I am gonna do this... Please Help Me!

WorriedSick

Hey Guys,

I am determined to lose weight and get healthy, I was at an important work function last week and had to be fitted out for a Tux (Haven't worn one in about 4 years) and I was a size 48.. I was so embaressed. Basically, I have been overweight all my life. I am 26 and currently 19 stone. Last week was a wake-up call. I have my dream job at the moment and want to do this to improve my quality of life, up to now, the big problem has been will-power and motivation. I joined a gym today and have an assestment this weekend. My new life starts at Midnight Tonight..Any advice would be greatly appreciated.. Wish Me Luck!

Transform

WorriedSick wrote: »

Hey Guys,

I am determined to lose weight and get healthy, I was at an important work function last week and had to be fitted out for a Tux (Haven't worn one in about 4 years) and I was a size 48.. I was so embaressed. Basically, I have been overweight all my life. I am 26 and currently 19 stone. Last week was a wake-up call. I have my dream job at the moment and want to do this to improve my quality of life, up to now, the big problem has been will-power and motivation. I joined a gym today and have an assestment this weekend. My new life starts at Midnight Tonight..Any advice would be greatly appreciated.. Wish Me Luck!

real simple read the stickies then read them again then print them out and keep reading them for about a month and you will go places.

EileenG

Go to the gym and have a ball. At 19 stone you almost certainly have a great muscle base under the fat, it's just a matter of showing it off. But it means you should make great gains quickly.

Diet is the big thing for you. And the good news is that you don't have to reduce the volume of food you eat, just improve the quality. Try swopping green vegetables for white carbs (have cauliflower instead of pasta or spuds). Eat more protein and healthy fats, less refined foods and sugar. Cottage cheese is a great high protein snack and there's a recipe floating around that means it tastes like dessert, not punishment.

Pilatesgirl

Some tips

1. Food
I find the GL diet by Patrick Holford is a great way to shed weight and boost energy. You're able to eat a huge amount of food (the right foods) on this diet, I love it. Always have healthy snacks with you in the office or kept in your car so that when you are really hungry on the move you alwasy have something healthy to hand.

2. Music
Get some of your favourite upbeat songs on your Ipod - I can run/walk for so much longer when I have great music blaring away.

3. Transport
Bike or walk to work. There are huge savings to be had from the government bike scheme. Or if you use the luas get off a stop or 2 early on your way home. Same goes for driving -park further away so you have to walk a bit. It all adds up!

4. Classes
Find a sport/class/active hobby you enjoy. I found pilates and I find im more motivated to do something I have an interest in. Also if you pay upfront for classes you will be more likely to attend, I find I skive off the gym when I have to motivate myself to go in the evenings.

Best of luck with it. It will definitely be worth it in the end

heno86

hey 3 pieces of advice...1 when you go to the gym prioritise resistance training first followed by cardio this will insure you tap straight into fat stores with the cardio and the weights will keep your metabolism revved up for hours after training...2 carb control is vitally impoprtant when trying to lose weight you would be shocked how fast you will lose weight by limiting carbs to smaller portions and only slow digesting carbs ie.porridge,brown rice 3 make sure your getting adequate protein to support your muscle mass and recovery(consider purchasing a whey protein supplement for post training) hope this helps pm me if you have any questions

WorriedSick

Hey Guys, Thanks for the advice. I started at midnight last night and its going fine so far. I am looking forward to feeling better, I am constantly tired the way things are at the minute. Before today my diet would have been pretty bad.. I usually just ate whatever was closest to me, quite alot of fast food too and dranks gallons of fizzy drinks aswell. Here's what I had today..

Breakfast: 2 Slices of Wholemeal Toast with Low Fat Spread and Strawberry Jam.. Tea with Low Fat Milk and Strawberry Yougurt.

Snack: Nutri Grain Bar

Lunch: Poached egg with 2 Slices of Wholemeal Bread

Dinner: 3 Small Boiled Potatoes, Lean Pork Chop (Cooked on George Foreman Grill) and lots of veg.

I have a Banana and Packet of Popcorn incase I get hungry in work Tonight, I am also drinking plenty of water.


Any Thoughts on Today??

FunkZ

Drop the Nutrigrain, potatoes, and bread. Replace the banana with strawberrys and blueberrys.

Try to keep carbs to the VERY MINIMUM, they cause fat gain.
Try and eat more sources of protein. Nuts, fish, boiled eggs, meat and chicken.

Be CONSISTENT, take photos, use a blog and you'll look and feel as good as you want to in time!

Don't give up, keep going man!

corkcomp

while I dont follow a low carb approach, the carbs you are taking in are mainly crap and the worst possible ones! you could have a bowl of porridge and some fruit later on for the same cals as your first two meals, and would be a lot more filling .... lunch is ok but not a lot of nutritional value aisde from little protein in eggs .. dinner looks ok as long as not too many potatoes ...

Pilatesgirl

First thought: you must be starving. A diet shouldnt necessarily be about eating less food. You just need to eat less of the bad foods and more of the good foods - that way you will be hungry less of the time because the foods you eat will give you better energy. A bag of popcorn would not keep me going very long....

I agree, the carbs youre eating are not the best - you'll be hungry again in no time. One good tip is to have carbs with protein. Protein helps to slow down the release of sugar from carbs. Try have smaller portions of carbs (better carbs e.g. pumpernickle style rye bread instead of white bread), eaten at the same time as protein (e.g an egg - so a modification on your egg on toast). Oat cakes are a good idea to eat instead of bread.

Totally agree with funkZ - berries all the way. Very low GL and great for energy. For a snack, have a hand full of almonds or some other nuts at the same time as fruit.

Another great snack is hummus with crudites - so chop up some carrots and cucumber and dip into hummus as a healthy snack.

For Brekkie I would suggest a bowl of porridge (I add xylobrit to sweeten its a substitute sugar made from birch of trees, tastes the EXACT same as sugar & is only about one tenth the calores - not bad for you at all use it in cooking/baking everything and you can buy it in any health food shop).

Also for brekkie, the good carb company do a low-carb granola which is delicious. Make sure to take the time to have a really good breakfast as it does set you up for the day and prevent you from chowing down on junk by 11am!!

Try and make some low cal home made soups. Make a huge quantity and freeze it all so that you can take it out the night before and bring it to work with you the next day. Soups are filling and good with oatcakes for lunch.

Eat lots of oily fish e.g. 3 to 4 meals a week (not too much tuna because of the mercury so probably only once a week).
Try brown rice or quinoa instead of lots of potatoes.

The GL diet definitely works for me because I dont have to eat less I just changed what I eat & my eating habits - I now snack more throughout the day - never let yourself get incredibly hungry. If I were you I would do some research online to find some low GL recipes or else invest in a good low GL cookbook with lots of recipes/ideas for healthy meals.

Hope this advice all helps. Stick with it, you won't look back!!!

ragg

As transform has said - work out your daily allowances now - get used to them and learn the protein, carb & fat content of pretty much every food stuff you eat. So you will soon be able to think up meals on the spot..

Also, workout with weights - Squats, Deadlifts, Bench press, rows, shoulder press, dips... some are tough to learn, consider getting a trainer to teach them to you,

There are many reasons to work out with weights - Most are exlained here

http://alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

September Alwyn Cosgrove seems to have gone into explination overdrive...

WorriedSick

Thanks again for all your tips and advice. I am at the end of day 2 now and its going fine. I have been going through the stickies and they are really helpful. I have noticed over the past 36 hours, I have been peeing much more frequently.. Would this be considered as a good/bad thing? Sorry if its a silly question but its just something that I noticed!

metamorphosis

WorriedSick wrote: »

Thanks again for all your tips and advice. I am at the end of day 2 now and its going fine. I have been going through the stickies and they are really helpful. I have noticed over the past 36 hours, I have been peeing much more frequently.. Would this be considered as a good/bad thing? Sorry if its a silly question but its just something that I noticed!

Are you drinking more water than usual. If so than yes it is quite normal and your body will adjust in ime. Well done so far ... keep it up. I lost 5 and a half stone a while back and never looked back. I forget what it was like. It's hard work but abs****inglutley worth it.