Getting in shape rant/rave

[IMADreamer]

I've let myself go since college. It's been nice not worrying about working out and all that stuff but now that I'm 30 and starting to feel my obeseness in my joints and things it's time to try and shed some tonnage. It's been good and it's been bad. I think the hardest part for me has been adjusting my eating, I'm not one for junk food as I don't particularly like candy and things of that nature but I love meat and potatoes. I do eat ice cream once a week but not a lot.

I think there are two things I'm struggling with, the first being planning my meals. For most of my life my meals were planned for me, of course living at home growing up we ate at regular times and I ate whatever my mom cooked. In college because of football it was much of the same. You ate at x time in the morning, noon, and night and you ate with the team and coaches usually. There were pretty regular weigh ins and you adjusted intake based on that. I was on the line so I was usually trying to pack on pounds.

The second thing is not getting bored to death when I'm jogging/walking/hiking. I've tried an ipod and it helps but I still can't help but be bored.

The rave portion is I've only been at it for a little bit but I have a ton more energy. Also I've been sleeping like a baby at night and when I get up in the morning I'm ready to get up and have a good spring in my step. All of that were feelings I had kind of forgotten about. I don't know that I'll lose the weight I need to lose but after being at it for a little bit I don't hate exercise and I seem to be making better food choices.

[jim]

I highly recommend boxing as a way to get in great shape and avoid boredom.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I wouldn't worry so much about the food you eat as much as how much you eat. I've lost about 15-20 pounds over the past 6-7 months. At first, I would forcibly limit myself from eating until I was full (eg, eat 3 pieces of pizzs instead of 4, eat 1 sandwich at lunch instead of 2, get 4 McDoubles at your 2 am drunken feeding time instead of 5, etc)

It's tough at first, and you'll notice it. After a while though, when you try to eat as much as you once did, you'll be surprised that you physically can't (eg, a 1 lb burger with fries that a year ago I could dominate now puts me to shame and I take half of it home).

Back on point - you don't have to change your diet - unless you're eating fried [expletive], pizza, ice cream, etc everyday all day - you just have to watch your portions and try to eat more of the healthy foods you enjoy.

Hope you get back to your fighting weight and stay there!

Also, any type of sports that you can do for cardio will help you avoid boredom. And, if you can find one or two things to do a week, that only leaves one or two tiems wher eyou have to deal with running/whatever

[thrill]

Yeah the amount of food you can eat thing is amazing. I worked construction during summers when I was younger and got in really good shape. I could throw down obscene amounts of food. A triple at Wendy's was an average lunch. I went to Europe for two weeks, walked constantly and ate light (because Europe's portions for both food and beverages aren't incredibly large) and when I came back, I ate a Wendy's triple and almost threw up I was so full. The size of your stomach can shrink fast.

Now I'm a cubicle zombie so not only can I once again eat large portions but I'm also in very, very bad shape.

[IMADreamer]

Back when I was working a couple jobs I ate fast food atleast 4 times a week for dinner because I'd only have 5 minutes to get from one job to the next. As soon as I went to only working one job I was only eating fast food once a week at most, now I've only had it once in the last month maybe and I hated it. I think that alone is a victory for me. I didn't like fast food when I was eating alot but it was a convenience issue. Now thought the thought of eating it makes me curl my nose. We still do eat pizza atleast once a week though.

[longhornbaseball]

I highly recommend boxing as a way to get in great shape and avoid boredom.

I've been doing this for a few months, and it is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, unless you belong to a boxing gym (I don't) or something similar, you don't get to actually fight anyone. It's been hard suppressing the urge to punch someone, anyone in the face. 30 minutes on a heavy bag will wear you out, though. And it's amazing how strong your hands get. Mine were sore for the first few weeks, but now I could go a full session with no gloves and no wraps and be fine (not that I recommend it).

You should also start tracking your calories. I use the my fitness pal app on my phone. I now understand what Mark McGwire was talking about when he said one of the first things he did when he got serious about fitness was to stop eating pizza.

[cards2468]

I picked up cycling as my way of working out and not being bored. I've been trying to focus on what I eat along with how much I eat. How much I eat is the issue since I'm quite capable of putting down food like you've never seen before. Last time I went to all-you-can-eat wings night at the place by my house, I put down 10 lbs of wings, and according to the waitress, she believes it's a record there, so I don't go to wings night anymore, instead I cook my own dinners. Almost every night I grill tilapia and put cajun seasoning on it, put that on a bed of rice and include a couple pieces of asparagus that I grilled with the fish. It's absolutely delicious and very low in calories.

So find foods that are healthy and that you really enjoy. You don't have to look at dieting as not being able to eat what you want; look at it as eating different things that are also good but very healthy.

[cardinalkarp]

10 lbs of chicken wings?!? Jesus H. Christ. You may have eaten your total calorie intake for a week w/ that binge!!

[cards2468]

10 lbs of chicken wings?!? Jesus H. Christ. You may have eaten your total calorie intake for a week w/ that binge!!

Similar event in Orlando. Had an order of gator bits. Decided I was still hungry so I ordered some wings, the waitress told me it was all-you-can-eat night so I did that instead. 50 wings and 2 pitchers of beer into it she told me they were shutting down the grill. I was disappointed. She was shocked, so she went back and asked them to make me 1 last batch of 10 wings. 60 wings, an order of gator bits and 2 pitchers of beer and she only charged me like $15.

[cardinalkarp]

You realize all you can eat doesn't mean eat until you explode.