So this place has less action than a morgue.

To get the ball rolling what is you weeking exercise routine, and what is a sample food diary? Do you have any fitness goals for the year?

1. routine. Monday Yoga AM Run (2-3miles) PM
Tuesday pushup/situps AM
Wed Yoga AM, Run (5-6miles) PM
Thursday Pushup/situp AM
Friday Yoga AM Judo PM
Saturday weekly 5k race AM
Sunday Afternoon starting adding a longer run to increase my miles for my fitness goal.

Food, 0600 pint of water,
08.30 bowl of porridge with rice milk and a banana,
10.30 an apple, 10g of almonds 20g of dried fruit (raisin/saltana/currents)
12.30 1banana 2 apple and 2 organic rice cakes with peanut butter or marmite or honey.
3pm apple a dozen grapes

evening meal either at 6pm if not exercising and a home made spag bol or bacon eggs beans and mushrooms or jacket potato with tuna etc.

If running/judo will have some goats milk yoghurt with a tiny bit of honey at 6pm then above mentioned meals but with less carbs at around 8.

Daily i'll drink in excess of a gallon of water.

2 mugs of coffee per day max, lactose free and gluten free where ever possible i.e rice pasta rice milk goats cheese yogurt etc. i hardly ever drink infact last saturday was my first drink in 12 months.

My goal for this year is to complete 24 miles off road in a team relay event this summer.

You are so right about that ... my BIL and I were talking about how hard it is to get men to join and stick with online groups, clubs, or sites etc. He tried to start a men's Christian Accountability Club; and only one person responded -- a woman from Korea. He ended up helping this lady learn English and the Bible (her request); but no men ever joined them for its original purpose, even though some said they would before he tried to start it. So, he went back to playing music at a local church instead.

I really like your routine lay-out. I like things varied to avoid boredom. Our meals are at similar times, and I also try to eat more fruit & nuts & cereal for snacks lately. I ate melon this week with yogurt or a little yogurt ice cream. Today, I made a fruit loaf cake with some ripe bananas -- this was for the whole family to eat but I do allow myself some for a snack -- in moderation.

Are you using canned tuna? Do you heat it up? Or mash it in with the hot potato, and put it back into the potato jacket/skin? I think that would be good with a little cheese melted on top too. I love bacon, eggs, and beans too, but we usually eat something like that only once a week.

You get a lot of running in; hope you are getting enough calories in too. Sounds like you have put a lot of thought into your plan. Best wishes for continued success ...

I agree! Maybe we can get the ball rolling here.

My food routine is pretty simple:

Breakfast - 2 whole wheat pitas I've pre-stuffed with Canadian bacon and Swiss. 450 calories, and I make and bag them Sun. night, so all I have to do is grab a bag from the fridge, throw it in the microwave for 30 secs, and I'm out the door.

Lunch - 500 calories of a variety of nuts, also pre-bagged and ready to go.

Dinner - I do all the cooking (and grocery shopping) at home, so it's whatever we decide as a family before the weekly grocery trip. This week it's homemade chicken noodle soup, burger night, homemade mac+cheese, dinner salads, homemade pizzas, and a chicken/wild rice casserole. Side dishes usually some easy to prepare frozen veggies. A nice thing about me doing the shopping and cooking is I can control the ingredients with things like whole wheat pastas (and pizza crusts), extra lean ground sirloin, real (vs processed) cheeses and so on. With whatever I make, I control my dinner portion to between 700 and 850 calories.

Weekends are more up in the air, but same daily caloric intake. I REALLY need to start drinking water, because nearly all my liquid is diet soda. I'm thinking of not taking any diet soda to work, and that'll force me to drink water there.

For exercise, all I'm doing right now is 30 minutes on an elliptical machine every 3 out of 4 days. This week I plan to implement a kettlebell core-strengthening routine that I'll do 3x/week in addition to the elliptical.

Wow, you guys make my routine pale by comparison.

In the morning I make a protein rich breakfast, which is also the only time I allow myself much bread (wheat.) (about 400 cals at max)
Most day's I'm working so I eat some cottage cheese on my ten (90 cal)
A small lunch, (usually around 2-300 cal)
I eat another little thing of cottage cheese (90 cal)
Finally I have dinner. I almost always eat a vegetarian dinner. I cram as many vegetables as i can in my system. (usually about 500 cal)

This leaves me at around 1200 cal for the day which leave me room to snack if I feel like it. Fruit usually or maybe a bag of pop-chips (100 cal a bag) if I need something crunchy.

For exorcise I have just been walking. I don't own a car so i walk everywhere. I don't plan on doing any kind of strength training until I get to 200 lbs. I am going to start to run twice a week once I hit my first plateau.

I kind-of use MyFitnessPal, but mostly just to reference things. I memorized the calories in most of the the things I eat normally, and can guesstimate as need be. The only two things I am pretty stubborn about doing constantly is measuring and making sure I eat 5ish times a day. I make sure my portions are correct, unless its vegetables then I pay less attention because really you can eat a ton of them before you go over.

So far it's been working for me. I have gone from 266 to 238 in the last 4ish weeks and feel outstanding. I am never hungry and I don't feel my change of habits has interference with my life very much. Also, as an added bonus I almost never eat fast-food anymore.

EDIT: Oh and for those who think I am letting myself ride at 1200 cal a day, the majority of days I am closer to my limit of 1800 among other things I make sure I stay fed. The last thing I want to do is starve myself.

Hi all!

I see you count calories which i don't do, just more stuff to worry about isn't it really. i grill as much as possible trim all visible fat of all meat i eat and only fry in low spray. and just try to restrict my portions as much as possible. i weight out my cereal and measure out my milk but bacon and beans is just 2 rashes trimmed of fat and half a can of beans.

As for the question about tuna, canned sadly, wish i could afford fresh but hey ho, no i don't heat it up just drain it and empty the can onto the top of a jacket potato that been cut in half and add salt and pepper.

I get as much running in as i can because until march last year when i started the C25K i couldn't do any running.

Speaking of which i just got in from a lovely little jog round the block about 3miles i think in the rain .

I try to avoid having any snack bars or similar things in the house, i can't resist them i can easily eat the whole packet in one sitting so i find it best not to buy them.

Totally. I calorie count because I am so busy and it offers me versatility in the face of an ever-changing environment. This way when I am at work or school I can vary my diet. I wish I had the time to grill all the time. Although I have become quite fond of baking, and making veggie casseroles have become a thing for me. I'm also single so I need to be able to cook just for me.

YAY for sods law! yesterday did my morning yoga ate well all day, evening runn did about 1/4mile went over on my ankle in a pot hole.

No running for me for a while but i've checked the yoga and i can do many positions with my shin resting on a low chair to take the weight off my foot.

Ugh...sorry to hear about that, good thing you're not totally out of commission though.

your not out of commission until your finally nailed in that box

Hey hey,

I've never been much for gyms.. I've been a member of a gym my whole life but only go one month a year so I had to change things around.

Well here's my typical routine and diet:

Exercise:

Monday: 3 hours of competitive Badminton (Local activity)
Tuesday: 3 hours of competitive Badminton
Wednesday: 30 mins of intense exercise biking (at home) and free weights
Thursday: 3 hours of competitive Badminton
Friday: 30 mins of intense exercise biking (at home) and free weights
Saturday: 30 mins of intense exercise biking (at home) and free weights
Sunday: Day off.

As you can see, its pretty repetitive but most of my skinny friends told me that its the key to weight loss: Finding things you love and sticking to up day in and day out, with a few minor adjustments from time to time. So, this works for me but once summer rolls in, Badminton will be done and I'll replace it with Golf and Tennis. Hopefully, I can get my weight down low enough to start adding jogging (I believe the "J" is silent :P).

As for my diet: It's not perfect. I don't like breakfast but force a few things down to get my metabolism going. Here's a typical day:

7AM: Banana + Greek Yogurt (200 cal)
10AM: Pear + one more fruit (200 cal)
1PM: Frozen lunch (Lean cuisine, Smart Choice etc,.) (300 cal)
3PM: Fiber One Brownie + Greek Yogurt ( 200 cal)
6PM: Boneless chicken + random veggies + Sliced sweet potatoes in the oven. (500-600)
After 6: Nothing but water or a diet pop if I have a craving for junk.

Total: 1500ish

Like I said, it's not a perfect diet. You don't want to be eating frozen meals but it simply works out for my lifestyle. I avoid restaurants and I actually have a few frozen meals that I enjoy and that fill me up.

I've gone from about 340 to 280 in about 5 months with this routine and I'm not bored yet so that's good. I don't completely eliminate bad foods because I'd lose my mind and fall back into the old routine. Instead, I try to limit my restaurants and junk foods to once or twice a week.

Cheers,
Pat

Hey Pat. I'm really inspired by the amount of exercise you get!

How close do you come to hitting that 1500 cal target each day? On a restaurant or junk food day, do you allow yourself to go over it?

I've also got to look into Greek yogurt, it seems a lot of people have that in their diet.

I find that Greek Yogurt has a weird texture, especially when it has "cream" on top. I can imagine it being good with bananas... its too bad I loath bananas lol.

Sorry for the late response, I don't come very often :-)

Days that involve restaurants will typically surpass the 1500 calories. In fact, it depends if I'm looking for a quick fix or if I'm out celebrating.

If I'm looking for a quick fix, I'll head to places like McDonalds or Wendy's. If I'm at McDonalds, I'll grab 2 cheeseburgers and a diet coke (600 cals). If I go to Wendy's, I'll grab a Spicy Chicken Sandiwch with a diet coke (530 cals). That's usually as far as I'll go, not simply because of the calories which do add up quickly but because of the sodium. I'm kinda addicted to weighing myself daily, which I know isn't recommended but keeps me on track. Again, restaurants aren't a great solution but I need it to keep my sanity. These typical days will get my calories towards the 1800 cal mark because burgers lack the nutrients to make me feel full so I end up having an extra 300 cal snack somewhere in the day.

If I'm out for a special occasion, then I typically end up in higher quality restaurants where the meals are delicious but the calories are out of this world. These occasions only happen one every 3-4 weeks so I try to be reasonable but I definitely don't hold back much. I will eat fries, nachos with spinach dip etc... On those days, I'm pushing 3000-3500. Obviously, this is a bad weight loss day but it's like a treat and again, it keeps me sane. Usually, I feel so full from these meals that the next day, I will only eat about 1000 calories (I'll eat only essential foods for nutrients), thus making it slightly better. It usually takes me 2-3 days to work off that single meal and get my system back on track.

As for the exercise, what I listed is an ideal week. Not every week will work out that way as sometimes I work late (badminton) or sometimes the school gym where the badminton is played, is being used for school purposes. I'd say that I stick to that routine 3 weeks per month and one week will either have less badminton or a night or two where I was too lazy to get my butt on the bike.

I have changed my setup a little bit since the last post. For inspiration, I moved my exercise bike into my computer room so that I can watch movies, shows, or even a hockey game while biking. By doing this, I was able to push the intensity (especially during hockey) and I've moved from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. Hopefully I'll be getting upto 60 minutes shortly enough.

Good news I'm down another 2 pounds since the last post!

I never enjoyed the greek yogurt when I was younger. In fact, I still can't stand plain greek yogurt unless I'm making a home-made extremely low calorie tzatziki sauce. Anyway, I typically get the greek yogurt that already has strawberries or other berries in them. I buy the individual sizes that are 90 calories and give 3g Fiber and 10g-ish Protein. Once mixed, it's actually pretty good. It would be best if I bought plain and added fruits but I'm lazy and am always looking for a quick fix.

Let's all keep up the good work :-)

Cheers!
Pat

My new eating routine the last couple weeks is a meal replacement milkshake drink for breakfast....high in protein. I drink a diet supplement 15 minutes before lunch and dinner that has curbed my appetite. Pretty good results so far...lost 10 pounds in two weeks!