Thread: A Newbie with some ??'s

Another thing - -
Is flax oil considered fat? For example, If I have grilled chicken for lunch, with no veggies, is flax oil with this considered effective?

-What about diet soda's? Anyone drink these? I hardly do, just curious.

-What about sugarless gum (they still have sugar alcohols)..

Start here....
NEWBIES START HERE - Nutritional FAQ!

Then go here.....
http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/search.php

Welcome to IM.....and good luck!

My wife and I decided to imrprove our health after my wife went to the doctor and they told her heart couldn't take her weight (she was 260lbs-5'2"). Our goal was to get under 200 lbs (I was 230lbs). This was in March of 2001. TAs of oday, my wife has lost 115 lbs and I lost a total of 70 lbs (although I have put some muscle back on). We work out five days a week of resistance, cardio and yoga.

How did we do it? We started by making small diet changes (no more Popeyes chicken; more cooking at home) and every week we changed something else. Once the weight started coming off, we were so excited that it motivated us to keep going. We subscribed to 12 magazines on everything from fitness to healthy cooking to learn everything we could.

As for the gym, we started with one day a week, just doing cardio. After a month, someone mentioned that we never did weights and explained to us about the benefits of lean body mass. We did full body workouts a few times a week for six months and moved to more advanced stuff as we became more comfortable. And we got addicted to the joy of being in the gym and seeing all these people on the same journey we were on. And we both have hectic jobs, but the gym was perhaps the one place where we had complete control.

How'd we stay motivated? Well, it certainly helped that we were doing it together. And we made it a competition - so we weighed and each other once a week and measured once a month, we celebrated achievements (for example, first time I benched 100 lbs, we went to a day spa) and we learned as much as we could. To this day, we keep old pictures of each other on our fridge and in our offices to always remember where we came from. Now it is isn't work...we have transformed our lives.

Not sure if that is what you were looking for but I hope it helps.

Awesome story eskimo515 ...congrats to you and your wife

Originally posted by Josie
Hi, Im new to the forum and LOVE this site. I have learned SO MUCH. WAYYYYY more than I ever imagined. And to top it all off, I realized Ive been doing everything wrong!

But Im going to transform myself and wow everyone. I sure have the want, the ability and determination for it!

My first question:
How do you calculate how much Protein, Calories, Carbs, and Fat grams are in EVERYTHING you eat?? Im trying to start off slow and intake at least 1700 calories, but with the proper amounts of p/c/f. Any suggestions??

www.fitday.com

www.calorieking.com

My second question:
Is it ok to skip a day working out? Is it more important to be consistent, or does it not matter when you work out as long as its 3 times a week?

Of course it's okay to rest....you need adequate amts of rest in order to grow and recover from your workouts

My third:
Is there anyone on here that started out trying to lose some weight, and get to their goal? I would LOVE to talk to them about the process and the length of time and dedication it takes to get there. Everyone one here seems to be so fit and knowledgable. Anyone I can relate to???

There's lots, and we're all in different stages as well, you should get lots of feedback on this one

Thanks guys, you're all terrific
-Josie

Welcome to IM

It's been a great journey so far. Now I am hoping IM will take me to the next level!

Originally posted by Josie
Another thing - -
Is flax oil considered fat? For example, If I have grilled chicken for lunch, with no veggies, is flax oil with this considered effective?

-What about diet soda's? Anyone drink these? I hardly do, just curious.

-What about sugarless gum (they still have sugar alcohols)..

Good question.. I would like to know the answer to this as well..

You would want veggies or greens w/your chicken also, fiber is as important as fat in the equation. Yes, flax is the 'fat of choice'...(as long as there are some other fats in you program)

You can add any fat however to bring your total fat in a meal to the "desired" level!"

DP

Oh...and there are posts on coffee, xenoestrogens, gum, and diet soda's (sweetners)...use the search with w8lifter or Dr. Pain

w8, care to link?

Originally posted by Dr. Pain
Oh...and there are posts on coffee, xenoestrogens, gum, and diet soda's (sweetners)...use the search with w8lifter or Dr. Pain

w8, care to link?

Not right now, lol...I'm a little busy

Welcome to IM, Josie

Originally posted by w8lifter
Not right now, lol...I'm a little busy

Love your location W8...........

Originally posted by eskimo515
It's been a great journey so far. Now I am hoping IM will take me to the next level!

Eskimo,
This is GREAT inspiration.. Im a 5'4, 145 female, a size 6 or so.. Used to be in GREAT shape. I used to have definition and everything. I was an obsessed lacrosse freak. I gained only about ten - fifteen pounds or so over the last couple of years, but my muscle is disappearing and fat is slowly converting me. I also just moved in with my boyfriend, and he too gained some weight. What the wonders of cooking will do to ones physique! Ive let myself go a little bit, and Im trying to get back into it, while the haul will keep me going.

How are you two doing now with the results? Are you where you need to be, or still on the way?

I run every single day for five years, besides last year. Im one of those that will gain and gain if Im stagnant. Ive always heard, "if it takes you four monnths to put on weight, it will take eight to get it back the way you want it". I hope thats not true. Because the wait will kill me! (pardon the pun!!!)

We have remained pretty hardcore about our new lifestyle. Other than a couple of weeks that we took "off," we have remained consistent with our gym schedule (4-6 days a week-weights 4-5 days/cardio 3 days-she does probably 4-5 days of cardio). We mix in things like yoga and pilates to keep our bodies guessing. We are looking forward to the summer to take our workouts (especially cardio) outside.

As for nutrition, we definitely have made changes that will last a lifetime, instead of trying to stick to a "diet." My wife has a fitness/nutrition journal that I create for her with motivational words and sayings and pictures of her favorite fitness athletes/models (she loves Rachel McLish, Danielle Edwards and Jenny Worth) and she uses it to write down everything she eats (she is so hardcore about that journal-I could never do that). We have slowly made lots of small changes, but there are some things we will not give up. For example, my wife needs to eat dessert every day (just her way of shutting down). Instead of having three chocolate donuts (which I used to eat), now we will have some sugarfree Jell-o and a protein shake. So we still eat the same way, we are just a lot smarter. Also, we look for replacement foods, like eating B&J Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt instead of the real thing. And if we cannot find a substitute, we do not try because that will only make us frustrated and force us to eat more than we might have with the regular version. Will this diet ever allow us to compete. Probably not, but that's not what we are going for. We wanted changes that we could live with forever. And we are still tweaking it as we go along.

As far as the results, my wife has kept her weight off for over a year and has put on a lot of muscle (her weight started to go back up a little bit, but has stabilized). I am trying to put on another 15 lbs of LBM, but would be happy my body exactly where it is (187 lbs, 14% BF). I think what's next for us is to challenge our bodies in new ways: we have talked about training for a mini-triathalon, hiking to the top of Macchu Picchu in Peru and crazy things like that. Just finding new ways to stay motivated.