats all you need to do really WCA

Forgot to add that because I have snapped my sturnum the only swimming stroke I can do without my ribs falling out is breast stroke.

Sounds fun but gets dull. When I first did my ankle I was swimming about 1 mile 2 – 3 times a week. I kept it up for a year and still put on weight. I hadn’t changed my diet or drinking, just stopped cycling

‘Can’t find time’ is a lame excuse for being not being motivated enough, and one I use lots 🙂

Wake up an hour earlier 3 or 4 times a week and go for a run.

This is what I’m trying to do, but I’m lazy.

And only 2 miles from work? Jeez, he should walk it. If he’s never run before, then do the walk/jog thing and build up at a very slow pace. Within a few months he’ll be jogging all 2 miles.

If he can’t be motivated to do that then he should give up on the get healthy plan 🙂

WCA – You’ll end up with serious arm/shoulder muscles…
?

coffeeking – I like it. Is there a hand powered trike class in Passport Du Soliel this year?

monday evening run 9 miles fast pace
tuesday evening swim 2 hours
wednesday evening swim 2 hours
thursday evening turbo trainer
friday evening run 9 mile fast pace
saturday evening chippy with mushy peas and chicken nuggets
sunday 8am-when ever i get back ride my arse off works for me

ps anyone fancy riding solo with me at dusk til dawn i get bored on my own need some one to chat to as i go round

sfb – i can’t agree – exercise is competitive, affirming and great fun, especially with friends or opposing oneself.
fitness is a lifetime commitment. cycling is great fun, with fitness as a consequence, i’d agree.
i walk, swim, cycle and use the gym as well as run my own consultancy. time management is vital.
either you do, or you don’t, but imo, you should !

Incorporate excercise into daily routine.

Walk a bit faster to get places, walk or cycle to work. Walk to the shops, take the stairs, get off the bus a couple of stops early and walk, walk with kids to park (if they’re young). Failing that tell him to stop eating.

I have to wait for a leap year, and have a good burn out with the whole extra day, or wait till the clocks go back and just have the post exercise shower …

Thanks guys.
He has had the shock talk from the doctor. Nothing my friend or I say will make any difference.
I may print off this page and show him. He needs a male friend to say look mate, this is the deal, exercise or die.
I did laugh though at the box of special k sitting at the breakfast table, and him thinking he’s helping himself.

Maybe when the warmer weather comes, he may take the bike out. I’ll offer to cycle with him if it helps.

Why would that work?

If someone told me to stop/start doing something or die I’d just say “we all die” and continue as normal. In fact I’d die just to annoy them. It’s a man thing.

Just get him a dog.

Now the dog thing is not a good idea, for the fact that my friend will end up looking after it and we’re back to square one.

The concept of incorporating exercise into a routine is correct.

But, the biggest stumbling block is how to do it so that it becomes routine in its own right.

He needs to start slowly and build up. That means, week one he walks to and from work once. Week two, he does it on two days. and so on. The same is for reduction of food. It’s no good an immediate cessation of eating. It needs to be done gradually.

Why? small goals are easier to achieve and keep the mind focussed.

(Oh and I doin’t practice what i preach – I’m in work right now craving chocolate to keep me going).

Similar thing with a mate last year – had a health scare, stupid lifestyle, not exercicing enough, young kids, big meals at funny times and alcohol etc etc. We agreed to enter the Manc 100 together to give him motivation to train and lose weight.

I lost a stone, he gained 2 lbs and still rode the 100 miles.

We are trying again this year!

What I learnt from this is that if he has had the shock talk from the doc, you might want to see what his missus can do to help him find the time to exercise, and what she can do to help his food choices at home – he is unlikely to be able to do it by himself.

Become a Play Boy 🙂

It’s like most things. If he genuinely (and I mean genuinely) wants to exercise more then he’ll find the time. If deep down he doesn’t then he’ll come up with all sorts of excuses. I know loads of folk with kids, jobs, whatever and they all find the time.