I posted in the fitness thread earlier today, but I'll recap what I said there:
So at the beginning of the year in January I decided that I wanted to make a gradual change to my diet and lifestyle choices. I've tried to do more immediate/radical dietary changes in the past and I just ended up quitting on them soon after. So I wanted to gradually ease into a healthier lifestyle, so that it could become permanent.
This included a lot of work on my willpower and my ability to say no to certain things and what not. The first thing I worked on was making water my go to choice for a drink. At this point, I've cut soda out just about entirely from my diet outside of the occasional Coke Zero. I used to drink a ton of skim milk, as well. I'd probably go through 2 1/2 gallons a week just by myself. I've restricted that as well, having maybe 2 glasses of skim milk a day now with lunch and breakfast.
After that came portion sizes and the quality of the food that I eat. I really don't eat fast food any more, and I don't want to anymore. I'm not getting fast food urges or anything, which is great. But this is still an area that I'm working on, admittedly. While I am making healthier choices in terms of what I am eating, I want to now sculpt a dietary plan for myself that will take me the next step further and will help me maintain a permanently healthy lifestyle.
I also started walking as a method of exercise over the last month or so. Before that, and not since my freshmen-sophomore year of college (2.5 years ago) I pretty much never exercised for fitness purposes. I used to play a lot of paintball, but that got expensive pretty quickly
Now I walk pretty consistently, and I try to do so at least once per day for at least 1 hour. I walk around 3-3.5 m/h on rather inconsistent terrain (uphills, downhills, even) and it works up a pretty good sweat for me. I do feel pretty good once I'm done with the walk and I've cooled off back at my house.
But after lurking this thread for a bit today I'm learning that just cardio like walking will eat away at muscle reserves rather than fat reserves? If so, I'll want to begin incorporating resistance training and a simple form of lifting into my life. My priority is losing my fat, creating a sustainable healthy lifestyle, and leaning up. I don't want to muscle up really. But if building up muscle is a great way to burn fat, then that's what I'll want to put some focus into as well.
So I'm trying to create a basic set of meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner for myself to choose from that will keep me satisfied and sticking to my diet. The idea is that eventually it will be second nature for myself, and my goal of a sustainable healthy lifestyle will have been met.
For now, this is what I have. I'm going to try and go low/no carb on this one (which will be hard, cus I love pasta...haha. If anyone knows of a non-wheat/grain pasta that isn't loaded with carbs I would love to know):
Breakfasts:
-eggs
-greek yogurt with fruit.
-Rice cereals with Almond milk and bananas.
Lunches:
-Spinach salads with fruit.
-Soups.
-Sandwich with non-grain/wheat based bread.
Dinners:
-Sweet Potatoes with Unsweetened Apple Sauce.
-Chicken breast with vegetables and olive oil.
-Steak and broccoli with mushrooms.
-Salmon with veggies.
Desserts:
Fruit Smoothies (using greek yogurt, fruit, ice cubes)
-Mango
-Strawberry Banana
So I want to continue adding to this list to keep things varied and interesting. I'm also going to start keeping a journal of my progress, recipes, tips, etc. I've been slowly preparing for making this next jump over the past 3ish months, and a lot of it seemed to be getting into the mindset and preparing new basic healthy habits.
So at the beginning of the year I was around 217lbs, at 6'1" at 23 years old (male). Right now I'm sitting at around 210 lbs. 7lbs in 3 months isn't a lot at all, but honestly I wasn't really on a diet for that duration. I was simply building new habits and breaking away from unhealthy ones. I didn't even really start walking for exercise until about a month ago, so that's definitely going to help going forward.
Any tips, low/no carb recipes, basic household resistance exercises, etc would be super appreciated. Time to get to work, I guess.