I think at a certain age we have to accept we're no longer going to be working out to get fit and hot, but to desperately stave off the inevitable decline for a bit longer.
For example, expert physiotherapy people can predict with about 100% accuracy whether or not you'll be able to climb the stairs in your 70's based on a handful of physical test results you do in your 30's. It's kind of scary.
Muscles start to decay at like 1% a year after 30-something, and so the longer you leave it, the less muscle you even have to build back later, and the more crippled you become in your 50's, 60's, etc.
I myself have already paid the price of a sedentary lifestyle of just not committing due to lack of motivation and all the other excuses I gave myself. Right now I'm lying in bed with a pillow under my three herniated discs which randomly broke again yesterday for no particular reason. Just sat wrong I guess, and now I'm stuck in bed for a week again.
Because I never built my core muscles, bad posture my whole life. Bad habits. And now I'm cursed with this forever, and I'm under 40.
I'm too old to become the attractive person I always wished I could become, but I'm not too old to not end up in a wheelchair 5 years from now. I have to lose weight to reduce pressure on my crushed spine, so I'm aiming over the summer to be extra strict and rapidly lose another 12kg (already 6kg down).
Then, of course, core strength building If/when my spine can handle it. Or, if I lose enough weight, I can get surgery on my spine without a doctor saying to lose weight first XD
Well anyway that's another perspective for you.
(FYI I don't join gyms cause they're just not for me. I cycle a lot and I'm very good at not eating, so for example today, I ate my first meal at 5pm, a ceasar salad. And that's it until tomorrow 5pm)
That's such an interesting point regarding physiotherapist's predictions. Wow!
It sounds like you are on the right path. I have a few machines and accessories to help me workout at home. I like gyms, but I'm with you on the cycling. But one meal a day? Oh my. You have more resistance than I. 😉