New Lifestyle/Weight Challenge

[Chucktshoes]

I work overnights (10hr shifts) at a 24 hr Walgreens and I struggle with eating decently during the shift. 1st thing I did was dump the sodas and coffee and started drinking water. I take a water bottle with me to work and refill it throughout the night. It is rough at first, but after a a few nights your body starts getting used to not having all the sugar and caffeine and you actually start to feel better and have more energy. Artificial stimulants (sugar/caffeine) you will build a tolerance and need more to get less result. Good food provides more and better energy once you get accustomed to it.

The other thing I did was I sleep right after work and wake up usually around 5 in the afternoon. Then I have a normal dinner with my wife and spend the evening with her before heading into work @ 10. Then, during the night instead of eating junk, I bring a packed (small) lunch that gets eaten between 12am and 2am and if I need a snack or energy bump I will have some hard boiled eggs or a Cliff Bar. I like them cause they are tasty (unlike some others *coughcoughpowerbarcough*) and are oatmeal based and that helps them be more filling and provide more sustained energy. The reason I make sure to eat lunch early in my shift is to make sure that my body can use the food during the shift instead of eating late and then getting off work and having what I eat turned into fat while I sleep. Eat heavy early in your waking hours and eat lighter later in your waking hours.

The biggest thing I have learned is that planning for the cravings in advance helps keep me from making poor choices.

[Guest Drewsett]

Anyone work a night schedule have any suggestions?

I would be interested in suggestions on this topic as well. I work at a restaurant so I am working when other people normallly are eating. I am usually starving as the night is winding down and I will typically eat a gut bomb of a loaded baked potato around 9 or so...I get off around 11 or midnight. If I can find a way to eat a meal that will stay with me through my five to seven hour shift (you would be suprised at how much you move as a server in a large restaurant...pedometer told me I walked 18 miles in a 12 hour shift once) I would probably be much better off.

I didn't even know this was going on and I started working out just a couple days ago....so count me in! I'll weigh in at the gym on Wednesday. My target weight is 200lbs...and I'm sure I have at least 60 I need to lose.

I'm going in the mornings on MWF and trying to spend 30 minutes on free weights and then 30 minutes of cardio. I know enough to vary muscle groups by day, and I will do Nebraska-style burnouts once every 4 sessions. If I do leg burnouts then instead of doing the elliptical/stairclimber combol for my cardio I try to get a lane in the pool and get some butterfly lengths in.

Edited January 26, 2010 by Drewsett

[Guest mustangdave]

I happened on a FITNESS section on MILITARY.COM...and since I am almost a geezer and out of shape RETIREE I found a section dealing with guys that are 50+ yrs old and fitness needs...so here I go....drop and gimme 20...ok how about 15. What? you say you can't get up? then roll over...do some real sit ups...not those sissy crunches:usa:

[BigPoppa]

Eat heavy early in your waking hours and eat lighter later in your waking hours. .

They say "Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, and Supper like a Pauper"............makes sense. You just have to adjust for an overnight shift.

[Capbyrd]

I think I am going to post some stuff here. I don't know what though since my scale just says ERR. I know that I am over 400 pounds (quit "Damn!"ing now). I guess I will just wait till I get to where my scale can read me and then start posting weekly updates.

[Guest jackdm3]

400 pounds is fine when you are very, VERY, VERY tall.

[Capbyrd]

400 pounds is fine when you are very, VERY, VERY tall.

Sadly I'm not. I have always been overweight but a few things over the past few years made me balloon from right around 300 to whereever I am at now. I need to get that back under control.

[Guest jackdm3]

For your consideration, and not to alarm you: My father was 5'8" and over 350. His arms looked OK as well as his legs, yet all the weight was mostly from the waist up. He ate so much his fat compressed and bruised his heart to needing a valve replacement. The first was titanium and the second was pig valve. He never came out of the coma from his second surgery. He had just paid off his house and Lexus, his wife's 12,000 dollar credit tab, and was starting to spend his $ on fun gun stuff among other toys. He ate himself to death. You don't have to. I do know that it's hard to get off when it's on. That's why I resist his habits. I also want to look decent for my wife of 13 years. It encourages her to stay on it, too. We both win.

[deerslayer]

Currently 5'10/195, need to be 175. At 175, I can go 10 rounds w/ Oscar de la Hoya. I'm gonna do it somehow.

[saintsfanbrian]

Started the Couch to 5K this morning. I hate running but this actually worked for me. I wasn't too tired when I got done though my legs felt like Jello. Man am I out of shape.

Should be ready for a 5 K in 9 weeks. Anyone up for that challenge?

[Chucktshoes]

Started the Couch to 5K this morning. I hate running but this actually worked for me. I wasn't too tired when I got done though my legs felt like Jello. Man am I out of shape.

Should be ready for a 5 K in 9 weeks. Anyone up for that challenge?

I'm on for that one. I can't run a solid mile at this point. My initial goal is to at least be able to run enough to where I could pass BMT again. Looks like couch to run would definitely accomplish that goal.

[saintsfanbrian]

I am also working on the 100 pushup challenge. They have 200 situps and 200 squats to go along with it but I figure one thing at a time.

[saintsfanbrian]

Okay - 1 week down (and a day) and I am down 4 pounds.

I am still enjoying food only instead of using a regular dinner plate I am using a salad plate. You can't put as much food on it so you are decreasing your caloric intake.

Also I started the Couch 2 5K. I am starting to understand the "runners high". Last night after about the second or third running section I didn't think I could run one more step. I suffered through the next running section and it was all "downhill" from there. It got easier.

Ran/walked for about 31 minutes at the track. Going tonight to get some actual running shoes.

How is everyone else doing?

[Guest mustangdave]

Need to check in at the YMCA...as of Wednesday BSS(before snow storm) I was down 2 maybe 3 lbs...can I count the snow shoveling on saturday as a good PT day?...LOL...spent a good hour movin the white stuff off the driveway and walk way

[Guest jackdm3]

Went to the Y last week to get a Fitness Assessment and was alarmed at my BMI rating of 24.9 which is on the border of Fit and Overweight. BMI considers your hight versus your weight and tells you if you are too heavy for that height. I was told that the device that tells you this info (which looks like a two-handed gamestick) can be off. That it's just an approximate measurement. I said, "Are you nuts? I'm solid muscle except for my pinch-an-inch gut." And I stood up to show him. He said it's just an approximation. What this tells me is that I'm on the edge of being too heavy for my height, and that I should lose more weight in fat AND muscle. Bang THAT!

[Guest mustangdave]

easy now...easy...your blood pressure is rising...I was told that same "device" measured BODY FAT %...not Body MASS Index...and yes they can be "inaccurate"

[Guest jackdm3]

That's true. He had to manually compute to get BMI. That thingy said 14% fat. There must be deeper fat somewhere, cause my waist fat can't possibly equate to 14%. He said it appeared my fat was only in the belt area.

I feel like Bear in "Armageddon" at 0:41.

Edited February 2, 2010 by jackdm3

[Guest mustangdave]

14%....sheeeee...that's awesome....last time I was at 14% BF i was PTing every day in the Navy

[Guest jackdm3]

It just makes me feel fat!

[Guest db99wj]

Okay - 1 week down (and a day) and I am down 4 pounds.

I am still enjoying food only instead of using a regular dinner plate I am using a salad plate. You can't put as much food on it so you are decreasing your caloric intake.

Also I started the Couch 2 5K. I am starting to understand the "runners high". Last night after about the second or third running section I didn't think I could run one more step. I suffered through the next running section and it was all "downhill" from there. It got easier.

Ran/walked for about 31 minutes at the track. Going tonight to get some actual running shoes.

How is everyone else doing?

Good job Brian.

I'm down 5lbs. Back on my healthy eating...for the most part. I only need to lose 6 more pounds to get me to my low from last year when I lost the near 25lbs.

My running is still on hold for the most part. I ran two Saturdays ago, went about 2.5 miles, 25 minutes. Got some shin pain, so I have laid off again. Might try a short run this weekend. Might even get on our treadmill, that seems to not be so impactful. I miss running big time. It really sucks training and training and training, running the half marathon, then not being able to run at all for 2 months, but I have to ease back and make sure I heal, or I will be out longer.

[Warbird]

14% is a very good place to be.

The traditional height weight standards are a crock of crap. At one point I was turned down for health insurance (as I wanted to carry myself and my family and needed to switch from the excellent coverage I had but was changing careers) because their charts said I was 15 lbs over the maximum allowed for my height, 5'10". At the time I was a competitive powerlifter and bodybuilder and was involved in a job which required rigorous exertion. I was probably at the peak of my physical performance abilities. At that very moment my bodyfat was in the neighborhood of 7-8%. I said to the woman, do I look fat to you? She said no, but the chart is what it is.

I really let myself go after an injury and long term illness zapped me of strength and endurance for several years. It took a good 5 years to gain fat and lose the muscle I had worked so hard to get. Only in the last year have I made my way back to fitness and I feel much better for doing so. We do not get fat as we age because that is just aging. We get fat because we become more sedentary, we eat more and we exert less. As you gain weight natural testerone drops and estrogen increases. Fat encourages the production of estrogen and for men that is a bad thing, it encourages more fat and becomes a vicious cycle. The only way to break it is to change what you eat, how much you eat and get off your butt more. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest, ie the faster your metabolism runs.

There is a book I highly recommend by Tom Venuto called Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. You can download the book on his website.

Tom Venuto's Home Page: Fat Loss - All Natural Bodybuilding - Drug Free Bodybuilding

You will understand food after reading it plus it provides a lot of mental encouragement. He also sends out updates to the book in emails. I don't recommend most books as I think they are mainly hype, but I do recommend his. He also explains how to figure out how many calories you should be eating.

The biggest mistake I see people make in trying to lose weight is that they try and lose weight. you don't want to lose weight, you want to lose fat. Fat weighs less than muscle but takes up three times more room than muscle. Weight loss is a by product of a reduction of your bodyfat. You should be eating 500-800 calories less a day than you would need to sustain. As you lose weight your caloric intake will change. You dont want to crash diet, and miss meals. You need to eat often. I eat 7 times a day. Granted a couple of those "meals" may be a protein shake and a tbs of almond butter, or a chicken breast and a salad. You want your blood sugar to stay up and your metabolism to stay up. Crash dieting will soon cause your metabolism to shut down and convert everything to fat. When that happens you lose muscle or go into a catabolic state, which will make it more likely you will gain the weight back when returning to a sustained higher caloric level.

Also keep in mind that losing fat comes down to one thing in the end, calories in and calories out. Each person has to find that balance for them of fat, protein and carbs. Being hypoglycemic I know I have to keep my carbs to a lower level. Once you find the balance, if you are disciplined and maintain a deficit you WILL succeed. You will have to adjust from time to time and you will reach plateaus, but you WILL SUCCEED. It is a marathon, not a sprint.

Good luck to you guys. I am still trying to take off 12-15 lbs myself. I don't seek to be where I was long ago, just to be fit and in shape and be able to go on my sheep hunts w/o feeling like I am going to die. I am there again for the most part. My hunts this year were taxing but manageable despite hikes of 10-15 miles a day sometimes for 7-10 days straight sometimes.

Edited February 2, 2010 by Warbird

[Guest mustangdave]

we live and die...LOL...BY THE CHART...sucks

[saintsfanbrian]

Good job Brian.

I'm down 5lbs. Back on my healthy eating...for the most part. I only need to lose 6 more pounds to get me to my low from last year when I lost the near 25lbs.

My running is still on hold for the most part. I ran two Saturdays ago, went about 2.5 miles, 25 minutes. Got some shin pain, so I have laid off again. Might try a short run this weekend. Might even get on our treadmill, that seems to not be so impactful. I miss running big time. It really sucks training and training and training, running the half marathon, then not being able to run at all for 2 months, but I have to ease back and make sure I heal, or I will be out longer.

Thanks, David. It wasn't easy getting off of the couch the first time. But now that I am off of it I am looking forward to the run every other day.

[Guest mustangdave]

Down 3 lbs from last weeks weigh in....sweet...

[cajunpredfan]

I am relatively new to the site but would like to join in as well.

We started a program at work back in September. The program ended in December. I started at 239 and ended at 208. I am now down to 199. My goal is 175. One of the things that I have found very useful is the following website, http://www.sparkpeople.com. I use the same handle on that site.

It really helps to journal your intake as well as your exercise. It also helps to be accountable to someone else, so by posting weekly numbers here you are more likely to stick with it.

I have cut out virtually all processed foods and gone to whole grains. I thought it would be difficult but it has been easier than I had anticipated. I am over 50, so I have had bad habits for many years and have always blamed in on "since kids". Now I want to be able to see grand kids, that will be a way down the line since my oldest is still in high school.

All I can say is everyone great for trying and keep your goals within reach.