Need advice on Motivation and Conditioning

Coebalt said:

@cl2 I do mean what I said when I said /daily/ pizza. lol. So yes, I probably need to stop eating it almost every day. However, protein is a bit of an issue. The other thing that being poor hurts is proper nutrition. Finding cheap, nutritious foods is difficult. I can spend 10$ on a pound or few of fresh meat, or I can buy 10 packages of stove top pasta dishes. Does anyone perhaps have experience with bargain shopping for nutritious food that can give some suggestions?

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I've generally found non-animal sources of protein to be cheaper than animal sources (and more eco-friendly, too). Tofu, beans, lentils, (and eggs) are key protein sources in vegetarian diets and relatively less pricey. Nuts and dairy are good sources too, but tend to be on the expensive side (and also fat-rich side). A runner friend of mine recommended cottage cheese. Canned sardines/salmon/tuna are also great options, especially when they go on sale. It may surprise you that most grains contain non-trivial amounts of protein too (e.g. rice).

Most of these foods requires some amount of cooking ability to prepare, but it's not rocket science, and if you invest some time in it, you'll be infinitely better nutritioned than eating pizza daily!

The sucky thing is, I know how to prepare good meals. My mama didn't raise no shmuck so I know how to cook and stuff. I also have a picky eater I have to cook for too, so things like Tofu, Eggs and tunafish would only be eaten by me. Also, to clarify, I don't buy the frozen pasta dinners. Mostly a lot of the Knorr Pasta side dishes. They're cheap, taste good, and aren't.....too terrible for you. Maybe a little high in sodium content. But most packaged foods are. Aside from that, I try to supplement with lunch meat, like ham and turkey. So I make sandwiches. Sometimes I pick up Swai when I can, because you can get a package of like, 10 fillets for 11$, with which I can cook for the entire house at least twice. The problem is mostly keeping good stuff in the house consistently. Once I get a job, things will be infinitely easier. But the job market around me isn't very forgiving of no experience, no references, and may have some issues with my appearance(My bangs are dyed and I look more than a little effeminate).

I would try and get a job at the local rinks, but when I went, I didn't see any help wanted signs, and I fear backlash for asking for a job that isn't being advertised. So for now I must continue to apply to near by fast food places and food markets. It'd probably also help if I didn't have college classes two days a week >m>

Coebalt said:

But the job market around me isn't very forgiving of no experience, no references

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Why don't you have any references? Couldn't you ask your college professor?

Coebalt said:

Lol, I guess I didn't realize I was still underweight. I've been that way since I was a kid though, I used to be soo tiny. Make me regret that I didn't start earlier even more lol. Does that mean that I /don't/ have to cut out pizza from my daily intake of mass quantities? lol

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Weight is not a fixed measurement, even if the Cosmo & Co. try to tell you that. That whole "over - underweight, perfect weight" is nonsense, unless done by a professional doctor. There are so many aspects that you need to consider when you determine if someone has "too many" or "too few" pounds. Even if I would see a picture of you, it would be very hard to guess in which category you might fall. Personal scales that many use at home, are also not that good, as you would need to know your body fat ratio as well. It could be that your physicality benefits a higher or lower weight and you would still be a pretty healthy person.

To be healthy has not as much to do with weight anyways, but with nutrition, non smoking, having access to fresh air, knowing when to rest after practice and much more.

I would advice to consult a doctor to determine your health and stop listening to the "gossip" of magazines and fake studies Besides that, if you really want to become an amateur / semi professional then the visit at the doctor is a must in advance, anyways.

@ topic

Whenever I struggle with motivation, I ask myself "what else is there". Will you just watch TV, eat yet another Pizza or do something else unproductive. As a professional athlete, you focus and tailor your life around your sport, it will be what brings you further, so that just not running that additional lap, not doing the additional workout, will put you behind and therefore wastes months of practice and this all for a easy evening, a few minutes more in bed? Nah, never!

That being said, if you really commit to something, then it will slowly become a normal thing to do. As an athlete you will no longer have doubts or questions, as it is totally normal for you to wake up at 5 AM and go out to run a few miles, it´s like for others watching the news or morning shows, it becomes a part of your life and pretty soon you just do it. You will always eat at the same time, always wake up at exactly the same time, you will develop a routine for these things and ask yourself this, do you actually think about opening the fridge when you are hungry, or do you ask yourself if "going to the toilet" is now the right thing?

Really, it will be natural to you very soon, if you really go for it in the first weeks.

Last but not least, before you actually "commit", test your interest in the sport. Is it really fun for you, do you have the will and compassion to actually do this for years, or is it just a moment of interest. Sports isn´t like a video game, you got to want it and do it for a long time, before you notice anything.

Alex D said:

Weight is not a fixed measurement, even if the Cosmo & Co. try to tell you that. That whole "over - underweight, perfect weight" is nonsense, unless done by a professional doctor. There are so many aspects that you need to consider when you determine if someone has "too many" or "too few" pounds. Even if I would see a picture of you, it would be very hard to guess in which category you might fall. Personal scales that many use at home, are also not that good, as you would need to know your body fat ratio as well. It could be that your physicality benefits a higher or lower weight and you would still be a pretty healthy person.

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Alex D, this is a blatantly irresponsible statement. The BMI chart was not made up on a whim. According to the Heart Foundation's BMI calculator, OP is BMI 18, which is underweight. He has absolutely NO room to lose another 10lbs.

To start with some short term goals, you can check out the basic 1-6 curriculum from USFS

https://www.learntoskateusa.com/media/1164/curriculum_basicskills.pdf

And the free skate curriculum

https://www.learntoskateusa.com/media/1162/curriculum_freeskate.pdf

If you take group classes, it will likely follow this format also, good luck!

Coebalt said:

The sucky thing is, I know how to prepare good meals. My mama didn't raise no shmuck so I know how to cook and stuff. I also have a picky eater I have to cook for too, so things like Tofu, Eggs and tunafish would only be eaten by me. Also, to clarify, I don't buy the frozen pasta dinners. Mostly a lot of the Knorr Pasta side dishes. They're cheap, taste good, and aren't.....too terrible for you. Maybe a little high in sodium content. But most packaged foods are. Aside from that, I try to supplement with lunch meat, like ham and turkey. So I make sandwiches. Sometimes I pick up Swai when I can, because you can get a package of like, 10 fillets for 11$, with which I can cook for the entire house at least twice. The problem is mostly keeping good stuff in the house consistently. Once I get a job, things will be infinitely easier. But the job market around me isn't very forgiving of no experience, no references, and may have some issues with my appearance(My bangs are dyed and I look more than a little effeminate).

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I don't perceive lunch/deli meats as being cheaper per pound than fresh meats. You may eat less of it per serving, making it cost less per serving, but also you get less nutrition per serving. Granted, deli meats are very convenient and may fit better in some people's lifestyle, so I don't mean to be telling you what to do.

Again, if you are serious about modifying your diet, do it step-by-step! If sandwiches are indispensable part of your meals (they are portable and convenient), you can make a short term goal of coming up with an alternative to a ham sandwich. Say, try fixing a tuna sandwich or an egg salad sandwich; shred up left-over chicken and put it in the sandwich. Once you've integrated a new food routine, try the next small step, e.g., incorporating some fresh ingredients in your side dishes. If you chip away at it slowly, I'm sure even the pickiest of eaters will eventually get used to the new foods.

If you wait to get motivation to do something, you're going to be waiting awhile. You just got to do it, take the first step and jump in.Then you find the motivation to keep doing it. I'm rooting for you! Keep us posted on your journey!

Coebalt said:

Bless you for this comment. Like seriously. I appreciate everyone's comments, but you're the only one who mentioned anything about how to keep my motivation and passion alive. Thank you so very much!!! I especially like the bit about the 'don't "try", but "do"', it's exactly the reason why I don't want to take the "You'll never hit triples unless you started as a kid" at face value. I realize it's going to be hard, I realize i'm going to fall, possibly break something, get bruises and get sore. I realize it might be over a decade before I hit a point where I can even start THINKING seriously about triples, but if I tell myself "nope, never going to happen" it's just going to turn into "why bother with any of it".

The way I look at it, it's better to keep skating with the dreams of being the first person to land a quad who started at 20, than to tell myself "it's never going to happen". Because even if it doesn't ever happen, at least I'll still have that to edge me on. Of course my views may change someday, but for now, I think it'd be best for me to continue to think of it as a reachable goal, while still keeping in mind that's going to take a very very very very very very very very very long time before it ever happens.

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It's far more important when trying to keep your motivation to have realistic, achievable goals. I can tell you now, absolutely, that you will not land a quad, no matter how hard you dream about it. There are only a handful of men in the world who have quads, and they've all been working at this & devoting their whole life to this for years. If you have that as your goal, or even landing triples, you will only be disappointed and disillusioned.

To keep the passion and motivation alive, you will need to set small goals and take pride in mastering basic things - like to start with getting good crossovers in both directions, doing a one foot spin, smooth 3 turns and mohawks. Don't even think about jumps yet, even just singles. Otherwise this will likely turn into an expensive frustration for you.

uhh said:

It's far more important when trying to keep your motivation to have realistic, achievable goals. I can tell you now, absolutely, that you will not land a quad, no matter how hard you dream about it. There are only a handful of men in the world who have quads, and they've all been working at this & devoting their whole life to this for years. If you have that as your goal, or even landing triples, you will only be disappointed and disillusioned.

To keep the passion and motivation alive, you will need to set small goals and take pride in mastering basic things - like to start with getting good crossovers in both directions, doing a one foot spin, smooth 3 turns and mohawks. Don't even think about jumps yet, even just singles. Otherwise this will likely turn into an expensive frustration for you.

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I both disagree and agree with you.

While making smaller, more realistic goals will help you feel happy with the small successes as you climb the ladder. Having a larger goal of some day pulling off an amazing feat like that is not outside-the-box. There is nothing disillusioned or disappointing about it. They're looking for encouragement to strive for that dream. Some of the most successful people in their fields have started late and have had such dreams in their heads. Who are we to shut them down? If they think with hard work and dedicating themselves to it, then all the power to them. Stranger things have happened, if you should take anything from this Coebalt. Don't let anyone step on what you hope to achieve. Use negatives like these to push yourself harder.

I wholly disagree with your ironclad comment.

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Alas. Before I get rude. I'll dismiss myself from this thread. Sorry.

I can see both sides of the argument, with skaters getting inspired by what we see on tv. I think that more experienced skaters are trying to give beginners some idea of how hard the sport is, so you don't quit right away when you're not able to do things easily. They're not trying to kill dreams or discourage people from starting. All of us probably have some reach goals. Mine for example is to one day have a good double axel, even though my highest jump is a double loop, and any high level skater will tell you how much harder the 2a is from what I'm doing now, and I have limited free time to increase the skating I already do. I give this example as a way to relate to having big dreams but also to say that even what might seem to you a small difference in jumps is, when you try to actually make it happen on the ice, is a crazy big step up in skill and physical strength. Let alone the distance between stepping on the ice the first time and quads!

Once you start skating seriously, I think you will quickly be able to get some reachable goals while still being inspired by great elite skaters.

Again, I'd like to iterate that I am fully aware of how difficult and rare it is for someone to pull off a Quad, I am also aware of how difficult and rare it is for someone to make it to triples. Those are long term goals I set because they are feats that I know of. Something I can aspire to, even if I never end up reaching it. I want to put in the time and effort to do my best to get there though.

I know having short term goals is probably even more important. And that is why I plan to set some for myself very soon. But long term goals are much easier to think about, and thus having them, as opposed to no goals, but just an empty desire to start skating, puts me in better standing. As I get on the Ice, learn more about different skills and tricks, my short term goals will become obvious. For instance, I already have two: Learn to skate properly forwards, and learn to skate backwards. I noticed after watching a few videos that my skating technique is no where near what I suppose is "correct", so my first short term goal is to correct that so that I can start building strong basics. Naturally following learning to skate forwards, would be skating backwards. After that, I'll probably start working on crossovers. i imagine the backwards ones will be really difficult.

In summation, thank you for your advice, I appreciate your input! But I would also appreciate if we could move away from telling me what my goals shouldn't be, and move to more constructive conversation of what some goals /could/ be, and what steps I can take to meet them. Stuff like your experience learning to skate forwards or backwards, or stories of your learning whatever goal you may have to suggest.

Dreams are what keeps us going (Mine is a fully split jeté. I know it will never happen, but it gets me to do 40 minutes of strength and stretch almost every morning)

For off ice training I would recommend trying to find some kind of dance , pilates or yoga class. They will help with exercises for strength, stretching and body awareness. For being on the ice, ask around for empty public skates. One of the rinks where I live offers a 7:30 am public twice a week and there are usually only six, serious, adult figure skaters on it. Midweek noon publics are also quite empty and may even be adult-only.

For nutrition I can recommend this e-book https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf it's free and has a lot of good tips for shopping and cooking nutritious food on a budget, buying and using seasonal vegetables and making staples like oatmeal interesting. Overnight oats are your best friend, when you have early skating mornings.

Thanks for your comment! I'll definitely take a look at the Ebook.