I'm new here and planning to get more healthy.

[Michaelm22]

Hey everyone, first of all I'm not neccesarily trying to lose weight but losing weight is still a goal, basically I'm trying to be more healthy and look better. I'm about 5'11. I weight about 155-160 pounds, give or take because I haven't used a scale in a while.

I'm open to any advice but first I'll tell you what my plans are. I'll basically ride my bike into town (everyday) which I think is about 8 miles total (I'm guessing). While in town I'll go to the gym which I have free access to but here I kind of run into problems. I basically try to work half of my muscles one day and the other half the next day and I keep repeating this. I don't know if this is the right or best way to go about this but that's what I've always done.

I'll also try to drink at least 1 gallon of water a day, I may go for 2 gallons a day if it's not too hard. I think my biggest problem is food though. I'm not too sure what foods I should be eating, all I know is it's good to eat fruits and vegetables but what else? I need protein and certain nutrients from what I understand.

I've done this before and last year I was much more healthier than I am this year. I don't like feeling this way but last year before I started working out I was even in less shape than I am now so I know I can definitly do this again. I know I have the willpower to continue doing this too because the main reason I stopped working out is because of a bad leg injury, after that injury I got too lazy and stopped everything.

School starts soon but I'll be riding my bike to school as part of my workout regime. Well I'm free to any suggestions (especially any on what food to eat and how to work out) or any changes I should make to my plans, thanks and the gym is open mon-fri and early in the morning on saturdays.

Thanks,
Michael

 

[Aceiz2fresh]

Were close to weight. and height

before running i eat a banana which really supplies me w/ a lot of energy
the water sounds good

Do treadmill/elliptical and weight training

 

[Greenhorn Gal]

I really don't think you need to lose weight, but your goals are your own...if you want to "look better", as you say is your goal, then I would concentrate on weight training more than anything. At your weight you should pick up some good muscle definition right away.

Visit the Weight Training subforum and read through some of the posts and maybe ask for a good full body workout there. Or, you can post the specific exercises you do and ask others to critique your workout. I think what's most important is to make sure you are periodically changing your workout plan, as muscles get used to a certain routine after 4-6 weeks, and changes are needed to continue to see progress.

As far as Nutrition goes, you can check out LV's "Nutrition" sticky in the Nutrition forum--there's lots of good advice there about kinds of foods to eat as well as diet manipulations to help you achieve your goals.