Diet and weight loss - ideas for sack lunches?

[Svart]

so many supposedly heathy processed foods contain stuff, you wouldn't even feed to conservative republicans.

I just snorted hot coffee out of my nose.  My engineering partner is laughing his ass off as I'm covered in coffee.  Nice going JR.  ;D

Before I go wash up, John has a good point.  Cutting down certain foods is a whole bunch easier than going cold turkey.

Instead of soda, go for water or milk.  Forget fruit juices, most have too much sugar and not enough nutrient.

Instead of chips, go for pork rinds(yeah I know, but they are much lower fat than even potato chips.  Don't let marketing fool you).

Try munching on cheese sticks when you get a little hungry.  Cheese is high in protein and has no carbs.  You'll feel more full with cheese than with chips or cookies or something like that too.

 

[bradb]

I have always hated working out, but recently got into boxing.  You don't have to have any contact (like punches to the head) but the fitness regimen is intense and feels very productive.  I'm able to do 15 pullups now (pullups not chinups mind you).  If you find something you enjoy thats physical, it makes working out easier.

 

[Gus]

As posted above read the labels.

 Next time you are at the store look at say Apple juice look at the countries the cheaper stuff, often made from concentrate is from vs stuff made in the USA.  I also try to find out what country "fresh" produce and fish is from.  I wonder what will be found in some of the food from other countries.

 

[mouse]

let the mouse svengali you...

 

[Consul]

Oh, and before I forget, thanks Svart for the explanation on why to avoid HFCS. My family are fans of Dr. Oz, whom I personally can't stand, and his explanation was that "HFCS tastes sweet but your body doesn't recognize it as sugar" or some crap like that. Phrases like "your body doesn't recognize it as..." peg my bogometer to the red, so seeing a real explanation is a big help.

I also find it funny that Firefox's spell checker recognizes "bogometer" as a real word.

 

[peterc]

I would recommend seeing a dietician. I had similar issues to you & the eating plans laid out by my dietician really work. They expected me to lose 1kg a week by following the plan & it worked. For 7 straight weeks I lost 7 kg & then I thought "fvck it, I hate diets" so I stopped.

My dietician uses an insulin burning approach, as far as I remember (been awhile), 3 smallish meals a day, 2 snacks mid morn & afternoon, & then a small bar of chocolate at 9pm to settle the cravings!

Peter

 

[3nity]

I lost 25 pounds during summer time at work....what i do? i worked as a delivery man!
Why? i had no time to lunch!

but i feel more confortable and confident now....

 

[thermionic]

Svart makes a salient point regarding Bagels - anything that's got a heavy dough / wheat content tends to be a bad move if you want to diet - this has been confirmed to me by a couple of friends who are fitness instructors (with degrees - not jokers).

One word of caution regarding swimming: if your technique is good, do go swimming - it's one of the most healthy / holistic exercises you can do. However, if your technique is poor, swimming can be bad for your spine and knee joints... You need to have good technique.

You're being very self-conscious about your weight btw - when I go to the pool / gym, I really don't think people pay much attention to the size of others - they're too occupied trying to battle their own goals. If they do see someone overweight, I think they'll tend to respect the fact that you're taking positive steps and encourage you - if anything at all (I hope that doesn't sound patronising, but it's fairly true: people who use the gym will identify with others who share their goals). Having said that, DON'T join a really poncy, expensive gym for poseurs... I find them highly unpleasant, clinical and generally weird. Join a local common-or-garden gym where housewives and middle-aged blokes go.

Whilst in the gym, you can use the time to enhance yourself mentally. For example, you can study a form of music that's unfamiliar to you on the Ipod. You could learn a language. You could just listen to the financial news and learn more about that. Or, you could do what I do: escape from everything and try to think about nothing!

Unfortunately, if you really want to lose weight, using diet alone will take a long time. My suggestion is to employ a radical diet and fitness routine. I'm not overweight at all, but if I'm honest, since I've been in my mid-30s, my metabolism seems to have slowed down, and without substituting fruit in place of snacks etc + the gym, I would turn chubby pretty quickly.

If you feel fit physically, you feel fit mentally. The benefits will amaze you. (I can't believe I'm writing this, as an ex-30-a-day smoker / junk food fiend...)


Justin

 

[thermionic]

Here we go - you can do this at home: http://hundredpushups.com/

I joke not. If you got to the end stage, the difference would be staggering.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I would second that you shouldn't be overly self conscious about your body at the gym... While it's true there will be many there to be seen, the vast majority of regulars are there to get a workout and move on. One concern is after new years is probably the worst time of the year for crowding, with everybody making resolutions. Perhaps wait till February when the machines won't be so crowded.

Re: swimming, I am not a swimmer, but know of people who have torn their rotator cuff (shoulder) by over doing it. Any exercise can be over done so it's worth getting some professional advice when starting out..

If you don't have a gym convenient that will make it hard to turn it into a habit so consider some exercises you can do at home.. most of the cheap exercise machines are junk... and they will be advertised heavily this time of the year.. My favorites are those, advertising "get a great work out with no effort at all"... effort is the whole point. I have a treadmill and weight machine at home, and I have averaged the cost over many years of use..

As I've suggested before, exercise is not a path to losing weight, but part of an overall healthy life style. Weight loss is really much more about managing intake.

Good luck, this is worth getting right.

JR

 

[Gustav]

1.Replace sodas with water.
2.Go to the gym.

I find it hard getting motivated as well, and the instructors will say things like - 30 minutes at least, or it wont help one bit. I dont think thats true. You can do as little or as much as you want on a given day, as long as you go.

This was my main motivational help - Every day I got on the scale and plotted my weight  into a graph, and every day it went down. Some days more than others, but down every day. When youve done it for 10 days and seen how much its actually helping, its hard not to feel the benefit.

The added bonus of going to the gym is, you think twice about what you eat during the day afterwards, cuz you dont want to ruin the effort you made.

Gustav.

 

[JohnRoberts]

1.Replace sodas with water.
2.Go to the gym.


Gustav.

+1 on avoiding empty calories...
+1/2 on joining a gym... this makes sense for some, not all.

Please DO NOT GO ON A DIET... that is short term thinking and actually counter productive if done wrong. Many of the more popular diets, will cause water loss in the early stages for motivation and positive feedback, but long term simple weight targets ignore fat to muscle ratios and more important markers of general health.

Restricting intake too severely will cause you body to burn muscle for food as well as stored fat, so at the end of the diet because of less muscle you must eat even less than you could before to prevent weight gain.

Further, the rate of exercise effort and duration affects whether you burn fat or other less beneficial energy sources. Intense exercise and and even for the first several minutes of moderate effort workouts will burn stored glycogen (sugar stored in muscles). Only longer duration and moderate effort exercises will preferentially burn fat.

Weight training is a little indirect as it doesn't consume fat directly, but by increasing muscle mass you increase your daily baseline caloric consumption.

IMO the more prudent way to approach this (or almost anything) is long term.. make a bunch of small incremental changes you can and will stick with for the rest of your longer and healthier life.

-get full nutrition
-eat less crap
-maintain body strength and flexibility

the bod and babes will come in time, or not...

JR

 

[thermionic]

I've been running several times a week for 6-7 years now. This still didn't get my waist down, even though my heart idled around 68 bpm and my GP said I was exceptionally fit. What did get an inch off the waist (and just enough to get back into my moleskin slacks - hurrah) was going to the Gym and using a variety of pro machines (not the junk ones on the High St. - as John says).

There are about a million abdominal exercises. In conjunction with a professionally-designed diet, you can really make a difference in that area.

You can always use a Swiss Ball at home, and there are a bazillion workouts it's good for. You could always get some prep work with it before joining a Gym. If you're of a technical persuasion, you'll probably take to Swiss Ball techniques, making you the envy of many a gym-goer who hasn't put in the time to study the thing.

Justin

 

[jackies]

Unless the exercise is actually accomplishing something, my mind resists doing it at all. I can't bring myself

Eating is one of the most overrated activities, probably only surpassed by sex... How much exactly do you accomplish murdering a box of chinese?
I haven't lost or gained a single pound of weight since I was 18 (almost 20 yrs).. I just don't think eating is a meaningful activity. I drink a coffee or tea in the morning with whatever there is, a cookie or a piece of bread or whatnot.. Then, one or two more times... Then it's evening.. If there's something to eat, I eat, if there isn't - no biggie, another cup of tea or some snack... Excess eating is, I think,  a cultural phenomena. Who said you are supposed to eat every day? I always like to imagine how it'd be if we people still lived in natural conditions - running in the woods naked. So like, if you lucky, after running all day you cought a rabbit or dug up some roots or something. You eat. But what if you didn't? Maybe tomorrow, or next week. Thats the way it supposed to be. So if your body manages to get hold of some excess calories, it of course stores them because you may not catch another rabbit for a couple weeks...
No wonder, if you get excess calories every day, you turn into a 300 lb blob...
And slower metabolism only means that you don't have to chase rabbits as much, and can survive with even less calories... A handful of berries on monday, a banana on wednesday..
So I advocate re-evaluating the significance of eating as activity and concentrating on personal development or wasting time on internet, whatnot..
[/rant]

 

[FerrariT]

Believe me, I haven't made up my mind about anything. In the end, I was really just hoping for another creative recipes thread. I should've known better, too. Engineers don't solve small problems. They like to look for and solve root causes.

are you looking for ideas for easy lunches or are you looking to lose weight?
if your looking to lose weight I can direct you to a diet that will work.

you can tailor it to suit your needs, as well as gain a bit of information to create a similar program.

i dunno. not reading the whole thread, just saying.

google "velocity diet" and "Tnation" in the same search.

as well even though your not trying to gain mass check out "anabolicminds" forums for more good read.

 

[Davo]

It's so easy to lose weight, that you'll probably tell me I'm full of s#$%... but I lost 60 pounds by..... walking.
Yup, once a day.... the trick is that you've gotta be willing to go 40 minutes plus uninterupted (this gets your body temp
to the point where it starts to burn fat)
Doing it first thing in the morning jumpstarts you metabolism and makes it that much easier.

Other highly effective things are:
1. Deep breathing exercises... sounds too easy, but it provides the number one thing your body needs, which is oxygen... it also moves
lymph throughout the system (your sewage system)... one system is using a ratio of 1/4/2... ie breathe in for a count of 1 (or 7 or whatever)... hold for a count of 4 (28).... breathe out for a count of 2 (14)...... ten times in a row... watch out for the head rush 
2. Water (cleaner the better) you've heard it a billion times, 8 glasses a day, but the less water, the less viscous your blood is (cells clump together)..... which equals lower energy, and more waste and acids trapped in your system.  (Fat, some have theorized, is retained in order to store the myriad of acids produced by our western, high protein diets)
3. food.... lots of veggies, just think about the energy value of "live" foods vs "dead" foods.... ie. a salad vs. a hamburger..... it's obvious, but I won't go into thumping for vegetanarianism  8)
4. proper rest and recovery.... lots of people recommend a 30-40min nap during the day... recharges you without you slipping into deeper sleep modes, which will leave you groggy after waking

Anyway, just a few tips on energy management, which is really the case with weight gain (ie. too much input, too little output)
Best,
Dave

 

[Steve Jones]

Not quite what you are asking, but what is also good for weight loss is a 2 liter bottle of spring water with the juice of a lemon in it drunk throughout the day. 2 big helpers with weight loss are good hydration and lots of sleep.

Hi,

Hadn't heard about the influence of sleep, interesting, how's that working here ?

(No pun intended, I don't mean that sleeping 23 hours a day will obviously limit the time you have available for eating)

There seems to be a lot of reasons, particularly cortisol levels and thyroid function. Here is a a link to an article...

http://thyroid.about.com/od/loseweightsuccessfully/a/sleepdiet.htm

 

[Viitalahde]

About 8 years ago I lost around ~20kg of absolute weight. I did it the hard way, went to the gym 3-4 times a week and ate very little. The real fat loss was probably more than that because of all the muscle mass I gained.

I haven't gained much fat back at all. I don't go to the gym anymore since sweating in a room along with other sweaty morons began to feel stupid to me. Instead I've found the joy of integrating exercise in everything I do in normal life. When I go somewhere, I take a bike. I might be having a good workout going on, something that I wouldn't do when exercising "on purpose". I should do some muscle workout for the upper body, and that 100 pushups thing looks good to me. I like things that don't require going anywhere or operating any equipment apart from a bike.  ;D

My point is.. Diet is one thing. I actually feel dieting is pretty easy once you just decide to do so. But the life after that needs a change.

I feel like I can eat pretty much anything I want to. Maybe that is because I've changed the way I eat, but I'm not denying anything from myself. Junk food is great when you eat it 3-4 times a year. Chocolate I eat every week. I think it's really all about finding a balance in life. Eat a pizza and a bunch of chocolate on one day, go for a long walk and a healthy meal on the next two days.

And I need to eat alot, and I have an inner time-table for that. I get nervous if I don't get any food.

Oh, and I definately do not eat ANY low-fat shit. That stuff is a result of heavy processing and contains nothing good. In fact, that hit is so low in nutrition that you need to eat it way more to make anything out of it.

Just my 0.02.

 

[beatpoet]

What does your schedule look like?

 

[thermionic]

If I went to Finland and someone offered me a fish that they'd pissed on several weeks ago, I think I'd lose weight pretty quickly 

Are there no takers for the 100 push up program? I'm starting it in January.

I've found that fruit can make a real difference in terms of preventing temptation to eat fatty foods. Since eating a grapefruit with my breakfast, I've been eating a bowl less cereal a day, which has been good for firming up the belly (cereal is high in wheat, which adds to one's blubber).

Justin