WTF? As I get older I witness this time and time again. Two people once who loved the gym just absolutely stop going once they are married. Its like a complete 180. Is there some rule they live by that once they get married the gym does not exist anymore? Its just weird to me. Do most people just lose motivation of going to the gym once they tie the knot? Gain interest in other things that are involved when married?
I don't know how a person can go from going to the gym every day to just not giving a **** about it cause they are now married.
You don't display your age, so I'd be curious to know what your background is... you might be lacking some perspective.
I am one of those guys who dropped from 240lbs to an absolutely shredded 183. I held on to 6 pack abs for about 6 years, which I figured would be more like a month of leanness followed by a month of so so. its hard to maintain ultra lean levels.
At 30 I went to work (sometimes the gym before), worked pretty hard, made good money. Came home and went to the gym. I was in the gym 6 days a week, but usually that meant 6-9 sessions. I earned many certifications, competed in various events, and coached for years. My commute time was a total of about an hour a day, or 5 hours a week.
Fast forward to age 35: Life has changed substantially. I have the same job but it's grown substantially and I'm extremely mentally taxed. My job is exhausting. However I have to maintain the course because the now spousal support payments I have to make are ridiculously high and about half my income. My commute is about 2 hours a day, most days. on Wednesdays It's about 4. so my 5 hours per week of driving has become 15-17.
that's 10-12 hours a week of free time that I used to spend in the gym per week now gone into driving. add to that my job is far more taxing than it was and when I do make it to the gym, it's an hour later than it used to be and I'm far more tired.
the exhaustion comes from yes: longer days. Add to that, I'm not getting any younger. Add to that, extreme new stresses in life I'm not used to and haven't developed the tools for. both in life and family.
now with my new lady, we have four kids between us. My boy is now in basketball, baseball, and violin concerts. so some weeks I have to drive from work to violin, or work to basketball. then an hour long drive to get home for dinner. by then it is 9:30.
I'll give you an example of a typical day, yesterday was Thursday:
alarm clock went off at 4:30am. I showered, had coffee with my lady. Drove to work one hour.
had breakfast at work around 7:00. did my work thing.
Left work at about 5:30 to race to my boys violin concert. commute about 45 minutes
left the concert after it was done, about 7:30. Got home about 8:30. commute about 1 hour
had a brief snack then had to run back out the door to pick up our twin girls from a movie premier (it was a birthday thing).
finally back home around 10:15pm.
In bed about 10:30pm.
Alarm goes off again today at 4:30pm.
Total sleep time, only 6 hours. no time for gym. Not good for recovery, lifting or anything.
every single day she and I text all day about our dream to own our own gym. whether it be at home or start a business so that we can center our life 100% around the gym but as you can see from the daily schedule I posted above that your perspective is a little skewed. We haven't intentionally quit, and if you see my log I get in as often as I can but we have jobs, commutes, four kids, and family that demand a lot of time.
I can't say sorry son, I'm not going to make your baseball game or violin concert tonight because I'll be at the gym. Sorry daughter, I can't pick you up from Piano practice tonight because i'll be at the gym. Sorry boss, I won't be into work today because I only got 6 hours of sleep and need to hit the gym.
