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Apr 03, 2008 10:07 PM GMT

Hi all,

New to the site. I have tried so many diets and ways to loose wieght its not even funny. I turned 30 in November and I am looking to get back in shape. According to HWP standards I am about 40 lbs overweight but at the moment I am not looking to loose that much wieght. I would like to loose at least 20 lbs this year and we will see where I can go from there. I am really trying to do this. I have been working out for about 2 weeks and have shown some moderate improvement. My biggest challenge is that I want immediate results and I am trying to be patient and stick with it. If you are in the dallas area specifically grand prairie let me know and I could use some inspiration. Even if you are not, I could still use a internet buddy.

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Apr 03, 2008 10:11 PM GMT

hey mr been where yuo have been and the best advice is use the kitchen to burn the weight and the gym to retain the muscle.

Training the fat off takes hours and hours and becomes a chore and often a mill stone that breaks the spirit. But if you use the kitchen ie monitor what you eat, yeh it takes some effort for like 2 weeks, but then it becomes habit. Habit then is easier and the weight will melt away.

If you are new to training then hit me up and I can send ya a diet plan and training plan.

But most of all good strength, work hard and rest hard. 20lbs could easily be anhilated through a sensible plan in 12 weeks.

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Apr 03, 2008 10:57 PM GMT

BFG!,

Thanks for the motivation. Food is by biggest challenge. I travel for a living so it is so easy to just pick up a burger or such. Does any one have any suggesttion there or are you facing the same scenario. What do you do?

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Apr 04, 2008 4:59 AM GMT

I've not struggled with this myself, so take it with a grain of salt, but: Even when eating out, there are generally healthier alternatives to a lot of convenience food. If you're talking about food that's easy to take onto an airplane, most airports have places selling yogurt and fruit. If you're talking places where you'd sit and eat a meal, look for someplace where you can order breakfast. A turkey or veggie omelette, or some scrambled eggs, or a bowl of oatmeal and some fresh fruit will be a lot healthier than most burgers, though the home fries or hashbrowns are unlikely to be any better than frenchfries.

As for your diet in general, look consciously increase the quantity of healthy things you eat, more than focusing on banning certain things. Also look for the simple substitutions: whole grain bread instead of white bread, 1% milk instead of 2%, frozen yogurt instead of ice cream, popcorn instead of nachos...you get the idea. Allow yourself some freedom (maybe an anything goes meal once a week) so you don't feel like you're being suffocated, and so a slipup doesn't make you feel like a failure.

As far as exercise, many hotels do have small gyms if you're traveling a lot. And some exercises--pushups, lunges, squats, for example--take almost no equipment. If you don't feel like running, buy a good jumprope. It won't take up much space in your luggage, and you'd be amazed what a workout 15 minutes of jumping rope is.

The overall concept is: give yourself few excuses to not exercise or eat healthier (hence the jumprope); recognize that there will be times you fall short, but that doesn't mean it's worthless to keep trying; make a lot of small, realistic, incremental goals; eat fewer calories than you burn. And take some before pictures of yourself, because once you see some changes you'll really wish you had if you don't.

Good luck.

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Apr 04, 2008 5:03 AM GMT

I recommend the study of freeganism for a solution to your food problems.

You might be able to find a fellow freegan in a town you are traveling to, and they could very likely assist you as well.

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Apr 04, 2008 5:43 AM GMT

good food site: World's Healthiest Foods

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Apr 04, 2008 12:45 PM GMT

Welcome jetswa737!

I'll leave the training and diet advice to some of our resident experts, some of whom you've already met.

I just wanted to wish you good luck as you move forward with building a healthier you. Just take it one day at a time and don't get discouraged if you happen to fall of your diet or training schedule. Just get back on course and allow for the fact that you are human.

One of my favorite quotes:

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" - Lao Tsu

Focus on making each day count and your goals will be achieved sooner than you think.

P.S.

Most of the fast food places today also have salads as an option. I happen to really enjoy the Asian Chicken (grilled) salad from McDonald's and Wendy's. McD is a little better because they add legumes which I enjoy. Just go easy on the salad dressing! ;)

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Apr 04, 2008 3:52 PM GMT

Hi all,

Thanks for the words and suggestions. I appreciate it. I found this website that I think will help me on my trips. http://www.healthchecksystems.com/ffood.htm

I am planning a major lifestyle change regarding food so I dont think this will be easy but I appreciate all the suggestions

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Apr 04, 2008 7:53 PM GMT

well best advice following on from that, and you have a wise head on your shoulders, is not to set your sights too high. The best way to do that is a baseline with your diet.

So before you start with all gusto and enthusiasm make the changes that will lose you the weight the easiest ie not the exercise but the diet. First job is for the next two weeks is to start yourself a food log. EIther do it on www.www.fitday.com or just a simple excel spreadsheet. If you are mobile you wont be able to weigh it so it makes it more difficult. But the idea at this stage is to give yourself an honest log of your intake for the day. Record it for a fortnight, you'll probably make 6 days of it.

If you are up for it then share it or again IM it and we can suggest some subtle changes, ie alot of people think that glass of OJ is a nice healthy option and compared to a full fat coke it is but liquid calories slide down easy and add up quickly.

Now talking of liquid. Two things: dont understimate the power of water to reduce hunger. Majority of what people identify as hunger pangs are actually thirst anyway. The more hydrated you are the better the metabolism is able to operate and the better the job the liver and kidneys can do. DONT understimate the power of the white stuff. calicum is a very important factor in the metabollic process, its a great protein source and a good filling snack as it were to keep ya going between main meal.

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Apr 04, 2008 7:56 PM GMT

creyente said
Most of the fast food places today also have salads as an option. I happen to really enjoy the Asian Chicken (grilled) salad from McDonald's and Wendy's. McD is a little better because they add legumes which I enjoy. Just go easy on the salad dressing! ;)

Gorly glssy mag tip here: dressings like balsamic vinegar offer maximal flavour minimal ccalories. If yuo do go for the more unhealthy options then dont pour it on your salad but one of two ways here dip the fork in before picking up the salad or dip the salad in the dressing, but mind if its too scrumptious it can easily become a mop

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Apr 04, 2008 8:14 PM GMT

I found this for a calorie counter. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ it recommends a daily calorie intake and allows me to keep track of my daily intake. I am not on the road this week and at home so its been pretty easy. Will have to see what next week brings.

As far as white things go..I dont swallow...lol. No seriously I am not a big fan of white foods they gross me out. Maybe I should start a new thread about white foods.

I will post my food intake next week would love to have some feedback on it.

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Apr 04, 2008 8:26 PM GMT

ha ha ha ha sorry about the white stuff my bf distracted me by doing an impression of a drunken elephant as a warning to get off here ha ha ha

I meant to finish typing white stuff aka milk! Lord alone knows where my mind was

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Apr 04, 2008 8:32 PM GMT

whilst it probably wont be far out on the calories consumed, I would bever rely on it for calories burnt. Id let my diet take care of that.

We often over estimate exercise to relate to the amount of effort it took and we under estimate the amount of food we eat to compensate a hungry belly.

So better to let the diet burn the fat, and use the gym to retain the muscle you currently have

So another good tip is to measure:

the neck,
the chest (across the nipple)
the waist across the navel
and the thigh relaxed

Whilst you are at it for go purposes later in the game you may want to measure your bicep and forearm to both tensed and relaxed (but for weightloss purposes its not really required)

These are a far better indicator that things are going the right way as opposed to scales. In your early few weeks the weight will drop and hoefuly at a nice level. Then it slows down but the measurements dont so its a good way to keep track. If you are honest with the food then you can be less frequesnt with the scales ie once every 4 weeks whereas if less honest/accurate then weigh every few weeks.

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Apr 04, 2008 9:13 PM GMT

Here's what worked for me to lose 40 over an 18 month period.

1) Committed myself work out 3-4 times a week. Worked up to 30-45 min. of hard driving cardio, then 30 - 45 min of weights. As other have said, there are options when traveling. I would add joining a gym that has many locations or finding ones that sell day passes (more motivating eye candy to look at).

2) Since I already ate pretty healthy food, I mostly adjusted intake routine. I think the key is to never let yourself feel hungry or deprived. Continue to eat the things you like, just less of the stuff you know is bad. Since I work in a school I stopped eating the cafeteria food and started to pack my own lunch with lots of snacks. Some things that would work on the road; carrot sticks, hard fruits, granola bars, unsalted almonds, dried fruits, water.

Eating the healthy snacks and drinking water really helps curb your appetite at the bigger meals. One thing I had to get over was feeling guilty about leaving food on the plate (another thing I can blame on my upbringing).

One last bid of advice is to give yourself some rules you can live with and stick to. I allowed myself only 1 piece of bread at dinner time and since I have a sweet tooth, only a small amount of sugar free chocolate every day.

Good luck and keep us up on your progress!

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Apr 04, 2008 9:28 PM GMT

Not belittling your results altea thats bloody good work just not the most efficient approach but its horses for courses ie how much attention ya want to pay to calories in as opposed to a commitment to alot of exercise to burn off what you may not have needed.

But to jetswa go easy on the granola bars and nuts they add up to soem wicked calories pretty quickly and also if your diet is down low enough then ya dont need that 30 minutes running it is superfluous.

Its far healthier to get the weight down first and worrying about the arguable benefits of running over and above weights later on. Plus the fact if you are over weight and running from day one then:

1) its a lot of effort for a calorie burn you could have achieved in not eating a glass of milk and a banana that you may not have needed (or in this case the almonds and a granola bar)

2) You are placing a lot of stress on your joints that will potentially impair you later on and also a lot of strain on your organs which in effect are presently untrained

3) Its a great recipe for weight not fat loss and stretch marks.

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Apr 04, 2008 10:12 PM GMT

bfg1 saidha ha ha ha sorry about the white stuff my bf distracted me by doing an impression of a drunken elephant as a warning to get off here ha ha ha

Haha! I don't think you're the only one hooked on RJ bfg1, I for one ( I think I'm sounding like Pattinson [joking

] ) sign in every single day, and spend at least 2 hours seeing the new forum threads that come up.

Anyway jetswa737, like many above me said, other than a good workout, you need a good diet. So basically feed your junk food and sweeties to the dogs, or to me! Haha, joking, don't wanna be fat.

I think (according to my overall RJ forum knowledge) it's a simple matter of calories. To loose weight your calories going in must be less than those going out of your body. So therefore I guess you should limit yourself to just eating the necessary nutrients that you require daily, nothing less and nothing more, and when you workout efficiently you'll lose quite alot of calories.

Basically if you want the entire biological facts too, what happens is that when you workout, you use up the calories and sugars circulating your body to give yourself energy. This is your primary energy source. If you workout enough that no more calories/sugars are left inside you, your body uses up your secondary energy source: fat!

Of course I'm no super expert on dieting and working out, otherwise I'd have a cut figure, so I'd suggest seeing if there is a nutritionist you can talk to at your gym.

Best of luck!

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Apr 04, 2008 10:18 PM GMT

Hey JetSWA-

Completely understand the travel for a living food/workout problem!

A few tips that I've found helpful:

* Keep dry instant oatmeal packets in your carryon bag along with a plastic spoon. Ask for a cup of hot water in flight and voila! Healthy portion controlled breakfast.

* Only drink water in flight. You don't need the calories in Coke or booze or beer, the air onboard most aircraft is rather dry and hydration is key.

* Lunches and dinners in the air ... go with a meal replacement bar ( read labels and stay balanced! ). Small handfuls of almonds. Or ( sparingly, it's high in sodium ) some beef jerky.

* Almost every hotel has at least a treadmill and a few machines. Worst case scenario, you can work out in your room... http://www.mensfitness.com/fitness/beginner_weight_training/193

* If your hotel has a pool, bring your goggles and speedo and do some laps. Extra refreshing at night.

* Eat at the times you would in your home city - not only does it stave off jetlag, but you don't mess up your metabolism by having dinner at 9pm local when it's midnight in your home city.

* It may cost a pretty penny, but order that $30 salad from room service, dressing on the side, with a grilled chicken breast. Then only eat half. Restaurant portions are enormous.

* Buy "Eat this, Not That" by David Zincenko. A road warrior's bible - for instance, did you know that the Egg McMuffin from McDonald's has less fat and calories than the bran muffin from Starbucks?

* Avoid escalators and moving walkways in terminals in lieu of stairs and luscious concourse flooring. Same goes for your hotel. Ask for an upper floor room and take the stairs.

Good luck!

liftordie

Posts: 823

Apr 04, 2008 10:20 PM GMT

hey CO just wanted to say THANKS for the testimonial! no the appropriate medium by hey i am gay i was born 'inappropriate' !!

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Apr 04, 2008 10:27 PM GMT

muttskins said[quote]
Basically if you want the entire biological facts too, what happens is that when you workout, you use up the calories and sugars circulating your body to give yourself energy. This is your primary energy source. If you workout enough that no more calories/sugars are left inside you, your body uses up your secondary energy source: fat!

Well not quite

The body will primarily burn carbohydrates either dietary or those retained ie glycogen.

In the meantime it starts looking at other sources the next easiest one being protein and breaking that down, we dont really want this to happen hence if your workouts are too intense or too long ie running will force this to happen.

Thirdly the body will metabolise fat. Firstly dietary so too many of thos nuts and other fat sources and you make your job harder (remember in nature their is seldom a fat free source as its key to growth of living matter) and finaly stored body fat.

Now altho this process continues 24 hours a day it happens relatively quickly. Throu simple dietary control you can ensure that the body is eating into the body fat continualy.

But too many calories then the fat gets left , too fewer calories the fat gets left for emergency back up in effect.

Now I purposefuly didnt put that as it can make things over complicated.

Using exercise to burn calories is an erratic and often difficult way for many to measure that deficit and their is way to much margin for error. Whereas food on the other hand is a given. It has a set calorific value and therefore its much easier way to monitor and manipulate.

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Apr 04, 2008 10:35 PM GMT

awww, lift, you're absolutely welcome - and never inappropriate!

Oh, I forgot to mention:

* Go grocery shopping! Make the hotel fridge your friend (if your room has one) and stock up on fresh fruits, lean protein (watch the overprocessed stuff), nonfat milk, etc. Google the nearest grocery and walk over.

FredMG

Posts: 990

Apr 05, 2008 5:45 PM GMT

Jetswa!

My two favorite motivators are:
my $70 heart rate monitor - it counts calories.
my digital scale that measures body fat percentage (sorry I don't remember how much it costs).

The why: I play the calorie counting game, I know I usually have about a 500 calorie breakfast, so after as I get 500 calories into a work out I'm motivated knowing that I've "burned off breakfast" or "burned off a can of Coke".

OK, not really, but knowing that it takes me about 10 minutes on a cardio machine to burn off the same number of calories as a snickers bar is often enough motivation to not eat the said devil's handiwork.

With my metabolisim and body chemistry, it's easier for me to add muscle mass than "burn fat" so far each week I've added about .%5 lean body mass (muscle) but in the same time I've only lost about 5 lbs. So, the nice thing is that keeping all that stuff in a log (I use excel) is that I can see progress, or sometimes just hitting a plateau.

If you are already keeping a food log like BFG suggested (an excellent thing to do) then you know it's not super hard to keep track of stuff.

I also like to reward myself after every workout with a nice sauna. I've told myself when I get to 19% bodyfat I'm going to buy my road bike a new crankkset.

I also like a system of rewards for goals attained, especially things that connect in with being active, like new gym shorts, smaller tshirts to show off, that kind of stuff.

Fred

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Apr 05, 2008 6:11 PM GMT

sorry guys i never had to diet until i got OLD!! then I put on thirty pounds after age 63 and had started working out. ( I am now age 75+'

I have found that a short go on the ATKINS diet is helpful. all protien , fat and fiber. NO NONE---- none whatsoever carbohydrates no pure sugar no complex types. it states out difficult. but is doable. i eat 3eggs for breakfast. lunch is salad only spinich broccoli, cauliflower, romaine lettuce, celery, no peas no beans no beets,

dinner i con sume a pound at least of meat including allthe fat.. the fat minimizes the hunger pangs and need to snack during the evening. i snack on fruit only blueberries or strawberries. no apples no pears or other fruit which are high in sugars. i have fo udn this usefull for weight loss.

To maintain weight it is necessar to watch caloires minimal carbohydrates but it does work...
Of course as for all of us incude working our running bke riding etc.
good luck all
gnb

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Apr 05, 2008 7:24 PM GMT

carbs fuel the furnace, carbs help you drip feed the fat burn process.

Im not saying you ant get results from Atkins but what does it teach you long term? Its not a strategy for keeping the weight off and it certainly isnt ehalthy to continually do it long term

carbs are not the enemy. The words "too much" are the enemy be it carbs, protein or fat

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Apr 05, 2008 7:57 PM GMT

Caslon saidgood food site: World's Healthiest Foods

Good site, but bad link.

Here it is: World's Healthiest Foods

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