looking for other peoples perspectives

timetogetfit

heres a link to a thread ive got on personal issues

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055139195

Vegeta

There is no-one stopping you from doing this but you. I know that sounds very cliche and sad but its the bloody truth.

Your first goal is actually wanting to change. You will continue as you are and maybe die early due to crap food and drink unless you willingly want to sort your ****ing life out.

Until you want to change there is no real point in me or anyone telling you to eat 6 clean meals a day and get a work out routine with both weights and cardio. it will fall on deaf ears

Posting here is a start and there is a wealth of knowledge here to help and motivate you. You have to want that first though.

For example I have always been a thin guy. When I was doing kick boxing I once weighed 63kgs and at 6 foot believe me that was very thin. Due to improving my diet and a decent weights routine I know weigh 83kG which is a vast improvement. Sure i put on a set of love handles and the sixpack no longer shows but I know I could get them back and keep most of the muscles I've gained. My strength has increased and is continuing to increase which makes me happy.

So if you really want to change your life just continually try to improve things week to week. it does not happen over night and it could take years to get to where you want to be but you will enjoy it.

Just ask for help, there are personal trainers here who you could hire. Sound blokes and you'd probably have a new friend then straight away.

Vegeta

Ok I see you posted in PI asking about junk food and drink.

Neither of these will help you towards your goal but going cold turkey is very difficult

If you change your eating habbits to 6 same sized meals a day, start decent exercise and make a conscience effort to reduce the sh1te food and drink you would see decent improvements

Eventually you might be at a stage where you don't want either as they slow your progress.

Read the stickies at the top of this forum about nutrition and food

timetogetfit

how many calories a day would you recommend me to eat and what macronutrient profile should I go with

nesf

timetogetfit wrote:

how many calories a day would you recommend me to eat and what macronutrient profile should I go with

Clean up your diet first, worry about calories per day and macronutrients after you've gotten past the first hurdle of cutting out the junk food and excessive drinking.

Small manageable steps and all that.

timetogetfit

here is a plan im thinking about

7.00am or 5.30 pm rotate weights with cardio 6 days a week for 30-45 mins

FOOD

meal 1 6 large eggwhites 1 yolk and bowl of porridge

meal 2 lowfat cottage cheese and lowfat yogurt

meal 3 wholemeal bread tuna sandwich and a salad using whole 185 g tuna in brine tin

meal 4 1 banana and 2 scoops of ON whey

meal 5 very lean venison burger, 1 baked potato and broccoli and 1 tbl spoon of udos oil

meal 6 lowfat cottage cheese and lowfat yogurt

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

nesf

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

And meanwhile at his weight, activity level, diet etc, even small changes will show improvements. Start with the easy changes and slowly move towards the harder changes and so on. Going from zero cardio to six days a week of cardio is playing with fire. Either you'll take to it and start dropping weight really quickly or you'll get discouraged and go back to what you were doing and end up make no progress in the medium to long term which is where you should be aiming for.

Roper

To be honest mate, I'd start with just walking and work your way up from there. If you walked to work or went for a walk a few nights a week instead of jumping headlong into an exercise programme which is beyond your reach at this stage, it might be of greater benefit to you.

As regards the food issue, If you go on a too rigid diet at this stage you may crash. What might be better for you to do (and this is just my opinion) is to commit to cooking all of your meals. Eradicate frozen food and take aways, and buy in veg and meat and some herbs and spices.

timetogetfit

thanks for the advice guys

what i was going to do was the strict diet for 6 days and maybe take sun off and have a nice meal and a few glasses of wine or go to the cinema and have a popcorn and coke just to take the edge off it and make it more manageable

nesf

Roper wrote:

As regards the food issue, If you go on a too rigid diet at this stage you may crash. What might be better for you to do (and this is just my opinion) is to commit to cooking all of your meals. Eradicate frozen food and take aways, and buy in veg and meat and some herbs and spices.

I definitely agree here. Learning to cook for yourself is really important. Though I'd disagree with Roper and say that keeping some frozen veg in the freezer isn't a bad idea when you're cooking for one, for when you want to bulk up a stir-fry or something.

HardyEustace

Here's the exercise program I started April 2006, exercise was something other people did before that

http://www.womensminimarathon.ie/race/default.23.LE.asp

I know it's for the "wimmens mini marathon" but it's still an achievable program and starts off on baby steps. I did the runners beginners program. Seven months later I ran my first marathon. However I never set out to run a marathon, even though it was always a dream. After doing the mini marathon, I realised that running was something that I loved and didn't want to stop. Then signed up from the marathon and took it from there. When starting off it's only 25 minutes, three times a week so it's easy to find time to do that.

Good luck!

As you get fitter you don't want to eat crappy food as much and you don't feel like drinking as much. It's just a natural progression.

Maybe find a race that you can complete as I find it's easier with a goal. There's a jingle bells fun run in the phoneix park at the start of December, maybe aim for that?

nesf

timetogetfit wrote:

what i was going to do was the strict diet for 6 days and maybe take sun off and have a nice meal and a few glasses of wine or go to the cinema and have a popcorn and coke just to take the edge off it and make it more manageable

Honestly, what you need to drop weight at the moment isn't a strict diet, just a better diet. Leave the strict diets for when you need them tbh.

cavanmaniac

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

That's the best piece of advice you'll ever get OP.

To go from a standing start and a slightly depressed frame of mind, to assimilating alot of nutiritional information and exercise science and so on, could simply overwhelm someone and demotivate them before they get started, by making them feel they've a huge mountain to climb.

The easy(iest) step at first is cut out the crappy food to help nutrition, perhaps even see a counsellor to deal with your self esteem issues (- don't succumb to the stigmas here, only nutters go to cousellors etc. I assure you, you already know more people who go/have gone to counsellors than you'll ever realise). You do those two things and perhaps take baby steps towards a proper exercise regime, by starting off very small in the gym and making gradual increases, and you'll be well on your way. The good news is the weight loss and fat loss gains are easiest to make at the start.

The worst thing people do, and unfortunately it's the path of least resistance and therefore the one most people end up taking, is to stand and stare and wish their life away. It's all part of a mistaken belief that "life just happens" to people and you have to plough on. The real truth is that you're the boss of your own life and if there's something you're not happy with, you alone have the power to do something about it and change it for the better. By posting here and seeking help and advice you have taken the first step and I say well done to you for that because that can be the hardest thing to do sometimes.

Where you go after this is up to you, people will always help but only you can ask for it and then follow their advice.

The FitnessDock

Roper wrote:

I'd start with just walking and work your way up from there.

I totally agree with this.

Outdoor walking has many benefits in terms of weight loss. Apart from the exercise benefits, it also gets you away from the TV. Many people watch TV and nibble on food when they're not actually hungry.

There are plenty of walking clubs in Dublin. You'll met loads of people and you'll enjoy the walks so much that it won't feel like exercise.

Always make sure that you're enjoying the exercise you're doing and the foods you're eating (as long as they're helping you lose weight of course!).

PAUL

Leon11

Op,

The best way I feel for you to go at these problems is to write out a number of lifestyle changes you wish to make. Prioritise them by numbering them. Introduce each change you wish to make gradually so that you won't feel overwhelmed by the sudden change in lifestyle.

Hope it can help

Transform

Just a small point - you say stick to a "strict diet 6 days a week".

Think of what you are currently changing to as just eating right NOT a diet or being strict - yes i know its strict coming from where you were.

Please please please post up again next week to say how you have gotten on as most people say they want the changes but never hear from them again.

Best of luck and in a few months time you will feel fantastic and your friends will be telling you how good you look as you drop the weight

Hanley

I can sympathise with the confidence thing dude. The one thing that I will say is that if you're dedicated then you can completly change your body and your confidence in all areas of life will grow with that.

It's taken you years to get to where you are now. Don't expect to turn it all around in 3 months. It's a long hard road but if you want it, and i mean REALLY want it you'll turn your life around.

justsomebloke

if you want to change, you will change. Read the stickies at the top of the forum as they have a lot of good info in them and then come back to us if you have any further queries.

My suggestion is what ever you do don't diet, just start eating properly. Eat good home cooked meals and try and avoid take away's and freezer food.

Also try and read up on nutrition as this will give you an understanding of how your body works with food and help you make better choices about what you eat

Pugsley

I was in a similar weight to yourself last year, weighed 278lb, then I started reading up here (lurking mostly, this is only my 2nd post here in a year), and in the last year I've lost over 2 stone, down to 246lb, and thats without that much work, I don't feel I've gone too far out of my way to achieve it.

I started off very slow only doing a few weights at night before bed to get basic strength up before moving onto a real routine (which I didnt start until 2 months after I had been reading here), cutting out the cr*p from my diet and started walking pretty much everywhere, I had the advantage of living about 1km from my university, which I walked 2-6 times a day 5days a week. I have also done all this with very little cardio (just don't enjoy it as much as weights), I go swimming with a few friends when I can, about once a week, for about an hour or 2, but even that only started about a month ago, one of my friends went a bit nuts with the beer (5 nights heavy beering a week for a month) and got a gut and hes trying to lose it, so we do lengths until one of us dies (we do 3 normal pace lengths, 1 fast one, repeat), bit of competition keeps the whole things interesting.

If you really want to lose weights the best advice I can give is do as much as you can, but if you arent enjoying something, find out how much it will cost you not to do it and find other ways around it (I dropped a good bit of cardio, ate a bit better, and more weights), you wont stick to something if its a chore you have to either enjoy it or at least not hate it, and then bring it all back in slowly when your in better shape (starting swimming for me).

edit: Another useful source can be found here: http://www.teamtestforum.com/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=7e8848fcea1b50d2c374ef74159c0858
A lot of the people from there can be found here aswell, but thats more specialised for what your looking for.

Sleepy

OP, just to echoe what others are saying here. Whilst you're currently full of determination to change and looking at all the advice here in the stickies etc (which you're taking on board very well), you're going to be over-stretching if you dive straight in at the deep end and as soon as your determination wanes even a little, you'll crash and burn.

Pugsley's advice above is great. He's been where you are and is on the road to being in the shape he wants to be (fair play by the way dude).

Cut out the junk food, learn to cook with veggies (not spuds) and meat and take it from there. Don't be too hard on yourself if you end up having one bad meal a week. We all have lives outside the gym and one unhealthy meal a week isn't going to wreck your progress. Don't consider it a reward to yourself but don't beat yourself up when it does happen.

On the exercise front, HardlyEustace's advice is pretty good here. Start with a small manageable program and build from there.

If you have access to a gym, try and get down and lift some weights a couple of times a week. Don't get too caught up in the details of a program, as a beginner anything you do will get you in better shape (I'm still at this stage myself). The only caveat to that is to get someone to show you proper form on any lifts you want to try, injuries will set you way back. If you don't have access to one, leave it til you're a few months into the running program HardlyEustace recommended before shelling out for a membership - no point in wasting money and the price of your membership is rarely a good motivator to stick with it.

Good luck!

Colm_OReilly

timetogetfit,

If you're in Dublin I'd love the opportunity to introduce you to Crossfit. I firmly believe that a properly structured program and a supportive environment will help you, you'll be surprised at how fun it is and how fast you'll progress.

Give me a call on 086-8151092 or email oreilly dot colm at gmail dot com

Colm