educate us... eeeerrrr me !! I want to change my life style. This one is for hooker, vito, ryan, brett or anyone who knows what is good for the body. The challange... me... make me fit. This is what you are up against. I turn 50 in December. I am a Smoker and Mt.Dew addict. Theses two thing cease after this weekend. That part is on me so you don't have to worry about that. I am 6' 1" and weigh 250 lbs on the dot. Both knees and one ankle has been ripped up bad in the past so running is out for now until I lose some weight. You will be glad to know I've been to the doctor 4 times in the last 30 years. One smashed finger and 3 times to have pieces of metal pulled out of my eyes. So much for saftey glass as I was wearing them two out of the threes times. I felt you should know this so you don't think I have been a burden to you and other's cost of insurance for my bad habits. :p I am looking for better eating habits especially for work. I pack a lunch which consists of 2 sandwhiches, 2 packs of smokes and enough Mt. Dew to make the day. Probably 8 - 10 cans of dew a day. This has been my lunch for 24 years now since I started working here. Barb cooks a full meal at night of good food. I am not so much worried about that. If I just eat less, we should be good there. Course if you have any ideas there... I will listen. With exercising in mind... The day starts at 7 AM and goes anywheres from 7 PM - 4 AM depending on when I quit for the night. Harvest is 7 days a week from late August until November with a few days off whenever it rains or we wait to harvest another type of crop. I have 2 months now until harvest to do the most good for exercise. Winter is when I have the most free time. Going to a gym is out of the question since there aren't any within a reasonable driving distance. I have a weight set and stair stepper. What I would like to accomplish... to drop 25 - 30 pounds in the next 2 months and drop a total of 50 lbs by my 50th birthday. I need advise on exercise and diet. So if you really care about this obesity thing... help me... please. Tim
Oh and the wife said she will never buy me another cartoon of smokes or pop. She has always hated it. Since I don't go to town and I can't afford to buy it here at the two local bars at their prices... I am done when I run out. 5 packs to go. eerrrrr yippeee !! Tim
Congrats on wanting to make the change. The two changes you are making are going to be a big help. The one thing I will say is don't get too fixated on the amount of weight because if it doesn't come off as you expect that can be discouraging. To help with the smoking pick up the book Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking. It worked for 5 or 6 people I know. For eating taper your meals from morning to night. Bigger meals early and smaller meals at night. If you can avoid it try not go more then 3 or 4 hours between meals. That will help keep your metabolism up. As for exercise, start walking, chopping wood, whatever you can if you can't get to a gym. It all works. Any specific questions feel free to let me know. Just so you know I have a BSc in Human Kinetics and worked as a personal trainer for 10 years (decided to switch careers) and still train kids for different sports.
TIm, I can already tell you are a tough son of a gun. You probably get more exercise than all of us based on your hard nosed job. Your job right now is to modify your diet. I am a firm believer in doing everything gradually. I would cut out 2 of those 8-10 mountain dews a day for the first week or two, then move to cutting out 3-4 of those Mountain Dews per day on weeks 3-4. That right there will be a SIGNIFICANT move to bettering your health and to reducing your weight. If you cut out 3 Mountain Dews per day, you will lose nearly 10 lbs of fat in two months. Goal number 1 should be....cut out 3-4 Mountain Dews per day by the end of June. If you have to pack another sandwich or two in order to fill yourself up throughout the day, that is much better than drinking soda and it will give you good energy in order for you to work. Goal number 2 should be to cut back to one pack of cigarettes per day by the end of the month. That will be half of what you are smoking now. I would NOT go cold turkey unless you are tougher than snot mentally (I am not). If you can't cut the smoking out then that is ok for now. I would worry more about your diet than anything else and to be honest Tim, if you can't quit smoking during harvest time because it is all you have ever know when harvest time comes around, then keep doing it. No sense in crushing yourself. Wait until winter time when work isn't as stressful and you can focus on YOU. Hope that makes sense. Goal number Try to get more sleep. I have found that the less sleep I get the more my body wants sweets/caffeine/sweet cereal/etc. Being exhausted starts a cycle of poor eating habits that can be hard to break. Reducing your caffeine intake will help you sleep better.
Good for you Tim! I have almost the exact same goals as you except I never start. I'm a bit over 6'1", weigh 220, smoke 3/4 of a pack per day and drink 2 cans of Mtn Dew (code red) per day. I work 8 hours per day, 5 days a week as a construction electrician and 8 - 11 hours per day logging, land clearing or cutting fire wood on my land up north on the weekends. Oh, I'll be 56 this November. The only thing I have done is to cut down on the size of my meals. I don't weigh myself much but I gained a notch back on my belt so far. The hardest thing for me is going to be the smoking part. Good luck to you and please keep us posted. I'm going to try and use you as incentive for my own goals.
My real quick opinion & I'll come back with more thoughts, is quitting the pop will have AMAZING effects, just that alone. I know lots of people that have dropped lbs in just quitting or drastically reducing thier pop intake.
This one is huge! Also I know people who have quit smoking and gained weight due to eating as a replacement, good luck man!
Hang these up and look at them every morning In no time you will look great!!!!! Serious note you have to commit to a routine and lifestlye change. There will be mornings you do not want to workout or have a dew. YOU MUST stick to your new routine so it becomes part of your new lifestyle. We are creatures of habit, so make it a habit to be healthy and workout!!!!
Just get off the Dew's fat boy. I guarantee you get plenty of exercise with your work. 8 cans of Dew is two cups of sugar a day. Two Cups!!! 1548 calories of sugar a day. I think the weight will melt off just by cutting the Dew's. Oh the cigs too. Good luck buddy.
Like the others have stated, first thing to do is quit the smoking, and replace the Mt. Dew with water. If you must have some type of flavor, use the sugarless flavor packets for the water. You will probably lose 5 lbs the first week by just doing this. Do you eat both sandwiches at the same time? Or are they apart? If you eat them at the same time, try spreading them apart a bit. Eat one at 11, then the other at 2. Watch your meal sizes for dinner. Try to keep the carbs light at dinner. Dinner should consist of mostly protein and veggies. Do you eat breakfast? If not, eat breakfast. Replace all sugary snacks in your house with fruits or nuts. If you do not have any sugary snacks or drinks in the house, you will not eat them. Move the stair stepper in front of the TV, and go to town on that bad boy every night while watching your favorite show. Not only will this be good exercise, it will increase the strength in your knees, which will make them feel better. My Dad had horrible knees his entire life until he started doing 2-3 hours on the stair stepper every day. Now he is running 10k races.
Tim, First, good for you man. Its obvious you are ready to make a change and that is when you have the chance to be the most successful. Second, you are going to get all kinds of advice on this topic. One isn't necessarily better than the other. Find something that a) works and b) you can stick to. Its important to lose weight by making a lifestyle change, which is sounds like you want to. That way you can keep the weight off and not just gain it right back. I'll drop my two cents, but its not necessarily something that can be covered easily in a forum post. - Cutting out the MD is a GREAT start. If you can quit cold turkey, do it. You will likely have headaches from the lack of sugar and caffeine your body is used to, so be prepared for that. You may need to wean yourself off it like VS suggested. The only tough thing about that is you open yourself up to cheating. If you allow 2 MDs a day, its easy to say "whats one more...". If you drop it all together it might be easier not to give in. Everyone's will power is different. - Quitting smoking is different for everyone. Like exercise or eating habits, you will get lots of varying advice. Find what works for you. I've helped a few people in your situation (quitting smoking and wanting to lose weight), and it can be tough. Your sense of smell might increase, and combined with a possible oral fixation, you may have an increase in appetite. So you can see the dilemma. Again, its going to be about will power. Stick to your end goal. - Like someone mentioned earlier, don't get fixated on the scale. Its not terrible to weigh yourself once a week, but its not always a good indicator that you're making progress. You could lose 2 inches off your waste while only losing one pound. Pay attention to improvements in physical changes, and not just how many pounds you've lost. It will help you stay positive. Don't beat yourself up over setbacks. Stay focused on your end goal. - Lets talk about metabolism a little.. It helps to view food as fuel. You need to fuel your metabolism. Your metabolism can be thought of like a fire. Throw kindling on it in short burst and it burns hot. Throw a big log on it and it will eventually slow down. That is why smaller, more frequent meals, are important to increasing your metabolism. Increased metabolism means your body will be burning calories while you're doing nothing. Sitting on the couch, riding in a tractor, sleeping, etc. For the average man, there isn't always a ton of free time to workout. Lets say your workouts are 30 minutes. You can only burn so many calories in 30 minutes. By choosing eating habits and workouts that increase your metabolism, you can burn calories the other 23.5 hours of the day. That is huge. To be continued...
Lets look at exercise since that is the easy part for most people... - If weight loss is your goal, I would suggest focusing on full body workouts. Workouts that include a fair amount of lower body and core. These areas include large muscles. The larger the muscle is, the longer the body has to work to repair it. The longer it has to work, the more calories you burn post-workout. You would want at least a day in between full body workouts. So alternating weight/resistance training with cardio (like the stair stepper) is a good idea. - The fact that your job is a physical one is good, but your body is used to those movements. You would be surprised how much just walking can increase weight loss to start. Full body workouts are also easy to do with just some free weights at home, too, as you don't always need heavy amounts of weight. I would suggest medium to high reps depending on the exercise (8-15 reps). Squats, lunges, push ups, pull ups, are just a few examples of things that easy to do at home. You can also vary each of them easily, which provides more exercises you can do. And now to the hard part, eating...
Good luck Tim. I stopped chewing Feb 14th and have put on 10lbs that I didn't need to gain. I'm also a soda junkie, so we are in the same boat there. I'm trying to get healthier and shed about 45lbs.Maybe we need to keep each other motivated lol.
Eating habits are most often the hardest change to make. Viewing food as fuel is much different than viewing food as pleasure. The good news is you can still combine the two. Everyone's lifestyle is different. Not all lifestyles make it easy to have food available at convenient times. Some have to make more of an effort than others. Being prepared is the key. Fail to plan, plan to fail is cliche, but its true. That is extremely true when it comes to eating. Plan you meals at the beginning of the week, the day before, or even the morning of...just plan enough in advance so that it works for you. Its easy to venture of course if you don't plan. - The number one rule is you have to eat to lose weight. Starving yourself will do you no good. You need to feed your body to get the best result. The key is feeding it the right things. You need to eat foods to give the body what it needs, yet making you feel full. No empty calories (like MD). I would suggest eating at least 5 times a day, 6 if possible. So something like this... - Breakfast - Snack - Lunch - Snack - Dinner - Snack These don't have to be done at set times, but having a schedule helps for some people. If you're hungry, eat. I know that sounds dangerous on the surface, but your body is telling you something. Some days you will use more energy than others. The result is you are hungrier. General rule is eat more on the days you are active. Again the key being eating foods that make you feel full. Foods that have a purpose. Lets break food down into groups... - Proteins - Starchy Carbs - Veggies and Fruit - Fat You need all of these. Here are some "healthy" examples that fall under each one... [h=1]Proteins[/h] - Chicken - Turkey Breast - Venison - Lean Ground Turkey - Lean Ground Beef - Fish (salmon, tilapia, tuna, etc) - Cottage cheese - Egg whites - Milk (low/non-fat) - Protein powder (low carb/fat) [h=1]Starchy Carbs[/h] -100% whole wheat: bread, bagels, English muffins - Brown Rice, Wild Rice, Brown Rice pilaf - Couscous - Sweet Potato - Butternut Squash - Canned pumpkin (not pie filling) - Beans (garbanzos, black, white etc.) [h=1]Veggies[/h] - Broccoli - Spinach - Green Beans - Asparagus - Carrots - Romaine lettuce [h=1]Fat[/h] - Almonds (nuts) - Cheeses made with 2% milk - All Natural Peanut Butter (any nut butters-almond, cashew) - Olive oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil Now, not all of those are created equal. Ideally, you want to cut out all processed foods. Thats easier said than done for some people. Items like cheese made with 2% milk are better than low fat or "regular" cheese. I really don't eat dairy, but those that love it, 2% milk cheese is a healthier option. Portion sizes...
Portion sizes are very important. If you don't have a food scale, I highly suggest picking one up. You can get an electric one for around $20-$30 and it will help immensely. Here is a rough portion size example for a dude your size... - Protein- 5-6 oz - Veggies- unlimited - Fruits- probably 2 pieces per day. Fruits can be a tricky one because of their sugar content. Still, I wouldn't worry that you've had too much fruit in a day. Just don't replace veggies with fruit (common problem). - Almonds- 20 (each nut has a portion size and they can be easily found online) - Rice - 1/2 - 1 cup depending on your activity level that day. And a rough eating plan for a day... - Fiber/Fruit/maybe a protein - Fat/Fruit or veggie - Protein/Veggie/Carb - Fat/Fruit or veggie - Protein/Veggie/Carb is necessary - Fruit or Veggie (if needed, meaning you are hungry) So using that example, we could eat... - Oatmeal (whole grain/old fashioned...not the sugar filled instant stuff)/ banana (could add some cottage cheese or egg whites if you like) - Almonds/Orange - 6 oz of chicken/green beans/1 cup of brown rice - Apple/peanut butter (the only ingredient in peanut butter should be peanuts. If there are any other ingredients on the list, put it back on the shelf). - 5 oz of salmon/broccoli/(a lower serving of a carb on really active days, or weight training days) - If you are still hungry, eat a piece of fruit or veggie. If you have already eaten 2-3 pieces of fruit that day I would suggest a veggie. That is just an example. For convenience purposes, your lunch could be a tuna sandwich on 100% whole wheat bread, and some carrots. There are always options. Tim, this is just a quick/rough overview. If you want any more info, just PM me. Again, I'm not saying my way is the best. This is the plan I've used over the years by gaining info and experience. Its worked for myself and a number of others. Its not to say it is the best for everyone.
Indeed. Not all carbs are created equal. Carbs are important for energy so you never want to cut them out. Replace white potatoes with sweet potatoes. White breads with 100% whole wheat breads, and so on.
I eat whatever I want, just as long as it is within moderation. I just ate 6 donuts for breakfast. But I know I'll have a light lunch, and I'll work out this evening. It's all just a balance.
