Diet and Exercise

[The Matt]

Share things that work for you for your health and fitness here.
I'm trying out a diet that is reeeeally working good for me, high protein, low carb. I love my meat, and I hate all things vegi. Here's what I eat.
Breakfast: Bowl of Special K, and a banana. (You need some carbs, that's your energy. I get mine in the morning.)
Lunch: 3 Tilapia Fish seasoned with lemon pepper, and a green salad with Thousand Island Dressing.
Supper: 2 Baked Chicken Breasts, seasoned with lemon pepper, and a green salad with Thousand Island Dressing.
Snacks: I allow myself one sweet a day, normally a Nutty Bar, and a glass of milk. In between meals, I'll snack on bananas.
I allow myself one cheat meal a week. (mmm Chinese food) It's important (to me anyway) to let yourself cheat a little bit, otherwise you'll get sick of the diet and give up.
I know it's not a lot of change, but this works for me. Anyone have any tips on a high protein diet?
Exercise
CARDIO! I walk 2 miles a day (sometimes more, never less) 6 days a week. Walking is therepeutic, it can help to treat many many mental disorders, and general feelings every person alive has sometimes such as depression and anxiety. Some good cardio exercises I know of without needing equipment is walking, jogging, running, going up and down stairs, (If you have two steps you can do it!)
I like to work out at the gym, free weights not only can help you build muscle, but it takes away a lot of aches and pains after awhile. I don't really know what most of the exercises I do are called, but I work arms, upper legs, calves and hamstrings, back, shoulders and abs. 5 days a week, 2 day rests. It's VERY important to take rest days, if you work out every day you're going to shock your nervous system. And it's important to give each body part you work at least three days to rest, otherwise all you're doing is tearing down muscle.
So that's what I do...a few other tips: If you're doing exercise to build muscle mass as well as trying to lose weight, don't check the scale all the time! Building muscle will cause your weight to fluctuate. Don't look in the mirror all the time! If you look at yourself every day, you get used to seeing yourself and you won't notice that you're losing weight. Another thing I had to learn was don't try to think behind what people tell you. People have been telling me I'm slimming down, and I just thought "Oh they're just trying to encourage me because they know I'm trying to lose weight." It took a complete stranger (someone that lives down my road) to tell me it looks like I'm slimming down for me to start believing people.

[houston]

high protein, lots of salad, whole grain bread a la orowheat, brown rice, lots of water.

[bbyrd009]

I got turned on to The Metabolic Typing Diet by some hiker buddies when I moved to Colorado, it basically shows one how to adjust their protein/fat/carb ratio to their specific metabolism, this is the book that started all that.

Beyond that, one in the US eating CAFO (grocery store) meat should be aware that all the Omega 3,and Vitamin D that one would normally have gotten from their meat in years past is absent in CAFO meat, and both are vital; vitamin D deficiency has just been recognized as being a better marker for breast cancer than a mammogram.

[returnman]

Best results I have seen on folks, weight watchers. Low carb. common sense.

[Amanah]

if you are a female:

eat 1500 calories/day.
buy Jillian Michaels fitness DVDs and rock them.

[The Matt]

Originally Posted by returnman

Best results I have seen on folks, weight watchers. Low carb. common sense.

A fluffy person tends to forget that.

[Titus2woman]

Read: Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions.

Eat: Grass fed beef, pastured pork, chicken and eggs. Raw milk, cream, cheese, butter, yogurt, keifer, Kombucha tea, fresh chem. free veggies and fruits. Home baked bread and homemade pasta. Raw honey from our bee hives. Coconut and olive oil and lard rendered at home.


Avoid: Processed pseudo-foods (ever seen how a chicken nugget is made?). Anything in shiny packages or with more than three ingredients on the label.

Exercise: No not really.

I enjoy: Gardening, housework, yard work, milking cows and goats, stacking hay and 50 pound feed sacks, feeding critters, occasional calf pulling or wrangling, yoga and martial arts.

[Pilgrum]

Monitor calories. I allow myself up to 2000 calories a day. It usually comes out to between 1500 and 2000. I don't believe in diets. You will lose weight on a low carb high protein diet, but when the diet is over and you go back to eating the way you did before the diet you'll get it back unless you make permanent lifestyle changes. The same is true for every diet. Also high protein low carb is unhealthy. There is nothing wrong with carbs. It's where you get the carbs from that causes problems. I have a goal to lose 40lbs in 4 months and so far I'm down 12lbs and expect to lose 1 or 2 more before the month is over. Monitoring calories really makes you aware of what your putting in your mouth and how fast they can mount up. Once you reach your goal it's easier to then maintain your weight because you retain that awareness and discipline and continue to make sensible choices.

I drink fresh squeezed veggie/fruit juices every day. In spring summer and fall I bicycle a lot. Now I am working out on an elliptical trainer an hour a day 5 or 6 times a week and I also lift weights 3 times a week. As mentioned walking is probably the best exercise there is for both physical and mental well being. If you have a lot of physical activity in your daily living like T2W then exercising is not as important. And as T2W stated avoid processed food as much as possible. Fast food is a no brainier. All these foods contain additives that make you hungrier and retain weight and are toxic. A general rule, if it comes in a box, can or jar, don't eat it.

[The Matt]

I like to stay away from calorie counting, this is just how my mind works: a Coke is only 120 calories, so I can have a few of those a day right?

[The Matt]

Originally Posted by Pilgrum

Monitor calories. I allow myself up to 2000 calories a day. It usually comes out to between 1500 and 2000. I don't believe in diets. You will lose weight on a low carb high protein diet, but when the diet is over and you go back to eating the way you did before the diet you'll get it back unless you make permanent lifestyle changes. The same is true for every diet. Also high protein low carb is unhealthy. There is nothing wrong with carbs. It's where you get the carbs from that causes problems. I have a goal to lose 40lbs in 4 months and so far I'm down 12lbs and expect to lose 1 or 2 more before the month is over. Monitoring calories really makes you aware of what your putting in your mouth and how fast they can mount up. Once you reach your goal it's easier to then maintain your weight because you retain that awareness and discipline and continue to make sensible choices.

I drink fresh squeezed veggie/fruit juices every day. In spring summer and fall I bicycle a lot. Now I am working out on an elliptical trainer an hour a day 5 or 6 times a week and I also lift weights 3 times a week. As mentioned walking is probably the best exercise there is for both physical and mental well being. If you have a lot of physical activity in your daily living like T2W then exercising is not as important. And as T2W stated avoid processed food as much as possible. Fast food is a no brainier. All these foods contain additives that make you hungrier and retain weight and are toxic. A general rule, if it comes in a box, can or jar, don't eat it.

Maybe I should have been more clear, this really isn't a diet, more of a lifestyle change to me.