Whipping Myself Into Shape

thats good man keep it up.you're on the right track.i recommend some multivitamins so u can get your daily nutrition .one that i use daily is called mega men :energy.it gives multivitamin support ,boost energy levels ,support sexual health ,and supports mental alertness.u can find it at any gnc store for about $25 for a month supply .expensive but worth it.if thats not in your budget go with one a day maximum ,made specifically for active people.and while you're losin weight and building muscle u wanna build those bones up as well cuz as u get older (not sayin you're old )your bones lose density and leave u prone osteoporosis,drink a glass of whole milk or to avoid the fat in milk drink orange juice fortified in calcium and vitamin d.just my 2 cents.good luck.

I agree with a multivitamin. A one a day is a good one in a pinch.

You couldn't pay me enough money to drink a glass of orange juice. One glass of that sugary crap would cost you about a half hour on the treadmill.

Your body absorbs vitamin D from sunlight through your skin. About 15 minutes a day is all you need for that. Calcium I would say skim milk and green veggies. Throw some spinach into your salad or eat a sweet potato.

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Originally Posted by mlambert

I agree with a multivitamin. A one a day is a good one in a pinch.

You couldn't pay me enough money to drink a glass of orange juice. One glass of that sugary crap would cost you about a half hour on the treadmill.

Your body absorbs vitamin D from sunlight through your skin. About 15 minutes a day is all you need for that. Calcium I would say skim milk and green veggies. Throw some spinach into your salad or eat a sweet potato.

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man i love oj,cant get enough of that stuff.yea you're right tho you'll have to hit the treadmill kinda hard after drinkin that.i hate skim milk.taste like its 95% water or somethin.but thats whats best for weight lost tho.im a pretty slim guy about 170-175 and pretty active.

actually from some of my reading skim milk is not good for you (it is just the liquid that separates from the fat, and the fat has most of the nutrients) heck Jenny Craigs diet specifies whole milk only (again from what I have read) I drink nothing but whole milk myself (grew up with grandparents owning a dairy farm you didn't drink anything but whole milk)

yea i heard that whole milk has most of the nutrients.i got this 3 day diet i got from my grandpa that i do from time to time where i drink nothing but milk,a quart of whole milk 3 times a day for 3 days and workout after each drink.man that tones u up nice and u drop body fat too.but wouldnt recommend it for people tryin to lose weight.it probably worked for me cuz of my high metabolism.

I read an interview with Valeri Bertanelli (hey she looks good), and she drinks whole milk with almost every meal to lose weight, the problem is we are trained to see the word fat, and cut it out of our diets, there are healthy fats

yea like leanlipids,mct's,and unsaturated fatty acids found in muscle milk.

I don't believe everything I read, especially when it's someone trying to market a "diet". I haven't had whole milk since I was the fat girl in high school. Whole milk is not on any nutrition plan recommended by the AMA, heart association or the american diabetic association. Those are all the people I listen to, mostly because those credentials outrank my own and their methods are scientifically proven. I certainly wouldn't put my body in the hands of someone I know is getting paid. Why would you?

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Originally Posted by mlambert

I don't believe everything I read, especially when it's someone trying to market a "diet". I haven't had whole milk since I was the fat girl in high school. Whole milk is not on any nutrition plan recommended by the AMA, heart association or the american diabetic association. Those are all the people I listen to, mostly because those credentials outrank my own and their methods are scientifically proven. I certainly wouldn't put my body in the hands of someone I know is getting paid. Why would you?

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i agree with what you're sayin.just because chuck norris advertises total gym doesn't mean you'll be a karate master.but this is somthin i did myself and it worked for me,but im not sayin it'll work for everybody.

Yeah, but you're 22. Your metabolism is not the same as his. You are not trying to do what he's doing. So, you have to take those things into consideration when you throw your advice in. I'm not trying to purposely knock what you are saying or tell you that you are wrong, whether or not I agree with any of it, so please don't take that personally. The idea of his thread is to keep him motivated, to keep on track with what he's doing. That's hard enough, especially when he's made himself accountable to all of us. I know a billion people that can't make themselves accountable to even their own trainer.

i know i made that clear already its not for weight lost,the only 2 cent i threw in was about multivitamins and gettin his vitamin d and calcium for bone strength, it was just a side conversation me and archemedes had about the milk,i give nothin but praise for what synthetic tryin to do ,just read ahead a little.

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Originally Posted by mlambert

I don't believe everything I read, especially when it's someone trying to market a "diet". I haven't had whole milk since I was the fat girl in high school. Whole milk is not on any nutrition plan recommended by the AMA, heart association or the american diabetic association. Those are all the people I listen to, mostly because those credentials outrank my own and their methods are scientifically proven. I certainly wouldn't put my body in the hands of someone I know is getting paid. Why would you?

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the problem with all of those associations is they are using information from the 50's (many doctors are now recommending against some of the heart association guidelines) I have never had a real problem with weight except when I was sedentary, and drink nothing but whole milk (I also have very low cholesterol which my Dr attributes to my milk drinking) you also have to realize there is very little science in the diet plans (they do a sampling of people which has a huge variable built in) I am just putting information out to try and help, as most Dr's I have spoken to are clueless on weight loss (my cousin is a dietician and gave me some information from her schooling)

My point is I would take advice from a person certified to give me advice. A registered dietician would fall in that category. Doctors recommend against guidelines on a person to person basis, which they are qualified to and should do. A lay person, however, is not.

I cannot even give supplement advice to my clients. I have to refer them to their doctor, who has a better picture of what's going on with a patient's body.

I would not take advice from Valerie Bertinelli. Now, if Chuck Norris told me my shoulders were too big for my performance goals, I might take his advice because he has a clue.

Sorry. This thread has gone way off on a tangent. I'll just keep my opinions to myself. To the OP, if you need my assistance, please feel free to PM me. Best of luck to you, sir.

Update 06.08.2008

I thought I would update this thing since I had backed off the weekly updates. More a keepin' the motivation thing. Seeing my weight fluctuate as it has was kinda taking the wind out of my motivation. I actually went back up in weight and hit 283lbs and I was just about ready to toss in the towel but I thought let me keep on chugging a bit. Im getting outside more when I can and that seems to be helping.

This week I weighed in at 277lbs. So Im down a total of about 14lbs from where I started. I had hoped to be much further along than I am, but nonetheless, it is slowly coming off. I'll keep pushing and hopefully find what I need to be doing to get the loss more steady rather than this bouncing around Ive been doing.

definitely keep at it!! Summertime is a great motivator for whipping into shape.

Well allow me to begin by giving you full props on your willingness to share with us all your progress... as this i'm sure proves to be helpful when the inner lazy man tells you that skipping your morning walk won't be that bad.... fact is that it begins a domino effect which allows you to skip more and more.

I too have struggled with the issues of weight..... I am 5'10" and at my worst weighed in at 240, you may be saying "thats not so bad" well thing is I gained that weight in just under two months going up from 185... so guess what I got stretch marks and everything around my stomach as if I were pregnant....since I am a man that would be impossible... or at least improbable( I've seen the news about that trans gender guy-gal)
fact is I began work driving trucks, and learned to love all the greasy disgusting growl you can pick up at most any fast food restaraunt or truck stop.... Hence began my trek into the world of health and fitness, which I have studied with great interest, and learned so very much....
first off let me say mlambert knows what she is talking about, you can take her advice as it seems to be well versed and known with depth.... throw away that stupid scale as it will only mislead you....let the tape measure become your new friend...as it's readings are true and exact..... start your day with 1 litre 32ounces of water, then have breakfast as soon as you return from your walk(or shortly thereafter) incorporate whole grains and lose the white bread...eat lean proteins and lots of veggies,they will keep you feeling at your best...and when sluggish, coffee or green tea will not only provide you with antioxidents but the caffiene will perk you up and curb your appetite...
as mlambert already said eat small but eat frequently... I do 200-300 calories every 2 1/2 to 3 hours...and nothing within 3 hours of bedtime.... to lose weight I recommend along with your cardio, incorporating free weights, in fact I love them, they help build bone density and grow muscle as well.... keep the lbs. to something at the 10 to 12 rep range for 5 sets per body part...with rests lasting no more than 35-40 seconds between sets and 1 minute between excercises or bodyparts....start at your core and work your way out exhausting prime movers only after they're no longer needed as secondary movers... for instance, when doing bench press your prime movers are pecs, with your bis and tris as secondary muscles, so do chest, then bisceps, then triceps...always biceps before triceps otherwise you'll hurt your elbows... then on a different day do your back and then shoulders, and another day for legs... remember core out...
As for the multivitamins, I can't comment as I have devised my own regiman, primarily focused on supplementing with vit c, vit e, and b complex... i try and get most everthing else from eating natural fruits and veggies, again this is my way and can't recommend it for everyone...it's just I've found the multis don't give me enough c and e...
Well I've probably bored everyone to death so I will end for now, if anyone has any questions, just pm me, as health and nutrition have been my hobby for about 15 years....
Good luck with your endevours....and by the way, one last thing, Matt Furey has put out a program called combat conditioning which uses various bodyweight excercises... such as back bridge, hindu push up, handstand push up hindu squats(no weight- high reps) I highly recommend this program... great addition to your cardio and free weight regiman.

Thank you so very much for that info. I think I have my meals licked finally. I was really struggling with the nutrition aspect and flavor. I simply ADORE vegetables which is the good thing and I have worked from that. The problem has been time more than anything. When I first started I was devoting several hours on like Sunday to meal preparation for the week. It only took one hiccup in that to throw things off and that in turn would put me in a position of considering and often acting on junk food or less than nutritious food or not so lean proteins.

I think I have that issue dealt with. We'll see.

Ive been taking daily, pretty much even before I started this journey, a fish oil and flax seed capsule along with a multi-vitamin every day. I particularly wanted to be on the flax seed because of its Omega-3 content and the reported ability of that to help with cholesterol because of my weight.

I think now I need to incorporate my exercise again. The problem with that is I have never been much of a work out person. I have ALWAYS preferred doing things that were quick to get my heart rate up. Probably one of the reasons I used to enjoy running so much. I still would like to, but my weight coupled with that type of exercise is putting stress on my knees. I dont have bad knees or anything like that, but they dont seem to like the weight I have pounding on them. So I have been thinking about getting a bicycle and doing that for now until I can get my weight more manageable then transition into some type of work out routine.

Hope that makes sense. I just know myself well enough. I used to have a BowFlex and I used that thing like crazy for about two months maybe and it became dull and routine and I fell out with that thing and eventually sold it. So Im leaning more towards the bike to get some exercise in for now and then hopefully reach a point I can work in other exercises.

Thats great...glad my info was a little helpful....and you're right about the eating, all it takes is one unplanned big mac to throw you severly off track, but if you plan for it and do it on your cheat day, you'll soon realize it wasn't even worth the wait, you would of just assumed to have some steamed asparagus....I think that's the logic behind a cheat day, to plan what you will cheat with ahead of time, and look forward to it, then when you finally eat it, it doesn't taste nearly as great as you had imagined, and before you know it you won't even want that big mac, or whopper, or whatever it is you like....

I think the bike is a great Idea, I got my Specialized Rockhopper a few years back (strangely enough it's the exact same colors as my GTP) and I try to ride it as much as possible, there are alot of bike trails nowadays, almost everywhere you go you can find them.... One suggestion however is to go a reputable bike shop and deal with an experienced sales rep, he will measure you and provide you with the bike perfect for your size, when I bought mine I found out the bike I owned prior was too tall for me, which had me leaning forward too much and caused numbness in my palms, now with my new bike and the reduction of it's height I no longer experience the numbness...
Well good luck, and keep it up, motivation best comes from within yourself, so don't fall into negative thinking....remember, P.M.A....positive mental attitude..

Just to let you know...
I went to the Dr.. a month a half ago and found out i
am a dibetic with under active thighroides...
I also have a sleeping disorder and now must sleep with a monitor
so i will not stop breathing in my sleep....

Good news is Ta Da i have since this lost over 46 lbs
and am feeling really good...:)

I dont wish an illness of any kind on anyone, but I suppoise if there is a bright side to look upon, that would be it.