(June 26, 2023 at 9:43 pm)Tomato Wrote: Lifting weights was never something I particularly enjoyed. Engaged times throughout my life, mainly as part of cross country training. Another time was when I had a gym membership. I never stuck with it long enough to notice any physical changes in my body. So I've never had the well toned muscular type of physique.
And these days, keeping a low body weight means eating healthy rather than exercising.
The year of 2021 when I lost a bunch of weight, I did so with a massive amount of cardio and basically going vegetarian and not eating ANY sugar, butter, salt, or oily fat the entire time. This past winter, I gained almost 60 lbs in 3-4 months because of overindulging during the holidays.
I did not like withholding so much from my diet. It was miserable. I have heard that if I pack on enough muscle, I can enjoy something sugary or fatty occasionally-frequently and it'll just be burned off while sitting still, because the muscles act as mini furnaces strapped to your body. But you gotta constantly keep them built and constantly feed them so they can stay. So, instead of withholding fun foods, I'm letting myself indulge(with balance; I'm not going crazy eating a lot) but trying to build up and maintain my fat furnaces so I can continue to enjoy things.
The problem comes with the discomfort and lack of dopamine to motivate me when doing standing still exercises. I can barely do 5 minutes straight of just pumping the weights while watching a youtube video. I become too aware of the discomfort in my arms and give in to the urge to just set them down and sit.
It IS a bit easier now, because I'm building up progressive changes in the weights, going up by 2.5 lbs. increments. Before, I was going from my 3 lbs. dumbbells to my 10 lbs. kettlebells and it was extremely unfun and discouraging. I started and quit so many times last year.
I have been going at this for about 8-9 weeks since starting with 3 lbs. and I can touch my arms now and feel the bulge tighten in a satisfying way. I can feel it in the difference between 5 to 7.5 lbs that what once was discomfort is now easy. I heard it recommended to make these upgrades in smaller increments to better stay on course and so far,that's working better than trying to jump to lifting bigger weights all at once.