Ok, so here is my situation. In high school i was a very fit and active person. I went from weighing 235lbs to 170 my senior year. I would walk at least 2 hours a day and bike another one hour. I did very little weight lifting but was able to stay fit. One year after high school discovered I had a heart condition known has wolff parkinson white syndrome which is a heart condition in which there is an abnormal extra electrical pathway of the heart. The condition can lead to episodes of rapid heart rate (tachycardia) and for me often did. I had to stop all physical activity until i had a corrective operation to fix the problem. This was in 2007 when i was 19. Since then there has been no sign of the problem. However has one might imagine having something like this happen to a person can have negative side effects. The main one being that i have since developed panic disorder and have become a hypochondria when it come to my heart. Anytime it starts racing i think something is wrong or i'm going to have a relapse. With this background information let me inform you all of my current state. I am 25, 270lbs (the largest i have ever been) and lead a basically sedimentary life. I currently don't work and won't be going back to school till September. My days right now are wake up and watch TV for hours, eat fast food two times a day and do nothing and i am sick of it. I know i am heading towards a bad future if this continues. I have made some changes for the better in the last few months and am ready to start exercising. I smoked since 2005 regularly and have completely kicked it cold turkey in June 2012 and will never smoke again. I have reduced my alcohol intake from about 24 beers a week to none-3. And i for the past two days have had no fast food and refuse to eat it again. If i can quit smoking i think i can do that has well. So luckily my apartment has a gym facility with a bow flew and some running machines. has well has free weights and a pool which should be opening soon. I intend to use all this free time there and trying to improve myself and need some advice and knowledge has to were to begin. I went today for the first time and logged 45mins there. Twenty on a elliptical machine and the rest lifting weights. I am very weak feeling, my arms feel like there gonna fall off, a bit nauseous, and winded. Is this normal to have all those or am i that out of shape? how much should i start with? how would you recommend i change my diet (currently thinking about vegetarian) and how long before i should start feeling better or less ill when im done working out? any advice would be great and i appreciate everyone's input in advance. Thanks!
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Looking for advice and direction.
- Thread starter Vince_R
- Start date
Wow - good for you for deciding to turn your life around! You might have been paranoid about a racing heart, but given the direction you were headed, you were surely headed for heart disease and type 2 diabetes!
As you make changes try and keep in mind that you are changing your life, so where possible, take a long-term view. If vegetarian works for you, great, but don't lock yourself into it if you don't feel good once you start eating that way. It is simply one option amongst a lot of healthy options. I'd say the most important thing to keep in mind with what you eat is to focus on eating wisely with whole, natural foods. If it comes in a box or a package, has more than 5 ingredients, contains ingredients that you cannot pronounce or do not recognize as food, don't eat it!
I feel as if figuring out what works in terms of food is a longterm self-experiment and it will change over time. (Granted, as a female approaching 50 my system is a LOT different than yours!) As a really active person, I used to go with the normal, fairly high carb scheme perpetuated by nutritionists and the government, but overtime had determined that a moderately low carb diet is really better for me in terms of energy and how I feel mentally and physically. My husband who is also really active does better with more carbs for the energy. That means he adds extra beans and rice to his daily faire over what I eat. We both eat a lot of veggies.
As for exercise, it's great that you've identified options - again, be aware of what you like as you are far more likely to continue if you enjoy it. Plan to do something every day, the movement is important. If you've been sedentary then yes, you are going to feel very weak and kind of sick as you start into exercise and particularly as you do some weight training. But given your age, you will be amazed at how quickly you make gains. I bet that icky feeling will be gone within a week or 2 at the most. If you need to, slow down a little so that you can go for a longer period of time. Your body will get used to moving again.
Push yourself a little bit each day - don't be a lunatic, but don't coast either. During the winter I work out in a gym and see so many people who are just doing the minimum, they don't push themselves, there is no "umph" and some are getting steadily heavier despite showing up most days. That bit of push, combined with sensible eating really makes a difference.
Good luck!
As you make changes try and keep in mind that you are changing your life, so where possible, take a long-term view. If vegetarian works for you, great, but don't lock yourself into it if you don't feel good once you start eating that way. It is simply one option amongst a lot of healthy options. I'd say the most important thing to keep in mind with what you eat is to focus on eating wisely with whole, natural foods. If it comes in a box or a package, has more than 5 ingredients, contains ingredients that you cannot pronounce or do not recognize as food, don't eat it!
I feel as if figuring out what works in terms of food is a longterm self-experiment and it will change over time. (Granted, as a female approaching 50 my system is a LOT different than yours!) As a really active person, I used to go with the normal, fairly high carb scheme perpetuated by nutritionists and the government, but overtime had determined that a moderately low carb diet is really better for me in terms of energy and how I feel mentally and physically. My husband who is also really active does better with more carbs for the energy. That means he adds extra beans and rice to his daily faire over what I eat. We both eat a lot of veggies.
As for exercise, it's great that you've identified options - again, be aware of what you like as you are far more likely to continue if you enjoy it. Plan to do something every day, the movement is important. If you've been sedentary then yes, you are going to feel very weak and kind of sick as you start into exercise and particularly as you do some weight training. But given your age, you will be amazed at how quickly you make gains. I bet that icky feeling will be gone within a week or 2 at the most. If you need to, slow down a little so that you can go for a longer period of time. Your body will get used to moving again.
Push yourself a little bit each day - don't be a lunatic, but don't coast either. During the winter I work out in a gym and see so many people who are just doing the minimum, they don't push themselves, there is no "umph" and some are getting steadily heavier despite showing up most days. That bit of push, combined with sensible eating really makes a difference.
Good luck!