I've been browsing the forums for a couple of hours and can see this is the place to be if you're thirsty for fitness info. I absolutely had to sign up, and hope to be a productive member for a long time to come!
I'm currently 41 years of age, 6' 0", 218 lbs (about 180 lbs of me is lean) and just started pursuing a healthy lifestyle. I was around 242 lbs when I started about 7 weeks ago, though I realize a lot of the 20+ lbs I've already knocked off is probably water weight. I work as a residential construction subcontractor, so my daily routine can be somewhat physically demanding. As an anecdotal aside, I will NEVER do a hard upper body workout two days prior to sheeting a roof by myself again... talk about pain.
Happily, I'm finding the dietary part of my newly begun healthy lifestyle to be the easiest. I love my Foreman grill now and use it every day with chicken breast, turkey breast and several different species of fish. I also love fat-free cottage cheese and egg beaters for proteins. For my carbs, I mainly utilize whole oats, baked potato (several varieties including sweet), brown and jasmine rice, fat-free yogurt and a plethora of fruits. I steam mixed veggies with one meal a day and eat a variety of raw veggies with another meal each day. I don't use much for seasoning my food other than occasional black pepper, red pepper, paprika, lemon juice and/or butter buds.
I eat six meals a day (and one cup of coffee in the morning) and try to keep the caloric count to roughly 300 for each with a 40/40/20 mix of carb/protein/fat. I also drink about a gallon of water each day, and well over that when it's very hot outside where I'm working. I would like to start a dietary journal in order to track my intake a bit more closely and learn from it. I also need to start getting my meals lined up for the entire week on my free day. So far, I've just been 'winging it' each day, but haven't found it to be difficult at all with a well stocked kitchen full of healthy foods to choose from.
I currently supplement my diet with whey after my workouts, whey/soy mixed throughout the day when necessary and casein before fasting (sleep). I do use meal replacement bars and RTDs occasionally while I'm at work. I'm steering clear of any other supps until I have reason to believe they will truly help me to accomplish specific goals, though I'm considering an attempt at saturating my creatine levels once I'm down to about 15% bf.
Anyhoot, I hope to meet many of you on here and learn from this great storehouse of knowledge in the coming years. I will try to be helpful where I feel capable without doing much damage.
Jeff
I'm currently 41 years of age, 6' 0", 218 lbs (about 180 lbs of me is lean) and just started pursuing a healthy lifestyle. I was around 242 lbs when I started about 7 weeks ago, though I realize a lot of the 20+ lbs I've already knocked off is probably water weight. I work as a residential construction subcontractor, so my daily routine can be somewhat physically demanding. As an anecdotal aside, I will NEVER do a hard upper body workout two days prior to sheeting a roof by myself again... talk about pain.
Happily, I'm finding the dietary part of my newly begun healthy lifestyle to be the easiest. I love my Foreman grill now and use it every day with chicken breast, turkey breast and several different species of fish. I also love fat-free cottage cheese and egg beaters for proteins. For my carbs, I mainly utilize whole oats, baked potato (several varieties including sweet), brown and jasmine rice, fat-free yogurt and a plethora of fruits. I steam mixed veggies with one meal a day and eat a variety of raw veggies with another meal each day. I don't use much for seasoning my food other than occasional black pepper, red pepper, paprika, lemon juice and/or butter buds.
I eat six meals a day (and one cup of coffee in the morning) and try to keep the caloric count to roughly 300 for each with a 40/40/20 mix of carb/protein/fat. I also drink about a gallon of water each day, and well over that when it's very hot outside where I'm working. I would like to start a dietary journal in order to track my intake a bit more closely and learn from it. I also need to start getting my meals lined up for the entire week on my free day. So far, I've just been 'winging it' each day, but haven't found it to be difficult at all with a well stocked kitchen full of healthy foods to choose from.
I currently supplement my diet with whey after my workouts, whey/soy mixed throughout the day when necessary and casein before fasting (sleep). I do use meal replacement bars and RTDs occasionally while I'm at work. I'm steering clear of any other supps until I have reason to believe they will truly help me to accomplish specific goals, though I'm considering an attempt at saturating my creatine levels once I'm down to about 15% bf.
Anyhoot, I hope to meet many of you on here and learn from this great storehouse of knowledge in the coming years. I will try to be helpful where I feel capable without doing much damage.
Jeff