And, another post I had made: This has some of the previous content, but has some different subject matter as well.
You appropriately handle "choice" within your life (when concerning diet and fitness), and you will become nearly unstoppable as you work down your goal path.
Item 1. It's not "necessarily" what you eat but a function of "how much of what you eat" that matters the most. You should always strive to eat as healthy as possible; however, if you eat something that isn't healthy, and you are still in the deficit side/surplus side (I add this dependent on your particular goals) of the caloric equation, all is NOT LOST.
Item 2. In addition, its more of a operation of calories IN (energy-how much of what you eat) vs. calories OUT(energy-body function, movement and activities), that is the basics of lowering body fat or gaining tissue weight.
If you know your calorie intake per day, and know your calorie surplus "targets", one can adjust these targets according to bodily feedback IF the weight loss or weight gain isn't going according to plan.
Items 1 and 2 are fundamentally critical to your success in lowering your body fat/losing weight--and gaining quality tissue weight.
You WILL encounter many mental and physical barriers within your goal path to lose/gain tissue weight that you WILL HAVE TO adapt and overcome.
Know how to manipulate calories within your diet.
IMO this is one of "most powerful" tools within ones arsenal; when applied correctly, and when one is tracking calories and has a general circumference of knowledge of the approximate calories burned during exercise. Lets face some bare facts.
When one deficits to loose fat tissue, one is depriving the body of energy and FORCING the body to feed upon itself for its energy needs. Therefore, isn't it logical for the body to FIGHT YOU and "somewhat" be an enemy within your goal aspirations? Isn't it going to give you feed back with intense cravings, possibly low energy levels, depression, and other types of responses to COMPEL you to eat? Why be surprised. Have a plan of action to deal with these---biological and psychological functions that ARE GOING TO COME. If you do not, the odds go UP you will fail. Therefore, one weapon in your arsenal can be manipulating the calories V. exercise ratio. For example, to allow you to eat more, but at the same time, keeping your deficits to loose appropriate fat tissue. This is only one very brief example.
A continuing education on diet V exercise techniques (manipulations of calories, manipulation of the three nutrients, etc) will SERVE to combat and deliver to ones self--
in the event this "extra" education is needed to assist in eliminating problems.
This is one reason "among many" I advocate tracking calories--at least until you get to the point, that its such a life style change and you are so in tune with what you eat and what you do in fitness, that this is no longer necessary to continue your progress. I STILL track my calories. I want it on paper, I want to know where I am at in the energy IN side of the equation--because this is "critical" in lowering body fat.
One must be the Quiet-Riot in their Diet, and this begins before going to the grocery store:
Be proactive in thought when going to shop for food: (or be an active participant in what your parents are buying for groceries, and ask them to purchase some specific food items for you)
There is nothing wrong with eating every 3 to 4 hours if your life style allows it:
Try to space out your meals during the day somewhere between 4 to 6 approximately or at a level that fits your lifestyle. Select a number and divide this by the number of calories you need per day, and this will give you an approximation on how many calories per meal to eat.
When I go to the store, I have this mentality:
1. I look for foods that are bulky and carry the nutritional value that fits within the macronutrient value I seek (all macronutrients).
Staving off hunger perception one.
2. I look for bulky food items that will "stave off hunger" (for the times I may need it), that a carry a good nutritional value but carry a low calorie impact on my diet. There are so many food items to assist with cravings they are nearly endless, and SHOULD BE implemented into ones war on cravings.
Specific refrigerator items to combat cravings, perception two.
Reasoning:
Gives you the
TOOLS to work within a system of
RULES
Proactive involvement in the hunger complications to improve diet success.
In my opinion, one needs to eye ball the "total circumference of the diet" and use it as
"one of" the tools to stave off hunger that is "nearly" unavoidable when one deficit diets to lose quality fat tissue. You will have tools in your food (that you normally consume) and in your fridge (stave off hunger items) to help you.
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A lot of the hunger tolerance can vary per individual, but has to be appropriately dealt with.
With this said, I tend to avoid (but use it limited) most liquid protein and opt for protein that has the potential of occupying a large portion of my stomach's physical capacity and take longer to digest. Liquid protein doesn't do this for me. Though I will use whey protein powder once in a while. I'm just more consistent in eating protein in hard bulky food. If you decided to use Whey protein this is fine, and if you use it with milk, this is fine too; however, be mindful that the feeling of fullness from drinking milk lasts only a few minutes--normally, and isn't a good craving kicker in the--long term.
I take the same approach with carb/fiber "rich" foods. I dont add in good fat rich foods because they tend to carry a lower physical density but a higher caloric value; therefore, I will "usually" mix fats within my protein and carb "based" food intake.
I pay attention to "good solid foods" that require some water to make or have water in them naturally.
A couple of examples:
Lets use two carb/fiber based foods for an example: You ever put far "too much" water in
old fashioned oatmeal, and say "damn!", only to let it sit for several minutes and the water was absorbed and the oatmeal thickened up? Now take this and think what it does within the fluids of the stomach.
The same type condition happens with quick
Long Grain Brown Rice. I drink water immediately after consuming LGBR or Oatmeal for this reason. It swells the food and will give a feeling of fullness and it can last to the next meal.
Now, if you were to add a somewhat bulky protein item to the LGBR (of your choice) this will add to the bulky business of staving off hunger. Lets use chicken. I buy fresh and frozen chicken breast that have been cut to portion sizes of about 120c per serving. I will add three portions and cut them into chunks into two servings of LGBR along with a small amount of garlic and parmesan. After consuming I make sure I drink at least two full glasses of water. Calories are about 620c, carries a good carb and protein intake and a bulk ingredient to stave off hunger.
Now, if I get hungry in-between meals, and my life has made me space my meals out more than I like, and I am near my limit, but not over it, I have the purchases I have made from the grocery store in my refrigerator (and can take to work), that are specifically designed to combat the cravings, and I am not acting on a whim, but rather being proactive in dealing with it.
This is one example among many I do (I'm trying to prevent this from being too long, LOL):
1. EAT Lettuce (A whole head can carry "about" 20c
per head . Its bulky, can take some time for the body digest, and can fill one fast. Add in a quality low calorie dressing of personal choice (In addition to flax oil in my case).
If I happen to be at my limit, I have various "liquid" items in the fridge to deal with this that are water based, to thwart off the bland taste of water once in a while.
I know that some of this will not be applicable to you. However, even living in a dorm,
you can redesign your mental approach to food and have it assist you to help yourself--you just have to apply some in depth thought.
I also use my fitness equipment sometimes when I feel hungry to my advantage--which is another post, lol.
FOOD CAN BE USED to COMBAT CRAVINGS, BABY! Redesign your thoughts!---and so can implanting "appropriate" timing of minor fitness activities
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After educating myself on the basic requirements of tissue loss and tissue gain, I quickly learned there were many opinions and opinions on these opinions, and one could easily get confused on where to start and which basic circumference of information to use for ones goal.
But there tended to be some dust that settled on simple basics.
I sat myself down, and wrote down every possible dietary weakness and strengths I possessed.
I literally tore myself apart being honest. I developed a
“On Limits Food List” and an
“Off Limits Food List”.
I evaluated my living environment and work environment, its associated effects and causes, and what would applicably have negative and positive effects on my goal, (and set reaction in place)
I developed a list of bad food items that could be made to be more healthy that I liked (for example: Oatmeal cookies, and Peanut Butter Cookies, and replaced the ingredients in these to the more healthy alternative—like Splenda for the replacement of white refined sugar, and whole wheat flour instead of white bleached flour, and so on and so forth).
I developed a CLEAR strategy in dealing with my weaknesses and deficit diet cravings (and changing ingredients in sweet items-like the aforementioned- is one example as it assisted with the
“I want something sweet—DAMN IT!” type of situation).
There was NOTHING I wasn’t prepared for, mentally, if my body began to resist or crave certain things as I progressed forward.
Feel the thunder of using your terrific mind!
The human mind is a wonderful viewing filtering system. One looks but don't see. Its right there in front of you. Seek and you will find the unknowing kind.
Young man, be a mind sponge and soak in all the appropriate advice you can, sort it out, and then try to make decisions based on what you learned, and then implement a plan of attack.
A lot of what I wrote are not exhaustive but very brief examples and explanations. Take a look at what I wrote, read
"between the lines", and spin off ideas that can work for you.
I want to leave you with something I hope will make you smile:
I train at home. And bug, agitate, and piss my own ass off all the time.......but I still train.
Both posts are sort of simulur, but are applicable to your situation (old posts though). Read between the lines.
Chillen
)).