Health and Fitness

[Tbone]

So as some of you know, I've lost over 30 lbs the last few months. We often have conversations in TS about various ones of us getting in shape in various ways, but I thought I'd start a thread so there's one spot where we can trade ideas and methods. Hopefully I can learn a thing or two and maybe give someone else an idea of things to try.

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I've been getting in shape through a combination of diet and exercise (surprise, surprise). The trick was developing something that I could maintain long term and adapt into my lifestyle. It's more of a slow and steady approach, but it's been more effective than trying to go all out and burning out in two weeks.

To make it manageable in my lifestyle, my diet needed to be cheap, quick to make, have a decent shelf life, and consisting of food I like. For my exercise, I wanted to keep it between 45 min to an hour and not require me to go out of my house.

DIET

I often refer to this as my Poor Man's Diet. It developed over time, and some of it was just luck that it was a nice balanced meal. Remember - cheap, quick, and lasting. It's about maintaining your calorie intake while getting most of what you need.

Breakfast - I usually sleep past breakfast, so lunch is usually my breakfast, which may actually help my diet. Sometimes I have to get up early, though, and if I'm in a rush, I usually just grab a low-fat Pop-tart. Not the best thing in the world, but it's a nice dose of fiber and vitamins and gets my metabolism working for the day. Otherwise it's a bowl of cereal. I'm not picky about the cereal, and will splurge for something more sugary. It still gives me the vitamins as well as some dairy. I limit it to one bowl, though.

Lunch - Basically, I eat like I'm in the 3rd grade. I usually fix a PB&J with some low fat chips and a cup of applesauce. I buy applesauce in the individual packages in order to automatically ration it. Whole wheat bread. This ends up being a very balanced meal. Sometimes I'll replace the PB&J with a $1 shoppers cheeseburger (microwaveable). Not healthy, but it remains low cal and is automatically rationed (very small cheeseburger).

Dinner - This is the primary part of my diet, I think. I keep dinner light. I fix a small can of tuna (light in water), a small can of green peas (half can), and brown rice (individually packaged and microwaveable). I put a little light mayo over the tuna for texture and hot sauce over the whole thing for flavor. I mix this altogether for convenience, but you can keep them separate if you prefer. The whole thing takes under 5 minutes to prepare and has everything you need in a meal (save for fruit, which we got with the applesauce for lunch!).

To mix this up, I also get a small can of chicken (light) and half can of green beans (SUPER low cal) with the brown rice. This meal will usually keep me satisfied for a few hours.

Snack - As I mentioned earlier, I normally don't eat breakfast. This meal sort of makes up for my breakfast. If I get hungry later in the evening after dinner, I'll have a bowl of cereal. It's very filling, but gives me a nice dose of vitamins and keeps the calorie count low. It's much better than a piece of cake or cookies or anything else. Just choose your favorite cereal.

GREEN TEA - This has its own category. I almost exclusively drink green tea now. I get Turkey Hill Diet Iced Green Tea. It's almost like my sweet tea obsession I used to have, only much healthier. Green tea is a great natural weight loss supplement and appetite suppressant. If you can't find a way to enjoy the taste, I'd still recommend taking it as a supplement. This has replaced all my sodas and other bad drinks. When I lose enough weight, I'll probably switch back and forth between regular and diet green tea so that I'm not putting so much artificial sweetener in my system.

I still have meals where I splurge on things. I feel like if I'm TOO strict, than I won't be able to keep it up long term. If I go out, I try not to calorie count too much, though you'll probably find yourself doing it anyway once you start getting results. I still go to Chipotle regularly and splurge on cheese and sour cream (though I get it in a bowl without a tortilla). I still go to Chili's. I still drink occasionally, though I've recently discovered Yuengling Light (very close to regular Yueng). If I do mixed drinks, I mix with a diet soda. Just little things to try and keep me on track.

EXERCISE

Exercise is hard for me to keep in my schedule. My schedule is always changing, and so I'm always having to think about when I can fit it in. That being said, if I can watch an hour of TV, I can exercise while I do it, and that is how I keep it going. If my exercise goes over an hour, I'm not going to have the time to do it. So I try to keep it around the 45 minute mark.

Warm Up - Always warm up. Nothing fancy. Just do some leg stretches before bike/running. Do some arm/torso stretching before weight lifting/abs.

Cardio - I have an exercise bike. It's one that I inherited when I moved in. I would do a 2 mile warm up (about 7 minutes) and then a 30 minute preset ride. Pretty simple. The bike broke, however, so I had to get a new one. I recently bought a very cheap upright bike for around $120. So if you don't have one, you can get one pretty cheap and so far it works very well. If you prefer running, you can do that instead. Or whatever cardio you like.

I've recently switched to what I think will be very effective and help keep burning the fat even though I'm getting closer to my target weight. I alternate daily between interval training and light cardio.

Interval training is supposed to be super good for burning fat. The idea is that you have a short burst of intense effort followed by a recovery/rest period. The time intervals will vary and can be adjusted, but I'm starting at 30/60. This means that I go all out on the bike for 30 seconds and then slow to 50% for a minute. This should be done for around 20 minutes. If you can do it more than 20 minutes, you're doing it wrong. I start out with a 5 minute warm up and then go right into it. Every two or three cycles, I increase the resistance. Right now I warm up on 2, then cycle on resistances 3-4-5-4-3.  I think I'm doing two cycles on 3 and three on 4 and 5. After that's over, I do a three minute cooldown.

Interval training is intense and not recommended to do daily as you need time to recover, so on opposite days I just do regular cardio on the bike. I do a 5 minute warm up on 2 and then 4 minute increments, increasing resistance each time. I do double time at the top. My pattern right now is 3-4-5-5-4-3, though I'll probably increase this resistance soon. I again end with a three minute cooldown. My new bike has a heart pulse monitor, so I use that to monitor my speed. If you google it, you should be able to determine the basic "calorie burning" heart rate for your age.

To time all of this, I downloaded an app called "IntervalTimer". It saves presets, so I've got one for my interval training and one for my regular cardio. If you have a smartphone, I recommend getting this app or one similar. It allows me to still watch TV without worrying about staring at the clock.

Weight lifting and abs - I have a set of 20 lb dumbbells and a set of 10. If you can only get one set, get the 20 lb. I got them from Target for relatively cheap. It's a worthwhile investment if your alternative is a gym membership.

Dumbbells - On days that I do interval training I do weight lifting right after. Make sure you stretch the rest of your body after your cardio or you will get sore, especially in the beginning. I keep my weight lifting relatively simple for now.

This website has a nice list of dumbbell exercises. I keep the site pulled up on my smartphone for easy reference. I divide it up into chest/triceps, back/biceps, and shoulder/legs. Each day is a different set. So the first day I'll do the chest and triceps exercises. Next time I do weights, I do back and biceps. And finally I do shoulder and legs. Just go through the list and do as many as you can. I don't have a bench, so many of the inclined and others I just skip. I'm currently just doing one set, though if you really want to focus on building muscle, you should probably go through your list twice. Like I said, I'm trying to keep it under an hour.

Ab Ripper X - On days that I do regular cardio, I follow it with Ab Ripper X. This is a part of the P90X series that I tried years ago. It's the most popular of the series. The whole set takes 15 minutes. I've memorized it, so I can do it while still watching TV, but there's a video to follow. If you need the video, please let me know. I could probably find a list of them online as well.

So there you go. If you can find 45 minutes to an hour a day and can at least invest in 20 lb dumbbells, you can get this done. I prefer the bike, but the interval training and cardio I mentioned can be done by running or any other cardio machine. You'll basically alternate days between interval/weights and regular cardio/abs. This gives you a nice rotation and prevents you from overworking any one muscle group!

My goal was to lose a pound and a half a week. I probably do closer to a pound a week, but that means at the end of the month I've lost 4-5 lbs. Spread that over 6 months and there ya go! I think the interval training I've just implemented would/will speed that up significantly, and I'm sort of kicking myself for not finding it sooner. It acts like a DoT, increasing your metabolism for a full 24 hours after the workout!

LIFE HACKS

These are just quality of life improvements that I've found

Sleep App - I use a MotionX sleep app. It acts as an alarm clock. You put it on your bed and it measures when you are in a deep or light sleep cycle. You set a span of time for it to wake you up, and it gently wakes you up while you are in light sleep. This has SAVED my mornings, as I am NOT a morning person. Waking up in this way is a million times better than getting jerked out of deep sleep by a loud alarm clock. It's also fun to track how long you slept and the quality of your sleep.

Gingko Biloba - When my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I started looking for ways to improve/preserve mental health. Not that I am THAT paranoid that it could happen to me, but I felt it was worth researching. I stumbled upon Gingko Biloba and saw that it improves alertness and productivity. It sounded like caffeine without the bad side effects (caffeine and I have a love/hate relationship).

Basically it improves blood circulation and gets more oxygen to the brain. I've always felt a bit sluggish when sitting at a desk for long periods of time. I just have always had a general feeling of laziness when it comes to sitting around listening to a lecture or doing other boring things. Maybe I have poor circulation, I thought. I also read that one of the side effects is an increase in libido and that it can act as a natural Viagra. SOLD!

I got it pretty cheap off of Amazon. I think the daily dose is 240mg and I got a 6 month supply for like $15. The shit actually WORKS! I take one pill in the morning and feel energized the rest of the day. It's not a buzz or hyper-ness like caffeine. I just don't feel sluggish. I've been doing overhire work for 8 hour shifts the past two weeks, and despite sometimes getting 4 hours of sleep the night before, I'm able to concentrate all day long. The lack of sleep still hits me at the end of the day, but I still don't feel sluggish.

As for the other bonuses, I'm almost 30 and I have a 22 year old girlfriend with an insatiable libido. Without going into details, I feel like I've returned to my college glory days!  

Like with any supplement, do your own research. I haven't been able to find any negatives about it - it's all natural, not some crazy cocktail. I haven't noticed any bad side effects. It's just like taking a vitamin or other supplement. Anyway, I was surprised that I actually noticed a difference, so I thought it was worth sharing.

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Ok, that's all I've got for now. Anyone else have any health and fitness tips they'd like to share? It's hard to figure out what really works and doesn't work, so I feel like word of mouth is always more beneficial than trying to Google things. I'm sure what I do wouldn't work for everything, but maybe there's a thing or two you could take from it. I'm interested to see what advice others may have that I could potentially adopt as well!

[Tbone]

Just a quick update on this!

I've now lost around 45 lbs. I've gone from 215 to 173. I was at 185 when I wrote the original post. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout helped to keep shredding the pounds! I definitely recommend it! It helped me push past my plateau and keep moving. For the month of August I didn't exercise much as I got the Oculus Rift and wanted to devote a bit more time to checking that out. I kept up my diet for the most part, though, and was able to maintain my weight. That's good news, as it means it'll hopefully be easy to maintain a target weight since my diet is incorporated into my every day eating habits now.

My BMI is now "normal" (24), but it's on the high end of the "normal" scale, so my next goal is to get to the middle of the "normal" BMI. I'm also trying to tone and build a bit more muscle, so I've added a whey protein shake for after workouts.

It's weird, because people I have met in the last few months say they can't imagine me being chubby or overweight. Hah!

[Cyil]

Hey T-bone,

I have a nice turkey chili recipe that I use because although it does take about 45 mins(not constantly at the stove) to cook with prep and simmering, it makes enough to use for about a week if you keep the portions right(1 cup).  I have changed mine from the original recipe I found in the men's health abs diet book.  but if you want it, it is great for protein and fiber intake.  Once you make it, you have lunch or dinner made in 2 minutes from reheating.  The spices add a nice metabolism booster as well.

I have a convection toaster oven living in Korea.  I use it a lot to make baked chicken with a little BBQ sauce, tilapia with some red pepper, and some lemon salmon steaks.  Both the chicken and tilapia are pretty cheap if you get the family packs.   And you can cook the chicken from frozen, take it out, season it however you like, wrap in foil, come back when it is finished.  It is all really easy, place food in it, turn on timer and set heat.  Come back and it is finished.  I usually pair this with some of the single serving microwavable steamed vegitables.  This is also can be made a bit cheaper by getting freezer storage bags, big bags of frozen veggies, and place a serving in the freezer bag heat for about 4-5 minutes depending on the microwave and veggies. 

Since being here, I wanted to get into shape more.  I have cut down fat and managed to gain more muscle.  I have dropped 10 pounds, but gained muscle which is what I am still going for. 

After I finish this eurpoean vacation I am on and stop drinking all the delicious Belgim beer and eating all the horrible german, Belgium, and English food, I will be back to a strict diet that has been easy to maintain by just finding the healthy foods I like.  Let me know and I can toss you recipes that I have found.  I also know a bit about body weight exercises that don't require any gym time.  I prefer the gym, but I also have to be fit for my job. 

Something else to challenge yourself is to find some of the 30 day pushup, squats, abs routines to try.  They seem easy the first few times, but around day 15 they start getting pretty killer.  Most of them can be completed in about 10 minutes and add to anything else you are doing.

Posting about your progress is good also, helps keep you accountable for your routine.  Keep up the great work.

[likwidtek]

Really proud of you man.  It's weird when I see pictures of you now.  I immediately mistake you for your brother.

Can I ask you to give me an ELI5 version of your 45 mins to an hour a day breakdown?  Like every day, X? minutes bike, Y? minutes weights.

Basically, hook a brother up with a TL;DR version of your daily workout schedule. 

[Tbone]

Hutch, hook me up with those recipes.

Breakdown:

Day 1, 3, 5

Bike HIIT 60/30
Stretch
3 min warm up (intensity: 2)
2 rounds 60 secs off, 30 on (intensity 3)
3 rounds 60 secs off, 30 on (intensity 4)
3 rounds 60 secs off, 30 on (intensity 5)
3 rounds 60 secs off, 30 on (intensity 4)
2 rounds 60 secs off, 30 on (intensity 3)
3 min cool down (intensity 2)
*Pro-tip* Start stretching arms while cooling down bike

Weights
Day 1: Chest/Triceps
Day 3: Back/Biceps
Day 5: Shoulders/Legs

Go to http://www.dumbbell-exercises.com and do either standing or seated of each that you are comfortable doing (some are repetitive or aren't easy to do without a bench, so I just do all that are simple enough to do). Do each exercise until failure. One rep for me takes about 15 minutes.

Day 2, 4, 6

Bike Cardio

Stretch
3 min warm up (intensity 2)
5 min (intensity 4)
5 min (intensity 5)
5 min (intensity 6)
5 min (intensity 5)
5 min (intensity 4)
3 min cool down (intensity 2)

Ab Ripper X (15 min)

[Subb]

Good stuff man. If any of you are a bit put off by having to buy weights, don't be. Use body weight exercises as they're much more efficient if done properly.

Again, nice one boss man

[Cyil]

The chili recipe:

1 tablespoon olive oil 
 1 small onion, diced 
 1 pound lean ground turkey breast 
 1 14 1/2-oz can diced tomatoes with jalapenos 
 1 10-1/2 oz can chickpeas, drained 
 1 10-1/2 oz can black beans, drained 
 1 10-1/2 oz can kidney beans, drained 
 1 10-1/2 oz can low-soduim chicken broth 
 1/4 teaspoon salt 
 1/4 teaspoon cumin 
 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon 
 1/8 teaspoon cayenne

I have modified it to use one can of the del Monte(I think) chili ready tomato sauce.  I also 1-2 types of other beans to increase fiber.  usually navy, great northern, and a chili ready pinto.  One of those two, but I watch the sodium intake I have as well.  so pick depending on that.  I also add a little Blair's ultra death sauce to increase the spice for a little metabolism booster.  Depends on your heat tolerance.  sometimes I add a pound of ground chicken for some extra protein.  If you do that you really need to pay attention to your calorie intake/usage for the day depending on what you are working for.

For tilapia, I usually just use a little red pepper and some garlic powder, and a very small bit of salt/black ground pepper for flavors.( usually a lunch meal)

The chicken is usually a frozen chicken breast with some sweet baby rays BBQ sauce on it and cook for about 25-30 minutes in the convection oven. ( usually a lunch meal)

The chili is off the hook for a quick chili recipe.  my other ones(chili) are usually 24 hours and in a slow cooker.  if you have Facebook and want to add some variety to your home, body weight exercises, I suggest liking the men's health page.  I also have a few other fitness sites I liked to get some great workout to use outside the gym.

I know everybody type is different and you have to chose what works for you, so good luck.  remember all the hype is, is something that works for certain people.  be prepared to discover what works for you. 

[Cyil]

my workout, I have decreased my waist by 1 1/2 in and increased my arms by as much.  My chest/back grows quickly, so I haven't paid much attention to it, and try to limit is a little..  Again, it all depends on what you are going for and I haven't been super strict by any means.  After this trip, I plan to go balls out for the next three months though. I want 18+ arms again with no fat on them at all.  it changes how people looks and treat you, and I hate to say that, but I have seen it first hand.  but no matter what, I think I have done amazing this year with calf muscle tears and all.  Good Luck you to reaching your goals as well.

[Cyil]

Subbs, I agree and disagree at the same time.  Body weight exercise does a great job, but it also depends on fitness level and what you want.  I could do body weight all day long, but for me it won't do much except for my knee (3 surgeries so far with another one incoming).  Each person has a different goal, but I also agree to start off, it is the best.  Don't waste money on a gym or trainer, when your not at that level.  You can do a good three months gearing up before ever needing a true weight gym to progress.  Depending on fitness level, you might even be able to benefit more than three months.  For those thinking about this, don't be discouraged.  It is like being a professional drinker, or not.  It is easy to get drunk when you don't drink a lot, but it cost a lot more(when you drink a lot).  So work your heart out without a gym before you need it.  If you hit a plateau, consider it, or changing your routine before dumping money on a gym or in home weights.

[Cyil]

Another good recipe is to marinate a portabella mushroom in some balsamic vinaigrette for about an hour, then grill it.  Great meat substitute or, added as a side dish to some protein.  I also use it to top salads as it takes the place of adding dressing and taste delicious.

[Tbone]

Yeah, when I started plateauing a bit, that's when I added the High Intensity Interval Training and that helped me shred a quick 10 pounds. I took a break when I got the Rift and now I'm going back to the HIIT to try to lose another 10.

[Subb]

Subbs, I agree and disagree at the same time.  Body weight exercise does a great job, but it also depends on fitness level and what you want.  I could do body weight all day long, but for me it won't do much except for my knee (3 surgeries so far with another one incoming).  Each person has a different goal, but I also agree to start off, it is the best.  Don't waste money on a gym or trainer, when your not at that level.  You can do a good three months gearing up before ever needing a true weight gym to progress.  Depending on fitness level, you might even be able to benefit more than three months.  For those thinking about this, don't be discouraged.  It is like being a professional drinker, or not.  It is easy to get drunk when you don't drink a lot, but it cost a lot more(when you drink a lot).  So work your heart out without a gym before you need it.  If you hit a plateau, consider it, or changing your routine before dumping money on a gym or in home weights.

Body weight exercises are far superior to weights due to several things:

1) They're functional. You build up a big group of muscles with one exercise; with weights you just build up two or three major muscles per exercise.
2) Cheap. I have just under 80Kgs (around 172lbs or so) of body mass. I have a 80Kgs weight to use.
3) Can be multi-purpose. Fitness, mass, endurance, strengthening. Body weights do all of the aforementioned. Weights are primarily used for mass and strengthening.
4) More effective. There's a reason why I was taught only to do body exercises during my training. In short, if it can get me through the toughest infantry training in the world (I only touched a squat rack whenever I didn't have a training partner to put on my back), it's good enough for you.

Hypertonic muscle is rubbish; it will affect your running and cause more pain than gain. Give me 20 minutes of your time and I guarantee you will be walking sideways the next day 

If you ever go near a bench press, I will personally find you and slap you silly. It's the most pointless exercise ever and causes more pain and discomfort than anything. There are other, more efficient, chest exercises. And biceps are the most pointless muscle group to build up; triceps are much more important and if you train triceps, you will also hit the bicep group too.

On your knee, it basically depends what's wrong with it, but I thoroughly recommend going to see a physiotherapist or sports therapist about getting your adductors, glutes, ITB, quads and hamstrings pummeled. Works wonders, even on cartilage damage

All the best. Fitness and working out is amazeballs, especially with others.

[Cyil]

I don't do bench press or most isolated exercises.  I agree they are rubbish.  if you don't do multifunctional exercises then you are hurting yourself.  But when I have to add weights to do dips because I'm doing 20 plus, it is all what you want.  Like I said, body weight exercises are good to a point, but depending on your goal, they don't cover all of it.  Just like running alone doesn't  make a marathon runner.  I won't ever discount body weight exercises, but I also work out 5-7 times a week depending on my schedule.  So my goal and level is different then someone else's.  Where I can still benefit from body weight exercises for my legs, it isn't optimal for my arms, chest and back. 

If you do exercises right though, you do not hit the opposite muscle group (ie be/tris) to the same extent. I alternate between a tri/bi  and  chest/back workout and a tri/chest, bi/back depending on where I am and how long I have been doing a set workout.  I try not to do the exact same workouts each week.  I also try to do some fast burn workouts and some longer burns as well. 

I know not everyone will agree with what I do, but I know what works for me.  That is a key to keeping it fun and entertaining to you.

For body weight exercises, I do some simple things like various push-ups and even have chicks jump on my back....do I get as much out of as I do the gym....nope.  That is just me and my workout though.  Like I mentioned before, it is where you are at and where you want to be.  I don't discredit any exercise's as long as they are done properly and they work for whoever is using them.

I enjoy going to the gym and it is one of my releases.  I only encourage people to do what they enjoy to create a more fit lifestyle for them.  Once I am done being drunk off my ass on the trip, I can get a lot more into it, but I am more concerned with tasty beverages and Oktoberfest right now... =p

[Subb]

Hah. I do love my 4K calories a day diet . One of the many perks of working out.

Gyms are good, but it depends on which one you go to (in my experience). Do you guys have CrossFit? Apparently it's the dog's balls as you use barbells as well as functional stuff. I just don't agree with how expensive the gym is and the majority of the patrons are fuck-tards who just like to drink protein shakes, do five bicep curls and walk around for five minutes before doing another set.

[Sared]

It's 6AM and I'm getting ready to go back to the gym! Sorting out my workout plan with my partner this morning. Haven't been able to go riding my bicycle since it started getting cold. Will post details for workout and food later. Wish me luck!