Taking the plunge ...

Slaanesh

Finally I have mustered up the the courage to post here.

Lots of invaluable information available from the stickies and some great stories of success from the fitness logs.

Where do I start ... ok, I'm not massive by any means I feel I'm starting to pudge out and that now is the time to address it.

Stats:
Age: 25
Height: 5ft 11' (and 3/4 )
Weight: 14.2 stone = 90.174163 kilograms
RMR = 2050
Basic daily requirements = 2870

I'm a computer programmer so lifting my fingers is as far as it gets. In the mornings I walk to my mothers house to get my motorbike (10 mins). At lunch time I walk for about 25 mins and then the same 10 min walk home in the evenings. I plan to take up swimming. I do not play any sports at the moment but am working on figuring something out. I used to play a lot of basketball in school, just need to find like minded people in my area who would be up for it.

For breakfast I typically have nothing but from today I'm having porridge with banana and sunflower seeds. Might just have the banana separately in future because it tasted weird in the warm porridge! Boiled eggs are next on the list to up the protein, might just boil a few tonight to have for the rest of the week.



The above was my intake for yesterday. I used to have a cappuccino every morning in work but have cut back to just Monday and Friday with the view to not having one at all at some stage (baby steps). Tea break at 11 usually consists of 2 slices of white buttered toast with 2 various types of biscuits. Today I had a few walnuts an apple and an orange. Also started upping my water intake which was very poor, this is resulting in many toilet trips. Lunch was a granary brown bread sandwich with mixed salad and chicken and a bit of butter!

Theres a few things on fitday I'm not sure how to do, as you can see for dinner yesterday (girlfriend cooked and didn't really know I was on a heathy buzz) I have it split into pasta, broccoli and carrots but now that I think of it there was also onion and ham in there too. There was some type of sauce with dinner yesterday that tasted too nice to be good for you (I know it isn't bad if it tastes good).

I live with my brother so we take turns cooking, he typically cooks some pasta dish with some shop bought sauce that tastes loaded in carbs. When I cook nowadays it tends to be loads of veg fried in extra virgin olive oil and spices/herbs served with wholewheat pasta or brown rice. I use pataks curry paste and I must read the label and see what it contains because it's bloody tasty!!

I suppose I better mention the beer. I'm a heiniken drinker and I start Thursday, 2-4 pints. Friday 4-6, Saturday 4-6. That's alot of drink! I'm going to cut out Thursday drinkies, one of my main hobbies is pool in the local and I love a few pints whilst playing. So Thursday is out and also one of the days at the weekend but I'm not going straight off it initially!

Right, enough of my slightly muddled waffling. I ask the enlightened of the fitness forum to pick holes in what I have just said and give me any advice possible. The only way this will work is if it's a diet that I enjoy. I LOVE my veg which is very handy. I'm mainly a chicken eater, I despise all forms of fish (hate it or love it). I suppose a healthy weight for me would be around the 12-12.5 stone. I have a broad shouldered build so I could carry that weight well. I never really cared much for the gym but there is a gym where the swimming pool is in Navan so it may be an option.

It's mainly about loosing a bit of weight. I've always hovered around 13.5 st but now it's going up, time to get it under control and just have a healthier lifestyle all round.

Let the berating begin!

Ro.

slumped

Hi

Just a quick question - what programme/website did you use for the food chart above?

S

Slaanesh

http://www.fitday.com

Hanley

slumped wrote:

Hi

Just a quick question - what programme/website did you use for the food chart above?

S

It's fitday.com

slumped

Thanks.

S

rubadub

Slaanesh wrote:

I suppose I better mention the beer. I'm a heiniken drinker and I start Thursday, 2-4 pints. Friday 4-6, Saturday 4-6. That's alot of drink!

That is up to 18 pints, which is roughly 3500kcal, which is 1lb of fat lost or gained. i.e. if you gave up the drink you have reduce your 1 week intake by 3500kcal which should result in 1lb of weight loss.

However I drink a fair bit and found these calories are overestimated for drink. I did cut down though. A doctor will not recommend this and I am not saying it is ideal but it worked for me and I feel better than I did before I lost weight. If I am drinking I plan to do it on a pretty empty stomach. This way I need to drink less to get the same effect, hence less calories from the drink. Since I am planning on drinking that night I eat less during the day to have my stomach pretty empty- again less calorie intake. Since I lost weight, I need less drink to get to the same blood alcohol level- less calories again! So instead of my old days where I was 6-7 pints a night I only need 3-5.

I cannot recommend lifting heavy weights enough, helped me shift a lot of fat.

Slaanesh

Thanks for that advice rubadub, I might just replace every second pint with a pint of water and see how I get on. It's the getting into rounds of drinks, that's the killer.

With regards lifting weights, I really wouldn't know where to start. What sort of exercises could/should I do at home?

I went to the swimming pool last night, my first go at anything exercise related in a long time. My muscles ache and joints are crying. I felt great afterwards, very rewarding hour. Now I just need to go 2 times a week and I'm laughing. I was a bit crampy because I'd had a rushed dinner about an hour beforehand.

I take it I'm not doing too bad on my eating habits as people haven't slated me

Boiled a load of eggs this morning and had one, a banana and a bowl of porridge. Getting up earlier to just have a decent breakfast is killing me but hopefully it will get easier. I was so pumped after my swimming session I founf it difficult to get to sleep at 11 last night. Popped into the pub for a pint(of water) after the pool and for a few games of pool (eh?).

I have a sneaky suspicion i'm not eating as much as I should though.

Yesterday:

Breakfast:
Bowl of porridge with sunflower seeds and banana.
Boiled Egg.

Elevenses:
Apple + Orange and a cup of tea with a bit of Milk ( I love milk but had no sugar which I love too).

Lunch:
Lunch was a salad bowl consisting of chicken, assortment of leaves, tomatoe, sun-dried tomatoe, beetroot (YUCK!) and sweetcorn.

4 o'clock I just had a cup of tea and a few walnuts.

7 o'clock dinner:
Chicken balti with red pepper, broccoli and baby potatoes all served up on brown rice. Was proud of this dish (I'm new to cooking), yummy!

Went swimming from 9-10.

Should I have eaten something afterwards?

Slaanesh

1 week later, I'm weighing in at 13 st 10 pounds resulting in a loss of about 8 pounds ! yay

Drank 3 pints of heiniken spread out over the weekend, 2 of the nights I just drank water and didn't really mind not having the beer. That's totally weird to me.

Sleepy

Looks like you're on the right track Slaanesh. Maybe try to get some protein in at your 11 o clock meal and cut the potatoes out of the Chicken balti?

As other's have said, I can't recommend lifting weights enough. It will literally change the shape of your body (in good ways!). Any decent gym will have some instructors who can teach you correct lifting form and the guys on here are great about putting together basic programmes for beginners. Have a look here for some basic outlines: http://www.teamtestforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2037