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PA Weight Loss Challenge: Beware the Ides of March!

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Posts

  • VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    taking a break from the gym today. been there 8/10 days so I'm gonna take the day off and get back tomorrow. probably can't go saturday but then I'll go sunday and the following few days.

    feeling really good. been eating right barring a few hiccups but I'm not letting them get to me the way I used to, where if I wasn't perfect I'd basically break down and eat whatever I wanted for the rest of that day. making excuses! getting nowhere! no more. no more.

    Variable on
    BNet-Vari#1998 | Switch-SW 6960 6688 8388 | Steam | Twitch
  • Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited June 2010
    Now that summer is actually kind of starting here in the northwest, I picked up an air conditioner for the spare bedroom-turned exercise room. It's going to get blistering in there when the heat really begins to pick up, so this will help immensely.

    Bionic Monkey on
    sig_megas_armed.jpg
  • EllieEllie Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    HerrCron wrote: »
    Ellie wrote: »
    I feel it's worth noting, for those of you who do like/need a little competition for motivation, the Spark page has a leaderboard. Which I would like to point out I am kicking all of your butts on right now. Gauntlet thrown. I dare you to do better. :mrgreen:

    ohh, this shit is on.

    Awesome. Bring it! :mrgreen:

    As to minutes and points, if you go to the SparkPoints tracker, you'll see what actually gives you points. As far as I can tell, minutes is JUST minutes. Period. You work out an hour, you earn sixty Minutes. Pretty sure it's just that simple, but I could be wrong.

    I've also noticed there is a several hour lag between when you add information that boosts your points or minutes, and when it will show up on the Team page. So if you're wondering where your points are, they probably just haven't been updated to the page yet.

    Good luck everyone!

    Ellie on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • KyouguKyougu Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Man, I'm dreading the weekend. That's when I notice I really let myself go. I think I'm usually making up during the weekend for what I did on the weekend. :P

    This weekend will be bad too. Saturday I'm heading out hiking and swimming with friends, but before that it's a stop at I-Hops. And then later that night is dinner and bar hoping with friends.

    Then Sunday is sushi lunch with family for father's day. Luckily I'll at least get some workout time in there.

    Kyougu on
  • EllieEllie Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    You and me both, Kyougu. It's my birthday on Saturday. I am planning to engage in some serious binge drinking. I think this means I will essentially be undoing all my hard work. Oddly enough, I can't seem to care. I'm not falling off the wagon! I'm just walking alongside it with a beer in my hand.

    Or each hand. You know. Whatever.

    Just remember, man, we can let ourselves go a little bit so long as we stay diligent the rest of the time! No beating ourselves up.

    Ellie on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Vincent GraysonVincent Grayson Frederick, MDRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Shit, I would love to be in on this but I'm going on vacation for almost 6 weeks and since I'll be crashing with other people won't really be in charge of what gets eaten.

    Granted, I'd like to think that means I'll be eating healthier and far more active since I'll have people to socialize with, but we'll see. Unfortunately, it definitely means I won't be doing my P90X stuff either.

    Vincent Grayson on
  • ScalfinScalfin __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    Breakfast: Two eggs and a white. Scrambled with cheese.
    Lunch: Large turkey wrap w/ mustard and mayo. Side: half a mini-cinnamon roll (ate other half on monday).
    Dinner: tuna. Can't remember what sided it, for some reason.

    Scalfin on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    The rest of you, I fucking hate you for the fact that I now have a blue dot on this god awful thread.
  • TehSpectreTehSpectre Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Spectre weighing-in.

    I have gained about 15 pounds since starting (and failing) the 100 push-up challenge thread, way back when.

    200lbs.

    I will get a picture out soonish.

    TehSpectre on
    9u72nmv0y64e.jpg
  • FeatherBladeFeatherBlade Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Fourth day in a row, and I made it to 35 minutes on the treadmill. Plus the standard stretching.

    I'm happy about that!

    Sparkpeople, however, tells me that I'm not eating enough fat, and I may be exercising too much for the amount I eat.

    As far as the fat is concerned, fair enough. I'll have some peanut butter... or a swig of olive oil, whatever.

    However, the piddly little amount of treadmilling I'm doing cannot possibly be too much exercise: it's the only activity I get all day! I sit in a chair, at a desk! and I drive to and from work! and when I'm not doing that, I'm sitting on my couch, with either my computer or a cat on my lap! and then I lay in bed and sleep!

    ... maybe I just need to change the miles per hour that Sparkpeople calculates me at. I wish I could get it off the treadmill, but the model I have doesn't do miles per hour....

    Maybe i just need more sleep. Yeah. Shower and bed for me as soon as I get off the forum.

    FeatherBlade on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • ueanuean Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Wow, this thread is what I need. So, !signup !

    Too bad I'm nine pages late!

    Me... the past and what led to the jigglies
    Anyway, I'll consider this registration and give some info. I worked in a warehouse for seven years as a loader/unloader for trucks with DHL. After the first 6 months I was in very, very, very good shape and stayed that way, which meant I could do whatever the heck I wanted, eat what I wanted, spend the rest of my freetime sitting on the computer. Since I was getting paid to work out and lift 50 to 150 pound boxes, tractor tires, and basically run flat out all day, I developed a ton of bad habits. Not necessarily bad, but more a mindset that I was naturally fit, when in reality I was on payroll at a free gym for 8 hours a day.

    Then I decided the blue collar was too blue and put myself into business school for two years. For the first year I kept working, but had to scale it back to just sweeping the warehouse floor on the weekends so I could keep up with my studies. Eventually I had to quit and just focus on school... I was taking 8 courses a semester, fitting 3.5 years of school into two, in a very hard program to begin with. I took out student loans to cover my living expenses, rented a crappy apartment, had no time to eat right so ordered food from mcdonalds, and had no exercise since I was no longer in the warehouse. Then noticed my social life was also dying so I could study, so I started to make myself more social with classmates, which meant a lot of late nights at the pub drinking too much. Made good friends, but combined with everything else I started to put on the pudge.

    I first noticed it was bad when one of my t-shirts revealed wee little man boobs. "What the hell are these things?" I asked myself.

    I graduated, and got a job in an office environment. Worked 9 hours a day in the office at a computer, then came home and gamed on my PC or tried to learn to program so I could do more at work. Kept eating crap, and kept living my life as if I was still working in a warehouse and in shape, except I no longer was.

    Then I got married. Hoo boy. Gained more weight.

    At the start of it all I was 6'1" 175 pounds of muscle. At the end I was 6'1" 215 pounds, no muscle, no stamina, no energy, buying bigger clothes and feeling like ish.

    Then I moved to Africa to work with the people over here at a fantastic job opportunity. This forced me to cut out all junk food, and within four months I had lost 15 pounds. Over the next year I lost another 10 pounds, and I never lifted a finger... just ate right (not necessarily by choice of course... a lot of rice was had, and my tastebuds dried up from lack of use....). I'm in my second year, but since there is nothing to do here at all, I sit around in the house a lot and read. I love doing things like mountainbiking, motocross, motorsports of all kinds... those are my interests. But none of that is available in the middle-of-nowhere-Africa!

    ***
    Now and the way forward
    Today's my birthday so I'm now 29, male, married, in the middle of nowhere, and blubbery. I think where I'm at now is I've lost almost all the muscle I used to have, and have a nice layer of blubber sitting overtop. I have very little energy. So, I want to shed some pounds, and work to gain my fitness back all at once. I'm back up to around 200 pounds right now, which could be a fine weight, but I have love handles and a solid layer of fat sitting on my stomach and boobs that has accumulated from the constant sitting around over the years. I'm going to try and get rid of it. This will be done without a gym available. I started running last week. Though, one of the things of living in a village in remote Africa is you get stared at. A lot. This isn't exactly confidence inspiring when you're jiggling down the road and trying to run, completely out of breath and out of shape and surrounded by people 10 times fitter than you are! Plus it is bloody hot at 4pm when I'm done work, and running in equator sunshine at 30* isn't so fun. So I'm going to be running at 6am before the sun comes up which keeps the audience to a minimum as well as temperatures.

    As for weights, I've got nothing except for an old motorcycle engine, and a 20L jerrycan that I'll be filling with water for varying weight. Then just home exercises, though honestly I don't know what to do other than pushups and situps, so I'll be asking for advice later in the thread.

    Fitness wise, just to document this, I used to be able to do as many pushups as I wanted. I never hit an upper limit as I just got bored. Upper limit for pushup-claps was 50, and one handed was 35. Right now I can only do a set of 25 (then I die), then 10 (die), then 5 (die and have to roll over to get up). Situps I can probably push it but I feel like barfing at 40. So gotta get that better.

    I'll sign up in the spreadsheet and try and find a weigh scale in the village. We should probably have one at the clinic :)

    uean on
    Guys? Hay guys?
    PSN - sumowot
  • HerrCronHerrCron It that wickedly supports taxation Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Kyougu wrote: »
    Man, I'm dreading the weekend. That's when I notice I really let myself go. I think I'm usually making up during the weekend for what I did on the weekend. :P

    This weekend will be bad too. Saturday I'm heading out hiking and swimming with friends, but before that it's a stop at I-Hops. And then later that night is dinner and bar hoping with friends.

    Then Sunday is sushi lunch with family for father's day. Luckily I'll at least get some workout time in there.

    Same here
    Today is Englands second group game in the World Cup so pub attendance is MANDATORY
    Tomorrow is my somewhat lady-friend's birthday, which will contain some kind of drinking Olympics or so i've been told.

    Best i can hope for is to leave here early, gym then take it easy tonight so i can actually get up and go back to gym early Saturday.
    What will really happen is i won't be sober until late Sunday.

    ho-hum.

    HerrCron on
    sig.gif
  • SuicaLoveSuicaLove Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    uean, I hear you about being the weird foreigner running (though I'm not *that* out of place looking in Tokyo, only a little). I get a lot of odd stares.

    You should check out the movie "Running the Sahara." I know Uganda isn't close to the Sahara, but it may give you some inspiration about running in the heat! It's an inspiring running movie/documentary in general... and you can find it on iTunes!

    SuicaLove on
  • DorkmanDorkman Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    HerrCron wrote: »
    Dorkman wrote: »

    I don't understand those Spark Minutes. I was under the impression that it just includes exercise...is nutrition factured into it as well?

    With that in mind, I also noticed when I entered in my strength training workout yesterday it didn't seem to effect it, even though I checked things off that I did. I am I doing something wrong? :(

    Honestly, i have no idea how minutes work and how they differ to spark points so I'm just going to throw stuff in as best i can and hope it all works out in the end.

    I put in an apparant 600+ calorie workout..and I managed 10 points.

    I personally blame the French judge.

    So yeah, yesterday I decided to do a mini marathon I saw on X-Weighted once, but decided to downscale it to my fatness. The basic idea is to run a mile, then hope on the rowing machine for 2000 meteres and then hope on the stationary bike for a hard ten minutes. It always feel good because at about the 1000 meter mark on the rowing my body was screaming to quit.

    Feeling a little tender today, so might just take a walk with the misses tonight.

    Dorkman on
    Poke Black 2 FC: 0390 6923 7158
  • HerrCronHerrCron It that wickedly supports taxation Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Man i just fucking hate rowing machines, that and the lateral pulldown machine are my mortal enemies when it comes to doing shit in the gym.

    But i guess i best suck it up if i want to get anywhere with this.

    HerrCron on
    sig.gif
  • A Half Eaten OreoA Half Eaten Oreo Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I so want in.

    I'm 5'8'' 225. I've been trying to eat better recently, but have been mostly playing it by ear. I guess the best I've done is to cut out sugary drink and go with mostly water. I have no real excersice routine to speak off, but we get free gmy access at work which I really should start taking advantage of.

    A Half Eaten Oreo on
  • KyouguKyougu Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I so want in.

    I'm 5'8'' 225. I've been trying to eat better recently, but have been mostly playing it by ear. I guess the best I've done is to cut out sugary drink and go with mostly water. I have no real excersice routine to speak off, but we get free gmy access at work which I really should start taking advantage of.

    I swear I'm not working for them, but sparkpeople or dailyplate will help you tons if you're confused about diet/excercise.

    And yay for right choices! Forgot my breakfast and went to the cafeteria to grab something. Opted for yogurt with fruit and granola instead of sausages or biscuits.

    Kyougu on
  • FelixFelix Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Ugh. Tired. Worked all night and now back at work after 3 hours of sleep.

    I need to do my cardio; I've only done two days this week. I'll see if I can get in a good run after work. Other than that, the week has gone by well. No big diet slips that I couldn't get make up for later and the strength training is coming along just fine. I do feel good though. No guilt :^:
    And yay for right choices! Forgot my breakfast and went to the cafeteria to grab something. Opted for yogurt with fruit and granola instead of sausages or biscuits.

    Yay for willpower, it's a tough to pass up but you certainly feel better afterward. I also passed up the breakfast burrito for a couple hard boiled eggs (to supplement my morning english muffin + peanut butter).

    Felix on
  • ImperfectImperfect Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Update: I am a fat slobbermouth who puts whatever he can find in his face.

    Today was McDonald's for breakfast, beer & fajitas on the patio for lunch, and I think I will just bury my head in a tub of lard for dinner.

    Seriously, I need to spend some time familiarizing myself with SparkPeople and planning on how I'm actually going to do this. I've just be so busy for weeks, getting home at like 8 o'clock and needing SOMETHING TASTY AND NOW IN MY STOMACH AND WHO WANTS TO BOTHER COOKING FOR TOMORROW OR BUYING GROCERIES WHEN I COULD FINALLY BE SLEEPING?

    bleh.

    Imperfect on
  • DorkmanDorkman Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Yeah same here. Totally broke done for some McDicks for lunch. It was so so delicious but at the same time so so horrible. Oh well, I will just do 50 burpees to night as pennance. That should set things straight!

    Dorkman on
    Poke Black 2 FC: 0390 6923 7158
  • iowaiowa Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    egads. the fun thing about eating healthier over time is that you can almost taste the lack of nutrition in fastfood. it really does lose its appeal to at least some degree.

    iowa on
  • twmjrtwmjr Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    iowa wrote: »
    egads. the fun thing about eating healthier over time is that you can almost taste the lack of nutrition in fastfood. it really does lose its appeal to at least some degree.

    Completely true...now that I've started eating healthier things, I don't see myself going back to the old foods - at least nothing more than an occasional treat.

    twmjr on
  • KyouguKyougu Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    twmjr wrote: »
    iowa wrote: »
    egads. the fun thing about eating healthier over time is that you can almost taste the lack of nutrition in fastfood. it really does lose its appeal to at least some degree.

    Completely true...now that I've started eating healthier things, I don't see myself going back to the old foods - at least nothing more than an occasional treat.

    Yeah, I gotten to the point where I crave fast food just because it used to be a huge part of my life. But when I try to decide what to get, nothing ever seems appealing.

    Except buffalo wings. Damn them! I can't deny that.

    Kyougu on
  • JarsJars Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I have not had fast food in many years, it becomes disgusting after a while.

    Jars on
  • ScalfinScalfin __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    I have a slight advantage in that I really like musky tasting things, so I tend to go for whole grain and buckwheat products, which almost makes up for my drinking my own weight in cider daily during the fall.

    Scalfin on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    The rest of you, I fucking hate you for the fact that I now have a blue dot on this god awful thread.
  • retrovmretrovm Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    i'm going to a south carolina beach house for the week with a bunch of high school friends for a wedding, i'm sort of nervous about it in the diet sense. we're all pretty active (running, frisbee, biking, swimming, walking) and i've packed exercise gear, and most of the stuff we bought at costco was generally healthy. it'll be a nonstop boozefest though, i think. i'll see how things go and try to remain as on-track as possible, most of the people coming are health-conscious thankfully.

    retrovm on
  • retrovmretrovm Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Variable wrote: »
    taking a break from the gym today. been there 8/10 days so I'm gonna take the day off and get back tomorrow. probably can't go saturday but then I'll go sunday and the following few days.

    feeling really good. been eating right barring a few hiccups but I'm not letting them get to me the way I used to, where if I wasn't perfect I'd basically break down and eat whatever I wanted for the rest of that day. making excuses! getting nowhere! no more. no more.

    hey man, rest days are good! i usually go 3-4 days in a row and take a day or two in between, but still keeping active around town. walking around a lot, etc, maybe some yoga here and there. keep at it!

    retrovm on
  • ForarForar #432 Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I started the year 3 times a week and a few weeks in moved up to 4 times a week. Now I'm going 5 times a week unless I have something social planned for after work. 5 hours a week at 1200+ calories per hour is a hell of a lot of exercise, but I'm starting to see results. I think it's time to drop a pant size, and my tentative goal is to glance at moving from a 2XL to XL shirts, and maybe another pant size or two by the end of next year, assuming my body responds in a fashion that's condusive to doing so.

    What I really need to do is add more weight time to my workouts, but I'm happy enough with my results so far that I'm kind of hesitent to alter things too much, even knowing that jarring ones self out of a rut good for making progress.

    That said, an hour on an elliptical's Random setting at level 15 out of 20 is a hell of a jarring experience as it is. The valleys are cake, but the peaks are like jogging through quicksand, especially near the end of that hour. 30-50 seconds at the top is enough to make me want to flip off the machine, but it's feels like I accomplished something when I make it to the other side.

    But oh, how I appreciate my weekends now that they're more than just days I'm not working.

    Forar on
    First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
  • ueanuean Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    That's awesome Forar! I hear ya... getting through the tough stuff just makes everything so much better afterwards. I hate how we've (north american society) conditioned ourselves for the easy and the enjoyable... things are more enjoyable after slugging it out and paying for it with hard work!

    uean on
    Guys? Hay guys?
    PSN - sumowot
  • EllieEllie Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Ugh. I had to run some errands (whoops! license expires tomorrow, I need to get that renewed if I want to booze it up on my birthday, huh?) and I decided to be social with a friend, which resulted in moo goo gai pan. I totally hate myself right now for that. The good news is that I only ate something like one fourth of what was brought to me, and sent the rest home with my friend so I wouldn't be tempted at home. There really just is no healthy choice at a Chinese restaurant of that ilk, though. I should have opted for Subway or something. Ugh.

    Totally going to put in extra time at the gym tonight. Maybe I'll do 45 minutes on the elliptical to teach my fat ass a lesson.

    And in friendly competition news, way to go Werd! Giving me a run for my money on the SparkPoints front! It's good. I'm working extra hard to keep myself honest now. Reporting everything I do and eat so that I can squeeze each precious point out of it and try to stay ahead of the game. Thanks!

    Ellie on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • FelixFelix Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Ellie wrote: »
    And in friendly competition news, way to go Werd! Giving me a run for my money on the SparkPoints front! It's good. I'm working extra hard to keep myself honest now. Reporting everything I do and eat so that I can squeeze each precious point out of it and try to stay ahead of the game. Thanks!

    Thanks! I really need to step up my cardio again. Always like competition to keep me motivated. I splurged for lunch today (Friday lunches are my main cheat meal) at Five Guys. So, maybe a good run when I get home today and a smaller, veggie packed dinner.

    Felix on
  • HerrCronHerrCron It that wickedly supports taxation Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Ellie wrote: »
    Ugh. I had to run some errands (whoops! license expires tomorrow, I need to get that renewed if I want to booze it up on my birthday, huh?) and I decided to be social with a friend, which resulted in moo goo gai pan. I totally hate myself right now for that. The good news is that I only ate something like one fourth of what was brought to me, and sent the rest home with my friend so I wouldn't be tempted at home. There really just is no healthy choice at a Chinese restaurant of that ilk, though. I should have opted for Subway or something. Ugh.

    Totally going to put in extra time at the gym tonight. Maybe I'll do 45 minutes on the elliptical to teach my fat ass a lesson.

    And in friendly competition news, way to go Werd! Giving me a run for my money on the SparkPoints front! It's good. I'm working extra hard to keep myself honest now. Reporting everything I do and eat so that I can squeeze each precious point out of it and try to stay ahead of the game. Thanks!

    I have decided that spark minutes is the truest measure, mainly cos I'm in third there :P

    That said pizza & beer as i watched england suck horribly didn't do me any favours regardless.

    HerrCron on
    sig.gif
  • Matt_SMatt_S Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    This sounds like what I need. Count me in.

    23/5'9"/180/160(ish)

    My heaviest was more than 250 lbs. I don't know how much more, because at one point I got depressed and stopped weighing myself. I made a set of pics to show a friend my progress, here it is for you guys:
    notfat-1.jpg

    The two pics on the left were taken of me in my junior and senior years of high school, which was three or four years ago. The pic on the right was taken of me this March. I was probably around 170 in that pic. Since then I think I've gained about ten pounds. I'd like to get down to about 160.

    One thing I'm excited about is going to the gym before work. Right now I start work at 8:30, but figure that I can wake up early enough, go to the gym, walk the three blocks to my work, take a shower and then start my workday. I never want to go work out after work (unless I've had a stressful day, then I like to go for a run).

    Good luck to everyone! Its definitely possible, but it takes a lot of patience and hard work.

    Matt_S on
  • FelixFelix Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    HerrCron wrote: »
    I have decided that spark minutes is the truest measure, mainly cos I'm in third there :P

    That's a much better measure since you can get the spark points for all kinds of crap. Notice I'm doing very poorly in minutes; hopefully that will be remedied soon.

    Awesome results Matt_S. You look like a completely different person.

    Felix on
  • iowaiowa Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Dang Matt that's quite a change. I'd like to hear about how that change feels re energy levels, ability to focus, etc. any change?

    The more i spend time thinking about the topic of health the more I think it's viewed in an ass backwards kind of way. It appears that a lot of people are motivated to change their ways based on the way they perceive how others view them. this makes the focus, the goal, be on how you look. I think, rather, it would be better to think of this as a long term investment, kind of like going to the university. except instead of making more 6 figures in the future, you get to avoid coronary bypass when you're 40.

    In this thread there are a lot of people punishing themselves through some bad eating. don't do that. it's a bad cycle where if you think you are too weak for this, you will lose motivation and nothing will change. It ain't about other people and what they think about you, do this for yourself so that you don't suffer health problems in the future.

    iowa on
  • FeatherBladeFeatherBlade Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Fifth day of treadmill and stretching!

    Lots of food for lunch today - Spaghetti with meat sauce, fruit salad, baguette with balsamic vinegar and oil, and brownies - yum! It's been a while since I had brownies. It definitely fixed the "lack of fat" problem with what I ate yesterday. :lol:

    Lots of extra exercise too - hauling around chairs and tables at church before and after lunch.
    I think I've surmounted the learning curve on sparkpeople - I'm starting to really like recording my food and exercise.

    Don't lose heart everybody! Have fun with the exercise you're doing, and eat well!

    FeatherBlade on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • ueanuean Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Well, my first post mentioned that it was my birthday yesterday, so yeah that turned out to be a disaster. My "no soda and workout often" goals were shattered by having a soda, two beers, and then everyone who came brought goodies so I had to try them all (one was these chocolate covered cook dough balls, oh crap so good). Anyway yeah I don't even want to know how many calories that was :) Now its saturday and I feel terrrrible after eating all that after so long without the junk.

    Is there an easier way to use that nutrition thing? adding foods is incredibly slow. i'd love to just add everyhting i could possibly eat at once and have it sit in a list to pick from later.

    uean on
    Guys? Hay guys?
    PSN - sumowot
  • ChillyWillyChillyWilly Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Kyougu wrote: »
    twmjr wrote: »
    iowa wrote: »
    egads. the fun thing about eating healthier over time is that you can almost taste the lack of nutrition in fastfood. it really does lose its appeal to at least some degree.

    Completely true...now that I've started eating healthier things, I don't see myself going back to the old foods - at least nothing more than an occasional treat.

    Yeah, I gotten to the point where I crave fast food just because it used to be a huge part of my life. But when I try to decide what to get, nothing ever seems appealing.

    Except buffalo wings. Damn them! I can't deny that.

    I'm in the same boat. There are very few fast food items that appeal to me anymore.

    Granted, I love the Monster Burgers at Hardee's (Carl Jr's for any west coast folk) and I love a well-made pizza. Other than that, I generally don't want to step foot in any fast food places most of the time.

    Besides, it's satisfying to make your own food most of the time. Makes you feel like a man. :D


    I'm starting month 2 of the Insanity workout today. I'm not necessarily looking forward to it. Before that, I've got to move a few things to my new domicile back in my hometown. Then I'll just need to watch what I eat for the rest of the day.

    ChillyWilly on
    PAFC Top 10 Finisher in Seasons 1 and 3. 2nd in Seasons 4 and 5. Final 4 in Season 6.
  • FelixFelix Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    uean wrote: »
    Is there an easier way to use that nutrition thing? adding foods is incredibly slow. i'd love to just add everyhting i could possibly eat at once and have it sit in a list to pick from later.

    There are a couple different ways to do this. You can add foods you use often to your favorites list. There are food groupings you can set up so that if you eat a certain meal very often you can just group that food together and give it a name so you only need to select that one item. Also, if you ate the same thing for a meal on a previous day you can go back to that day and copy the entire meal to another day.

    I'd normally say don't worry about counting calories, fat, etc. However when you're first starting out it's helpful to see how much you really are eating and what your fat/protein/carb breakdown is. Spark always says I'm low on carbs and high on protein but I think they want you to eat too many carbs, trying to keep mine at or below 40%.

    Felix on
  • Zetetic ElenchZetetic Elench Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Hello chaps! I know nothing about this.

    I mean, a couple years ago I was around 230lbs, and then through haphazard dieting and exercise I managed to get down to around 165 by the end of last year, but there wasn't much of a plan to it.

    Then I moved back to England, and in the downtime after moving I let go a little and stopped putting the effort in for a few months. I don't think I gained all that much, maybe ten or twenty, but I felt horrible.

    Now I'm hitting the gym again and have been going three times a week for the past couple weeks. I count calories, but that's about all I do - I normally limit myself to about 1500 a day. My gym workout is usually 45 minutes on the treadmill (running/jogging for three/four minutes, walking fast for two, repeat, which usually burns about 400 calories for the session) and then a whole bunch of different weight machines, focusing on my legs because running is just about the only cardio I don't hate.

    I've been having a couple slices of fruit malt loaf and some fruit and orange juice for breakfast, banana sandwich for lunch, and then usually some kind of meat (like a couple of chicken breasts or pork chops) and rice for dinner. And with some kind of snack somewhere in there too, like a brownie or something.

    Right now I'm about 165 again - I think I lost a lot of water weight when I started eating better again, but I suspect some lost muscle over the past few months makes up some of that too.

    Like I say, I really don't know much about this. Anyone see any particularly egregious errors?

    edit: For the record - I know 165 sounds fairly low for a 5'8 guy, but I am also just about the least muscley guy you'll ever meet, so I do have a chunk of fat around my waist and stomach, and that's what I'm aiming to get rid of as well as get fitter.

    Zetetic Elench on
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  • EllieEllie Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Dear sweet merciful God. I turned my sleep schedule around yesterday by staying up twenty-four hours straight and then sleeping fourteen. I broke my workout routine! This means I need to get my ass out off my bed (oh netbook, how I love thee) and out to the damned gym so I can work off yesterday's indiscretions and put in a little extra to make up for the mass quantities of alcohol I intend to consume at tonight's birthday party. As much as I dread the oncoming setback, I need the unwind time. This will be good.

    I wanted to make a comment on a point Iowa made earlier about sort of seeing this more as a punishment for bad eating or a vanity thing, rather than doing this for our health. Speaking strictly for myself, while I definitely know this is all great for my health and I don't want to end up diabetic like my father is, I will admit that my biggest motivator for this is how others perceive me. Maybe this is more common in women (I doubt it)? I have self-esteem issues, not gonna lie. Losing weight and feeling as though other people like me better because I'm thinner will make me feel better about myself in the long run. So, even if the motivation is different, the end result is the same. I'll be healthier, even if it's not necessarily for what others perceive as the "right" reason.

    Keep up the great work, everyone!

    Ellie on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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