Here to help and be helped

Hi everyone. Like everyone here I'm trying to lose weight and get healthy. I've decided to change my life and be happier. Like most here my weight has been somewhat lopsided. Easy to put on and hard to take off. So I've made the changes in my life to beat this. I've always been able to accomplish anything I put my mind to except maintain a healthy weight. I used to be in fairly good condition , sometimes very muscular and just carrying a couple of extra pounds. But over time with work and life in general those muscles have turned to fat. Then I added it with more fat. It's a shame because I've coached numerous people through weight loss or training but have never totally committed and followed my own advise.

I wasn't feeling real well for a while and I knew something was wrong. I had never been sick, hospitalized or even broken a bone but I knew something was not right. I went to the doctors and they wanted to do all kinds of test. I decided I was not going to do that.

As of September 1, 2008 I decided to get contol of my life. I totally changed what I eat and how I eat it. I started workingout 6 days a week. Several weeks later I went into the doctors for a follow up and they were shocked at the changes in my blood results. Because of my lifestyle change I decided I wanted to face a challenge I always wanted to do. I've decided to train for my first triathlon. Now it's not till August of 2009 but it gives me a goal to obtain. Now I will start swimming, biking and running on November 1, 2008.

As of today I have lost 21 lbs, in just under 60 days. Not as much as I had hoped for considering the amount of work going into it, but I have to be reasonable that a healthy lose is about 1-2 lbs a week. Mine is about 7lbs averaged out.

So to all reading and on the board, I'll need your help. I will also help those trying to make the change.

Welcome welcome!! Unfortunately sometimes it takes a scare to snap us back into reality and make us realize we have to buck up and do something about our health. Sounds like you are on the right path, and it's great that your health is improving! What are you doing for workouts and food?

Everyone is here to help--it's a great team of folks!

For my eating I've gone to 5 times a day. Breakfast, AM snack, Lunch, PM snack and Dinner. No eating three hours before bed and lots of water. For the food I've limited what I eat to the top two tiers of Michi's Ladder. It's a food catagorizer that lets you see where the foods are that you are eating. If you eat from the top two tiers you will have the near perfect diet. It made a huge difference in how I feel and I have saved a lot of money not eating out. In almost 60 days I have not cheated once. I don"t really count calories I just watch what I'm eating making sure the quantity is reasonable. If I get hungry between scheduled eats, I'll eaither drink water or eat some carrots. I be sure to drink at least 12-16oz of water 10 minutes before I eat. This takes away some of that empty feeling and helps you not binge.

For the workout I'm doing Power 90. I do the express workout in the morning which is about 35 minutes and I do either the cardio or sculpting in the evening which is about 40 minutes. Soon I'll swim and run on one day and bike on the other replacing the express workout. I be sure to get my morning workout before I eat in the morning. Right out of bed and start. It kicks your matabalism in the butt. Three minutes into it, your awake...

This was taken from Beach body forum..


Posted 01-11-02 08:41 PM
BEACH BODY NUTRITION & WEIGHT LOSS
The Easy Six Week Diet Transition
In some ways, changing your diet is similar to making a successful resolution in that it's conceptual at first. Your long-range goal should just be to eat well. As your healthy eating behavior becomes a habit, you will find the other intangibles (such as weight loss, energy gained, etc.) falling into place. The easiest way to accomplish this is a gradual transition from food choices that don't help to food choices that do. By making this transition gradually over six weeks, we've found it to be the easiest diet program ever recommended.

Working in a 6-week cycle, you can train (or trick, if you will) your body into craving more nutritious foods. This cycle is easier if you're exercising because your body will crave the proper nutrients to re-build its broken down tissue.

Week 1
Eliminate the junk from your diet. That's it, just junk; no potato chips, candy, ice cream, etc. Other than this you may eat whatever you like... and here's the kicker: you may cheat on this twice, and that means for TWO WHOLE DAYS YOU CAN EAT WHATEVER YOU LIKE AND STILL SUCCEED!

Week 2
No eating for 3-hours before you go to bed. That way your body can go to sleep in fat-burning mode, rather than in calorie-storing mode. Plus each week carries over, so you still cannot have junk, except for the 2 days when you may cheat and eat whenever and whatever you like.

Week 3
Eat 5 to 6 small meals a day. If you make yourself do this, the size will control itself because you won't ever get ravenously hungry. Try to keep each meal balanced as close to 30% protein, 40% carbohydrates, and 30% fat as you can - and try and eat for what you will be doing for the next three hours (If you're working out, eat more, sitting at a desk, eat less)... Still no junk food, and still no eating three hours before bedtime. You may cheat on two days.

Week 4
Eliminate fast food and alcohol. This can be hard for many of us because we now have to plan our meals, but hey, it's only for a couple weeks. People tend to forget that alcohol has calories, and it also slows your metabolism. Cheat ONLY ONE DAY this week.

Week 5
Eat whole foods. This means that you eliminate any processed foods from your diet, such as bread, most salad dressings, almost all cereal, luncheon meats, cheese, anything with preservatives, and most everything served in restaurants. What you can eat are whole foods such as fruit, raw or steamed vegetables, meat (sans any type of sauce), natural grain rice, poached eggs, etc. It shouldn't be terribly hard since your eating habits have been slowly changing. Still, it's a hard week because it will feel like dieting. Try not to cheat, but you may if you find yourself getting ravenous - just keep your blowout to a minimum.

Week 6
Eat healthy. Eat whatever you want, following the general rules we've followed for the last five weeks. You may be surprised to find yourself craving something healthy instead of a candy bar or pint of Ben & Jerry's. You should now be better at listening to your body because it will tell you what it needs to eat, as opposed to what you're used to eating - especially if you're working out. Keep a couple of cheating days, allowing yourself to give in to occasional indulgences. Just try not to overdo it.

Now take some time off and don't think about dieting. Have your eating habits changed? Most likely they have. You may find that your body feels transformed and that you've shed some fat! More importantly, because you have gradually changed your lifestyle, your body is likely to maintain this change, without a lot of effort on your part.

You should now know enough about yourself to tweak the next 6-week plan to suit you. However, keep the cheating days. They are important, and not just because they allow you to have fun. Whenever you are restricting your caloric intake, your metabolism wants to slow down because it thinks that you are starving. By "cheating" a couple of days a week, you actually trick your metabolism to stay higher, so you lose more fat.

How do you get out of bed and jump right in? I half stumble out in a stupor and grunt unintelligibly until I get my morning coffee! :laugh:

lol, it's not easy to get out of bed and jump right into a workout. It all started when the alarm went off at 5:00AM and I turn the alarm off. I thought to myself, "I'm still tired and do I really need a morning workout, what was I thinking". Then while laying there that first morning I said to myself "that's an excuse". So I got up, put my shorts on then my shoes and turn the tv and DVD player on. Within 3 minutes of the warm up I was awake. By the time I got done, I was wide awake and felt great. Later that day it was time to do my evening workout but I was tired from getting up early. Again I told myself that it's just an excuse.

I've learned with the workouts that there is no reason not to do the workout. Because everything but the workout is an excuse. So that's what I live with. Stop with the excuses why you can't workout, why you can't keep with the meal plan. It is a matter of controlling your life. It's the same with when I quit smoking and quit caffeine.