I started four weeks ago weighing 274 lbs. I'm 5'11".
Today, I weigh 257, and dropping rapidly. Here's what happened:
One day my wife is watching the Biggest Loser, and my 3 year old wanders into the living room. He points at some dude who is just f'ing huge and says, "mama, that looks like da da!". That was pretty much my wake-up call.
The next day I called my local gym and set up an appt. to meet with a trainer. They give you the first meeting free, so really there wasn't anything to lose. The dude weighed me, and gave me a few guidelines:
1. Fast food is ok, as long as you don't eat anything fried, no sour cream and definitely no processed "American" cheese. "Real" cheese in small amounts, like provolone, is ok.
2. Try to eat one protein bar a day, either before or after your workout (I am working out in the early morning, so I'm not sure if this advice applies to those who work out at night). The protein is critical to rebuilding your muscles after getting torn down from working out. Also, eat lots of poultry/fish, fruit, and veggies. For my protein bars, the best I've found are the Clif Bars that Costco carries. The Kashi bars are nasty as hell. They also have a ton of fiber along with the protein, so I never get hungry in the mornings anymore after eating one of those suckers.
3. Alternate your cardio (elliptical/bike/treadmill) days with strength training days. I ended up having a followup meeting with him so he could show me what exercises to do to build up my strength. Let me tell you those days are NOT fun. In fact, just this week was I finally able to do two reps of all the exercises, and even then I have to nerf the "squat-curl-squat-press" one he had me do with two dumbells. It was just too exhausting.
4. Take two non-sequential days off in a week if you can. Personally I couldn't do this, because I have to get up at 5:30am to do this, then work out from 6-7am, then shower and go to work. Skipping a day of this would screw with my sleep schedule. So I actually end up working out 6 days a week; I go on Sundays for my strength training.
5. Don't drink pop, even diet pop. Even though it's not sugar, your brain thinks it is, which makes you crave shit that's bad for you. While I'm sure this is true, it's the one area I'm ignoring him on. I have enough willpower to not hit the Twinkies after a Diet Coke.
6. Don't ignore your body when it tells you to sleep. Even if you usually go to bed at 10:30, if you're tired as hell at 9, GO TO BED AT 9.
Those are pretty much the ground rules I'm following. My typical diet on a weekday is as follows:
5:30am: packet of Quaker oatmeal
8:45am: protein bar
11:30am: lunch.
For lunch, I get some variation of a grilled chicken sandwich (minus mayo) from someplace like BK or Wendys, along with a small cup of chili. I try not to eat much of the beef in the chili, just the beans and chunks of tomato. I've also been eating lunch at the house of Jared (the new flatbread sandwiches are awesome!), and Panera Bread (again, no mayo and no "cream of" soups).
I suppose it would be better to bring my lunch, but understand as few as 5 weeks ago I was getting "giant size" curly fries and a fried chicken sandwich at Arby's for my typical lunch. Baby steps!
2 pm: banana, or bag of baby carrots
5:30pm: dinner.
OK, dinner. With this it's tricky because I have a 1 YO and 3 YO who are picky, but often my wife and I will eat something independent of the children. We eat a lot of chicken and fish based meals, Costco sells big boxes of ready-to-cook Tilapia and grilled chicken filets generally coated in marinade/seasoning, with maybe a light bread coating. We also have some veggies, and maybe a dinner roll.
7:30pm: Bottle of V-8 Fusion and an orange or banana. I would love to be able to eat apples, but I'm allergic to something in them (pectin?) that makes my throat swell up and get really itchy. The V-8 is good because it's a daily serving of fruit AND vegetables, and tastes really good to boot. I like the blueberry/pomegranate drink. I probably shouldn't eat all that fruit so close to bed, but whatever. BABY STEPS. :lol
And that is about it. I think that in addition to all this, the most important thing for me is have one or two "fuck all" meals during the week, but with ALWAYS keeping moderation in mind. I ate at a Mexican restaurant last Friday with my folks and family, and I ate a bunch of fried tortilla chips but I also had a chicken burrito and chicken enchilada, no beef. I also had some cheese on it.
We also had pizza on Sunday, but NO PEPPERONI, just ham and mushrooms. And I kept it down to two pieces instead of my usual 4.
I read this entire thread today, and what struck me is a lot of you guys have an awful short term view of the whole dieting/health and fitness thing. It's a lifestyle change, not something you're supposed to do for a few months and then quit when you get down to your desired weight. When you go "cold turkey" on the foods you really like, you are ensuring that you will fall off the wagon at some point and go crazy.
The trainer dude suggested that if I want some fries, just take a few off one of my kids when they get a happy meal or something. Which is good advice, except we get our kids the bag of apples with their happy meals.
But it is very valid advice. Scam a few fries off your d00ds when you're hanging out instead of getting your own box.
Anyway, I didn't mean to write an epic, but this thread struck home for me. Good luck to my fellow fat videogame-addicted dorks, and hope we're all thin videogame-addicted dorks before too long.
My lips also get itchy and swollen.
). When I started, I wasn't sure what to expect. At worst, it would be like going back to high school when everyone laughed at the fat dude. Really, it is nothing like that at all. Even the "jocklike" dudes there are very, very nice and helpful. It helps there are a couple guys who go in the morning who look like Kevin Smith and that Jonah dude from Superbad.