Take care of yourself

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Breakfast: Peanut butter on whole wheat bread. One slice.
Lunch: Piece of cheese on whole wheat bread; grapes, apples, bananas
Dinner: Varies widely. Generally somewhat unhealthy, though never anything with sugar. Chicken. Chopped steak. Steak. Turkey. Tuna. A salad. Maybe a quesadilla. Always drink water.

Spring: 90 minutes. Step aerobics, elliptical, weights, rollerblading.
Summer: 120 minutes. Basketball, sprinting, rollerblading.
Fall (football season): 0-45 minutes. Basketball, elliptical, weights.
Winter: 90 minutes. Haven't decided yet.

None.

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p.s.: I wish there was a way to show you how different I look without compromising my anonymity. I guess you all will just have to take IJAG's word for it.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

A typical day for me food-wise is something like this
breakfast: egg substitute, veggie sausage patty, low fat cheese, whole wheat english muffin
lunch: If I bring it, turkey on whole wheat, apple or some other kind of fruit. If I eat out, usually Subway chicken teryaki or turkey sub on wheat and baked chips (Sometimes, I'll eat a 6-inch, sometimes 12)
dinner: ground turkey breast, brown rice, taco seasoning, red and green peppers mixed together or Boca Italian sausage on a whole wheat roll or a boca burger on a whole wheat roll
snacks (usually 2 or 3 a day between meals): zone or Kashi bars, bagel and natural peanut butter
For supplements, I'll occasionally use Met-Rx instead of a meal if I'm pressed for time
On Saturdays, I'll eat some ice cream and one meal with stuff I don't usually eat (pizza, steak and potato with all the trimmings, or burger and fries. I try to go for quality on this meal instead of fast food. Since it's only once a week I want to make it worth it)
I write down everything I eat.

My workouts usually go like this:
Sunday: weights, 20 minutes legs, back, biceps 2 sets of 12 6 exercises total with a weight that feels heavy around the eighth rep
30 minutes eliptical machine
Monday 30-45 minutes cardio, usually eliptical, sometimes treadmill.
Tuesday (I work at a weekly and Tuesday is my deadline day, so this workout is my shortest) weights, chest, shoulders triceps, 20 minutes, 6 exercises, 2 sets of 12
Wednesday 45 minutes cardio
Thursday: weights, full body, 12 exercises, one set of 12 each, but heavier than the Sunday and Tuesday workouts
30 minutes of cardio
Friday: 30-45 minutes of cardio
Saturday: rest or makeup day

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I think this was a very cool question from Mizzou.

Me and SP have lost significant weight using two very different strategies. The point is to handle your business in a way that's best for jOO. Remember that it's a big equation (energy taken in needs to be less than energy expended) and you'll be good. Weightlifting, though it seems counterproductive from a weight-loss perspective, is a very important part of the process.

Everyone who wants to lose weight can be successful.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I'd like to add that to succeed long-term, you really have to come up with your own program.
You don't have to re-invent the wheel and you shouldn't get too far away from basic stuff that works for everybody, but you do have to be able to fit your diet and workouts into your lifestyle. If you work nights, 5 a.m. workouts are probably not for you. and that "Don't eat anything after 8 p.m." rule isn't very practical.
I tried several times and failed before I finally devised the program I'm on now with the help of a trainer earlier this year. I still try to learn all I can from as many credible sources as I can find and if I find something that looks like it might work I'll give it a try, but you can only follow somebody else's plan for so long.
I have enough diet and workout books to open my own bookstore. The programs that I tried before were good, sound programs, nothing crazy or off-the-wall, but for one reason or another following them always felt like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
It's your journey. Drive your own bus instead of being a passenger on somebody else's.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I'm one of these people who stays away from medications of any kind. I figure they're all poisonous to different degrees, which means your body is better off without them. Some pill that blocks fat digestion is an example of something I'd rather not mess with.

If it was that easy, we'd all die anyway. The motivation behind my exercise these days isn't weight loss. I'm trying to make my heart and my body as efficient as possible. A pill ain't going to promote that.

Just my two cents...

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I agree with Pass on this. I didn't need a pill to get fat, so I don't need one to get unfat.
When I finally get where I want to be, I want to feel like I've accomplished something. You can only get that feeling with hard work. I don't think it would be as rewarding an experience if I took some sort of medication or had surgery.
I know people who have done those things and I don't look down upon anyone who has done them. In some cases, it may have been necessary, but it's not the way I choose to live.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

The constant fluxuation in your weight can't be very good on your body, especially if you go on Atkins for a limited time and then resort back to your old ways. The best way is to maintain throughout. I

'm struggling with the low carbs throughout every meal. That's not an easy task, but slowly have noticed where I will take off the buns to hamburgers or will get small fries instead of the super size! haha.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

If you're thinking of Xenadrine, don't. It used to contain ephedra....which was banned by the FDA because it can blow up your heart.

Now there's an 'ephedra-free' version....but it still can cause anxiety, dizziness, high blood pressure, and heart tremors. Fun stuff.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

What are they putting in to replace the ephedra/ma huang/stuff that used to be in it?

Sounds like dating to me.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Anything with ephedra in it is dangerous. I tried a cycle a couple of years ago. While it boosted my metabolism, it made me so edgy that I thought I had just bonged a pot of coffee. Not a cool feeling.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Ordinarily I would disagree with you just on the coffee principle. Not this time.

One of the "Men's" magazines -- Men's Journal, methinks -- did an article about that stuff last year, focusing on a guy who used so much of the stuff that he ended up losing half his brain.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

For 21 or anybody else, how frequently should I change my workout routines and what sort of changes should I make?
Is it enough to just change the exercises or should I also change set and rep schemes, splits (going from full body to split or vice versa, from push-pull to upper/lower body split, etc.) and other things? Also, with cardio should I throw in occasional interval workouts?