2 months to better health, advice

[slackerinabox]

Thanks again guys, I'll be old schooling it I guess I'm really not in as much of a rush as this post made me seem, so logging, exercise, and patience it is.

Questions:
1. logging app - what do you recommend (ios)
2. Fitbit/ etc. Good idea?
3. I'm kinda a big guy frame wise. I've always thought I should go with that (more football player, less lanky hipster) by bulking up a bit, but without looking like a roid head. When is weight training a good idea? My plan is to cardio from 270 (last weigh in) to 220 then slowly introduce weight training because I don't want to bulk up too much (and end up looking fatter!), good idea or stupid?

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

At your weight a 1 mile walk will burn about 150 cals. 3 miles per hour is fairly normal pace. You might be under that. If your kids are in school, take time to do a 1 hour walk every day.

There is someone in my neighborhood who had hip or knee replacement surgery. I sear this guy does 5 mile walks twice a day. Older but he can hold his chin high.

 

[slackerinabox]

At your weight a 1 mile walk will burn about 150 cals. 3 miles per hour is fairly normal pace. You might be under that. If your kids are in school, take time to do a 1 hour walk every day.

There is someone in my neighborhood who had hip or knee replacement surgery. I sear this guy does 5 mile walks twice a day. Older but he can hold his chin high.

Done. Ok, maybe 30 minutes tomorrow but will work my way up to 1 hour. Kinda bored indoors anyways and boredom leads to caloric temptation. Great idea. Unless my walk is to the place with amazing bagels... Sigh, nyc neighborhoods are too delicious.

 

[slackerinabox]

Some advice...clean out your cabinets and fridge...throw out the junk food. Go out and buy as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible. Look up slow carb diet foods and follow foods with a low glycemic index.

We all get cravings of junk...the slow carb diet gives you 1 day a week to eat what you want...the truth is, after you get in the habit of eating good, you start to crave good food again. Try to cut down on carbs where possible and if you need a snack, eat as many apples and celery w peanut butter as possible.... Start eating more black beans and cottage cheese to fill up less bread-based carbs.

Just wanted to thank you for mentioning the slow carb diet. After some research and lots of hunger while on a low cal diet, I'm now finished my first week of the slow carb diet - 6 pounds lost! Now I'm sure a lot of that is water weight, but the food choices are sane (compared to eating bacon all the time on atkins), and I'm surely eating more veggies and beans than I used to, which is a good thing. One week in and I feel great and I'm never hungry. My go to snack is low sodium black beans and salsa, add that to your bag of tricks since it's cheap and easy and very filling.

The book reads like a bit of a gimmick (the writer's clearly a salesman at heart), but skipping out white food and filling up on black beans, proteins, and spinach can't be bad for me and the weight's coming off. I also have an odd amount of energy and clarity. My blood pressure's also down from 145/90ish to 120-125/85 (still high but an improvement after only a week.

I haven't gotten a fitness tracker but do this fun workout trick mentioned in the book - I ride my stepper/elliptical for 10 minutes at an intense level, then while my heart rate is up immediately clean my house for about an hour. The sweat I get is incredible, and I don't get bored or notice the "workout" because it's a task.

 

[deadken]

Congratulations on your life changing choice and good luck on completing your goal.

I wanted to point out that Craigslist can be a lifesaver. A lot of people buy expensive exercise equipment and then barely / rarely ever use it. So, it might be a good place to look. A friend of mine bought a weight machine from CL and the guy delivered it and set it up for him! Not every transaction is great, but I've had very good luck with CL. I bought a few triathlon items and the seller was so cool and great that I still keep in touch with him. He tells me that he is happy that his equipment is getting such good use. We all know that it sucks to look at good equipment just laying around.

I'd also suggest that walking is a great start to cardio. After a little while, feel free to mix it up. There is a guy in my neighborhood who was a big fella. I'd see him walking around when I'd be out for a run. It is great to see him now! He not only still walks, but has his headphones on and is rocking out. Yeah, he moves his arms and brings up the pace from time to time. I do wonder what his workout soundtrack is. It might be better than mine! Check out C25K. It is a program developed to get people from the Couch to a 5k run in about 8 weeks. I don't know anyone who has used it and not liked it.

I dropped about 25lbs this year. I was running 17+ miles a week for over a year and I still weighed 185lbs. It wasn't until I got my portions under control that I lost the weight. I tell people that no matter how much I ran, I couldn't outrun my mouth. For me, I did a intermittent fast one day a week (I run 6 days a week). It really helped me to shrink my stomach so that I feel fuller faster. I'd eat around 500-700 calories on my fast day. Have you ever felt hungry? Guess what!?! It's just another feeling. If you've ever felt mad, angry, sad, etc... You might have noticed that the feeling tapers off after about a 1/2hour or so. Well, hunger does the same thing. If you can resist for 1/2hr, you'll likely notice that the feeling of being hungry goes away. There were days that I didn't eat until 9pm. It seems that if you eat 500 or so calories one day at a time (not in a row) your body doesn't go into starvation mode so your metabolism stays up.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Other's have said it. I'll say it a again. Get your diet in check.

As for working out on the cheap - you can do a heck of a lot with some light weights and your own body weight. The hard thing will be to push yourself hard enough during a workout. When you are fat and weak, you want to quit early in the workout. You need to push thought that as much as you can. I know. I was very fat (6' 2" - 250) and very weak a few months ago. I'm less fat and less weak now, but I still have a ways to go.

As for what you are eating now - my personal opinion is to give the slim fast a permanent vacation and start eating good quality food and in the correct proportions. Also - consider looking up the paleo diet. I am not saying you should follow it (at least not strictly), but it has a LOT of really good concepts. And it helps that the food is generally really easy to make and not terribly expensive (at least if you are willing to avoid some of the stupid expensive oils). So you might be able to improve your diet substantially if you are willing to incorporate some of those concepts in your daily eating routine.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Other's have said it. I'll say it a again. Get your diet in check.

Better yet... Get your life in check. If you think that you're going to "get in shape" over a two to three month period before going back to work, stressing, eating poorly, not exercising, and be any better off than you were before, then you're in for a rude awakening.

After one month, do you have an update for us? What have you been doing, where's your weight? The fact that you lost six pounds in a week one month into your new lifestyle doesn't really sound like a good sign.

 

[slackerinabox]

Better yet... Get your life in check. If you think that you're going to "get in shape" over a two to three month period before going back to work, stressing, eating poorly, not exercising, and be any better off than you were before, then you're in for a rude awakening.

After one month, do you have an update for us? What have you been doing, where's your weight? The fact that you lost six pounds in a week one month into your new lifestyle doesn't really sound like a good sign.

Sheesh, harsh. Your post sounds unnecessarily grumpy, lighten up! I don't expect to be in shape for at least a year, I fully expect my weightloss to be the 2lbs/ a week norm - I was just looking for a jump start and advice. Ok, I have a wedding to attend and also wanted to look a bit sleeker for job interviewers (not to my goal, losing 90 pounds in 2 weeks is obviously not possible). I wanted a jump start towards success, not my goal.

From a high of 290ish i'm down to mid 260s. This isn't all since my post, I was watching calories with various intensity for a while and am a chronic yo yo-er. I'm completely over smoking, which was a bit transition that I gained some weight back after. I didn't start earnestly loggging or watching calories until after thanksgivings and have just been reading nutritional guides and just prepping myself, and read some excellent pointers/cooking advice (my biggest change is going exclusively from take out to 75% home made, and I'm a very new cook).

as for my plan and progress (what are you, my mom?), I think I"ve got it. The slow carb/ paleo diet just works for me since I'm never hungry on it. My usual meals consist of 20 grams of lean protein, 2 cups of green vegetables and one cup of legumes- it's not really gimmicky even though it comes from a trendy book, it just feels like I'm making and burning clean fuel vs consuming junk and being tired all the time. I don't crave junk at all honestly. I log religiously now too using a simple app that's based on visual logging. I'm not using a fitness tracker mostly because I don't want to spend money on one and am hoping I end up with one for Christmas (the one I want is only like $80 but I'm a penny pinches these days), I'm working out without discipline but will pick that up in a few weeks - right now i'm redoing my apartment and hoping to burn calories painting/moving furniture,and getting shit done.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Sheesh, harsh. Your post sounds unnecessarily grumpy, lighten up! I don't expect to be in shape for at least a year, I fully expect my weightloss to be the 2lbs/ a week norm - I was just looking for a jump start and advice.

Sorry. It certainly wasn't meant as such. I'm just trying to point out that you must radically change your lifestyle, not just pick a diet book out of Barnes & Noble and be on your way. The diet part is the easy part, by far. If you're half-way intelligent you can learn the basics of nutrition. It's more about getting regular exercise, good sleep, and balancing family and work with time for yourself. THAT's the hard part, and the part that many people never get right, no matter how long or how hard they try.

 

[Zivic]

Sorry. It certainly wasn't meant as such. I'm just trying to point out that you must radically change your lifestyle, not just pick a diet book out of Barnes & Noble and be on your way. The diet part is the easy part, by far. If you're half-way intelligent you can learn the basics of nutrition. It's more about getting regular exercise, good sleep, and balancing family and work with time for yourself. THAT's the hard part, and the part that many people never get right, no matter how long or how hard they try.

the diet part is the hard part. 7 days a week/24hrs a day. it's easy to workout a few times a week. the part that people never get right is the diet. that's why you see the same fatties working out at the gym, month after month, year after year

 

[slackerinabox]

Sorry. It certainly wasn't meant as such. I'm just trying to point out that you must radically change your lifestyle, not just pick a diet book out of Barnes & Noble and be on your way. The diet part is the easy part, by far. If you're half-way intelligent you can learn the basics of nutrition. It's more about getting regular exercise, good sleep, and balancing family and work with time for yourself. THAT's the hard part, and the part that many people never get right, no matter how long or how hard they try.

Yeah, I was overly sensitive but "get your life in check" implies that my problems extend past my weight, but I"m a pretty happy guy with a cute wife and cute kids - my life's just fine, I'm just nutritionally retarded... I mean, I've never been thin - there are pictures of 2 year old me gnawing on ribs, it's not a new problem. My problems with food started with watching my parents deal with stress by eating entire boxes of donuts when stressed... It's why I picked up smoking, I needed a stress release mechanism other than food (and stupidly picked one more dangerous).

My overeating and lack of discipline has been a lifelong problem, books /plans with perhaps silly rules/restrictions actually help me more than just 'watch calories in/ out you idiot.' - sticking to a caloric limit actually stresses me out more, and stress is my trigger. I like being on a plan that allows me to eat as many vegetables and legumes as I'd like, I eat until I'm full yet am not packing on the pounds. And I still log, I'm just not stressed about the numbers. I'm not even a big advocate for the slow carb diet, just saying that it's working for me and that there's not one path to success.

 

[DistantShadow]

Wake up early, like 5-6am. Drink 3 glasses of water, do a good workout, you have to workout more than 15 minutes. I know it may be difficult but you need to try and do it for at least 30 minutes, when your pushing yourself and it hurts, you are doing it right. Make sure you stick to the lean meats and vegetables. Dont consume and soft drinks, don't eat too much fruit as there are high concentrations of sugars, although natural, will still add weight. You really need to detox yourself. The benefit of waking up really early is the kids are asleep still. Possibly go on a fast pace walk. This will burn more calories than jogging will!

 

[DouglasSmith]

It is very important for us to keep our body healthy and fit. It is great if we deal with a healthy life style to make our health wealthy and fit. It is very necessary for us to do regular exercise, have healthy and balanced diet. Take healthy food and some bad habit which are beneficial for your health only.

 

[slackerinabox]

Wake up early, like 5-6am. Drink 3 glasses of water, do a good workout, you have to workout more than 15 minutes. I know it may be difficult but you need to try and do it for at least 30 minutes, when your pushing yourself and it hurts, you are doing it right. Make sure you stick to the lean meats and vegetables. Dont consume and soft drinks, don't eat too much fruit as there are high concentrations of sugars, although natural, will still add weight. You really need to detox yourself. The benefit of waking up really early is the kids are asleep still. Possibly go on a fast pace walk. This will burn more calories than jogging will!

Excellent advice. During my time off (I may extend it longer) I've learned that lots of my issues, from diet to dull job prospects, is due to my lack of discipline. I realized that the successful people I look up to all wake up at 5 am and work out for an hour, it's not only great for the body but starts your day off with a big dose of discipline and strucutre. So that's my eventual goal. Right now I'm waking up at 5:30 and work out about 15 minutes every other day (Sometimes I wake up early and just watch the news, I'm getting used to the earlier wake up time). I've been doing this for less than two weeks and the results are insane - my literally 5 minutes of dumbells for less than two weeks equals much less flabbier arms! I have muscles, already. Every week I have a new goal - this week is sit ups. I'm still awful, but I"m forcing myself to do 10 with the eventual goal of 100. It's stupidly wonderful how the universe rewards just a little hard work, and no fitness gear or gym membership required. Literally walking in place to tv is racking up points on my fitbit.

My weight loss was slow to begin with but the pace shot up over the past few weeks. Since being conscious (when I clocked in at an embarassing all time high of 285 at the doc's office), I'm now down to 263. Slow, but 2 pounds a week is fine. I also quit smoking for the most part (I have 2 or 3 a week, only when I'm especially stressed out) and my soda pop addiction's over. I used to drink 600-1000 extra calories in soda a day! Sigh. LONG way to go!

 

[mammador]

I quit my job about a week and a half ago and have enough saved up to live leanly for 2, maybe 3 months before having to actively look for work. Last month my doctor gave me some sobering news- if I don't shape up my genetic high blood pressure + my obesity + smoking = premature death, perhaps within 10 years if my waistline continues to expand.

I quit smoking and have drastically cut back on the gorging I did for years. At 6' I reached a scary high of 290 pounds, and am now down to 272 with much more to go. Now I have 2 months off to spend raising my kids and kickstarting a life dedicated to being there for them. To cut off my melodrama, I have 2 or 3 months, I understand slow and steady is the way to go but I'd also be down to try something I normally couldn't, say a cleanse... Or a particularly time consuming workout routine.

Right now, since money's tight I've been working out at home (I have a $60 amazon stepper, do about 15 minutes a day with dumbbells, plus an hour of strenuous household work). The goal is to get that up to an hour of working out. Any other indoor fitness suggestions ? I don't mind paying for equipment, getting a babysitter's the big reason gyms don't work well for me. Diet wise I"ve been lazy and just using slim fast (30 cents a can for the walmart brand) plus almonds for snacking, lean protein and vegetables for most dinners (take out once a week). Is that a terrible idea? Any other suggestions?

I'm tempted to get a knock off of the total gym (less than $200) and blast it for an hour 3 times a week, would the results after 2 or 3 months be enough to convince my wife that it's a good expenditure during a time when money's tight?

Your effort should be commended.

I'd say at least 30 minutes of cardio daily.

And smaller portions of healthier foods, which it seems you're doing already. Moreover, I'd advise no junk food, period, and no ice cream or any sweet foods.