In need of serious help... ready to get started

[bball4ever]

I've been letting my weight creep up all summer and when i stepped on the scale this morning and it read 140 i could barely believe it. I'm 5'6" and i've never weighed this much. You can definitely tell by the way my body looks. I really need to be down at 120 and i'm ready to get started on this road. Unfortunately, I've let my eating habits slip a LOT this summer (fast food, ice cream, snacks) and it's getting hard to cut all of this out. Also, i need to tone a lot more. So here's the deal... I play over an hour of tennis everyday and with this will be some sprints/footwork. I plan on starting to do weights 2 to 3 times a week also and get in more exercise if i have time. I don't feel like i'm ready to cut out carbs completely (i can't find any breakfast foods that don't have many carbs that i like/have time to make before school). I was thinking it could help just by cutting out any carbs after 3 and of course before that i'd still try to eat a salad for lunch. And try to keep out the snacks. Honestly, i need every peice of advice i can get... weights, food, exercise, etc.
Thanks for any help!

 

[abear]

truth be told, there's really no reason to cut carbs completely. the atkins deal is based on "all carbs are bad". thats a joke

the first thing to do like you mentioned is to reduce the excess junk food. no need to cut this out completely either. we all have lives. if we make a diet we soon start regretting, we tend not to follow it for too long and start to dread it. start cutting it down. i cheat myself once or twice a week. its fine.

basic advice is as follows:

EAT!!!! dont skip meals. dont cut calories too drastic levels. this throws your metabolism out of whack and when this happens, all i can say is

heres a great food list

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/stella9.htm

hit the weights which you mentioned. most dont realize how important this is when trying to lose weight. helps to maintain strenght and lean muscle mass. we want to lose bodyfat, not muscle.

cardio 3X a week is plenty. get moving, do something you enjoy, have fun. if you dread it or dont look forward to it, well its this again.


hope some of this helps out some kind of way