Lose weight by eating right

Ever since taking a more serious approach to my fitness, I genuinely see that diet is indeed the majority of a good fitness plan. Unfortunately, food is very much my weakness. So I approached my diet as I would approach a casual financial budget. Save some early in the period so you have more to spend later.

I'm sure if you do some research, you will find a smorgasbord of diet plans and eating theories. But if you're looking to lose weight, then it's really simple math. Burn more than you consume. If you create a deficit of 3,500 calories per week, that would equate to 1 lost pound. Now 500 calories is a lot to cut from a day, but if you cut 250 calories and workout to burn 250 calories, there's your 500 calorie deficit for the day. As for the actual food, well that can get complicated.

We've all heard of the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, the Weight Watchers diet. There's a whole lot out there. And we can get into all the counting of the protein, the carbs, the fat. Whether you do 40/40/20 or 60/20/20 or any other ratio(protein/carb/fat ratio). But I'm just not that detail-oriented in terms of food at the moment. I do use quite a bit of common sense. Junk food? No-brainer. It has the word "junk" in it. Limit these a lot. Same for sugar. You don't really need more than what you can get in regular food. As for carbs, aim for whole grain/complex carbs and try to consume the bulk of it in the early part of the day. You know, things like that.

As for the actual budgeting part of my eating, it's quite simple. I know I don't eat the best outside of work, so I make the most of what I can do when I'm at work or at home. Here's a typical work day for me:


Breakfast: Cheerios w/milk - I aim for skim, but I do 1% if it's on sale. You should really train yourself to like at least 2% milk. Go to skim if you can take it. You don't need the fat and lower fat milk has higher calcium content.

Mid-morning snack: Varies. I try to do a handful of nuts. Sometimes, I'll do a protein shake if I know I'm going to do a hard workout later in the day.

Lunch: I try to bring this meal from home. If you didn't make it, you never know what's in it. So I usually do 1-2 servings of veggies with some protein (usually chicken breast). Occasionally, I'll have rice with it if I'm not lazy to cook it.

Mid-afternoon snack: This has been pretty consistent for me. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's made with one slice of whole grain bread with Skippy's Natural PB and Smuckers Sugar-free preserves. A quick 200 calories of goodness. If I was lazy, then I'd take a protein bar. It's less calories than a candy bar and has a lot more nutritional value to it. And no sugar.


I don't really count calories, but I limit my snacks to 250 calories or below. No reason for more for a snack. Also, my eating during the day usually doesn't have a lot of fat or sodium. I skimp on those because I know I'll probably eat that stuff later on. In fact, I apply some rules 24/7 to "budget" for indulgences later. Dinner out or dinner at my mom's can get pretty unhealthy. So my little rules are:

-Remove skin from chicken
-Eat a lot of vegetables
-No sodas, if you must avoid full sodas; aim for diet
-Avoid cream sauces/dressings
-Avoid white bread (except sourdough...I love sourdough)
-Eggs are usually poached. I do over easy sometimes.
-Ice water. Lots of it.

So, nothing crazy in my eating habits. Just doing the best I can to work with what I got. I love food, so I try to cut down wherever I can. Another habit you must get into is weighing yourself regularly. Pick a time and the conditions and do that consistently once a week. That will give you an idea if you need to adjust your eating. In fact, think of eating as fueling and your body as a machine. Pick up on how you feel and how you weigh and tweak the fuel to maximize performance.

In the end, don't go too crazy with any eating plan. You need to have a cheat meal/day, and you need to allow yourself small mistakes. Otherwise, you'll be overwhelmed and burn out. So pick a good eating plan, couple that with a decent workout regimen, and get lean, strong, and fit!

Weekend of biking!

Well, last week was a bad week for running again. I fit one run in Sunday later in the day, but haven't had a full run for the rest of the week. I did a quick cooldown run on Tuesday, but that's it. I did, however, did quite a bit of biking. Here's the breakdown:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs, calf raises; run
Monday: None
Tuesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps; cooldown run
Wednesday: None
Thursday: Pullups
Friday: Pushups/pullups, heavy weights, pushups/chinups
Saturday: Minuteman Bike Trail (Bedford to Arlington and back)

The long bike ride fell on Sunday, so that'll go on next week's update. I must say, after 60+ miles of biking, my butt is sore from the saddle. The long ride made me reevaluate my bicycle, too. I currently ride on a Trek 6500 mountain bike. Don't have all the specifics, but it's pretty decent. Mostly Shimano parts, three-gear crankset with a 9 speed cassette. It does have mountain bike tires on, and I've never minded it before. But after doing a 45 mile bike ride, there are some things I would definitely like to change.

For one, my tires are overkill for what I usually do with my bike. I have never gone on an actual mountain bike ride, so the tires are actually inefficient for what I usually ride. I do appreciate them whenever I find myself cutting through a dirt/gravel path, but most of my riding is on paved surfaces. So, I am planning on switching out my tires with some road tires. Also, my horizontal handlebar made supporting some of my weight on my hands a bit difficult. I get numb fingers once in a while. So to fix that, I will add some bar ends. I thought about swapping out the bar with some drop handlebars, but that would require new shifters, which may require a new drivetrain. Shifters and drivetrain components can be expensive, so not a cost-effective solution for me.

You're probably thinking why I can't just get a road bike or a hybrid bike. It's a fact that no matter how many parts I change on the bike, it'll never be up to par with a road bike. The frame just wasn't designed for that purpose. Well, there's the cost. A decent road or hybrid bike will set me back at least a few hundred dollars. A nice one, $1,000+. I'm also not at the point where I need/want a road bike. The tires confine me to certain road surfaces, and I'm big on flexibility. The road tires I picked out for my Trek are good enough for the road yet sturdy and grippy enough for the occasional dirt/gravel path. Another reason to just "hybridize" my mountain bike is that total cost of the "upgrades" will only set me back $89.00. Not bad huh? So, I'll tweak my bike first, then when I need another bike, I'll go shopping.

As for the rest of my fitness update, my weight workouts are doing fine. I did wind up at the gym for my shoulders and arms workout and discovered that my 30-lb dumbbells at home weren't quite comparable to the 30-lb dumbbells at the gym. Not sure which one's correct, but I sucked it up and went with the 25-lb dumbbells to preserve form. Form over pride, people. Without good form, your reps mean nothing. Pullups-wise, I'm up to 3 sets of 11 (though on the last set, the last couple reps really really kill). I've added some diamond pushups for my chest and back workout that I do with my heavy workout, so that's pretty cool.

I'm pretty happy with how my legs held up during the bike rides, and I largely attribute this to my running and stair climbing at work. So I will make more of an effort to run more and use the bathroom downstairs at work (I like taking the stairs two at a time back up when I'm alone). My heavy workout consists of squats and lunges, so that'll continue. I did skip last weeks leg section in anticipation of the demands on the legs from the riding. That was a great decision.

Diet-wise, I took one extra protein shake between my breakfast and lunch. I was feeling I'm under for my protein intake. I did wind up gaining weight, but my cousin came and we did three straight nights of drinking. So that skewed the effects of my diet change. I'll see how this week goes. I'm still taking glucosamine twice a day.


Last weigh-in:
172.0 lb