My friends, I throw myself at your mercy. (Help me get "fit").

RoundyMooney

I know the temptation is to think that this is just another New Years resolution (my brother in law is into fitness and his tales of the local gym being packed out with new tracksuits and red faces in the month of January remind me of my failed attempts in the past), but I really want to change my physical state for the better.

I post here, because I've been reading comprehensively over the last few weeks, and you guys are, quite frankly, an inspiration. That and the fact that I'll be left with cyber egg on my face if I don't get results, which I guess is no bad thing.

Let me give you my background, in brief.

I'm 5' 9" ish, with a small frame, and while I wouldn't class myself as chronically overweight, due to my lifestyle, and exacerbated by my small size, I've suffered with an overhang in the belt area since my early twenties. In the last two years, since I hit the thirty mark, that has gotten progressively worse, to the point that while I still make a 32" waist (I was a 28" in my teens), most of me is compressed above the waistline

Out of all the toys I have in my house, a scales is not among them, which is testament to my denial, particular when an exercise bike (and a real one), a treadmill, and a very nice home gym are gathering dust about the place. For shame.

We eat far to many Chinese take outs, and when we don't, we eat out. Recently my SO has given up work, and to her eternal credit, she is now prepared to grasp the nettle of home cooking, not for financial reasons, but because we should.

I smoke 20 a day, and bad as it may sound, I have no wish to give up. What I want to aim for is that in a weekend, when out socialising (not at home) I believe I can do this.

I drink sporadically at home, but when in the pub (once or twice a week), my norm is 8 to 10 pints. What's scary is that I can handle it, and tell myself it's not excessive, when of course it is.

I do not exercise, bar work related activities, which while not exactly sedentary, are not physically taxing either.

My average daily diet:

Morning-sometimes nothing, sometimes two or three slices of toast (white) and two cups of machine coffee. Centrum, and probiotic drink.

Lunch (although could be any time from ten to two), white roll with ham and mayo, coffee again, and possibly a sugarfree red bull.

Evening: Bad news; Chinese, chipper food, thick base pizza & pasta...

What I want:

No belly, better aerobic and cardio fitness, and a bit more bulk all round.

Here's what I propose:

-A new diet regime (which is where I need you guys to help).

-40 minutes aerobic exercise each morning before I leave for work around 8:30 am (walk or cycle)

-Some exercise regime to build up the muscle mass again (in conjunction with the above?) three times a week.

-Cut out the smokes to one pack a week, to be left in the drawer unless I'm hitting the pub

-Beer: I need to do something about this. Alternative suggestions to swigging pints (bottles of lite beer? wine?) most welcome.

I've read about Lipotrim, and while it's very tempting, I don't see it as helping me to modify my behaviour, so I don't want to go down that road.

If you've read this far, thank you, and I welcome any and all comments, particular on the dietary front.

Reading back on that, I realise it doesn't paint a pretty picture

g'em

Welcome to the Fitness Forum \o/ !!!

You sound pretty determined to get yourself in better shape, so major kudos for that. Even the most hardened of us find ourselves having to kick ourselves back into shape after the indulgences of Christmas so you'll find you're not alone in the New Year, New Me mantra!!

Lets be honest: there's a lot there to change, so lets take it all one step at a time. You won't be able to turn everything around overnight, but even the small changes make big impacts if you keep it consistent. The best changes you can make are the ones youknow you'll stick with. And the great news is that the benefits will be noticeable almost instantaneously so straight away you'll get positive reinforcement to remind you what a good job you're doing.

So enough Oprah-speak already, let's get down to business...

RoundyMooney wrote: »

I'm 5' 9" ish, with a small frame, and while I wouldn't class myself as chronically overweight, due to my lifestyle, and exacerbated by my small size, I've suffered with an overhang in the belt area since my early twenties. In the last two years, since I hit the thirty mark, that has gotten progressively worse, to the point that while I still make a 32" waist (I was a 28" in my teens), most of me is compressed above the waistline

As you hit your late twenties/ early thirties your metabolism begins to slow down a little (a combination of natural muscle loss and hormonal and neurological changes) but this means that your body becomes less efficient at burning the calories you give. Generally this translates into guys developing a bit of a gut as they continue to drink the same volume they did when they were a spritely young thing!

RoundyMooney wrote:

Out of all the toys I have in my house, a scales is not among them, which is testament to my denial, particular when an exercise bike (and a real one), a treadmill, and a very nice home gym are gathering dust about the place. For shame.

Not having a scale is not a bad thing - in fact people get overly obsessed with the number on the sales instead of paying attention to how much better they feel and look when they start to eat well. As for the unused home gym - blasphemy!!! A quick search through the forum will show you that virtually every day a thread is started from people looking for tips to get in shape without equipment that they can't afford/ don't have room for. For shame indeed!!!

Hopefully I've guilted you into brushing the cobwebs off those bad boys and putting them to good use...

RoundyMooney wrote:

We eat far to many Chinese take outs, and when we don't, we eat out. Recently my SO has given up work, and to her eternal credit, she is now prepared to grasp the nettle of home cooking, not for financial reasons, but because we should.

Not only does home cooking tend to be healthier, but it's cheaper and great fun. Having control over what you eat means you can cook to your exact requirements and you can tweak and play with recipes. The effort put into cooking means that you appreciate the food you eat more and without sounding totally corny it's also a great way to spend quality time with your SO. My bf and I take turns cooking each other new recipes and invariably we get great entertainment out of the disasterous attempts to impress eachother.

But cooking needn't be complicated either - over time you build a stock of easy dishes that you can knock up in ten or fifteen minutes and taste just as good, if not better, than an over-priced, over-cooked, chemically enhanced cholesterol-fest Chinese takeaway.

Salads with nuts and fruit added to them, quality meat with in-season vegetables, home-made soup to warm up your belly on a cold day - the options for healthy eating are endless.

RoundyMooney wrote:

I drink sporadically at home, but when in the pub (once or twice a week), my norm is 8 to 10 pints. What's scary is that I can handle it, and tell myself it's not excessive, when of course it is.

This will be as easy or as difficult to change as you decide. Drinking a glass of water or a soft drink every other round will straightaway greatly reduce your alcohol consumption. If anyone gives you grief over it, more fool them.

RoundyMooney wrote:

My average daily diet:

Morning-sometimes nothing, sometimes two or three slices of toast (white) and two cups of machine coffee. Centrum, and probiotic drink.

Lunch (although could be any time from ten to two), white roll with ham and mayo, coffee again, and possibly a sugarfree red bull.

Evening: Bad news; Chinese, chipper food, thick base pizza & pasta...

It's a cliche, but read the diet and nutrition sticky. The information probably looks ridiculously scary at first, but it all boils down to a couple of very simple principles:

• no junk food/ takeaways/ pre-made meals
• lots of vegetables, and I mean LOTS of veg, ideally multiple times a day
• your diet should consist of protein (lean meat, nuts, eggs, dairy), good fats (nuts, seeds, avocadoes, nut/seed oils, oily fish) and wholegrains (oats, wholemeal breads and pastas)
• keep caffeine, alcohol, sugar and salt to a minimum

Sticking with the simple changes idea, in your case that translates to:
Morning - wholemeal toast with natural peanut butter or honey or scrambled eggs on toast or a bowl of porridge with a piece of fruit.

Lunch - a wholemeal sandwich with ham or cheese and salad or a salad with meat in it. Between meals you can snack on yoghurts or nuts and fruits (fresh or dried) to keep your energy levels up and stop you relying on coffee and red bull for much-needed sustenance.

Dinner - a home cooked meal.

DeV has also started to take care of his diet (it was atrocious to begin with so any changes were good ) and there's plenty of advice that you could apply to your own situation. So far DeV is doing a brilliant job and has admitted that the changes weren't as difficult to implement as he'd feared. You don't have to live a super-clean, super-healthy life to be fit, you just need to make changes that count.

RoundyMooney wrote:

What I want:

No belly, better aerobic and cardio fitness, and a bit more bulk all round.

The belly will take care of itself as you clean up the diet and in particular reducing the beer intake will go a long way. As well as all the extra calories, beer tends to mess up your hormonal balance and encourages your body to store fat more regularly than a non-drinker.

For aerobic and cardio fitness look no further than a pair of walking shoes and your home gym. Take it easy at first - the last thing you need is to give yourself an injury putting an end to your get-fit quest before it's really begun. The walking every day will help hugely, but don't put too much pressure on yourself over it too. Instead of making the walk/cycle extra-curricular, integrate it into your daily routine - walk or cycle to something so that you have to do it!

I've just realised this post is now monumentally long so I'm going to stop it at that for now - how's everything sounding so far?

BlueIsland

i think the above post covers a lot. Dont even consider Lipotrim. You dont sound chroncically over weight. I will just add couple things which might help.

a-I would advise firstly finding out how many calories you require a day (great formula in the stickies). eat less calories than that by ten per cent every day and you are going to lose weight. My requirements are 3200, so eat say 2800.

b- eat five to six smaller meals a day.(stops you being extremely hungry at one sitting).

c- Limit cardohydrates- bread, rice, pasta, potatoes etc.

d- CHICKEN BREASTS AND FISH- NOT BREADED OR BATTERED. put these with a load of veg and baked beans and you have great healty meal.

e- give up the takeaways. You are going to notice a change straight away. home cooked food is so much better.

f- exercise four to five times a week.

g- drink water throughout the day (whenever you get a chance)

Do all these things and you WILL notice a change and will feel so much better.

Dudess

g'em wrote: »

And the great news is that the benefits will be noticeable almost instantaneously so straight away you'll get positive reinforcement to remind you what a good job you're doing.

Yep. I'm in a similar age group to you, Roundy (30 in May) and while I'm not overweight, the ridiculousness of my over-eating and boozing throughout late November and December/early January resulted in me sporting the beginnings of a tres sexy double chin. I got back into the swing of healthy eating and exercise last Monday and already the chin is gone! My brother hadn't seen me in two weeks and it was the first thing he noticed about me today. I also have a tendency to get a pudgy stomach (see my other thread on same) and my mum was saying it's starting to look a bit tidier already - not even a week of healthy living! And also throw in crap weather (so that meant less lunchtime power walks than I would have liked) and getting a nasty cold (that meant missing a couple of evening gym visits) into that week.
So the changes you make do seem to have instantaneous results, as g'em said. Of course that's only at the start, things do slow down after a while, but aren't those early changes a fantastic encouragement?!

I would also say to make sure you don't think to yourself "I'm on a diet and I'm gonna be fit by x time", rather view this as a permanent rehaul of your life that should last forever, not temporarily. It's remarkable how constantly reminding yourself of this makes you feel so much less restricted than you would if you considered yourself to be on a diet. And it also makes it infinitely less guilt-inducing when you have the odd treat. I think the "dieting" mindset guarantees failure and just makes you feel miserable and prone to going on a binge.

Anyway, best of luck!

CareBear99

Wow thats an awful lot of things to change at once!! But congrats on the good attitude and determination!! Maybe you should try introducing small changes week by week:
Giving up smoking up alone is a huge step to take towards improving your health! I know you still plan to smoke socially but cutting them out during the week is really good!
Food-wise: just start by making small changes!
1. Brown instead of white everything!!
2. If you have milk in coffee, skim instead of whole! you will get used to the taste in a few days!
3. Cut out the takeaways! You can make your own versions of take-away meals at home, way cheaper and healthier! e.g. sweet and sour chicken, you can easily make a much healthier version at home (and nicer in my opinion! ) and if you really want pizza or chips, plain cheese pizza you make in the oven is lower in calories and fat than take away version,oven chips instead of takeaway ones..... you get the drift!
You can move on to even healthier meals after you get used to living without take aways!
A home gym, i would kill for that! :O Half an hour of exercise 3 times a week shouldnt be too hard and even that will make a difference!
Good luck!

juanveron45

Hi Roundy

You should try the bodyforlife programme by bill phillips its the most practical fitness program ever invented

The book is only 20 euro at easons

You can get more info at www.bodyforlife.com

and www.bfltracker.com is a good support site

fast74

hi,
reading your post i've picked up on some things that sounded very familiar to me so i hope these points will be of some use to you.

No belly, better aerobic and cardio fitness, and a bit more bulk all round.

I think your goals are too vague, how will you know when you've succeeded? This is often the problem with the january gym people, they go in looking to be "just, kinda more fit and maybe loose some fat" and get disheartened because they don't see results when really they don't know what results to look for.
I would recommend setting yourself something to aim for, run x kilometres in x time, maybe you were active in a sport and want to get back into it. basically your success needs to be measurable! Since I don't see a particular sport mentioned can I recommend you look at Crossfit, which teaches a day-to-day functional fitness that's measurable.

a lot of goal setting boils down to asking yourself what you're prepared to give up to achieve you goals, .e.g time, money, etc.

Beer: I need to do something about this. Alternative suggestions to swigging pints (bottles of lite beer? wine?) most welcome.

I suspect you already know the answer to this question, but maybe hoping that someone here will say "actually, you can drink as much as you like of brand xyz"?

RoundyMooney

Thank you all for your comprehensive and informed replies, and for the warm welcome!

I won't go multiquote central here, but will try and acknowledge your replies in sequence, and give you updates/thoughts/random ramblings as they happen...

-g'em: That's one mammoth reply, thanks for taking the time to reply in such depth! Oprah speak is good, because it encourages me greatly to look forward to the positive benefits (Oprah style yo-yo dieting is something I'll try to avoid, however ). As regards the spread, unfortunately I've parted with a lot of cash from the high stool over the years, and as such the belly has been a constant part of my life. No more.

I've read the sticky, as you advise (an excellent resource), and will post more on this as I progress. I'll come back to the food end of things in my next post(s).

I was in the boozer last night, and for the first time in years, drank bottles instead of pints. Round for round, that's halved my consumption straight off the bat. One night a week of that, as opposed to the two or more I've been enjoying up to now can't be a bad thing. Maybe it's something I can look at further, down the line.

The walking has already begun, and feels good. Time to get the bike out too, the suggestion to integrate rather than go for a specifically defined stroll/cycle is a great idea.

-Blueisland: Thanks for the excellent dietary advice, and the calorie figures you outlined. I'll come back with figures of my own from the sticky later.

-Dudess: Glad to hear your own plans are working well for you, you seem to have a good handle on things from a mental perspective, and I have to agree that this is going to be a permanent change, and take encouragement from your own experience. I really need to stop the rot, before I hit 35, and look 45. Given the factors that are working against us all (the weather, darkness outside after working hours etc.) I'm starting to think that New Years resolutions should start in June

-Carebear: It's a lot to take on, I agree I guess doing it all together, even a small step at a time, is better than going all out on one aspect (such as kicking the takeaways), not seeing an improvement after, say a month, and going back to square one. I feel this is where I've been going wrong before.

I appreciate too guys, the fact that you're not cracking down on me about the smoking. Yes, I know it's bad, I know it's given me the lung capacity of a seventy year old Victorian coal miner, but I'm blindly optimistic that cutting down the consumption, together with aerobic activity will help. Who knows, after a while, I may just decide that I don't want to be a weekend smoker. In a positive sense of course

I feel ashamed of myself, having read here of some of your difficulties in trying to train at home, of the fact that I have a perfectly good gym sitting idle. I hope to do it justice from hereonin...

-Juanveron: Thanks for sending on those links, I'll be sure to check them out

-fast74: Some fair points there. I should probably assess myself in terms of where I want to be in, say, 6 months. A physical (appearance) definition is hard to arrive at, to a degree anyway. No belly is easy enough, but fitness is the key. To be honest, I don't know where I'm at yet in terms of benchmarking my speed and endurance, but it is something I need to look at, as critically as I can.

As regards the alcohol, tbh I'm not looking for someone to justify what was too high an intake (in terms of health). As I say above, I've already gone from pints to an equal number of bottles, but was wondering if it is the alcohol that does the damage in terms of retaining fat, or the beer itself. I had in my head that the likes of Coors Lite or something would be the way to go.

Actually, I see there's another thread on beer, so I might keep an eye to that

RoundyMooney

I'll ramble here if I can, as things come to mind...

My thinking is, that if I do all this in the unforgiving glare of boards.ie, I'll be less inclined to quietly drop it to one side and forget about it a month down the line

Out for a few beers last night (as I posted above), and although I hadn't officially started (had the last dirty Chinese meal yesterday-at least the last regular one), I had bottled beer round for round, instead of pints. Still had a good night, and didn't go for chipper food after-yay...

Today kicked off with the aforementioned early morning walk, but I cheated and skipped breakfast , as I hadn't prepared by buying the requisite porridge, eggs etc. (more of that in a minute).

Called home for lunch, brown grain loaf, with Flora spread, and scrambled eggs (2) , yum. No tea or coffee, but a glass of semi skimmed, and a banana.

This was rather late in the day (around one) so dinner was around six. Roast lamb, potatoes, veg and gravy (avoided that ).

As g'em has suggested, if I need to snack, I now have the yoghurts and nuts to pick at, rather than crisps or chocolate.

My eyes were opened today. I nipped into Tesco to buy some proper food, (ready made soups, brown loafs-triple grain ftw), semi skimmed milk (never had that before), porridge etc. etc.

I'm a modern man, I go to supermarkets and all that, but, the amount of healthy food that I've been walking past for years just beggars belief! It's probably obvious to most of you, but there are whole food groups in the place that I'd never even noticed before, and you know what? Most of it looks good.

I think I'm going to enjoy this.

Dudess

RoundyMooney wrote: »

Given the factors that are working against us all (the weather, darkness outside after working hours etc.) I'm starting to think that New Years resolutions should start in June

Yep, well March at least. But it's all about doing what you can. You're only gonna be able to do small bits at this stage anyway exercise-wise, so it's not as if you need hours of daylight and dry weather.

And as for the last line of your post above: it is enjoyable. Do keep us updated anyway. Glad to be of help

g'em

It's a step-by-step process Roundy, and you've already put the wheels in motion by making small alterations to your habits so kudos to you.

Skipping breakfast is a big no-no - of all the meals to miss during the day, breakfast is the worst one. Even if you haven't time to sit down to porridge a piece of fruit or a piece of wholegrain toast running out the door is better than an empty tummy and wildly fluctuating hormones.

And yeah, supermarkets are great when you expand your culinary horizons!!! In fact as you get used to cooking a shopping for wholefoods you'll find that you spend more and more time in just the first aisle or two - the fresh foods aisle. Everything on the "inside" of the supermarket is processed, long shelf-life muck and stretches the imagination for the definition of "food".

Have fun and well-done!!

Khannie

Good luck Roundy. Sounds like you're making some really positive changes. Nice one.

It's a pity you don't want to quit smoking. I think you're gonna find it very hard to keep giving yourself that nicotine hit at the weekend, then starve yourself during the week. Honestly, it would be /much/ easier to just quit. At least that way you're not going through withdrawal every week. Just the once (at the start). I'm not trying to push that on you. I just think doing the weekend thing would be savagely difficult.

Maybe consider nicotine gum or patches for during the week? I'm not a fan of them, but I think you're more likely to hit your goal that way.

For what it's worth: I smoked about the same as you. Works out at around 60 euro a week (cos you always smoke more down the boozer, etc.). That's 3K after tax a year. Quitting is like getting a 5 grand pay raise!

Smellyirishman

While I'd agree with Khannie in principal, I think it would be way too much to take on, I already think you may be taking on too much as it is. Best of luck Roundy, perhaps a journal in the journal section would help to keep you motivated?

Dudess

Khannie wrote: »

It's a pity you don't want to quit smoking. I think you're gonna find it very hard to keep giving yourself that nicotine hit at the weekend, then starve yourself during the week. Honestly, it would be /much/ easier to just quit. At least that way you're not going through withdrawal every week. Just the once (at the start). I'm not trying to push that on you. I just think doing the weekend thing would be savagely difficult.

Some individuals can do it though - e.g. me. You'd have to pay me to smoke when I'm sober, yet I fuppin' LOVE one with a drink, so I buy a box around every fortnight.

ali.c

Dudess wrote: »

Some individuals can do it though - e.g. me. You'd have to pay me to smoke when I'm sober, yet I fuppin' LOVE one with a drink, so I buy a box around every fortnight.

True but the only people i have ever known to do it with any type of ease are people who never really smoked on a daily basis. Personally i think what the OP is planning to do requires alot more will power to do rather than purely giving up. But then this isnt the stop smoking forum and the OP believes he can do it!

RoundyMooney

True.

I don't want to get bogged down in the smoking issue (I'm having one now;) ), but am going to try and come down gradually. I've halved my consumption so far since day one, by spacing them more or less equally through out the day, so if I can maintain that for a couple of days, I'll step it up further...

Khannie, thanks for the support, a journal is an excellent idea, and is exactly what I need.

More triple grain loaf this morning, tuna (drained 100g) and brown ciabatta type thing for lunch, and later is chicken (pre roasted-no skin, brown rice and curry sauce (not homemade unfortunately). Might have a second short walk later too.

Feel free to pick holes in what I'm up to btw, that's why I'm here I'd rather eliminate the mistakes now rather than give up later.