Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
I can't say that "I used to weigh 300 pounds and now I weigh 180." or anything like that.
I'm just going to throw some stuff out to you.
One of the most, if not thee most important thing is to set up a system that you can maintain. We
all only have so much will-power. I'm talking here about diet and exercise and whatever else there
may be.
Start to add one thing at a time regarding your diet and keep a log or at least try to remember.
If you do multiple things at a time you won't know what is doing what. For example, taking some
supplement (of whatever sort) while at the same time drastically changing your diet, to what you
think and believe is a great diet. Being tired is just one sign that what you've tried isn't working.
You won't be able to tell what it is. It might be both.
There is a list of foods that apparently
you can eat as much of them as you want and never gain weight. This is probably true. They must
be eaten raw and uncooked. Of course you can't live off these foods. It's just something that may
prove helpful.
Alfalfa sprouts
Bell peppers
Bok hoy
Cabbage
Chicory
Celery
Chinesecabbage
Cucumber
Endive
Escarole
Lettuce
Parsley
Radishes
Spinach
Turnips
Watercress (avoid, due to parasites S.S.,{ never checked out the others on the list})
There are many ways to have good tasting low fat meals, but you probably don't want to go to
a great deal of trouble in this regard. You have to know yourself in this to an extent. I don't think
you want to spend in excess of an hour a day in food preparation.
Also, too much protein and/or carbohydrate and/or fat turns into fat. This is what the books tell me.
I think ingestion of fat is the main thing to combat, but I'm not a nutritionist.
For exercise, you also have to do something that you can maintain. I don't think body building is something
for this stage. I would suggest cardio. If you're going to do this alone, which seems the case, you probably
will find all exercise boring, but not impossible to maintain. I would suggest a treadmill with music playing,
or maybe some TV show on. When I do my body building (on just Saturday's) I have free music going from
Pandora. They have many many songs. There are some commercials, but not too many. The ad-free service
is/was just $3 a month. I play a "station" that has interesting instrumental music, but that's just me.
A multivitamin/multimineral is a good thing to take. I take a week's worth on Saturday. I don't know anyone
that would do this but me. It seemed to me a while back that I was getting tired if I took it daily. It
isn't always easy to tell what is doing what in life to make one tired or slow, however. All these contain
iodine (for your thyroid gland). Too much or too little iodine can have a negative effect. I assume it was the
iodine, but it could also have been one of the B complex vitamins.
(I do also take a few specific supplements on the weekdays, but I don't want to overwhelm you in this.)
The point is to eventually take a multivitamin/multimineral to be sure you're covered. Everyone needs
vitamin E and chromium and and and etc. It is way hard to get everything in a good diet.
(Also, there is no multivitamin/multimineral out there that has everything, to my knowledge.)
Take an aspirin each day to thin the blood. It is suggested to take a baby aspirin. Be sure it does not
have a coating. I don't trust them to dissolve in the stomach. If it does have a coating, be sure to crush
the tablet.
I came across a theory many years ago that there is a optimum diet for everyone. Some people do better
with more protein and some do better with less, etc. It's more complex than that, but I did find the concept
rather interesting. Something to keep in the back of your mind for now.
Feel free to contact me on this subject. Be advised that I'm not an expert however.
I would like to raise a warning about eating an aspirin a day. While it indeed makes your blood thinner, it has been proven that it creates serious permanent stomach damage. I would not advise to eat an aspirin or baby aspirin a day.
--
A British study released in September found aspirin can double the chances of dangerous internal bleeding in people without a history of heart disease, while having no effect on the rate of heart attacks or strokes.
He urged doctors to review all their patients taking low-dose aspirin for primary prevention whether prescribed by themselves or whether it was bought overthecounter by the patients.
'The decision about whether to continue or stop treatment should be made only after fully informing patients of the available evidence. Some patients may see a small risk of harm as worth taking because they gain a small degree of possible benefit,' he added.
June Davison, of the British Heart Foundation said: 'It is well established that aspirin can help prevent heart attacks and strokes among people with heart and circulatory disease. They should continue to take it as prescribed by their doctor. 'But for those who do not have heart and circulatory disease the risk of serious bleeding outweighs the potential benefits. We advise people not to take aspirin daily, unless they check with their doctor.'
--
I would also not take any medical advise from any internet forums
This is interesting. I must say that I don't keep up with the research the way I used to. (A baby aspirin is 1/4
a standard size aspirin tablet, that is just 81mg.) High amounts of vitamin E can also thin the blood. I hesitate
at this point to offer a dosage per day. I do know that if one takes a dose too high the blood becomes too
thin, which is way bad.
First, thanks to those who gave serious replies, I appreciate it.
I signed up with MyFitnessPal which is free and has a very easy-to-use website as well as Android app to track food and exercise. Tomorrow I'll have been using it for a week, tracking every single item. It makes this really super easy, the food database is extensive (so far every single thing has been in there) and I just use my phone to scan the barcode if it is something like a TV dinner, salad dressing, bbq seasoning etc -- or I can create my own "meals" that I make frequently and put all the individual ingredients of a meal into a single line item so it is easy to select again in the future.
I am now switching from 2% milk in my meals to Unsweetened Almond milk, and I am also now eating a meal replacement shake made with almond milk and a banana or some frozen fruit to it. I am using the shake to replace the midnight snack as well as a snack replacement if I have a craving between meals.
So naturally now the trick is to stick with it. My determination level is high, so I have confidence I will do it.
I'm not a Guru , fitness trainer or any of that stuff . I'm just an old guy that decided to lose weight after a heart attack. I lost 70 lbs and have kept it off for 2 years.
There are 2 steps, the initial lose weight phase and the maintain new weight phase.
Phase One:
I avoided Alcohol, Sweets, Bread , Junk food and most meat.
I ate tons of vegetables (no cheese sauce ... kinda defeats the purpose) If you want to add flavor not calories... Tabasco Sauce is your friend.
I stopped eating after 6 pm.
If I got a craving for sweets, I would eat fruit. I highly recommend Lil' Cuties Mandarin Oranges, Bing Cherries and grapes when in season.
Buy seedless grapes when available that are naturally sweet, freeze them.
Take frozen grapes, place in a bowl, put a mixture of Low fat vanilla yogurt and Splenda (just enough to barely glaze the grapes when stirred) quickly stir together. The yogurt will freeze to the outside of the grapes. I used to make that for my son when he was a toddler, it worked great for the diet.
I got some type of aerobic exercise 30 minutes every day.
Nothing earth shattering; brisk walking ( the dog loved it), bowling, shooting pool (don't drink the beer or eat the cheese fries ) etc.
My son's gym has an indoor pool with swim lanes (4 ft deep). Us old guys walk laps instead of swimming. The buoyancy will take the strain off the knees and ankles and the water resistance will literally melt pounds.
It ain't macho , but then again no hard body young "hottie" ever looked at an old guy in swim trunks and thought ... "I gotta get me some of that..."
Eat 3 meals a day so you don't binge at the end of the day.
DO NOT keep snacks in your work area.
I lost 70 lbs.
Phase Two, Maintenance:
Now I eat whatever I want, within reason, in reasonable size portions.
If I have a serving of Blue Bell Home Made Vanilla Ice Cream, it's not going to blow up my diet (assuming you only eat one serving, occasionally)
I still eat tons of vegetables, but I'm lucky, I like vegetables.
I still get some form of aerobic exercise every day, health permitting.
I still avoid eating late at night.
Big Mike, you are a much younger healthier guy than me. You can do this with out feeling deprived.
Did I mention I lost 70 pounds?
I'm just a simple man trading a simple plan.
My daddy always said, "Every day above ground is a good day!"
Cutting out meat is something of a problem for me, most of my meals are based around throwing something on the grill. But I have been eating more veggies and cutting back on Texas Toast and all the yummy sauces
I didn't say you can't have any meat ... just be reasonable.
BTW... grilled steak is better for you than Chicken Fried Steak and gravy.
No amount of exercise can work off meals consisting of 3 beers, a two lb chicken fried steak with gravy and a baked potato with butter, cheese, bacon and sour cream, Texas Toast and a double fudge brownie with chocolate sauce and ice cream on it for desert.
Once you get to your target weight eat reasonably.
I'm just a simple man trading a simple plan.
My daddy always said, "Every day above ground is a good day!"
I want to congratulate you on your weight loss, btw, great job. Can I ask approximately how long it took for you to lose 70 lbs? I am targeting a loss of 1 to 1.5 lbs per week, thoughts on that?