Health & Fitness • Page 7

I lost a bunch of weight the beginning of last year by switching to a basically plant based diet. Unfortunately, I found out in later in the year I had some seriously bad bacteria and I had to be on antibiotics basically for 6 months and an IV for 6 weeks to get rid of it. You have no idea how badly my immune system became. I was so bloated some days i could have passed as a pregnant person. I had to stick to simple foods like bread, rice, etc and the carbs weren't good for me. I'm rebuilding good bacteria and my immune system but the process left me a few pounds chubbier. I just got off the medicine for good and back to plant based eating. I wouldn't recommend it enough to people. it's a simple concept and i never felt better in my life when i did it before. My skin clearer, my energy was way better. Can't wait to get to those things cause it's something I haven't felt in months.

 

my recommendation, which may be terrible but i feel is working for me, is to focus on one category of nutrients to improve / work on at a time. Trying to wrap your mind (as in my case, my mind) on total fat, sat fat, carbs, sugar and protein in EVERYTHING all at once was daunting, sucked and turned me off from trying to fix what i was eating since that's half the battle (or more).

Start with just sugar intake or carbs. After a few weeks, once you have a solid foundation of what you like / can live with out to get these daily numbers where they should be - THEN look at fat and protein levels. Make adjustments as need to be until you find you have a solid, varied diet that helps you / boosts you and doesn't hurt you.

 

So I've been keeping track of: calories, fat, sat fat, carbs, sugar and protein since 5/13. Easier than i thought, but i am quite OCD and love number crunching so it isn't so much of a struggle and my goal at this time is to run every day and just document what i eat. making big dietary changes comes later on.

So far:

DAY CALORIES TOTAL FAT SAT FAT CARBS SUGAR PROTEIN
Friday 1,607.0 71.5 27.0 145.5 59.0 91.0
Saturday 1,762.0 99.0 24.0 166.0 66.0 86.5
Sunday 1,490.0 65.5 10.0 169.0 66.0 60.0
Monday 1,750.0 109.5 19.5 117.0 32.0 72.0
Tuesday 1,379.0 68.0 25.5 148.0 96.5 77.5

I burn about 2,500 more calories than I take in each day aside from Sunday (designated lazy day) and i think my jeans are noticing a difference. Probably need to move to the next belt hole to keep them up.

 

I'm the same way, it's very strange but pretty awesome.

 

I've always dreaded every time I've tried to get healthy before. And maybe my small-scale diet changes and low-impact exercise isn't going to make a fast, "holy shit" change, but I'm a month in and it's making me happy instead of miserable for the first time, so I'm kinda fine with that.

 

I hear ya. I feel like in the past, when I've tried to get healthy, I've just gone all out right away and ended up burning out within a month or so. This time around, I started by just making sure I was walking more (my Fitbit was a god send). At first that meant 10,000 steps, and now I'm up to a 15k daily goal. From there, three weeks ago I started the Couch to 5k program, and signed up for my first ever 5k on July 4th. Now I'm really focusing on how many calories I take in everyday. I still slip up at least one day each week, but when I do, I get right back at it the next day.

It's a process but if you start at a level that you feel comfortable with, it's so much easier.

 

Yeah the FitBit has legit changed my life

 

Which model do you have?

 

The One. Since the day I got it, I've lost 14 pounds and am so much happier and healthier mentally because of it.

 

So I got a job yesterday which means I can now afford a FitBit! Plus the job is just under 3 miles from my house, so I was thinking on nice days I could even walk to work!

Should I bother with an Apple Watch (I have everything else Apple...) or should I just go for a FitBit? Anyone have any recommendations?

 

Congrats on the job!

 

Anyone have more details about Couch to 5k? I've gained 30-40 lbs in the past 6 months or so and 4 pant sizes. I'm completely out of shape and haven't done anything close to consistent exercise in, like, 7 years.

 

It works if you show up and do the plan. I set up playlists so that it would change songs when it was time to switch between running and walking after getting out of the shorter times (unless you're into punk, then this may be perfect for setting up playlists as well) so that I wasn't focusing on the time, just listening for cues.

 

I tried the Couch to 5k last fall and their pace was honestly too much for me. I'm going to try when school ends again, hopefully after losing some weight and having been walking every day for 2 months this time, I'll be able to actually do it.

 

I'm currently half way through week 4 (out of 9). As someone who's never ran more than a mile (and I can count the number of times I've ran a mile on one hand), it's fairly brutal. I have some friends who did it and thought it was easy, but running never came naturally to me. I made it a goal for myself to run a 5k on July 4th, and that's my only motivation for sticking with it. If I hadn't physically registered and paid money, I'd probably have quit by now. Every time they ramp up the intensity, I feel like there's no way I'll be able to do it, but I just push through. It's such a mental game, and it's amazing what our bodies can do.

 

I did it a few years ago and it worked for me. If you've never really run before (which I hadn't), the trick is to repeat whatever segment you're having trouble with until you're comfortable before moving to the next day in the schedule. It's pretty neat going from having trouble running for 60 seconds straight to running the whole 30(ish) minutes/3.1 miles. And it's absolutely helpful for weight loss!

 

I'm amazed that after 3 weeks I can run 5 minutes straight.

 

I felt the same way! The sense of accomplishment is really, really awesome. It's so motivating! I've been thinking about re-starting it again, actually. I haven't done any remotely consistent running in close to a year and could definitely use the cardio.

 

It didn't even occur to me to repeat weeks. Shit.

 

Totally! I think I had a lot of trouble bouncing from 3 minute run segments to 5 minutes, so I just repeated a few days until 3 minutes felt easyish. Ditto once you get up to 10/12/15 minutes of running - everyone's starting point is different, so it's easy to tailor the program to what you can do.

 

Yeah I definitely am doing this in the summer now. I don't care if I repeat a week 3 times. Fuck it.

 

The conversation in the General Chat Thread right now has me thinking of this. I don't really have full body shots, but I think you can see in my face alone.

Here's a picture of me at my heaviest (ironically with ice cream):



And here's last week:



So, yeah. I'm not where I'm wanting to be at, but I'm totally thankful for where I'm at. And I'm here to encourage ANY of you who need it.

 

That's an amazing transformation! Also: great hair.

 

Thanks. I'm so ready to change the style, but I have no idea what to.

 

What No One Tells You About Going Paleo (Hint: It's Sad)

Truer words have never been written. Laughed so hard I cried reading this.