Before we are bombarded with an avalanche of "Mountains of BBQ ribs, no workouts, able to eat 15000 calories a day without gaining, and still look ripped in a swimsuit" responses, I am looking for honest, realistic answers here.

Once you reach your goal (or if you already have), what would your ideal or dream program be to maintain your physique, fitness level, and health?

Would you strive for ever-more-challenging physical achievements like triathlons or other competitions, or would you cut back on the gym rat classics of cardio and weights and explore other physical activities now that you have more leeway with your calories and your energy expenditure? Or would you just keep on doing what you are doing now and keep up the bulk/cut cycle each year?

How much would you like to eat? How clean?

Are you willing to bump up your activity level so you *can* eat more without gaining back the fat you worked so hard to lose?

Or alternately (for you ectomorphs out there), are you willing to reduce the amount of cardiovascular activity you might naturally enjoy in order to preserve the muscle you've worked so hard to gain?

I posted this at Pinkdumbbells.com also (http://pinkdumbbells.com/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=76&func=view&id=9349&catid=40) because I'd like to see how similar/different answers from males and females will be.

I dream of the day when I can retire my running shoes completely, I really do. I run now because I am cutting and as a form of cardio, running is just too efficient and easy to do anywhere to ignore, but I have never really enjoyed it and have no aspirations of ever running a marathon. Once I reach goal, I am going to do my damnedest to never run again for regular cardio.

I'm not as sick of the other cardio machines like the elliptical trainer or the stationary bike, but I would like to stay away from them as well in the long term because they all grow tedious after the nth time you hop on.

My *dream* baseline program would be to just do an hour of Yourself Fitness a day following whatever workout the program suggests and subbing my own 45 minute weightlifting routines for Maya's strength workouts on upper body and lower body days. I would do the flexibility, cardio, and core workouts as shown, though.

The alternate dream program would be 30 minutes of YF cardio each day, and a 3-5 day weightlifting split that replaces leg day with plyometrics because I have quite enough leg muscle already (and no problem maintaining it with minimal care).

I'd like to be able to eat 2000-2400 calories without gaining, and yes, I'd be willing to keep my activity level high enough to support that (~1 hour of exercise a day). I plan to stay pretty clean with my food choices, but I would bring in more of my favorite Asian foods even during the week and (gasp) allow myself one satisfying bowl of white jasmine rice at dinner each day. I'm shooting for two cheat meals per week as well. I don't think the nutrition will be particularly difficult; I've been more or less happily eating like this (lean proteins, lots of veggies, 6 meals/day, etc.) for over two years now. I think I know enough about myself to be able to maintain without tracking every little calorie going in and out, but I'd probably still periodically plug a daily menu into my software to check my intake. I haven't reached guava's enviable state of zen consciousness when it comes to hunger signals yet, alas.

Basically, I'd like to lift more and run less, LOL, and eat a reasonable amount of food for an active female of my size. I'd also like to integrate some rock climbing, gymnastics, yoga/tai chi, functional fitness, and yes, even martial arts (at last).

Oh, and get better at swimming so I can use that as an alternate form of cardio.

That's all.

;)

This is an interesting topic that I have never really thought much about. Since getting into the fitness culture, I've always just thought about what I need to do to get better, not just reaching some goal and being satisfied. However, I have always had this dream (and it is surprisingly similar to yours):

As a college student training to be an Army officer when I graduate, I get tested all the time on running and various calisthenics. Among my buddies, I've always been one of the strongest guys, putting them and myself through powerlifting workouts, but I've struggled with the running and loathed it all the way. So I've spent all summer cutting some fat and running my butt off to get faster. When all this is over in another year or so and I'm finally an officer, I'm looking forward to focusing more on lifting and getting stronger, along with some speed/power training to help me in baseball and golf, rather than churning out 30 miles/week so I can smoke a 5-k. I, too, would also love to become a better swimmer so that I can do a real workout in the pool.

The sick thing, though, is that as I've improved and acclimated to running long distance everyday, I've started to enjoy it more and more.

So who knows where this will lead to.

Tim

In all of my endeavors, I have one, overarching goal that rides above all the specific goals. Call it a meta-goal. The meta-goal is constant improvement.

Can you actually envision a state where you are completely satisfied? I can't. Sounds like you are having a hard time envisioning it yourself, since you wrote this post.

Consider this: are we conditioned to think that every endeavor must have an end-goal? Some nirvana-state where everything's cool and perfect? That's bull.

Embrace change. When are you happiest? I'm happiest when I figure out some intellectual puzzle I've been struggling with, or when I measure my biceps and find they've grown another half inch, or when I put 10 more pounds on my squat, or when I land a new contract... see the trend?

progress is happiness.

Sorry for all the philosophy first thing in the morning. :)

progress is happiness.

That's my point. Once you are technically at a goal body fat%, appearance, or weight, will you be satisfied with making tweaks to your same basic program to improve further upon your physique and athletic performance, or will you take the opportunity to try out other forms of exercise to improve aspects of your overall health that may have been neglected in the normal cut/bulk cycle?

For me, stuff like flexibility, explosive power training, and balance/coordination sort of fall by the wayside when I'm on a cut or trying to add muscle.

I'll never give up resistance training as I mentioned above, but once I have a good baseline weight/body fat to work with, I'd like to expand my workout options to progress in other areas besides just getting leaner and adding more muscle.

Maintenance to me is not keeping the status quo, but broadening the range of activities and forms of fitness in my arsenal.

:)

Now that my physical fitness is somewhat under control, I'm trying to take the opportunity to improve other aspects of my life. However, I'm finding it much more difficult to make changes in my psychological health than it was to my physical health.:bang:

Once you reach your goal (or if you already have), what would your ideal or dream program be to maintain your physique, fitness level, and health?

Would you strive for ever-more-challenging physical achievements

That's what I do.

How much would you like to eat? How clean?

I eat what I want. It's as clean as it is.

Are you willing to bump up your activity level so you *can* eat more without gaining back the fat you worked so hard to lose?

I bump up my activity because it's fun as well as healthy. Someday I will be able to retire and then I will be able to about double my workout time.

causticmuse:

just a question out of curiosity--you seem to have nailed down what your future ideal living/eating/exercising situation is, which is a rare accomplishment in itself. With that decided, have you ever tried just implementing it period? I mean, what are you going to be doing then that's going to make it more feasible than doing it now?

We're all pretty fond of saying that maintenence lasts the rest of your life--why not do what you've decided you want to be doing starting now, and then alter/increase strictness as necessary to meet short-term goals?

We're all pretty fond of saying that maintenence lasts the rest of your life--why not do what you've decided you want to be doing starting now, and then alter/increase strictness as necessary to meet short-term goals?

Ah, normally I WOULD, but I'm in week 5 of a very public, 12 week sock-it-to-the-whiners-who-cry-about-time-and-money full-on transformation challenge to prove that I can pull off a respectable showing in a Body-For-Life official challenge while working and commuting an average of 80 hours a week and spending only $40/week on food, supps, gym membership, and equipment. I barely have time to see my boyfriend (and we live in the same house), keep up with laundry/bills/grocery shopping, or visit my folks who live less than a mile away, and I have just $133 left to feed me through the next 8 weeks, but I am already nearly halfway to my goal.

Basically, my current program is stripped down for maximum results on minimum budget. All those little extras I'd like to be doing and all those extra calories I'd like to be eating will have to wait until I can give a big fat :neener: to all the unmotivated, excuse-making, crybabies who never seem to finish what they start (or even start, period). I literally cannot squeeze any more time out of my life or money out of my stated budget for now.

I am all about efficiency until the end of September (when my Cheapass Challenge ends with a 5k run on the 30th), and then, trust me, my legs will only move at a running pace if giant alien ships are chasing me down.

Quote.."martial arts..(at last)"

So it looks like this is where you're headed when the bus stops...

Not a bad choice at all. Because you're going to have to be in trim shape or they'll hand you your ass on a platter.

So you could conceivably drop a lot of other stuff and focus on that only but it will take a degree of involvement and adherance plus diet.

You would probably be doing some weight lifting work too. But true conditioning for martial arts burns a lot of cals.

Personally, the mirror and the weighscale are my maintenance tools.

I don't count calories all the time. Instead I focus on the components of my diet to effect optimal nutrition for my goals. I then tweak it on an ongoing basis to reach the target weight.
I tweak the things that I know damn well are not 100 percent necessary. This can be tough to do because I say to myself "well, if I
have to experience certain discomfort to achieve the goal, how the heck am I going to do this for a lifetime?'

But I have found that diet is more about EATING HABITS than anything else. So what seemed like a sacrifice months ago is now old hat because it is a habit and I'm used to it and like it.

I eat well....only differently. I don't follow rigid regimented diets that say you eat x amount of calories here and x amount of calories there because I know I will never adhere to this for a lifetime.

So I change WHAT I eat and WHEN I eat it. I think this is crucial for serious weight training.