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youknowandy
Blue Jay
Joined: Mar 16, 2008
Age: 31
Posts: 97
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
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 Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 12:21 pm Post subject: Lack of consistency |
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| Ugh, its annoying how I can have "spurts" of healthy eating and exercising, but they only last for so long. I had heard that it does you no good to lose weight if you don't keep it up, since you'll end up gaining even more weight and get an even bigger fat mass ratio, so for much of my adult life, my solution was to simply not try to lose weight because I knew that I couldn't keep it up in the long run. Then about four years ago, I decided it was time to start caring about my weight and turned weight loss into my obsession. But healthy living is not my "real" obsession and after about a year, I'd lost most of my good habits. As I knew I would... I've had many spurts lasting up to three months since then, but am not really any healthier than when I started. I just wonder sometimes if it's pointless to fight against one's "natural" weight. No matter how out of shape I am or what I eat, there is a weight that I simply never get over (270 to 280 pounds) and remain at any time I'm not actively trying to put it down. I'm just so thankful that my natural weight is not higher. Well, eventually, something will happen that will keep me motivated over the long run, but it'll probably be something unpleasant. Right now, my "theme" is Outside Theme, and I'm making it a point to do a lot of walking during my explorations. With that exploration though, I'm eating a lot of good food at interesting restaurants that is probably canceling out much of the benefits I'm getting from all this walking. Hence why next theme is my Vegetarian Theme, so I still get to eat at interesting places, just keep myself limited to the Vegetarian portion of the menu. |
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kip
Phoenix
Joined: Mar 14, 2007
Age: 21
Posts: 689
Location: Las Vegas NV USA
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| Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 12:36 pm Post subject: |
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Being vegan or vegitarian doesn't always help with weight loss. You need protien to build muscle, and muscle helps you burn off carbs.
If you are going to do the veg thing though, stop in by a GNC or other fitness store and get protien shake mix. They usually taste like crap, and aren't quite as good as the meat base protiens, but it will make sure you don't end up with a definicy.
Also, you should talk to one of the clerks there about getting a multi vitamin formulated for your lifestyle. Some times weight problems can be caused by deficencys in other areas, and a vitamin would help with that.
Also, you need to keep in mind that just cause hollywood thinks a certain weight is ideal, it's not nessicarly. Talk to a GP about what YOUR ideal weight is, cause it's different for everyone.
Good luck getting heathy!
*being sick messes with my ability to spell dangit*
_________________
The two loudest sounds in the world are a click when you should hear a bang, and a bang when you should hear a click.
You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense. |
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youknowandy
Blue Jay
Joined: Mar 16, 2008
Age: 31
Posts: 97
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:08 am Post subject: |
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| yeah, the point of this two month theme is to force myself to be exposed to a new lifestyle and new dishes and have fun while doing it. i'll still eat some meat just so i don't throw myself off to badly. afterwards, i think it would be good if i got to the point where half of my meals were vegetarian. also, i'll wait until then before i start weight lifting again. |
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beef_bourito
Phoenix
Joined: Jan 13, 2008
Age: 20
Posts: 1293
Location: Ottawa, On, Canada
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 12:55 pm Post subject: |
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i'm not a real believer of "natural weight", i don't think people really have a natural weight, it's just that some people put on weight more easily and lose it more slowly than others. I could say my natural weight is somewhere around 170-175lbs, that's when the weight loss started to slow, but it was probably just my body getting used to the diet/exercise and adjusting for it. ultimately it just comes down to burning more calories than you're taking in. (but doing it intelligently so your body doesn't go into starvation mode).
anyways, it's good that you're making the effort and that you've been able to find something to keep you going at least for short bursts. going vegetarian could help because most people eat too much meat, but as kip said you need your protein. if you're looking for a protein powder, i like iso-gold or iso-pro from GNC. it doesn't taste too bad, it's low calorie, and it's got a lot of protein. i used it when i was trying to bulk up (before rowing made me start cutting down) and it was good enough that i didn't totally hate drinking it. i think the whey protein concentrates tend to taste better than the isolates because they have more of the other parts of the milk (which can also give more health benefits) than the isolates but they also have more calories, so it's up to you which one you want. Also, whey protein is very good for you, it's the most biologically active protein we know of, so your body is very capable of using it.
the one thing that's helped me A LOT is getting rid of most of the junk food in the house. my parents have been trying to eat more healthily so we don't have ice cream anymore, rarely have chips, and no cookies. i used to go through the house just looking for something to munch on, but after a few weeks of no junk and eating mostly whole wheat bread, fruits, and a bit of meat/cheese, i rarely crave any junk food.
so i'm not going to soften it up for you, it's not easy to lose weight if you're a "naturally" chubby guy like me, it's probably going to take a lot of time to get down to what you think is ideal, and it's going to take perseverance (which you already know). so make some changes, and if they're working, stick with them. the biggest factor in weight loss for people like us is determination. I've been trying for the last year and a half or so to lose 25lbs. the first 5 came off after a month or two of rowing pretty easily, the next 5 took about 6 months to come off, but i wasn't trying too hard. after that it took lots of effort. i went on a diet plan that got me eating 6 times a day, and it restricted me to 1600-1800Cal/day. that lost me the next 5 in about a month, with lots of winter training. i was at around 170-171lbs until late april when i started rowing. since then i've been doing 2-4hrs of cardio 5 or 6 days a week (competitive rowing), and i haven't been overeating, and i've gotten down to about 165lbs after almost two months. so don't expect it to come quickly, but it'll come if you stay with it.
edit: sorry for the long post and the big tangent, i'm tired as hell and on allergy meds |
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youknowandy
Blue Jay
Joined: Mar 16, 2008
Age: 31
Posts: 97
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:59 pm Post subject: |
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| One of the biggest things that derails me from my track is when it gets to being crunch time at work. I'll be under all this stress and all my energy goes into two places. One is getting everything done in time and freaking out about it. The other is spending as much time as I can "recovering" from the work and making sure that all my time outside of work is pleasurable as possible. This involves throwing any dietary restrictions I've placed on myself out the window fiercely, spending many hours pouring into my obsessions, avoiding any social contact, and watching a lot of relaxing and escapist anime. This can go on for two months depending on the project. Then when that time is passed, it takes maybe three months before I can start the engines of healthy living up once again. I love my work to pieces, but do overreact sometimes. |
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youknowandy
Blue Jay
Joined: Mar 16, 2008
Age: 31
Posts: 97
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 2:07 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm a skinny guy trapped in a larger guy's body. Growing up, I was always the tall and skinny one. It wasn't until I got my first car as a senior in high school that I started gaining weight. Once you removed all that bike riding from my daily routine, you can add an extra 100 pounds. While I'll never be as thin as I was in high school, I know I have the capacity to weigh much less than I do now if I can just keep up some activity over the long run. |
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nekowafer
Deinonychus
Joined: Jun 20, 2008
Age: 23
Posts: 351
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 8:38 pm Post subject: |
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What I've found that helps with losing weight is trying the lesser calorie snack options. I switched to diet soda and lost like 20 pounds. It takes some getting used to, but once you drink it for a week or two it's normal - drinking the regular stuff is just weird to me now. Baked chips, sugar free jello and pudding, and the little 100 calorie snack packs are great. Light mayo tastes very similar to normal mayo.
I have a hard time sticking to plans as well, but finding great tasting snacky alternatives really helped. It's something I do all the time now, I don't even think about it.
The other thing is just watching the amount of food you eat in one sitting. If you go out to eat a lot, try taking half of it home more often. You get the yummy restaurant food, but you can save some for tomorrow.
Now that it's summer, you can also try going swimming more.. I know personally I'm embarrassed about being in a bathing suit(I'm 5'8", 230 lbs) but if you're in the water most of the time, no one really notices. It's also better for your knees!
As for times when you're stressed, maybe you can just take a walk.. at night, to avoid any people, but take a nice, long walk and just don't think about anything. I usually have my ipod with me and it keeps me from overthinking what I'm so stressed about. |
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youknowandy
Blue Jay
Joined: Mar 16, 2008
Age: 31
Posts: 97
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 1:09 am Post subject: |
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| yeah, when i am "being good", i follow this study i read that suggested that having five small meals a day is the way to go. i really need to get my IRiver (like an Ipod, except with normal mp3s) back up to snuff. it doesn't seem to want to work with my new computer, i'll probably have to hunt for the installation disk or drivers on the internet. |
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nekowafer
Deinonychus
Joined: Jun 20, 2008
Age: 23
Posts: 351
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Try not to see it as being "good" or "bad".. or even as a diet. It's just something new you do. If you make yourself think it's this big thing you don't want to do, then there's no way you'll want to stick with it. As long as you still enjoy the lower calorie stuff, it should be easier to make getting those things a habit. |
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traveller011212
Velociraptor
Joined: May 27, 2008
Age: 28
Posts: 400
Location: Right here!!
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| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:55 pm Post subject: |
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| It takes 6 weeks to make something a habit. make goals of good eating that you are 100% confident that you can achieve and reevaluate every time you achieve your goal. |
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