2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

You'd be surprised. A lot of my meals revolve around mexican/south-western meals.

I'd also suggest soft white corn taco shells over flour. I know they're smaller so you may eat more of them initially, but they're typically "healthier" for you than flour ones.

Of course I use whole grain/wheat wraps for my lunch wraps.

[Rules]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Well I ended up only playing some soccer yesterday so I need to get in P90x this evening plus some additional ab work.

[jmik58]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

You'd be surprised. A lot of my meals revolve around mexican/south-western meals.

I'd also suggest soft white corn taco shells over flour. I know they're smaller so you may eat more of them initially, but they're typically "healthier" for you than flour ones.

Of course I use whole grain/wheat wraps for my lunch wraps.

My wife made some southwest bean/chicken stuff and cut some corn tortilla shells into triangles. She baked the tortilla shells and crispified them into chips and we basically had "chips and dip" out of it. It was very tasty. The calories and composition of corn tortillas compared to flour is night and day difference as far as being much healthier.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

I'll typically have guacamole in the house if not every week then every other week. So easy to make and its nice to garnish things with. This morning I scrambled some eggs and threw them in a couple shells with a spoonful of guacamole.

I'll have to buy a pack of corn shells and do that. Did she bake them straight out of the plastic or put some seasonings on there? I decided to cut out tortilla chips about a month or so ago, but miss them a little bit for my taco salads and dips.

[wwharton]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

I got home and my parents made tacos.

I elected to eat, but I made a salad out of it instead. Seemed healthier than the alternate (shells) which have over 120 calories each.

I know It's not perfectly healthy, but at least I'm thinking right.

You'd be surprised, that's a pretty healthy meal. I'd highly suggest checking out some of the "healthy recipe" sites or books out there. You'll probably feel better about choices you've been making and even better about potential options in the future.

[AUChase]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Oatmeal and banana for breakfast
Grilled mango chicken with some seasoned veggies and turnip greens for lunch
Turkey salad (turkey, lettuce, tomato, onion, a little shredded cheese, cucumbers, and a splash of light italian) for supper.

Also ran for 15 mins @ 6.5 mph and walked the other 10 mins and had a combined cardio workout of 25 minutes.. did a few kettlebell workouts and some inclined pushups and called it a night at the gym. The machine said I went a little over 3 miles, but I'm not quite sure how accurate it is.

I wear a watch with a stop clock because I like to know exactly how much time I've ran opposed to what the tredmill says I've been on. Also because I spend most of my time running at the park these days and it's easier to track. My knees and ankles also don't work well with a treadmill. Luckily I was able to get one with shocks today.

I also tried sitting in a sauna for the first time ever and 5 minutes of that was enough for me. I hate being hot, but I can handle a steam room.

It was the first time back at the gym in over a month for me and everyone was asking where I have been. I just explained I was focusing on cardio and doing most of it out of the gym. It's funny because just doing pushups and some small core workouts have helped me maintain the definition I built in my arms.

[Rules]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Breakfast: Whole 8 grain pancakes topped with walnuts, applesauce and a banana.

Must weight lift (legs) and get in P90x.

This evening I will add cardio (Hip hop Abs).

[NDAlum]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Also ran for 15 mins @ 6.5 mph and walked the other 10 mins and had a combined cardio workout of 25 minutes.. The machine said I went a little over 3 miles, but I'm not quite sure how accurate it is.

More than likely you went over 2 miles. Definitely not 3. Running @ 6.5mph for 25 minutes won't get you over 3 miles so walking for 10 minutes won't do it either.

____

Knee surgery Monday for me. Patella tendon is partially torn and it needs to be repaired. I am absolutely dreading this process as all the research I've done sounds like it's a terrible rehab/recovery.

My priority is to eat correctly and help my body receive the proper fuel to recover. It's going to be tough.

[Holic]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

More than likely you went over 2 miles. Definitely not 3. Running @ 6.5mph for 25 minutes won't get you over 3 miles so walking for 10 minutes won't do it either.

____

Knee surgery Monday for me. Patella tendon is partially torn and it needs to be repaired. I am absolutely dreading this process as all the research I've done sounds like it's a terrible rehab/recovery.

My priority is to eat correctly and help my body receive the proper fuel to recover. It's going to be tough.

Hope all goes well for you and you have a speedy recovery bro!

[Holic]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Alright guys, the time has come for me to join the thread. Over the past week, I've completely changed the way I eat/drink and been walking/running 2-4 miles a night. I'm down nearly 4 lbs but am looking at adding the Insanity work out program into my mix. Anyone use it before? Why I like it is simple, it doesn't require anything to be bought. I can do it right from home. On the flip side, I've been thinking of giving the local gym a chance. Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[jmik58]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

For anyone just getting into a life change as far as food choice or exercise, I think there's something very important that I found which helped to ease the stress of the whole "turnaround".

My goal in the beginning was weight loss. I changed my food and went crazy on the workouts. At one point my knee starting hurting horribly and I went almost a month without cardio. I was pretty upset about it, but amazingly the weight melted off at the same pace that it did when I was doing the cardio.

I eventually came across some research that helped clarify things for me.

One important thing to remember is that when you start working out, you're going to feel more hungry. As far as burning calories goes, running an 8 minute mile is only going to burn about 200 calories. In a matter of seconds you can consume food that easily surpasses that amount.

But something else to consider. 1 lb of body fat equals approximately 3,500 calories. If you divide that by 7 days, that would be approximately 500 calories a day, or almost 3 miles. If you're like most people, you might run 5 days a week, so we're talking 700 calories you would have to burn which would be 3.5 miles a day.

If you currently eat exactly what is required to maintain your current weight, running 3.5 miles a day (5 days a week) will theoretically burn ONE pound of fat from your body per week. That's it. One pound.

Meanwhile, by cutting back severely on carbs such as potatoes, pasta, cakes, cookies, sugary drinks, and other refined sugars; your body will melt away fat regardless of exercise or not.

Does this mean you shouldn't exercise? Absolutely not!

Exercise is important for your muscles, bones, mind, etc. More muscle mass means your body burns for calories in a day. Exercise is great for the heart and lungs, among many other things.

The main points that I would pass along are this:

Focus on what you eat in regard to losing weight. Don't think you can work out and lose weight without changing anything else. It's like riding a bicycle to make a 500 mile trip. You'll make some progress, but there's a better and faster way to get it done.

If you're going to workout (and you should) do it for the heart, lungs, muscles, bones, mind. And, do it for the boost it gives you (that extra pound a week can add up).

[Chrisksaint]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Yeah I tend to agree, over exercising can be a put off in regards to motivation and just make life in general suck by being too tired.

When I was losing weight last semester it was mainly due to the diet I was following as I never did too intense of workouts. Just some cardio to stay in shape for intramurals and mainly weightlifting for muscles.

[duke776]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

So it's been an interesting 2013 to say the least, but I have officially gained 1 lb!

The second week of January I came down with mono, and that lasted for 6 weeks until mid February. I have never felt so down and fatigued in my life as I did those 6 weeks, especially the last three weeks of it. I only missed 2 and a half weeks lifting though, because the first three weeks I just felt a little sick although I have to say some of my lifts were piss poor during that time. Once I found out I had mono was when it got really really bad, I was in bed all day for 2 weeks and lost about 10 lbs.

I was down to 173 again, but after I got better, I pushed myself hard to eat and lift. Four weeks later, I can say I have officially gained 1lb since the new year and am at 184 now.

Good news too, I got my best friend to start lifting as well. I've been bugging him about it for almost a year and a half now. He always said he wanted to lift and had a mind set that he was fat (and he wasn't, he was just average). I always pushed him to the gym because he's my best friend and knew that he'd probably love it. Well he started lifting a week after the new year and he absolutely loves it, he looks great and most importantly his self image is 10 times better which is awesome.

It was long overdue but I finally added deadlifts. I felt this was what was really missing from my lifts. Actually I go over my best friends house every Friday to deadlift, seeing him push himself in the gym and we were both talking how we needed to deadlift. So since we go to different gyms, we deadlift at his house because he has an olympic bar and plenty of weights. Been at it for 5 weeks now, and I'm up to 255 and he's at 275. It kills me that he's higher than me, but it's good competition.

And to keep rambling on now...it'll be about 2 years since I started to lift sometime this May. It's been a funny ride, almost the whole first year I didn't quite know what I was doing, took me a year to add squats and almost 2 for deadlifts! I lost 10-15 lbs twice over the past 6 months, but gained it all back over time. But I love it. I've learned a lot and have gotten immensely stronger. I was the definition of a stick and weak when I started but now I'm happy with my progress. I think I have a good before picture on my computer so when May rolls around I'll probably post up a comparison picture of my two years progress.

[12]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

I began the year around 260 pounds and through a lifestyle change, aided with supplementation (Advocare), I'm down 20 pounds. I thought 240 was a good weight for me, being 6'5", but I am finding out that it's really not. It sounds crazy but with my body type, I am thinking I should be about 210-215. That would be extremely lean for me, but even at 240, there is a lot of work to do... Just as there would be if I was 230.

I know it's not all about pounds, so I am taking that into account of course, but I'm probably less than halfway to where I want to be.

[12]

Re: 2013 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Alright guys, the time has come for me to join the thread. Over the past week, I've completely changed the way I eat/drink and been walking/running 2-4 miles a night. I'm down nearly 4 lbs but am looking at adding the Insanity work out program into my mix. Anyone use it before? Why I like it is simple, it doesn't require anything to be bought. I can do it right from home. On the flip side, I've been thinking of giving the local gym a chance. Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I would go with Insanity... If you are the type of person who can work out alone - some find that a pretty big struggle.

Everyone I have known who has been strict with their nutrition and doing the workouts have had amazing results.

It will get you to where you want to be if you're dedicated... Same with P90x. Both are great programs that you can get done at the comfort of your own home with minimal equipment.