BG Fitness Fanatics II: We Work Out

[Mina]

I can skip ranch and mayo, they aren't really essential to me. I just like spicy food. The more painful hot I get to taste, the more I enjoy it.

Bread is a vice of mine but not as much as rice. I could eat rice for every meal of the day...

I'm not a very good cook but I do have a slow cooker and someone bought me a ninja-slicer-food-cutting-processor thing as commemoration of my willingness to adjust to a healthier lifestyle. I guess to make some sort of healthy liquid drink thing.

[BerenTebogo]

Rule #37

Never drink your calories while trying to lose weight. When you're hungry as shit at the end of the day and you realize you tanked almost 300 calories on 2 glasses of orange juice, you're gonna hate life.

Juice is ridiculously caloric for how little it offers you. Same with fruit, unfortunately. Use the myfitnesspal app to get a feel for some of this stuff.

[Mina]

Got it. I will avoid it then.
I'm filling out the diary entry for breakfast in the app now that I have it all set up.

We'll see how the rest of the day goes while I add it to the app. Curious to see how far off I was to meeting the calories it wants me to be consuming either over or under.

The whole thing about my plan for dieting and exercising is developing good habits. If I can develop the habit I probably will stick to it. More or less why I'm hesitant about making too many changes at the same time. I'll just cave under the whole changing my lifestyle being too much.

Edit: Also, I'll see if I can schedule an appointment with my doctor to see about what sort of exercise would be best to avoid impacting my feet. He will probably do a jig when he hears that I have plans to exercise.

Edit2: I forgot to mention, thank you guys for keeping this thread going and bumping it with your discussions. It was partially the reason why I am trying to change myself for the better. I really don't give a shit what society thinks of my weight, appearance, etc. But I do feel guilt over not being healthy as a person and when I read other people working hard to make themselves better, I feel like I am not making the same effort and letting my body down. Thanks.

And while I'm going to let myself be vulnerable for a minute, I am probably around 70 lbs overweight for my height/frame/etc. I'll fill you guys in on the progress but I will likely keep the amount to myself until all the water weight is shed and I've gotten into the swing of things. :< Do I have to submit a progress report card monthly or something to get to stay in the thread? I'm kidding. I figure if I surround myself more with people bettering themselves, I will absorb knowledge and motivation to keep myself going.

[RKenshin]

Sath covered a lot of good points, I'll add in a few more:

Removed all the junk food I snack on in the house.
No more soda to be found and no candies.... And probably "drink more water" like really, I need to introduce probably way more water into my diet.

These changes alone, if you stick to them, will help a good deal in losing weight. Diet is even more important than exercise.

Add in some exercise too though, and you'll definitely be heading in the right direction long-term.

Though, eating healthier doesn't mean you can't have snacks - it's just that you should have/find healthier ones if/when you need them. I wouldn't recommend starving yourself in between meals just to avoid snacks, as it can make it more difficult to portion control and not overeat.

Stuff like a banana, natural yogurt/greek yogurt (try to avoid high sugar ones), peanuts/trail mix (avoid overly salty or sugar-added), apple, granola, etc... can find some pretty creative/fun snacks on Pinterest/the interwebs.

Going to do this until Feb and see what progress I've made in my eating habits and minor exercise.

Need to give yourself more time than this. Too short of a period to see significant change in most people.

Marketing and the brand sensationalism surrounding exercise/diet/weight loss has got people too tunnel-vision'd on this idea of 'must lose 5lbs/week and/or 20lb/month or die trying/give up!' Take it at your own pace. Keeping track of progress and setting goals is fine, but don't lose grasp of the bigger picture - that this is about living and being healthier/better. Focus on the ladder and the pounds will drop over time, even if they don't drop every single week or even 2-3 weeks.

Also, you can't look at this as something you change short-term for quick results. This should be a lifestyle change, with long-term goals and an ultimate healthier/better/longer life.

That said, best of luck and I hope that things go well. Stick with it, it's not easy and staying dedicated in the beginning is always the hardest part.

[Mina]

Oh I definitely didn't mean progress on actually losing weight. I'm not looking at numbers here.

More like, hey am I just naturally getting a cup of water or am I struggling to fight the urge for soda sort of change.

I guess I just want to see positive habits being made. If I get to February and say 'well getting water isn't a pain anymore' I will call it one victory.

I think mistakes in the past were I would spend 6 months dieting, exercising, checking the scale till I went mad and getting frustrated that nothing was changing. When I put that as my priority it was easy to get depressed that nothing I was doing seemed to work. I guess I want to see if I enter with the mindset of "change my habits" if it will help me ease into losing weight. The ultimate goal is health anyways. If I'm still overweight after eating healthier and exercising, I'll just be happier that my body is in shape and I'll get more sleep and feel less winded. None of that is bad.

[Chrius]

It might help to know where you're starting from. It is true that the scale isn't end all be all and checking measurements might be more appropriate unless you know going a couple weeks without change will be too discouraging. Also, during the 6 months of dieting, if it was spent eating 'health foods' without counting calories then there's a lot of room for going nowhere and subsequently getting frustrated

[BerenTebogo]

Yeah, at the end of the day, you'll only lose weight if you are at a calorie deficit.

You can easily eat 2000+ calories of celery and humus, or vegan nonsense, preventing yourself from losing any weight.

[Mina]

Is starting from meaning like my prior attempts at losing weight and getting healthier or like my weight right now?

Last I checked with my doctor, I am around 70-80 lbs over weight for my height/body size.

The 6 months of dieting was restricting my diet to what my fitness instructor recommended and exercising regularly with him. It was very stressful for me and by the end of it, I didn't feel like I changed or wanted to change anymore and pretty much relapsed into bad habits as soon as it was over. I also didn't observe any changes on the scale and it made me feel like my time was wasted. I think going so heavy handed in it and not enjoying the process along with no results made me bitter about the experience to the fault of no one but myself. I admit, I went in with a poor mindset and was doomed to fail when I didn't achieve the results I wanted.

I'm not new to dieting so I know myself that if I don't feel or observe changes while I am trying to lose weight, I get depressed with doing what's right for myself. It's a bad way to think like that. I just want to try to get into a healthy mindset I guess and let the results speak for themselves.

Starting with trying to stop thinking about how delicious soda is and how I want to drink three cans right now.

[Astylla]

I found for me cutting out the processed foods, sugar and white starches give me the best results. This was paired with 5-6 workout days which I'm trying to resume after a several month back injury. I focus on whole foods and meal planning. A good food scale is my bread and butter with myfitnesspal. I've kept 35 lbs off since last year (my lowest being 44 lbs lost). I started in April 2014 at 311 lbs and by August was down to 266. It took a lot of hard work but I still continue working on it as I have far to go. It might take time to find the correct balance for you. Give yourself 6 months of being committed. During my weight loss I still allowed myself to eat everything just not daily. Pintetest and www.skinnytaste.com are my bibles for food that is awesome and easy to make.

[Mina]

I'll keep that in mind. I'll let you guys know sometime in Feb how well my throwing bits of exercise and following this app to see how well I can maintain better portions and eating habits goes.
I'll be brutally honest if I mess up any along the way.

[FNH]

You will be unhappy for a few weeks after going to a healthier/natural diet since processed foods have ingredients that play with brain chemistry. Something to think about when buying groceries is to stay away from food you can't make or wouldn't make yourself. Something a lot of people forget to mention with a healthy diet is fiber.

Start slow and make progress. 1lb a week is the "healthy" weight loss goal as deemed by most physicians(which btw consult yours before starting a diet/exercise routine), but don't get over excited if you see a 5lb swing during the day because that can happen based on BM.

Personal anecdote I'd like to share. I'm on my second go on this. First ended with a vehicular accident then trying to juggle work/school, but before all that I had lost around 75lbs. The first month was as they advised to not lose more than 1-2 lbs a week, but then I was losing 10lbs+ a week. Now I'm trying to do it all over again. 15lbs and going strong.

[BerenTebogo]

Yeah when you do weigh yourself, do it at the same time every day. Usually right after you wake up and piss / crap / are still nakedish.

I eat so much meat and little fiber, it's not unusual for me to see 7-8lbs swings in 2 days based only on not shitting, eating a lot, and measuring weight at night. I didnt actually gain that much weight, I just haven't shit in 2-4 days and have been eating all day.

Etc

[Moss]

I can skip ranch and mayo, they aren't really essential to me. I just like spicy food. The more painful hot I get to taste, the more I enjoy it.

Bread is a vice of mine but not as much as rice. I could eat rice for every meal of the day...

I'm not a very good cook but I do have a slow cooker and someone bought me a ninja-slicer-food-cutting-processor thing as commemoration of my willingness to adjust to a healthier lifestyle. I guess to make some sort of healthy liquid drink thing.

Bread is ok as long as you transition to whole grain and stay away from the bleached white flour (think basic white bread, generic burger/hot dog buns, etc). Count the calories like anything else of course, just know they aren't "bad" calories.

[BerenTebogo]

FWIW I'm about to give some polarizing advice:

While starting your diet and trying to break really, really bad habits, if you've ever been on ADHD meds you might want to ask your doc to represcribe them or something.

One of the things that really helped me past the terror of the initial month of dieting was cleaning out the supply of ritalin I had stored up. Now I'm back on vyvanse which kills my appetite for minimum 8 hours which sucks for gains but is necessary for grad school.

If you can swing some short acting adderall or ritalin it should kill any desire to snack.

I know depending on kiddie crack isn't the best way to go, but since you've said that you've had a number of false starts before and are worried about failing, it might be something to keep in the back of your head.

K, end of the bad advice.

[thetruepandagod]

I would rather do crack than adderall that shit kept me awake for 4 days.

Also been sick the entirety of 2015 so far finally ready to go back to the gym again can't wait.

The biggest simplest thing she should do is just start by drinking ONLY water which others have said. It will make a significant change by itself in a month or so.

[Jefe]

Drinking water and walking for half hour or so when you wake up. If you have work in the mornings plan accordingly. Some people just go fucking crazy w/ all this advice and most of the time doesn't work because it's a lot to digest(!) for noobs. Chillax, take it easy. Make it a part of your life, like breathing.

[Mina]

I'm definitely struggling to keep up with everything that has been said, it's an awful lot of stuff and a bunch to change in my life. The hardest thing I'm pushing for (which was my first goal) was to kick soda. I've been trying to stay within the bounds of the app on my diet (calorie consumption and etc) I'm getting massive headaches. I think it's from not drinking soda or the caffeine, rather.

But I've upped my water consumption from 0 to 2 glasses. I know I need to drink more but I'm having trouble remembering/forcing myself to drink more water.
Eh, it's only day 3. I'll consume more water as I continue. Small victories, I'll take them. It'd be nice to not desire soda like an addict.

[BerenTebogo]

As someone who has kicked soda cold turkey down from close to a 2 liter per day: Caffeine withdrawal is real. You will get headaches, sweats, trouble sleeping, etc.

Stick it out. It sucks but you can do it.

Personal Fitness Stuff: Yesterday was 2 weeks since my surgery, had been lifting at about half weight against doctors orders off and on, whatever. Hit new DL PR of 1x5 315 right before xmas. Decided to build my way up and go for it yesterday on my 4th set. Ended up banging out 1x5 275 2x5 315 after basically 2 weeks off. Was so pumped.

Tried to do a legit full leg day after and only made it about 60% of the way through before the shakes set in and I thought I was gonna puke, lol.

[Wulfgang]

Just drink sugar free energy drinks / Coke Zero / etc. I have no issues with caffeine when working out or losing weight.

[Chrius]

Get / fill a brita pitcher and just keep it out at home. I drink way more glasses when I just need to pick it up and refill rather than go all the way over to the kitchen. This may be a general laziness problem on my end though