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Scared healthy and am at a loss where to begin. UPDATE/QUESTION
Xaquin
Right behind you!Registered User regular
Right behind you!Registered User regular
This may be rambling incoherency ....
So yesterday I had what turned out to be an anxiety attack. I thought for the life of me I was having a heart attack though. I went directly to the Doctor and they hooked me up to the blood oxygen thing on your finger and did an EKG and gave me the all clear (woohoo!)
It got me thinking though about getting a bit (a lot) healthier. I'm 6'-2" and 250 lbs (sadly, all of the extra resides below my chest and above my legs)
I want to eat a lot more fruits and vegetables, but since I'm not the richest fellow, I want to make sure I'm buying the right ones. Google searches for things like 'healthiest fruits and vegetables' seem to pop up things like "THIS HOUSEWIFE LOST 500 POUNDS WITH THIS SECRET FRUIT FROM MADAGASCAR" or "Pomegranate may reverse clogged arteries (this study has not been scientifically proven)" etc. etc.
I'm starting an exercise regimen (is that the right word?). I figure Taebo or something low key and then moving on to something tougher like p90 or something.
I was hoping some of you fine folks could point me to either another thread on these forums or some websites that are actual legitimate websites and not roundabout ads for the amazing powers of fish oil.
tldr: fatty got scared into being healthy, wants to drop 30-40 lbs, and clear those arteries
So yesterday I had what turned out to be an anxiety attack. I thought for the life of me I was having a heart attack though. I went directly to the Doctor and they hooked me up to the blood oxygen thing on your finger and did an EKG and gave me the all clear (woohoo!)
It got me thinking though about getting a bit (a lot) healthier. I'm 6'-2" and 250 lbs (sadly, all of the extra resides below my chest and above my legs)
I want to eat a lot more fruits and vegetables, but since I'm not the richest fellow, I want to make sure I'm buying the right ones. Google searches for things like 'healthiest fruits and vegetables' seem to pop up things like "THIS HOUSEWIFE LOST 500 POUNDS WITH THIS SECRET FRUIT FROM MADAGASCAR" or "Pomegranate may reverse clogged arteries (this study has not been scientifically proven)" etc. etc.
I'm starting an exercise regimen (is that the right word?). I figure Taebo or something low key and then moving on to something tougher like p90 or something.
I was hoping some of you fine folks could point me to either another thread on these forums or some websites that are actual legitimate websites and not roundabout ads for the amazing powers of fish oil.
tldr: fatty got scared into being healthy, wants to drop 30-40 lbs, and clear those arteries
Xaquin on
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1) Eat fewer carbs. Carbs don't fill you up and are filled with calories, and it's very easy to overeat them. Pasta, breads, desserts, most salty snacks, rice, potatoes -- all carbs. Reduce!
2) Eat fewer fatty foods. This doesn't mean "steak with marbling," it means "chicken with batter (carbs) deep fried" or "restaurant burger with butter on it and the bread along with bacon." You should eat some fat, but high-fat foods just pack in calories.
3) Eat less overall, but eat more protein. Protein keeps you full longer. If you have 200 calories of toast in the morning, you're going to be hungry pretty quickly. If you have 200 calories of yogurt, eggs, or bacon, you'll probably enjoy it more and you will stay full longer.
In general, be careful of common calorie traps. Fruit juice is more "healthful" than sugar soda, but it's not "healthier" than water. Juices have the same calories as soda, and the couple extra vitamins don't offset that. Condiments can easily add calories to an otherwise healthy dish. Slathering ketchup and mayo on something is a great way to add 100-150 calories. Slathering mustard is a great way to add ZERO calories. Keep a food journal to see if you're unintentionally adding calories or have "bad" foods you didn't even realize.
Eat more non-root vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, artichokes, green beans, lettuces.
Any fruits and veggies are good. You don't need any 'secret fruit form Madagascar' or anything like that...a normal variety of fresh fruit and veggies that replaces processed snacks and fast food will do wonders. Apples, bananas, strawberries, oranges, pears, etc....lettuce (romaine is better than iceberg), tomatoes, carrots, peppers, avocado, onion, etc. Drink water instead of pop. Eat multiple small meals, etc. Multivitamin.
You probably know the answer to this already, but simply adding fruits / veggies doesn't do anything. You have to cut the bad stuff out.
For exercise, just get out and start walking. If walking doesn't do anything, start jogging - 15-30 seconds on, 15-30 seconds walking. Work your way up. Don't try to overdo it, if you can spend 30 minutes a day up and active that you're currently sitting, that'll get you a long way.
Try to exercise everyday. You don't have to go balls out each time, even going for a walk is better than sitting on the couch. That being said, rest days are good. When you go hard at whatever activity you choose to participate in, your body does need time to rest and repair.
Like apples and carrots are both good for you, but if one is better than the other, I'd rather buy that one.
edit:
I plan to cut out the coffee and soda (well, one cup of coffee, but not my usual four) and switch over to water whole hog (drum sting) and maybe a glass of milk with dinner. I'll miss taco bell, but I'll be better off
Thanks all .... I guess I'm still nervous after being scared yesterday and feeling like I dodged a bullet even though the doc said I was good to go.
Some foods are better then others, like for example fruit tends to be high in sugar, but also high in fiber. Some veggies are better then others, for example carrots and corn are comparatively high in sugar as opposed to greener veggies like broccoli and spinach. But if you are just starting out, swapping any veggies or fruit for chips and fries is a great move. Once you are comfortable with the switch, then you can start modifying which fruits and veggies to eat to see improved results.
Also, if you are anything like me, your body is going to be MAD when you make this switch. So be prepared for cravings, especially around meal times. Also, lots of gas. But it does go away.
I'm kind of looking forward to starting exercising again. A shame it's going to rain all week, but oh well
That isn't how it works though. There is no silver bullet and both apples and carrots are good and should be eaten depending on what you want to eat that day. Changing your diet to "I only eat these things" is the exact wrong way to go about weight loss because it simply isn't sustainable.
I recently had a series of health concerns that got me a bit more enthusiastic about dropping the 30 pounds or so I've gathered since college. The big thing that I had to change was portion sizes. We as Americans (or most non-continental Europe westerners) have a perception that we need to eat the wrong amount of food and the wrong types of food. Here's some general tips that I did that have helped a lot:
1) Better Portioning. Use smaller plates and bowls. I had a set of sushi plates and small (1 cup) rice bowls that I started using as my meal plates rather than the firsbee sized plates most places sell. You don't need a lot of food to get sated (as in, no longer hungry). You should target being sated rather than "full" as being full is usually bad if you have been overweight a while. That full feeling typically mean you overate, and should be avoided.
Portioning can also allow you to transition your diet gradually from what you eat now to better foods in a sustainable way. I still have ice cream every now and then, for example. Only instead of downing an entire pint or half a pint (at approximately 800 calories in those things) I buy individually wrapped ice creams at exactly 100 calories. I still satisfy my desire for a sweet snack, but in a more healthy way. I still occasionally go to fast food (maybe once or twice a month) but instead of getting the super-mega burger I get the smallest item with no fries. Typically eating the regular burger is more than enough calories and food to fill you up for a while.
2) Better Understanding of Food Types. Your meals should be about 50-60% Fruits and/or vegetables, 20-30% protein, and whatever is left for the rest. If half or more of your meal is carbs, or more than a quarter of your meal is dairy, you are probably not eating in the right percentages for a healthy diet. Obviously this doesn't mean have a salad for every meal, but there are a lot of ways to rethink a lot of the meals you eat every day in ways that better balance your food types.
For example: Mac & Cheese. I love Kraft Mac, it's seriously one of my favorite things (despite being an accomplished cook). But Mac & Cheese is not great for you, despite being cheap and tasty for a quick meal. What my family does now to balance to salt, dairy, and carbs involved is to totally change up the way we cook Mac & Cheese. Instead of making two boxes to feed us, I will make one box and microwave up a steam-in-the-bag pack of broccoli from my local supermarket. I then chop up the broccoli really fine, mix it with the one box, and serve it with some sliced chicken on top. The overall makeup of the dish is now about 50% or more broccoli, but all you taste is the delicious cheese sauce and the chicken. It also makes one box stretch to about 3 portions of meal, so there are leftovers most nights. Be creative with adding green vegetables!
3) Understand that Drinks are seriously the worst. Beer, Soda, Wine, Juices, Gatoraide, Lattes, and pretty much everything else we drink as a society are loaded with terrible things in them. Water, flavored seltzer, black coffee, Mio type drinks, and teas should be your goto beverages. In a very short time you can probably reduce 1000 calories or more from your daily intake simply by dropping the sugar drinks, and whats more is you will feel a ton better in doing so. If you have acne or oily skin, this can often lead to serious cleanup in a very short amount of time.
I personally suggest avoiding 0 calorie sodas or things like Diet Coke as they have a lot of artificial sweeteners and sodium still, neither of which are great for you. I still have a Coke 0 on those rare occasions I go out for fast food, but you will be surprised how disgusting they tend to taste after being off of them for even a week.
Alcohol is a hard one, though. I'm not a supporter of dropping alcohol or even going for low calorie beers (because they are gross). As a microbrew lover, I still drink beer regularly... but I plan it into my diet. A stout typically has 300 calories or more per bottle, for example. Those nights I have a beer I make sure I am eating healthier in other ways to ensure I'm still on target for not overeating. If you regularly drink two or more beers, throttle that back to one every other night or less for a while. You will be surprised at how much better your feel.
4) Take the Stairs (and exercise too)! Exercise every day wherever you have the chance. It's not always practical to get out there for an hour and lift weights or run four miles. If you can, good on you! That will help, but if you are like me there just isn't time most days of the week to fit that in between work, school, family, and not going crazy from obligations. So make time to exercise in little ways throughout the week. Go for a quick walk during lunch breaks. Park at the farthest parking spot from the store/work. Take the stairs (always!). Do a set of jumping jacks before a shower. Whatever you can quickly fit in there. It all adds up.
When possible, though, do serious exercise as well. Running, walking, weight lifting. All will help.
5) Decide immediately what counts as a special occasion, and stick with it. This was a hard one for me, as going out with friends, family, loved ones typically led to someone at the table saying "forget your diet, it's a special occasion!" almost every time I went out. It typically isn't, and don't let yourself be pressured into losing your diet because of it. I have set up a series of special occasions that I stick to, if it isn't on my list I don't break my diet for it. These are high holidays (Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving), my nuclear family member's birthdays, and one floating every month for things that crop up. If I have already used up my May floating special occasion (which I did on Cinco de Mayo), then no more breaking diet that month.
Special occasions are not binges, also. These are days that you reasonably change what you eat to have something you typically shouldn't have. For example, going out for pizza and beer is not something you should do often, and for me it is one of the things I do for a special occasion. This means eating till sated still (don't overeat even then) and violating my drink calorie count, but it does not mean eating half a pizza and a pitcher of bud. Still remember to be reasonable and eat and drink in moderation, even when you have your occasional bad food night.
And remember, you aren't changing your diet to salads every night. That's dumb. Be smart and sustainable.
Don't worry too much about what fruits and veggies are good / bad for you, as long as you are getting a mix and especially if you don't hate it / feel like you're forcing yourself to do something you don't want to. In general, fruits have more sugar, veggies are better with dark green / leafy veggies being the best. But...it's a lot easier and more sustainable to replace chips with a banana or apple than a handful of spinach, so just worry about incremental improvements.
Think about it - you replace one candy bar / bag of chips a day with one apple - that's ~150 less calories a day, so that change alone means you'll lose roughly a pound per month with that one change alone.
I can't speak to caffeine worries...but as long as you aren't using creamer / sugar or drinking Starbucks sugary blends, black coffee is usually fine. It suppresses appetite (water does too) and as long as you are also getting some water, you should be ok to drink quite a bit of coffee each day. Cutting way back on caffeine while changing your diet and starting an exercise program can be tough and lead to failure, so personally I would say that's something to work on later.
Thanks everyone, I appreciate all the help!
I'll just leave this here.
oh, cool!
There's a couple of really good documentaries on Netflix that I found enlightening regarding our diets: 'Hungry for Change', and 'Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead'. The premis of these is that the food that we eat today has been designed to get us give us temporary satisfaction and come back for more when we're hungry again, NOT to provide us with nutrition. The people in the documentaries promote juicing big time, as a fast, easy and convenient way to get a ton of important nutrients and vitamins into your body.
Do I expect to live the way these people live? No, but taking small steps towards that direction is certainly going to help my family's health. I bought a juicer, and my wife (who was just diagnosed with high cholesterol) and I have been having juice consisting of Kale, Carrots, Cucumber, Ginger, Apples, Red Cabbage and Lemon every morning, and have been feeling great since we started. The people in the documentaries go on juice fasts, where all they drink is this stuff, but we don't have the ability, or the drive to pull off such a feat. Plus, buying all of those veggies gets expensive!
On a side note, I too have had panic attacks, and they suck. When my wife was about 8 months pregnant, I started waking up in the middle of the night with a racing heart, and covered in sweat, feeling like I needed to just get in my car and go somewhere. I didn't know what was happening to me at the time, and I thought that I was having a heart attack. And then, I worried that there was something wrong with me, and then I worried more, and spiraled. Not much longer after that, I started having panic attacks during the day, and let me tell you, those are even MORE frightening than ones that wake you up at night. My mind would blank, my heart would race, and my chest would tighten up. My bowels would become upset almost instantly, and I could not remember what I was just focusing on before the attack started. I thought I was losing my mind, and would think that I had something wrong with my brain that was causing me to forget what I was just working on.
I went and saw my doctor, and ended up visiting with a stress therapist. She helped me to recognize that panic attacks are completely normal things, and they're just my body's response to a threat. There was no real threat causing me to panic, but I was subconsciously stressing about four major things; 1. My health 2. Becoming a father 3. I'm adopted and had just found my bio mom 4. Work. These are what were causing the panic attacks, and once I recognized and confronted them, the panic attacks stopped.
The reason that I go into detail about this, is that health is a two headed beast. You can eat health and get back into physical shape, but that won't necessarily prevent another panic attack. Not to mention that if you are under stress, that can actually PREVENT you from losing weight. Have a look at the things that you think and worry about, and face them. It's ok if something bothers you, but recognize that it's bothering you and find a way to manage. I found the best method is once I feel my body starting to tighten up I tell myself that "This is just a physical response to the stress that you're feeling. There is nothing wrong with your body." Then I take 2-3 minutes and just close my eyes and take deep breaths in and out.
Turns out my Bio mom has a panic disorder, so perhaps it's in my genetics that it was hitting me too, but I'd like to think that the help I got, and managing with these techniques, I didn't need to take any medication, and I haven't had a panic attack in well over a year and a half.
Good luck on your journey, and remember that eating healthy isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle.
Xbox Gamertag: GAMB1NO325Xi
Set a daily goal and try to plan out your meals in advance to meet your goal. Use an app to help you track what you're eating. I used myfitnesspal.com, but there are others out there. Also useful, give yourself one day off a week. I found it was much easier to be strict the rest of the week if I had one day off. Make it a day where you know you'll usually get a good workout, and it's not even that bad.
For fruits and veggies, this warrants consideration if you're considering organic. Organic is only worth the markup on certain fruits and veggies.
I can also say that, for most people, cutting things out entirely is not sustainable. You're dieting, yes, but your goal is not to lose weight and then gain it all back, right? You want to lose weight and then stay at the lower weight. That means you can't look forward to eating mashed potatoes and fritos all the time, or getting a fourth meal of chalupas at 1am. But, you love Taco Bell. Do you want to cut Taco Bell out of your life PERMANENTLY? The answer is probably no -- so, look at their nutrition information online. Figure out what's bad there and what's good.
I've mentioned this in other threads, but it's possible to eat fast food while on a diet. It's also an important lesson so you don't get tricked into thinking that some restaurants are inherently better than others. For example, your typical meal at Panera has just as many calories as McDonalds. You can easily order salads at restaurants that have as many calories as a typical entree, thanks to fatty dressings and battered toppings. Check this out:
Whopper Jr, no mayo, add an extra patty (so a quarter pounder): 360 calories.
360 calories is like eating a diet lunch from the microwave, and the extra patty makes it pretty satisfying. A small fries, though? 340 calories. For JUST the fries. I don't know about you, but for me, the burger is intensely more satisfying for my hunger compared to french fries, especially the small size.
OK, but let's say you're REALLY craving some french fries. So, you get a Whopper Jr, no mayo, 1 patty, for 260 calories, and the Value Fries are 240 calories. So, you can have a Whopper Jr and Value Fries for 500 calories, and only costing a couple bucks since they're both on the value menu.
Anyway, that's the "lifestyle" element. Figuring out what you can eat that gets you the most flavor, fullness, and satisfaction, for the fewest (or reasonable) calories. To start, you can probably just drop some of the obviously 'bad' things in your diet, but going forward, start looking at nutrition information and counting calories, even if it's just roughly counting.
- Boil water, cut up 2-3 heads of broccoli into florets, place into boiling water for 5 minutes
- Drain
- Take 4 cloves of garlic, cut in half, put in a pan, add 2 tablespoons of oil, heat pan on medium-high (6 on my stove), wait for garlic to start sizzling
- Add broccoli to the pan, add 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (less if you don't like spicy), cook for 4 minutes
- Add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and 1 tablespoon of chicken broth, cook for another minute
- done
5 minutes and satisfies that sushi flavor when you don't have time or money for sushi.
even though I've apparently been misspelling it all my life
Also, rest less when lifting. Rest less per repetition, rest less between sets. Less rest works your cardio, in addition to working your muscles, so you'll see faster results. Like 1 second between reps, 1 minute between sets.
Next, eat food that has more volume for the calories. The "What does 200 calories look like" site is a good one to peruse. You'll notice that 200 calories can be 3 apples or a tablespoon of peanut butter. The trick to eating less calories is to eat food that has more volume per calorie, so that your stomach feels full.
Also, stop drinking calories. No soda with sugar, no sweet tea, etc.
Your goal should be a 45% waist-to-height ratio. For your 6'2" frame, that means a 33"-34" waist. As you gain muscle, BMI and weight stop making sense, since muscle is denser than fat. Thus, your best measurement is your waistline.
Finally, get a standing desk at work. Sitting down is like sleeping to your body, which is like 5 calories per hour being burned. Standing up is closer to 40 calories an hour being burned. That's an extra 1500 calories a week being burned, with no extra time commitment.
As an FYI, I've been doing all these things for the past 2 years. Got my waist down from 34" to 29" (I'm much shorter than you), and still trying to get it down another inch.
that takes me back to 10th grade =/
right now I seem to be a nonexistent 39" (40" pants fall down after 10 steps and I have to suck it in for my 38" pants)
1) Smaller portions. Specifically by using smaller plates. This helps in two ways. First, it reduces your food intake. Second, the smaller plate makes the portion look bigger, deceiving the eyes.
2) Cook my own food. When you don't go out to eat, you eat both cheaper and healthier.
3) Reduce my junk food intake, not eleminate it. I find that when I completely eliminate something, it becomes a weakness and eventually I will give in and binge. Rather than that, my plan is to set aside two meals a week (one lunch, one dinner) when I simply don't worry about the diet and eat that delicious fast food or restaurant meal.
4) Exercise. Seriously, this is the most important part of this. I need to get my blood flowing and my metabolism up. So, I will set aside an hour a night to get exercising in, work up a sweat, tone muscles, etc. My doc suggested a Recumbent Exercise Bike for me because I have bad knees. I figure I'll use that for cardio and do upper body body weight exercises for strength building. Then, once I've lost enough weight my knees can support it, I'll start adding in lower body strength work.
5) I am going to keep track of it all. I'm going to buy a whiteboard to hang in the room with the exercise bike and a scale, and every week at the same time I will weight myself and write it on the White Board so I can keep track of my progress and my goals.
Dont fall into the trap of "rewarding" yourself after exercising. Instead, think of it as undoing your hard work.
I went for a run, I can reward myself with a burger. Nope. I went for a run, if I have a burger now, it'll all be for nothing!
Just a little mental gymnastics that helped me see actual results.
Slightly more complex food choices - Eat lower glycemic foods (you can find lists of low GI fruits or veggies). Why? High GI foods calorie-for-calorie do not satisfy you for as long as Low GI foods. If you eat 500 calories of fruits and nuts that will sustain you longer than 500 calories of croissant (where you'll be hungry again in an hour or 2). It comes down to blood sugar and insulin regulation. The mechanism is pretty well known so I won't get into it.
Slow down when you eat. Maybe half or 2/3rds the way through pause and ask yourself if you're still hungry. If not then stop eating. You want to stop eating when you are no longer hungry instead of when you are full. Generally were so used to eating in a compressed scheduled time, eating out, or eating socially that we may not be paying attention to when we stopped feeling hungry.
Edit: I used calories in my example and I don't really advise calorie counting, it was just to give an idea of portion.
It doesn't really work. Healthy eating isn't just, level up this one stat and lose weight. It's far more about balance. I liken it to far more like a ball where you need to get all sides of it even to be healthy (because losing weight isn't necessarily healthy).
Additionally if you spend all your time trying to decide whether apples or carrots are healthier, you won't spend time eating either. And eating nothing but carrots or apples, is firstly unhealthy and secondly incredibly boring and there is nothing quicker to make you get off a diet than boredom.
The best advice I can give you is to buy the cheap fruits and vegetables. The reason why is that the cheap fruits and vegetables are the ones that are in season, if you eat seasonally, it means what you are eating is changing and you are getting a varied diet.
Saying this, healthy eating isn't just about fruits and vegetables. It's about healthy cuts of meat and being aware if the sauces you put on them also.
If you want to nerd out about your diet, the most effective thing you can do is track your stats. Tracking what you eat (there are plenty of apps for this) is a great way of thinking about what you are eating and helps stop you overrating. Tracking your body changes with tape, photos and a scale (the scale, while the easiest metric to measure is the least important) and again, with exercise there are dozens of apps you can use. It's been found that people who do track their stats have greater retention for staying on healthy eating plans.
Saying this, your body isn't that simple and your brain even less so. Some weeks you won't lose weight. Other weeks you'll just eat like shit. This is all normal. And it's OK. The most important thing is to remember is just to step back to it.
Satans..... hints.....
Very true. That's why I set aside specific meals that let me do so. My "rewards" are already planned into the diet. Having 2 bad meals in 21 a week while exercising 5 to 6 days a week won't cause you many problems.
Also, make sure you eat three meals a day. Seriously, if you don't eat breakfast now, start doing so. It really does help apatite control. If you still find yourself still getting hungry, keep healthy stuff around. A quarter of a cup of nuts, for instance, makes a good healthy snack and is something you can easily keep at work.
Most people suck down half a bag of the family size doritos for an extra 800 calories into their diet, them top it off with 2 cans of mt dew for another 500. That's almost the basal metabolic rate for the human body at rest.
So uh, you'd have to eat 0 other things to maintain your weight with that kind of eating habit, if you did no physical activity.
Visualization helps too. Eating half a bag of chips and washing it down with two cans of dew really isn't that hard, but calorically that's like eating 20 apples. I loved those hostess fruit pies, but a hostess apple pie was equivalent to sitting there and chowing through 10 apples in a row.
Or just knowing that your generic guy should have 2200 calories a day, and that McD menu you're looking at says that combo runs you 1200. If you get that, should probably. Not get a super supreme pizza for dinner since that could run 300 calories a slice.
A rough rule of thumb is 3300 extra calories converts to one pound of fat. So if you eat 3000 calories a day, that's almost two pounds a week you need to burn off (6600 calories worth of exercise if using a machine with a counter). If you do 400 calories of exercise and then get a 400 calorie shake to reward yourself, you're still where you started.
This is all real general and rough numbers, but just keeping a general awareness of these things is a big help.
Not fancy doesn't mean 'easy', but it comes down to a few very basic components:
1. Plan your meals and stick to your plan.
When you plan your meals, you make healthier choices about what you are going to eat than when you come up with stuff on the spot. You can purchase fresh ingredients and not have them rot away because you can't come up with something to eat them with. You are less likely to blank out because you are hungry in the evening, and say 'fuck it, pizza'. Also, if you are making a dish, you are less likely to go back for seconds or thirds if the remainder is earmarked for tomorrow's lunch. Or even better, already in a container in the fridge.
1b. Portion Control
If you plan your meals with healthy / appropriate servings, portion control becomes much easier. We're taught from an early age not to waste food, so when we make enough food to serve a family of five we loathe we eat far more than we need to.
2. Exercise
This doesn't have to be anything fancy! Standing desks and gym memberships and all that are nice, but they aren't necessary. Spend 30 minutes every day on your feet, walking around. Walk around your block, walk down to the store, etc. Of course it's better if you jog / run, or lift, but if all you do is add a half hour of walking each day, you will feel healthier and better and slowly lose weight. Keep in mind that unless you are walking to Dairy Queen, that's also a half hour (or whatever) where you aren't tempted to eat a snack.
3. Limit garbage, but don't banish the things you like
Nothing wrong with having chips / candy around. Just moderate your intake. For me, I have no problem having candy bars around the house, but if we have small stuff - like jellybeans, or halloween candy, I'll just keep eating one or two every time I walk by until I've eaten a giant bag in a couple days. Same thing with a pack of cookies. On the other hand, I'm fine having smaller bags of chips around, but if we have big bags I'll sit down and eat a half dozen servings in one sitting.
Identify your weaknesses, and purchase snacks accordingly. Basically, stick to your own rules, but give yourself exceptions.
Trying to lose weight over a short period of time works, but it usually comes back. Making small lifestyle changes - even if it means it takes a year or more to lose the weight you want - is much more likely to stick. It's not easy for anyone.
After that, it's really just eating less calories a day then you burn. I calculate how much food i am bringing to work for lunch before I leave home as it helps me reduce the urge to have unhealthy snacks when I see that I have 600 calories left that I can eat today and that muffin is 450. When you start logging you naturally start eating healthier option as they are just less calorie rich. I don't get involved in the whole carb/no carb debate as I know people that it's worked for but I go off the rails when I tell myself I cannot have a certain food I am craving and I love me some bread (I'm french).
A cheat meal once in a while is great but don't let yourself have cheat days. You can negate a days of progress by eating poorly for one sadly.
I was a fast food addict and would usually be eating out 5-6 times a week. A lunch from BK would consist of a whopper, large drink and fry and a junior burger and I would still be hungry a few hours later. Never putting a though that stopping at 7-11 and getting a large slurpee, a bag of doritos and a mars bar is more calories then I should be eating in a day, much less as a snack. High blood pressure, sleep apnea and just a constant sense of self hate. I finally asked my doctor about getting lap band surgery and signed me up for a program here in Calgary but it had a 3 month wait time for the initial assessment. He informed me that I would need to lose 10% of my bodyweight before they would operate so I started tracking and trying to eat less then the 2.5K calories the app recommended. By the time the appointment rolled around in November I had lost 60lbs and decided and was feeling great and can do this on my own.
I play badminton once a week and use my exercise bike 30minutes a day watching TV. Alternate a small weight routine and body weight exercises following a modified version of this routine.
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/
Good luck!
The only thing I can add is that what has helped me is to eat an afternoon snack of peanuts when I get hungry. Not a whole lot, mind you, because they're all just calories. But they're protein, which fills up your stomach, and makes you feel full.
And front load as much as possible. My largest meal is breakfast, lunch is about 50% of that, afternoon snack, and then a dinner which is quite tiny actually.
But, that's for me.
Chili's is the devil