My new healthy plan - thoughts please?

thorbarry

Hey guys, this is my first time posting here. Basically I am trying to loose some belly fat. I am about 5'10, 25 years old, im not fat, but my belly has gotten big the past year/two. The only place that I am fat is the belly/ waist, everything else is fine. I used to be a size 32/34 jeans size, but recently I bought my first pair of 36 waist size.

The main reason I put on the weight (I think) is from eating out. I have been doing this far too much over the past year/ two. McDonalds, Italian restaurants, lunch out at the weekends (Panini + chips), sometimes 3 times a week, not good.

I am starting running again (I tried last year, and lasted about a month), I went out on Sunday and managed to run for 2 minutes non stop, walk for a bit, then run for 1 min no stop. I am going to go run at least 3 times a week, my levels are pretty low at the moment, but I am hoping in a few weeks they will be a bit better. I am going to attempt this running plan I seen online, I don't know if it is too hardcore or not, but I can try my best. I also have to walk 25 minutes after work every day to my bus stop, which is good. Here's the running plan

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/beginners/get-started-schedules/30.html

The Schedule
Week 1 Run one min, walk 90 seconds. Repeat eight times. Do three times a week.
Week 2 Run two mins, walk one min. Repeat seven times. Do three times a week.
Week 3 Run three mins walk one mins. Repeat six times. Do three times a week.
Week 4 Run five mins, walk two mins. Repeat four times. Do three times a week.
Week 5 Run eight mins, walk two mins. Repeat three times. Do three times a week.
Week 6 Run 12 mins, walk one min. Repeat three times. Do three times a week.
Week 7 Run 15 mins, walk one min, Run fifteen mins. Do three times a week
Week 8 Run 30 mins continuously.

This is the second day of my healthy plan, but maybe you guys can have a look and see if it is ok? This is a typical day for me, its easy to time as I am in work mon-fri 9-5. Sorry for the really long post, and thanks in advance for your thoughts

8:30 Breakfast - bowl of porridge, cup of tea

11:30 Snack - banana

1pm Lunch - 4 cracker breads, bit of butter. 1 slice of ham, and 1 slice of cheese spread between the 4 cracker breads, with a rice krispie square bar (a treat!) and a cup of tea, and an apple after that

4-5pm Snack - if I cant hold out till dinner, have another banana

6-7 Dinner - it really varies on the day, but this is 6 meals I would eat, off the top of my head. Veg would usually consist of either carrots, broccoli or peas, sometimes 2 of them

- chilli con carne with rice (or if im feeling good, 2 waffles instead of rice)
- grilled pork chops with mash and veg
- spaghetti bonalagse
- roast chicken breast, mash and veg
- salmon, with baby potatoes and veg
- homemade Mexican hot pot (mince, cooked with chilli powder and peppers, mixed in with a tin of chopped tomatoes. Put in a casserole dish and put mash potato on top.)

Id drink at least 2 litres of water per day also

corkcomp

diet isnt too bad, BUT lunch is a disaster man!

if you want to lose weight and belly fat, with only an average diet then 30 minutes three times a week wont really cut it ... try to run 4 or 5 times a week, the plan you posted looks good. you should also do plenty body weight exercises - check em out on google ...

cmyk

corkcomp wrote: »

diet isnt too bad, BUT lunch is a disaster man!

Yeh, try to substitute it with a chicken/tuna salad or something to get a better balance and some more veg. Maybe change one of your snacks to and apple/pear and small handful of nuts too rather than 2 bananas.

Sign up for fitday.com account, it'll count your calories and give you an idea of the balance of foods you're eating too, don't have to do it everyday as you'll prob find you eat similarly day to day. And good luck!

thorbarry

Cool, thanks guys. So lunch is a bad one, this is always something I've struggled with. I take it sandwiches are out of the question too

Chicken salad is do able, just means putting a bit more work in, the night before to make it. Any other suggestions for lunch?

Yea I will try get out and run more than 3 times a week, but I am setting 3 times as my minimum.

I'll deffo take a look at some body weight exercises. Its pretty hard going from doing no exercise at all to all this, but I am sure I can do it

thorbarry

Just thinking about lunch again. I will eat salad, but not every day. How about brown soda bread? is this good? if so, how much should i eat? or what about wholegrain bread?

KGA333

if you want to go for bread, then wholegrain as far as possible is the best way to go. Try to steer clear of the processed slice pans, even of they are wholegrain they're not great. Perhaps make a loaf of healthy brown bread with some wholegrain seeds etc to have throughout the week with your chicken salad. Making a large portion of a homemade veg soup to last you a few days would also be good.

cmyk

thorbarry wrote: »

Chicken salad is do able, just means putting a bit more work in, the night before to make it. Any other suggestions for lunch?

Eating healthy unfortunately means putting in a bit of extra effort.

Make up some sauce at the start of the week, tomato based/garlic/onion/herbs/whatever you like, then you can add pasta and meat/fish to it if you have access to a microwave on lunch and nuke it up.

Oatcakes with peanut butter/cashew butter. Scrambled eggs. Homemade soups. Good thing about a salad is you can change it everyday... Chicken/tuna/mackerel/shrimp/cheese etc. Quiches. Make extra of your dinners from the night before and bring it in with you.

thorbarry

Scrambled eggs is something id be having at the weekend alright, homemade soup is a great idea, my gf loves making it

Making up a sauce is a great idea, i love cooking so this isn't a problem. If i was to make a tomato based sauce, on a Sunday night, would this be good for the week? or would it start to go off after 3/4 days?

ragg

thorbarry wrote: »

Just thinking about lunch again. I will eat salad, but not every day. How about brown soda bread? is this good? if so, how much should i eat? or what about wholegrain bread?

When it comes to weight loss, there is a little saying -

"Meat beats Wheat"

cmyk

thorbarry wrote: »

Scrambled eggs is something id be having at the weekend alright, homemade soup is a great idea, my gf loves making it

Making up a sauce is a great idea, i love cooking so this isn't a problem. If i was to make a tomato based sauce, on a Sunday night, would this be good for the week? or would it start to go off after 3/4 days?

It'll keep as long as soup would I guess 4-5days in the fridge? You can make a big pot, soon as it cools, put them straight into small containers and stick em in the freezer, mine are practically soups to be honest. Just throw loads of veg and curry/chilli powder etc for an extra kick. If you like cooking you're more than half way there.

Have a read of the ingredients on the back of the packet of ham.

Powerplate

thorbarry wrote: »

just means putting a bit more work in, the night before to make it.

Preparation is the key. Once you get into the habit of being prepared, it'll be very easy for you.

thorbarry

Powerplate wrote: »

Preparation is the key. Once you get into the habit of being prepared, it'll be very easy for you.

yea thats it, once i get into a routine it will become much easier.

how would 4 bits of cracker bread with tomatoes and chicken be, ok? with a side salad?

thanks again for the help, i really know nothing

Gaz

Cracker bread is rubbish ... have a couple of slices of McCambridges or a few ryvita instead.

Transform

hit the body weights exercises hard - it will make a bigger difference to your body than running alone. Will also help with controling blood sugar levels

thorbarry

Cool, body weight exercises it is. How regularly should I do them starting off? Is it a day on/ day off kind of thing. I found theses (first page when i googled it)

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/tipsandtricks/a/basictraining.htm

poconnor16

thorbarry wrote: »

Cool, body weight exercises it is. How regularly should I do them starting off? Is it a day on/ day off kind of thing. I found theses (first page when i googled it)

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/tipsandtricks/a/basictraining.htm

To try help with lunch......
Keep clear of crackerbread - it white, refined air! Ryvita are great if you want crackers, the more seeds the better. Turkey slices are better than ham, some low fat cheese - have some home made veggie soup as well.

If you dont have time to prep, buy some wholewheat wraps, some tins of tuna, and chop up as much veggies as you want - doesn't take long. Stick some Hummous in there too for some taste.

Not sure how much carb you are allowing yourself, but you can now buy wholegrain rice, microwave in 2 mins - maybe keep for the days when you are having a lighter dinner that evening?

Thanks for your post - its interesting to see what others are doing. Best of luck to you.:)

thorbarry

poconnor16 wrote: »

Thanks for your post - its interesting to see what others are doing. Best of luck to you.:)

thanks for your input. It's great to get advice of different people, with all the different advice/ info, I can make a plan that suits me

thorbarry

so i did my first proper bit of running yesterday. It might not be much for most people here, but it was alot for me. I got a bit tough towards the end, but i did it

Week 1 Run one min, walk 90 seconds. Repeat eight times. Do three times a week.

poconnor16

thorbarry wrote: »

so i did my first proper bit of running yesterday. It might not be much for most people here, but it was alot for me. I got a bit tough towards the end, but i did it

Week 1 Run one min, walk 90 seconds. Repeat eight times. Do three times a week.

Congratulations! Trick now is to keep it up....and just dont over do it. If you rush this you will end up hating running, so stick to your plan. A marathon is measured differently for every person - so run your own before competing against others.

thorbarry

poconnor16 wrote: »

Congratulations! Trick now is to keep it up....and just dont over do it. If you rush this you will end up hating running, so stick to your plan. A marathon is measured differently for every person - so run your own before competing against others.

Thanks

So yesterday I completed my first week of running. my last run, I found much easier than the other 2. Roll on week 2

nbrady

Hi Thorbarry,

Was just curious after reading this thread how you got on after. The discussion was back in Jan so you have had ~6 months.
Have you found a plan that works for you?
Any tips or tricks you found were useful?
Any pitfalls?
If you had any plan info that you could post that would be great.

tnx.