Just curious...where to some of you stand on health and fitness?

I've been concentrating on this again, as of late. Since the middle of last year, I've managed to lose about 50 lbs., and I can't say how much it has changed how I feel! I have more energy, sleep better at night, not winded as often. I'm now struggling with the last 15 lbs. to get where I would really like to be. I'm not seeing any results doing what I have been doing the last year, so I've started to research some tricks to kick start things again.

So, what are some of you doing to get or stay healthy? Me? I exercise 5 times a week. I eat a healthy diet...typically with lower carbs, but I think I'm getting ready to change that up to help kick start things. I was reading today about a method of cycling your carbs for results...keeps your body from getting used to having only so many carbs/calories where your diet no longer works. It prescribes 3 days of low carbs (grams of carbs = your weight / 2), 1 high carb day (grams of carbs = your weight x 2 - 3), and 3 days of moderate carbs (grams of carbs = your weight). All carbs should be from whole grains or beans, except on the high day, when you are allowed potatoes, wheat pasta, and higher sugar fruit (such as bananas)...even allowed a handful of jelly beans on this day. I'm hoping this works.

Figured we could use a little bit of a lighter discussion, and curious what my fellow goths think about health and fitness.

3x10k runs, 50 miles on a bike (average 23mph) and two upper body gym sessions per week plus three upper body short weights sessions at home. I eat everything, but am mostly made of chicken and cornflakes.
If you want to improve don't limit your energy supply - normally the body balances out energy as exercise is an appetite suppressant. Interval sessions or some cross training may be the thing to 'jink' your body out of its stable state. Or you could just do Atkins for a short while (it worked for me). BTW I don't have any scales - I just go on my performance and how my jeans fit.

-LS

We don't have cars, so I walk everywhere I need to go...I could eat healthier, but I try to have a mostly balanced diet. Up until recently I was a yoyo dieter and a walking encyclopedia on fitness and nutrition, I worked out for an hour or 2 every day and counted calories religiously...but I never had the discipline to keep the weight off but I think my body is happier where I am now. The constant walking helps keep everything where it needs to be too.

First, Butterfly - congratulations on your weight loss!

If you are going to pick and choose which carb sources are best, don't rule out potatoes! They are very nutritious.

LS' point about how your clothes fit is well taken - that's a rough estimator of whether you're losing body fat or not. The scale is not the only indicator.

As for me - out of shape and getting back. I am using WeightWatchers, which is based on limiting portions, eating more fruits, vegs, lean protein and whole grains, drinking plenty of water, and also having some "healthy" oil (poly- or monounsaturated fat such as canola or olive oil). And you get points for exercise too. No such thing as a "bad" food, but you just eat much less of such things - and there are lower-calorie dessert recipes also.

I was doing much more running too - 25-35 miles/week and more when approaching marathons (I was running 1-3 a year) but have had some minor but nagging injuries in the last 2 years. But there's always walking.

And Tunaghost's point about walking reminds me that I was in the best shape of my life when in grad school - no car, walked everywhere, took the stairs in my dormitory to the 10th floor, and ran with a running club that became like family to me.
(Tunaghost, I was at Purdue for grad school and did get down to visit Indianapolis sometimes )

And if it weren't for WeightWatchers I wouldn't be on this board...but that's another long story.

I currently do 3 cardio sessions a week, in an interval mode. Few minutes with some resistance at full force, and 1 minute in between with no resistance and at a normal pace. Cardio sessions are about 45 minutes. I do weights 2 times a week...lower weights at high number of reps and quick pace. I don't want to bulk. I recently switched from a 3x weight training/2x cardio week. I swap back and forth every few weeks, so that I'm not doing the same thing all of the time.

I'm considering adding a 30 minute video each evening, as I go to the gym in the mornings. the way the clothes are fitting hasn't changed in a while...nothing has. Not the scale or the measuring tape. It's a plus that things aren't going up, but I would like them to go down just a little more.

Harpy...I have read in more than one place olive oil is the way to go for oils. Olives supposedly have some properties that help prevent fat buildup around your organs, which is always a plus. I use nothing but olive oil in my cooking, unless I'm doing Asian...then it is sesame oil for the flavor.

@Tunaghost, I'm really glad you feel happy the way you are, you got some common sense there!
I think this all works if you like doing sport as it becomes a part of your life rather than a chore, on the other hand dieting just sucks bigtime. If you don't do fat then distance running (not treadmill) is the best way to stick-insectness I have found (was once 58kg - 128lb!).

-LS

I don't do anything special.

I eat healthy. All our pasta, bread, and such is whole wheat. We have stuff with rice and such often. We rarely eat out, and it is never fast food.

I'm big on soups that are low in calories and fats and such. I do not drink soda period, but the sugar free sparkling water they sell at Wal-Mart. I rarely if ever have candy, and even then one piece. I try to avoid sugar altogether, though the occasional pickup energy drink after staying up too late for work comes in.

My snacks are always stuff low in calories and any other fats.

Really I just eat healthy, lots of vegetables and fruits and such...

I work a retail job, I guess that helps a little. End result of all of this is I'm 6'4" and weigh 146 lbs.

I do three weight workouts a week and run 5K two-four times a week depending on lazyiness

When I moved out to Canada I lost 50lbs (dropped from 240 to 190 - my goal is 180) but coming back to the UK my diet is less healthy as due to economic reasons I live with my family and have no say in what food is brought and prepared. These guys think onion rings and coleslaw count as vegetables :S

How DO you people in the UK find healthy food? I was under the impression that there's a lot of fried food (English breakfast and all that). Please forgive my ignorance - I suppose the US diet may be thought similar by outside-US people because our fast food is well known.

Having a desk job really sucks! I gained so much weight the first couple of years at my current job. My previous job had me running around a square mile complex all day...hauling computers, maintaining printers, doing desk-side tech support. My current job keeps me planted at my desk. YUCK! I have reminders set up on my computer, so that I don't get so into doing something that hours go by without me getting up from my desk. Also, I drink tons of water...serves two purposes...plenty of water is required to maintain a healthy weight, and it keeps me having to get up to go to the restroom...hehehe.

I wish I could run. I have conditions with prevent it. My ankles are in terrible shape...had to quit sports in high school because of the damage done to them (was told to quit or spend the rest of my life in braces). I later developed my mom's knee problem...one tendon is tighter than the other, so my knee cap pulls to the side when I bend my leg. Due to these two conditions, I've been ordered to no impact cardio by my doctor...cycle, elliptical, swimming. I usually rotate between the three of these...prefer the elliptical and swimming to the bike because it works upper and lower...much more bang for your buck, so to speak.

I love that the cold weather has started around here. I can eat soup all the time, and it is lower in calories...especially homemade. I usually make a mean turkey soup right after Thanksgiving with the carcass...boil all of the meat off, add some veggies, some rice or noodles...good stuff!

I'm also starting a cleanse...it has been more than 6-months since my last one, and I'm feeling the effects of being in need of one. There are some good products out there...my favorite is the Genesis stuff. It's amazing the effect that getting the toxins out of your system can have! These nasty little things coat your system, and make it difficult to absorb the good stuff from your food. They can make you feel worn down and cause numerous other problems. A nutritionist tipped me off to the cleansing stuff. The Genesis product does not require you to cut stuff out of your diet, though it suggests you try to avoid fatty foods during the process. The process takes about a month. I notice a difference after the first week, and I can tell now when I'm due again. About every 6 months is when I need to go through a cycle, and it has been longer than that this time around. The stuff is about $30 USD for the whole month cycle, but if I only have to do it every 6 months, that really isn't bad at all.

As for finding healthy food, I don't know about other parts of the world, but it seems to me that it costs more around the US to eat healthy than it is to eat junk! Is it just me? No wonder Americans have such issues with weight, especially the lower class who can't afford buying only fresh fruits and veggies and lean meats.

Oh, I wanted to search for such thread for a long time. I'm trying to lose weight now but I can't build a system - I just do whatever I can. I've stopped drinking anthing besides water and an occasional glass of juice; I'm doing a bunch of different exercises (don't know their names) and using a treadmil; I'm walking everywhere as we don't have a car. Two persons have already noted that I've got thinner but they are rather doubtfull sources... Got any other suggestions? I don't want to have muscles (at least for now) and just want to get thin.

No kidding on the desk job! All that sitting around is NOT good for your back. I do get up and walk around, and sometimes go up and down the stairs (it's a 10-story building).
GothicBfly, are there any strengthening/stretching exercises you could do to remedy or at least lessen that knee tracking? I know that if the quad muscles (thigh front) and outer thigh muscles are weak and if the iliotibial band (runs from the outer knee, up the outer thigh to the hip) gets tight then the kneecap is pulled out of position. I take it that what you have is more involved than what a runner gets, but maybe some sort of strengthening would help, in addition to the elliptical and swimming? But those are great exercises.

I also on occasion go to a sports massage therapist. There's a group that works with my running club - they're well known and have worked on people such as the Ironman athletes at Kona. That sort of massage not only gets rid of the knots but can prevent injuries. It can be pretty painful though - especially when they work on some of the knots in my quads and tightness on the inner calves!
They also recommend strengthening exercises for further prevention.

I've been planning on getting back into doing pilates with my weights, but that'll have to wait for right now. I can't concentrate on exercise, lately. I just try to watch my portioins and only eat till I'm juuuuust full.

When I was doing my cardio & strength training regularly I dropped from 185lbs down to about 160lbs(hovering ATM) where I'm at now.

^_^

Edit: Congrats GothicButterfly! I'm trying to reach the 50lbs mark so that my jeans size will finally be back inte single digits!

Stargazer...If you want to get the most out of your workouts and not bulk up, there are a few books out there about how to exercise for your body types. The one I like is "Escape Your Shape". How your body is shaped is an indication of how you build muscle and store fat. For example, I'm an hourglass, which bulk easily if one is not careful. This is definitely right on, as back in high school I had no problem bulking up for sports! So, in my case, I have to keep resistance low and weights low, otherwise, I will get frustrated that I'm not really getting smaller because I'm building too much muscle. I need to keep the muscles toned, so it is lots of reps at low weights at a somewhat cardio pace to burn fat, and intervals for cardio. You have to combine cardio and weight training to get the best results!

Another thing that works very well diet-wise is cycling. You can do this with your calories and/or carbs. Since the body adapts to whatever you are doing, you end up hitting a plateau (as I have). There are a few things out on the web about this. Basically, you figure out what your number of calories per day should be to achieve the weight loss you want...keep in mind that 1 lb of fat takes a 3500 calorie reduction to lose. Through the use of a Body Bugg, a device that helps measure calories burned (24 hour fitness in the US sells them...can get them online through Apex), I have determined I burn about 2000 calories a day on average. So, if I want to lose a pound a week, I need to eat an average of no more than 1500 calories a day. Now, to cycle that...one day eat 1000 calories...the next eat 1500...the next eat 2000...the next eat 1500....just make sure that at the end of 7 days, your average is 1500/day. I know...seems like a lot of work.

Now, I have issues with carbs. When I eat a low-fat diet that is higher in carbs, I don't lose for jack! Now, I haven't been doing very well on my diet the last couple of weeks...things have been crazy, and we have been eating out a lot. I'm easing back into a program, but I will be doing is a cycling method that also cycles carbs. I know....LOTS of work, which is why I'm starting on Thursday. Why a Thursday? Well, the carb cycle is 3 days low carb, one day high carb, 3 days moderate carbs. I want my high day (which I will also set as my 2000 calorie day) to be Sunday, as we usually go out for lunch after church. This will be my day to have a cheat meal...which is very important if you are going to stick on any plan. For all other meals during the week, you eat only allowed foods (i.e., usually no sweets, no snack foods, no junk food, etc.). For ONE meal a week, you allow yourself to have a small portion of one thing that you really are craving! Once slice of pizza with a salad, one small slice of cheesecake, a small french fries...that one thing that you have been dying to have all week! This will help you stay on track, because you are not feeling completely deprived.

Harpy...yes, I do strength training on my legs that help keep the knee cap straight. It doesn't fix it 100%, but I have a lot less popping coming from my knee when I bend it these days. The big problem is my ankles! Those are not fixable with any exercise! They noticed the defect when I first started walking, and wasn't sure how it would affect me later. I used to be a basketball player, and was THE sprinter during track season. I used lots of rolls of tape, but it did not stop the terrible pain at the end of a game or a meet. I was only causing further damage. These days, my doctors are happy to see me in my boots! They think I do it simply for the health of my ankles...NOT...LOL!

Wolfmammy...I know about that single digit size goal! I'm there myself! Shoot, I'm just glad that I can now buy clothes at any store I want! I used to get so frustrated going to the mall with my daughter and her friends, seeing a shirt I loved, and realizing that very few stores carry an XL! I'm still in a large, but I can at least shop where ever I want!

Gosh i have been lazy lately when it comes to my fitnes although am a health fanatic there are sometimes that i just let go and eat all sorts of food am luckily that i have a lean body and i dont gain extra pounds that quickly this forum kind of woke me up