Not sure what to do....



Threedog72

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May 11, 2014
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Hi everyone....This will be my second post!!! Yes I said SECOND ;)

After some talk with some freinds who are avid cyclist/runners I've decided to do some cycling for health reasons.

I'm 41 6'3" 275'ish....I have pretty much kept this weight for years. But it's time to shed....Thing is....

I don't know how to eat properly, seriously...I don't know what to eat, how much am I supposed to eat etc.. What's a good healthy breakfast? I know these questions are pretty loaded. I hardly eat breakfast when I do it's never good.

Lunch/dinner - Much fail there as well...Chinese food,MC'ds etc, always the fast option during my day...

Just looking for some direction. A good book,website app anything...

Regards,
Joe W
 
I'm not a nutritionist at all, but work in the food industry and tend to eat really healthy so I can give some layman's advice. For meats eat turkey and grilled chicken, its nice and lean and full of protein. For breakfast I eat a handful if grilled slices turkey with a few egg whites and fresh baby spinach, really delicious. For lunch I eat a salad with no dressing, you don't need dressing if you know how to make a good salad. For dinner eat some pasta or more meat, I'm sure you have a basic idea of what's healthy and not healthy. But yea that's my suggestion for breakfast, that with a slice or two of multi grain toast will give you great energy without bogging you down. I'd buy some whey protein as well, and blend it with milk and a few strawberries/bananas before lunch so you don't eat so much, plus it helps build muscle.
 
start with two basic things, after that make babysteps as much as you can
- avoid eating out/preservatives/additives/processed foods
- if you ride 3 times a week or more, your body need more food, since its loses some amount while riding regularly
meaning- eat a bit more/ compensate with carbohydrates and sugar shake (fruits and oats/etc)
 
It really helps to just avoid processed food as much as possible or all together.
If you cook your own meals and stick with lots of vegetables and lean meat or no meat you will lose weight I guarantee you. (as long as you combine it with exercise)
Also don't use lots of oil and avoid eating out at places that do.
Don't drink soda all day either.

So in summary:

1. Plenty of veggies
2. Lean or no meat
3. Less oil
4. Less soda.

Those will help A LOT.
 
Threedog72 said:
Hi everyone....This will be my second post!!! Yes I said SECOND ;)

After some talk with some freinds who are avid cyclist/runners I've decided to do some cycling for health reasons.

I'm 41 6'3" 275'ish....I have pretty much kept this weight for years. But it's time to shed....Thing is....

I don't know how to eat properly, seriously...I don't know what to eat, how much am I supposed to eat etc.. What's a good healthy breakfast? I know these questions are pretty loaded. I hardly eat breakfast when I do it's never good.

Lunch/dinner - Much fail there as well...Chinese food,MC'ds etc, always the fast option during my day...

Just looking for some direction. A good book,website app anything...

Regards,
Joe W
There should be a ton of info on the web
 
alexiso said:
start with two basic things, after that make babysteps as much as you can
- avoid eating out/preservatives/additives/processed foods
- if you ride 3 times a week or more, your body need more food, since its loses some amount while riding regularly
meaning- eat a bit more/ compensate with carbohydrates and sugar shake (fruits and oats/etc)
Yes, stay away from processed foods and fast food restaurants. Fast food is notoriously known for processed and gluten foods. They are addicting as they were designed to, to keep you coming back for more.
 
joshposh said:
Yes, stay away from processed foods and fast food restaurants. Fast food is notoriously known for processed and gluten foods. They are addicting as they were designed to, to keep you coming back for more.
That's true. I don't know if all restaurants actually use that method, but I know for sure some do, as it gets really addicting because of the flavours, which is why it differs from the food you cook at home, which might make you think it's rubbish, lol. I think we need to be careful where we choose to get out food from.
 
kylerlittle said:
That's true. I don't know if all restaurants actually use that method, but I know for sure some do, as it gets really addicting because of the flavours, which is why it differs from the food you cook at home, which might make you think it's rubbish, lol. I think we need to be careful where we choose to get out food from.
Anytime someone else prepares your food you are putting yourself at risk for unhealthy food or even bacteria. I've gotten food poisoning several times throughout my life. It was always due to someone else preparing my food. To me, it's not worth it. It's cheaper to eat at home and you have a peace of mind knowing the hands the cook your food.
 
joshposh said:
Anytime someone else prepares your food you are putting yourself at risk for unhealthy food or even bacteria. I've gotten food poisoning several times throughout my life. It was always due to someone else preparing my food. To me, it's not worth it. It's cheaper to eat at home and you have a peace of mind knowing the hands the cook your food.
What if someone preparing my food had Aids and their spit went over my food, or sweat, would that affect anything?
 
joshposh said:
Yes, stay away from processed foods and fast food restaurants. Fast food is notoriously known for processed and gluten foods. They are addicting as they were designed to, to keep you coming back for more.
There is a reason why it is so addicting. It full of sugar and gluten that hits the pleasure centers of the brain. So you need to stay away from it as much as possible.
 
kylerlittle said:
What if someone preparing my food had Aids and their spit went over my food, or sweat, would that affect anything?
Is that a serious question? If you two aren't having sex or swapping bodily fluids, I wouldn't be worried about it. Any bacteria can be spread through others hand. A simple google search you can find countless articles on such cases.
 
A good place to start is to make sure you are eating lots of vegetables. Frozen veggies are a great way to get more into your diet if you don't have time to cook them at every meal, like lunch for instance. For me, cutting out added sugar and refined grains seems to be the key to weight loss and maintaining the weight I should be at.

A lot of information out there advocates low fat diets, but I have not found that to be a good thing for me. Reducing carbs seems to be better than reducing fat. I don't mean to say Atkins is a good idea, I just mean reduce carbs, so rather than a plate full of rice, you might have a small side of rice and much more vegetables and a moderate portion of meat. The think with fats is that you want to stay away from the bad ones, which are things like crisco, anything hydrogenated, and all vegetable oils. Switch to olive oil for your salad dressings and coconut oil for anything cooked and you'll have probably eliminated the bulk of the bad fats in your diet, provided you are preparing most or all of your food at home. Other than that, you can still enjoy some butter on your bread, whole dairy products, and red meat as long as you are eating all these things in moderation. Fat is a slower burning fuel than carbs so eating lots of carbs, even if they are whole grain, will cause your blood sugar to fluxuate much more than if you at the same amount of calories, but had a higher percent of the calories being from fats and protein and a smaller portion from carbs.
 
kylerlittle said:
What if someone preparing my food had Aids and their spit went over my food, or sweat, would that affect anything?
Say WHAAAAAAAAT?

HIV can only be transmitted from an infected person to another through direct contact of bodily fluids such as:

  1. Blood (including menstrual blood)
  2. Semen / Cum / Precum / *********.
  3. Vaginal secretions.
  4. Breast milk.
Found here... probably best to read the entire thing...you know for the knowledge & all...
 
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The best things you can do are cut out the sugar, cut out the sodium, and then start focusing more on veggies as the main part of meals rather than red meats. From there, you'll find yourself feeling a lot better and then find your body shedding those pounds like crazy. Those simple steps, even just cutting out sodium and sugar, can make for incredible results.
 
Hello! I don't see an update, so I don't know if you were able to start your cycling program, or if you found a good balanced way of eating healthy.

I see a lot of really good tips from the contributors above, and only have a couple of things to add myself.

The key really is to be balanced. Sometimes if you try to make too many changes too fast, that's the quickest way to misery and backsliding. So start slowly.

Maybe make a chart for yourself with all the new habits you want to incorporate. Then, just make a small change each day. Once it's part of your new lifestyle, add another good habit, or phase out a bad one. For instance, it would be very hard for me to go from 3 sodas a day to drinking nothing but water. So start by cutting out the midday soda or caffeine.

Then, a few days later, make the evening caffeine half the normal amount, and drink an 8-oz cup of water or juice to supplement the fluid intake at that time. And maybe on the same day, increase your cycling from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.

Small changes can make all the difference. And let us know how it's worked out for you.
 
Your best bet would be to see a nutritionist and maybe a personal trainer or just a gym. It'll help more than you think.
 
You just have to know yourself and help yourself to avoid those things that get you into trouble. Of course it is easier said than done, and that is where the whole determination and grit and focus come into play. There are a lot of ways to start, and usually a combination of diet and exercise is the best option. I do like how @plex summed it up nicely with some big ones.
 
Try an app called ''My Fitness Pal'' It's fantastic for helping with sort of stuff, you can scan the barcodes of the products you have and it will bring up their nutritional info, It's really easy to use, I highly recommend it.
 
I was also a lover of fast food until I had kidney stones.. and twice already. So now I try to avoid salty foods because aside from kidney stones, salt is a factor for gaining weight. Another is eating vegetables. We are meat eaters so I have learned the value of eating vegetables whenever I can. With sweets, that's also one food to be avoided, I mean excessively but it's okay to indulge in sweets moderately.

For a healthy breakfast, I have either fruit juice or milk. No coffee please. Rice with dried fish or meat is fine plus eggs, of course. If no rice, bread is a good breakfast item too. For lunch and dinner, just stick on a balanced meal, that is partly meat or fish with vegetables or fruit. And if you ride regularly, I'm sure you will lose a lot of pounds.

Good luck.
 
There are a lot of guides on how to eat properly on the web.You should consider them. Just attain a balanced diet and not starve yourself. You don't have to eat less to lose weight. You just have to eat properly and live a healthy lifestyle.