Ever since I got back from Christmas in January I been actively working out and trying to lose weight. No crazy diets or anything though, just been trying to put some consideration into what I eat and drink, by trying to avoid things like fries and cola. Other small changes has been trying to eat a bowl of cereal (like Special K and similar) in the morning to avoid buying a baguette or something to carry me over to lunch. How successful I am in staying away from the worst offenders do wary a little from week to week, but I think that is fine as I don’t want to be religious about what I eat either. One thing that makes things a little hard is that the more work I work out, the bigger my appetite becomes, so part of the struggle is to keep eating at a normal level instead of nullifying the working out by eating shitloads more.
Been quite aggressive about the gym to, going there around 5 days a week. The plan has been to go to the gym every day, knowing that there will be stuff coming up hindering that, thus ending up on my ‘real goal’ of going 4-5 days a week. I also started walking back and forth to the office instead of biking.
Anyway, so in these now soon 9 Months I lost about 7-8 kilos total. Gone from weighing 106 kilo to 98 kilo, which I think isn’t to bad a weight for someone my height. Still plan to try to lose another 3-4 kilos, but since I have started with some strength building stuff in addition to the cardio, some of that slimming might get evened out weightwise by muscle growth.
Anyway, mostly writing this blog to held motivate myself for the next push downwards in weight :)
Special K isn’t actually a healthy breakfast. Try to get something like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli
This should also deal with the hunger, oh, and get your six meals a day.
@TrueTom: yeah, I a real muesli would probably be better, haven’t found one I really like yet though. I think the best way to kill the goal of a slimming diet is to eat food I don’t enjoy eating at all, as it would just end up turning me of such food completely.
Hey, nice to see others around in the same track! Way to go man!
We should do a “Lose weight with GNOME” program or something ;-)
Have you considered just making your bike commute longer by taking a detour? Some random (possibly unreliable) website I checked said if you bike at a “normal” pace (13mph vs. 3.5mph for walking), you go four times as fast as walking and burn half as many calories. So it seems like if you just doubled the length of your bike commute, you could burn the same amount of calories in 1/2 the time.
Of course, if your commute would make you sweat, then you’ll just lose that time to a shower. But still, biking is more fun, isn’t it? :)
If you don’t like the muesli you find in the supermarket, you maybe want to design your own: http://uk.mymuesli.com/
Haven’t tried it myself because I like my muesli from the shop nearby, but I heard a podcast with the owners and they seem to be very successful with it.
Fitness regimes are a waste of time, peddled by fitness consultants and gyms to try to get you to pay more money for no real gain. Same goes for most diets.
What Christian is doing is all he really needs to do. To lose more weight faster, eat less and run more. Want to build muscle faster? Workout more. All there is to it. Be sensible and safe (don’t eat too little or avoid carbs like the plaque or other dumb things), but basically, eat less, exercise more. If you take in less calories than you burn, you lose weight. If you take in more calories, you gain weight. if you don’t get all the nutrients you need, or you overdose on certain nutrients, you will be unhealthy. Get an average balance (which is easy with just a dash of common sense and light reading) and you’ll be healthy.
The only trick mot people don’t realize that you need to know about muscle building is that you can’t work out every day and gain muscle. Your muscles don’t grow while you’re working out — they grow between workouts. When you’re first building muscle you can build it pretty quickly (possibly even work out every day, but I would start with doing it every other day), but eventually you will hit a plateau. Space your workouts a little further apart if you want more muscle and then muscle will start growing again, albeit more slowly. You will need to always keep working out to maintain the muscle, especially if you’re still trying to lose weight, since your body is just as happy to burn muscle for energy as it is to burn fat cells, unfortunately.
So far as watching what you eat, I found for myself that it had far more to do with what I drank. Stop drinking any and all soda — two cans of any soda equals the number of calories you’d burn jogging 5 miles. Likewise, cut out more than a single glass of juice or milk a day, and basically stick to water and unsweetened tea. I don’t know about the average European, but the average American gets far more calories from soda and alcoholic drinks than they do from fast food. It does also help a bit to spread your meals out (6 small meals instead of 3 large ones). If your body doesn’t have a use for the calories you’re eating close to when you’re eating them then they get stored as fat, and it takes more effort to burn fat than it does to use the calories in their pre-stored form. Since you’re building muscle too you want a little more protein than you might otherwise need, but don’t fall into thinking you need steak and eggs at every meal. :)
As a personal anecdote, I lost 30 lbs. in a little over a month just by quitting all soda. i then burned a further approximate 30lbs. of fat and then put on another 30 lbs. of muscle and was the healthiest I’ve ever been, all in about 8 months of training, and all without the aid of a single stupid diet or fad workout regime. For aerobics I jogged and ran a 5-10 mile distance every morning (treadmill) and then hit a Bowflex for 20 minutes a day every other day (eventually every 3 days). When I started I was 260lbs. of unathletic fat, and 8 months later i was 210 lbs. tower of muscle. Plus, beforehand I was sick and tired and unhealthy constantly, but now I’ve gotten sick all of once in the last 5 years. I’ve gotten a little chunkier of late due to a back injury (can’t workout much) and an addiction to lattes (those suckers are about 300 calories each, and I’m drinking 2-3 a day), but I’m still in far better shape than I was before I started working out in the first place, even if I do have some work ahead of me if I want to get back to my peak condition.
Hi,
The following diet is what I’ve found works for me.
It’s really just good nutrition.
In 2 weeks I’m back to my optimum weight.
Good Food list:
Brown/wholemeal: bread, rice, pasta
Fruit and Veges
Meat: Fish (no chicken, beef or anything else)
Coffee/Tea replacement: Lemon juice and hot water
Butter substitute: Avocado or tahini spread
Sample Menu:
Breakfast: Juice (100%) and natural (not baked) muesli
Morning Tea: a few pieces of fruit or an all natural muesli bar
Lunch: Sandwich (tahini, spourts, any veges) or Salad
Afternoon Tea: a few pieces of fruit or an all natural muesli bar
Dinner: Vegetables with Rice or wholegrain pasta or Soup and wholemeal bread. Anything off the good food list really.
It’s based on this:
http://www.alternativehealth.com.au/Product/quick_cleanse.htm
Andrew
It’s amazing how much impact just changing little things can have on your health and your weight, isn’t it? I resolved at the beginning of the year to completely cut cola and all other sodas from my diet and managed to lose almost 18 lbs (roughly 8.5 kilos) just doing that and sticking to my regular exercise routine. Feels so good to get rid of that extra baggage. :)
I think it’s really simple:
– Eat with your brain not with your hunger. (Avoid softdrinks like HELL or drink sugarfree variants).
– Eat every 2 – 3 hours (Good breakfast, Medium lunch, Light dinner, and between ours 100 – 200kcal of healthy food: fruit, cereals…).
– Do exercise (1h a day is enough), in any form: walk/bicycle to work, join a gim, martial arts, dance lessons… whatever.
Three years ago I went from 97kg to 72kg (I’m 1.80m) just thinking before eating and doing exercise :)
Good luck :)
So what’s your height Christian? :-)
@blub: I am about 1.90 meters
Good job! It feels so good when you lose weight by making simple changes in your life. I’ve lost over 30lbs just making simple changes. Eating less more often, drinking more water, going for more walks and I’ve found some workouts I love doing at home. A big thing for me is to eat when I’m stressed. I recognize that now, so I go for a walk or do something with my kids rather then eat. I’m not perfect at it, but I’m doing much better and I don’t beat myself up when I slip up.