Want to get into better shape

Kirbith

Well I gave blood last week and one of the things you can do is about a week after, you can log into the state blood donor website and they will tell you your cholesterol, blood pressure, ect. Yea. My cholesterol and blood pressure were much higher than I'd like them to be so that's kind of the kick in the ass I needed. I want to lose a little weight but overall get in better shape and be healthier.

I am 5'4" and weigh about 130lbs or so, I would really like to be able to get down to and maintain a weight of about 120lbs. I used to weigh about 115 for many years, but not being a teenager anymore + being on the birth control pill makes that a bit harder on me. Specifically the area I would like to target losing fat/ flab in is my thighs as I don't have a lot of fat elsewhere on my body. Tightening up/ flattening my stomach area would be very nice as well.

I plan on setting aside one hour three days a week (monday, wednesday, and saturdays), where my apartment place has a small workout room I can go use. There's a treadmill, an Elliptical machine, and then this combo four area machine that has different weight lifting type things (like one for your legs to push, a different one for arms, ect). I just went and walked about 40 minutes on the treadmill and 20 minutes on the elliptical just to show myself I would like to be in better shape. Due to being a full time student (17 credit hours), I don't have time to go to the workout room more days of the week. However, if there is some exercise I could do at home as well without equipment or with limited/ inexpensive equipment, I would be up for doing that the other nights.

Another concern is what I should be eating. I have very limited time for breakfast so something quick and easy would be preferred. Currently I'm just eating yogurt, wheat toast, whatever is handy. Lunch i don't have a lot of options for. I go to school all day mon-thurs so I have to bring my lunch, and there is no microwave, fridge, anything like that I can use. So whatever I can bring in my backpack or a lunchbox, usually a pb&j sandwich and pretzel sticks. I have a very limited food budget, my boyfriend and I have about $60 a week for both of us to eat. I don't eat a lot of sugar and fatty foods, and I drink about two cans of coke a day, since I do need my caffeine.

So H/A, help me! I have never really put forth an effort before to lose weight/ be in better shape/ feel healthier overall. What workouts are going to be the best for me? Are there any food that would be great in giving me more energy to workout with while not being too fattening? And conversely, are there any foods I need to stop eating right stat now if I want any hope of being in better shape?

tl;dr Help advise me on some good ideas for how I should workout and how I can eat a little better to lose weight, all on a very small budget.

SatanIsMyMotor

Watching your sodium intake is the best thing you can do for the blood pressure. Also lot's of fiber and no food with saturated fat should help bring down the cholesterol. Also, start taking Omega vitamins.

VisionOfClarity

Forget the idea of spot losing. When you lose weight you can't expect to lose it from one place. Also, you have to build muscle to get rid of flab, otherwise you'll be skinnier but you won't be tighter. So start lifting! I have New Rules of Lifting for Women and it was great for starting. If your school has a gym check it out.

A lot of stuff can be done at home; push-ups, crunches, lunges, squats. You can get a resistance band for $25 and that will give you more to work with; pull-downs, rows, shoulder press, bicep curls, hammer curls, etc.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and yogurt, eggs and oatmeal (not instant but from oats) are all great choices. Replace the pretzels with things like carrots, celery, a small fruit salad (makes a great meal too) or air poped popcorn without butter/salt. Peanutbutter is yummy but not ideal everyday. Put an icepack in your lunch box and bring a salad, go crazy and put some grilled chicken on it for protein (but watch the dressing, it can be awful for you.)

And if you need the soda then at least switch to diet. If you have multiple cans of regular soda a day that's a ton of sugar and calories.

retrovm

ditch the soda for water or coffee if you really need the caffeine. up your protein and veggies, that always helps me.

Void Slayer

My main advise is that nothing will change overnight. Find a new eating/exercise regiment you can work with and stick with it for several months. Before you change your regiment you should also get a general checkup if you can and then another one after you have been doing this for a while (like 6 months or so). While blood pressure and cholesterol is often diet and behavior it can also be due to metabolism and having a general baseline before you start a change would be a good idea.

SilverCat

Personally i go for a 2mile run every day (except 1 day for rest) before i take my shower and get ready for work and whatnot, it kickstarts the day, keeps you awake and feeling good. I recommend doing this and cutting out bread altogether and it'll do wonders (particularly the cutting out bread part)


EDIT: Oh man i just reread your post and saw that you drink 2 cans of coke a day, cut that shit out asap, if you want caffeine drink coffee, or take caffeine pills or something just cut out soda totally

Slo

Ditching the coke alone will lose you like 5 lbs. That shit is teeeerrible.

CooterTKE

I lost 10lbs just cutting out the soda. Start with changing your diet and eating better. One way to do this is weight watchers as they will help you get eating better, lots of information on the net if you search and you don't have to go to any meetings. Running in the morning is great if you have the time but if your like me and get up at 4:40 for work I would find time during the day to walk then run after work.

EggyToast

There's no correlation between heart disease and cholesterol for women unless your cholesterol is crazy bad. There is also a correlation between slightly increased cancer rates and slightly lower cholesterol rates. That stuff is cited (and discussed pretty well) in books, like Good Calories, Bad Calories.

Also in speaking to my friend who is a CC nurse sodium does very little for how your blood pressure works. About 30% of the population is responders, or people who will "spike" when they consume sodium, but those people spike regardless (and as such most medication and preventative stuff isn't that useful for them, other than the generic exercise stuff).

You didn't say what your numbers are so it's hard to say if they're actually high or simply you perceive them to be high. If you're not doing much/any physical activity I can almost guarantee that doing daily exercise (actual aerobic exercise, not "fitness" or weight training) will bring those numbers way down. Your blood pressure may also be high due to birth control, which is a common side effect.

As for exercise, my daily routine is running outside. It's easy, fast, and doesn't require equipment beyond good shoes. If you live in an area that's amenable to running outside, check out a route on google maps (or google maps pedometer). If you've never run before, perhaps try something like that Couch to 5k thing. I run first thing in the morning, like SilverCat, because when I'm done I hop in the shower; and it's a nice way to wake up in the morning.

My wife is a biologist and has been getting pretty voracious in reading research and books about health, eating, etc., and it's pretty interesting how much stuff she tells me about how diet is good for losing weight but exercise is good for your "stats." They're different things, really -- exercise by itself will not cause you to lose weight because people who exercise tend to eat more food, even if they don't consciously realize it. And people who just diet will lose weight but not gain muscle (or lose muscle) so they simply weigh less, but don't improve their cardiovascular health. There's some overlap as fat creates estrogen and you're affecting the mass of your endocrine system, but that's a good way to think about it.

Your diet right now is probably fine; yogurt is good, basic lunches are good. Focus on proteins (meats, cheeses) and veggies, avoid potatoes and non-whole grain breads. Swap your coke for diet coke.

Losing 5-10 lbs and improving your basic fitness won't be hard, since you're probably at a state where you can do some minor changes.

Kirbith

Specifically my cholesterol was 211. Now the only other figure of myself that I have to base that on is from 2006 when I was 18, but my cholesterol was 147 then. The blood pressure was 120/80, which I have nothing to compare to.

I've already started some changes, ditched the pretzels for some carrots and a pear fruit cup. Also trying to switch to one coke a day, as I'd rather not get terrible headaches from stopping altogether. Plus I got some calcium and vitamin d orange juice to have a glass of instead so huzzah.

Unfortunately with where I live it's just not safe enough to go running here. But I am really enthusiastic about making my body feel better so I'm sure I will find something that works. Thanks for the advise everyone, I really appreciate it! I know this is nothing I will see results on overnight, but I hope that through changing my eating habits for the better and maintaining good, regular exercise I will be able to see myself become healthier and feel better.

EggyToast

Your blood pressure is fine -- 120/80 is the top end of "ideal," so any exercise you do will only improve that.

As for cholesterol, did you eat anything that morning? Cholesterol changes based on what you eat, which is why when you go for a blood test at a doctors office they tell you to fast for like 10 hours, so your cholesterol is even. A good cholesterol level is under 200, so if you ate something that could cause the change.

I'm not a doctor so I'm not trying to say "don't worry about it just keep sitting back and eat whatever," but rather trying to give you some details about it. Some minor diet changes and adding exercise will help you lose the 10 lbs you want to drop and keep those stats in a good range.

SatanIsMyMotor

EggyToast wrote: »

Your blood pressure is fine -- 120/80 is the top end of "ideal," so any exercise you do will only improve that.

As for cholesterol, did you eat anything that morning? Cholesterol changes based on what you eat, which is why when you go for a blood test at a doctors office they tell you to fast for like 10 hours, so your cholesterol is even. A good cholesterol level is under 200, so if you ate something that could cause the change.

I'm not a doctor so I'm not trying to say "don't worry about it just keep sitting back and eat whatever," but rather trying to give you some details about it. Some minor diet changes and adding exercise will help you lose the 10 lbs you want to drop and keep those stats in a good range.

That's a good point on the eating front. When you go in for a cholesterol test you're typically fasting for 12 hours. I doubt you fasted prior to donating blood so it likely is skewing your results.

If you are really concerned then go get your cholesterol actually tested. That way you'll know for sure but also get a sense for the break between your good cholesterol and bad cholesterol levels.