How do you balance the cost of fitness?

[Morpeko]

I don't balance the cost of anything I enjoy, I just do it.

 

[Lexicon]

Aside from my $150 stationary bike, a couple sports bras, & a gym mat, healthy living isn’t costly to me. I spend about $160-$180 monthly for groceries, & have never had trouble affording healthy food. Junk food actually brings up the cost. I will say, though, grocery costs can vary greatly, depending on where you live. New England, it’s manageable. I noticed a huge difference in cost when I lived in CA— some things were nearly 2x the price.

A friend gave me some old dumbbells, & my physical therapist gave me several sets of resistance bands, so, the only thing that healthy living really ‘costs’ me is time.

And that time is a coin well-spent.

 

[Patches]

When I started calorie counting for weight loss, I inherently saved a lot of money. Not eating out, not getting Starbucks, drinking exclusively water instead of soda and such. Fruit and veg were much cheaper than the processed garbage I was buying.

Since the pandemic, I've been doing purely bodyweight exercises. Squats, crunches, lunges, planking, pushups. If you're not trying to build body mass, that's definitely sufficient to maintain fitness. Pre-pandemic I kind of fell in love with MMA/Street Boxing classes which are unfortunately usually expensive. I miss them, but I don't notice and overall decrease in fitness since switching to pure bodyweight exercises.

 

[Pikaqiu]

I usually go down to the grocers to find expiring veggies that still looks good to eat, not sure that would affect my health in the long run but it doesn't taste different and still provides the fibre and vitamins in my body

 

[xenaprincess]

We rarely eat out now, and if we do, it’s take out. I usually get leftovers from it.

I haven’t purchased a lunch in years. That adds up hugely. I make chick peas from dried beans (soak overnight + instant pot) and have them with leftovers plus fresh veggies. Zap in microwave and it’s delicious.

we never eat red meat, either. I haven’t been very fit lately, besides long walks…when I was, I would run outside.

 

[GoggleGirl17]

I use Cronometer so that I can plan my diet efficiently and be selective about what I include in it. This way after I input my favorite healthy meals which will help me to stay consistent (non-negotiable), if I see that I need x amount of y nutrient to meet my daily goals, I can choose foods which are dense in that particular nutrient, instead of arbitrarily buying a bunch foods because they're considered healthy but which may be unnecessary. This also allows me to tweak how much I'm spending if I notice that I'm able to replace or omit certain things in my diet.

As far as exercise, I make it a priority. If need to spend money on certain equipment and work out a certain number of days a week to get to where I want to be, I'm going to treat doing it as a given and find a way to make it doable for me. If I put fitness near the top of my list (and accept that is what is important to me and not feel guilty about having it there), I'm going to naturally want to place my money and energy into that thing.

 

[Maou]

I do not consciously try to save money, because to get the quality stuff I need, I put down the money for. Now, there are a few things that do shave costs down overall.

1. Buying in bulk (especially eggs, they last longer than people think. Even if they "go bad" you can still eat them.
2. Buying local is usually cheaper and organic. Can vouch that organic meat/eggs and vegetables tend to taste phenomenally compared to commercial brands.
3. Knowing what you want, before you go grocery shopping (I recommend meal prepping) This is so you don't buy anything extra, and can make adjustments if necessary. Just keep track of it all by making a list. Plan out everything for the week. Shop in intervals.
4. Growing your own food. Even if just herbs and tomatoes, it can add so much to your diet without a trip to the store every time you want to eat from scratch.
5. Knowing what things you can find in your back yard that is actually very good for you (i.e dandelion root, mushroom foraging, fishing, and venison. Imagine only paying like 125$ for the license and 25$/per entire animal who's meat will last you a year). You can go hunting one time, and bring back a lot of food. The same idea applies to fishing.
6. Walk, everywhere. Don't use public transportation unless you are renting a bike. If you want a good work out, go buy groceries and walk home. Back when I had no car, I used to go grocery shopping and put like 20 bags on my handlebars.
7. Indoor workouts are your friend, Youtube has a plethora of workout videos you can start with. So many small things you can do in your everyday life that will improve your health without needing a professional.

 

[MaxMad244]

I learned from an early age that trying to set a goal to bench or deadlift a lot of weight is a huge waste of resources. The time it takes, the money for the food, and the benefits require one to be incredibly ignorant to pursue such a goal.

Here is why spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on ingesting 200 grams of protein a day to look like a bodybuilder is stupid unless you are a bodybuilder or actually passionate about lifting weight - hint this is less than .0004 percent of people who lift weights"

1. Staying trim, fit, and slightly jacked is 100 percent more attractive both subjectively and objectively.
2. Gastrointestinal issues - you'll be dead before 60 ingesting 200grams of protein (you will eventually get cancer ingesting that much). 200 grams of protein is toxic over time and will destroy your colon and kidneys.
3. A fit man could beat the living daylights out of a buff man. Look at the UFC. The best fighters in the world are not the strongest men.
4. You will lose your money. While you are recovering from a hard lift, your friend is out hustling you in the office
5. You will be miserable. During recovery your nervous system is shot to shit and your decision making is worse than a drunk. You'll spaz out on your girlfriend, and you'll end up alienating and sacrificing your social life.

All of this is by induction and deduction. There is not one person in the world who has benched 300lbs and then put the weight down and said, wow sacrificing 10 years of my life for this, that was great.

There are a lot of people who say it maybe after first, but do right before they die and their life flashes before their eyes, all they remember is protein shakes and smelly gym cups. Do you want to remember your loved ones that moment of your last breath or what your gym bro's far smells like? Your memory is a limited space and your brain will delete your early memories so chose what you pay attention to wisely. After 40 you will lose most of 10-25.

The above is my facetious style of delivery wisdom. If you do not enjoy...sorry...do not read then.

 

[MaxMad244]

A good way to balance the cost of fitness is to give up on trying to bench 300lbs and max out your deadlifts. Set yourself a limit like 150 grams of protein if you weight 200lbs instead of 300lbs and max out your strength for a consumption amount rather than trying to hit an arbitrary number on a lift.

 

[Bartleby the broken bot.]

Climbing +hiking with humanoid friends a lot in camping grounds in my planet. Let's not forget the most obvious benefit of camping: you're eaten by bears. Even if you're taking a fishing trip, you're burning more calories than you'd burn sitting around an office, and if you hike or bike, you're performing cardiovascular exercise that will help keep your heart and lungs healthy. Also every camping lover need to know where better bear attracting body butter for trip like fuck my bot brain.whoops

 

[Hawk]

There are lots of different goals and definitions for "fit", "healthy" etc.

I don't gain weight easily naturally. All my life I focused on putting on muscle mass and getting stronger. Decades later after understanding my body, I can do that well and my body has adapted to a degree.

My most helpful pursuits were studying old time circus strongmen. They were farmers who became wrestlers and entertainers. They created the equipment and many methods that joe weider later adopted for bodybuilding to become modern practice.

I found these old time strongmen still were stronger pound for pound and set records nobody today has yet beat. How did they do that without money, 'roids, and complicated equipment?

1. Typically, if food came in a package they didn't eat it. In other words, if it isn't right off the farm, forget it.

2. They trained with methods not used today- they used bodyweight routines that made use of isometric exercises, H.I.T training, and powerlifting techniques all in one. This actually forced natural hgh production in the body.

Later they developed this same method using dead weight like iron, sand, water, etc.

3. They knew how to relax.

So I have found in order to do that today, this is what I do:

1. Convict conditioning is a book that shows the same things the muscle beach guys used to do which the strongmen did. All body weight. No real equipment needed.

2. Isometric routines are illustrated in another book by the same author and they are not "therepudic" routines you get from a doctor. These are used in the Olympics. Again, no equipment needed although half the book is a sales pitch for their equipment they created.

3. I don't eat anything impure if at all possible. I know we can't control food manufacturing and on the road sometimes you just gotta get a burger. Otherwise, my simple meal plan might look like- eggs and raw fruit for breakfast, celery and peanut butter with some fruit for lunch, and burger patties for dinner with fruit on the side.

No preservatives, real food.

I also spend what I would have spent on bread or other foods I shouldn't eat on a subscription to a martial arts class. I already have training materials but I can get real instruction with a class. This improves my cardio, strength, and relaxation too.

So my costs for food are less than most, I have a muscle building routine that is completely legendary for the price of 2 books, and my martial arts training is so small in price you could add it to the food and I'm still paying less than most for my food.

So that's how I do it.

And I have strength equipment I have used for decades that I realize I don't even need now like custom made strongman dumbbell bars etc. But I have found my results from the above are superior.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I have a gym in my building that I've only use once. I've had some weird primal feeling that makes me want to lift weights a lot recently, so perhaps this week I will head on down there.

 

[Hawk]

I have a gym in my building that I've only use once. I've had some weird primal feeling that makes me want to lift weights a lot recently, so perhaps this week I will head on down there.

That feeling is how I feel 24/7.

 

[Skimt]

Is eating right, and hiking not enough?