Questions regarding current lifestyle.

[MinnesotaGuy]

Well, I this is my post in here but I've been browsing and I've seen alot of fascinanting cases with happy endings that encouraged me to post and tell you about my troubles.

I'm a 21 year old average guy, 5 foot 8 and I'm a chocolate addict with bad eating habits, although while living with my Mom under my teen years, she would be extremely strict with chocolates. I have to say that I've had a pretty good life while living with my mom, I have been involved in different sports and started lifting weights at 15, and gained considerable muscle mass. I gotta say that I kept myself fit thanks to my mom's strict rules on chocolates. I moved out to my own aparment a few years ago.

Last year, after undergoing some events that caused me to fall into a deep depression, I started eating really bad. Some days I would skip breakfast. Other days I would eat 200g of ham with bread for breakfast. Later at night I would buy a hamburger and fries + cola and as a rule, some chocolate. Either in the form of cookies, or some other sort of chocolate product. I would typically buy 2 boxes of cookies, PER DAY. It was a ritual for me to eat chocolate after dinner. Please note that I would only have 1 or 2 meals per day, which probably lowered my metabolism. I went from 160 average lbs to 180.

Despite gaining 20 pounds and a low self-esteem, I started working as a waiter fulltime (before continuing my studies) and decided to stop eating junk. My new daily diet includes (for breakfast), 3 slices of cheese, 3 slices of ham, 2 slices of bread and 1 medium-sized croisssant with jam. I eat all of that at work. I also drink 1 liter of orange juice before breakfast (at work though) since I get really thirsty and a cup of tea (with sugar) during breakfast.

I work from 6 am to roughly 2pm-4pm depending on the day. I eat the staff food that has been prepared for the day, but my plate is 80% salad, and I don't have a problem with that since I'm not that hungry at 12:30 pm. After I get home, I go to the gym for about 2 hours where I spend 20 times of cardio, and the rest on weight training. I work out for about 3-4 days a week, but I am planning to extend my work-out days. After the work-out, I usually eat fruit, (the equivalent of two bananas) then for dinner I opt for ready-made food (one of them being pasta made out of whole grain a la bolognese) which is somewhat a small plate, or salad. Other times I just prepare one of those cheap Ramen soups that don't have anything at all, just the noodles. One thing I haven't been able to overcome in my new life, is my chocolate addiction. Each day I buy 2 snicker bars, because I just cant stand the fact of not having any chocolate for the day.

My questions:

-Does drinking 1 liter of orange (freshly pressed) juice have to do with me dramatically reducing my sugar intake from chocolates?

-Is it a bad thing for me to drink 1 liter of juice each day?

-Am I gonna start losing weight with my current lifestyle?

And perhaps one of the most important questions for me:

-How do I overcome my chocolate addiction?

 

[[Focus]1]

-Does drinking 1 liter of orange (freshly pressed) juice have to do with me dramatically reducing my sugar intake from chocolates?

Having sugar in your system is just like having sex regularly. If you don't get it often, you'll crave it. If you go without for long enough, you won't even notice that it's missing. Do this for a sufficient length of time and you will lose your appreciation of what I like to call "aggressive" tastes entirely.

-Is it a bad thing for me to drink 1 liter of juice each day?

Pretty much, yeah. Physiologically, it's not terribly different from just eating the chocolate. The juice will have more in the way of vitamins and enzymes. Fructose is also a somewhat slower uptake sugar than what you'll find in chocolate. But in terms of macronutrient balance, they're essentially the same.

-Am I gonna start losing weight with my current lifestyle?

This, for the most part, is a simple question of calories in vs. calories out. You've not provided enough information to answer it, though. Tell me exactly what you've eaten, how much, and when for the last 3 days, and I might be able to venture a guess.

And perhaps one of the most important questions for me:

-How do I overcome my chocolate addiction?

Stop substituting juice and/or eating snicker bars and clean up your diet. Just push on through for a while and you'll get over it real quick. I can't really tell you how to create motivation other than to think about why it matters, really dwell in it, and use that as fuel for the fire.

If all you want is to lose some weight, it's not even necessary to give up chocolate, simply control your portions. (Hop on Google, calculate your BMR [basal metabolic rate], go to a site like fitday.com and enter your food intake, then make whatever changes are necessary to be eating 500-1000 calories less than what you need in a day). But if you want to be optimally healthy, follow the link and eat according to those guidelines.

Also, I don't know what you're doing in the gym, but 1) Do cardio after weight training, or preferably later/earlier in the day. 2) Whatever you're doing in the weight room that's taking you 100 minutes, it's wrong. Give us a sample routine, please.

 

[MinnesotaGuy]

Thank you for the quick answer Focus.

This, for the most part, is a simple question of calories in vs. calories out. You've not provided enough information to answer it, though. Tell me exactly what you've eaten, how much, and when for the last 3 days, and I might be able to venture a guess.

I'm not really counting calories as of right now, but I definitely will start doing it with that website you provided, is just that as of right now I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the different variables. By the way, how many calories do I burn in one day of work that involve lots of walking? And how do I do such calculation myself? Here's what I ate in the past 3 days:

Wednesday (day off)
-Multi-grain cheerios with 1/2 L of semi-skimmed milk (1.5%) and an apple
-Skipped lunch
-Sliced meat with vegetables (cabbage, tomato, paprika, cucumber) red sauce and white sauce based on yoghurt. 2 snicker bars

Thursday
-3 slices of cheese, 3 slices of ham, 2 slices of bread, tomato, paprika and 1 medium-sized croisssant, 1 L of fruit juice and a cup of tea.

-2 pieces of steamed red meat (didn't finish them) with 3 small potatoes with lettuce, cabbage papricka, tomato and salad dressing. ( I didn't finish the plate)

-Greek salad with feta cheese, 2 snicker bars

Friday
-Same as thursday except I had some yoghurt

-(lunch) Bacon (barely ate any, potatoes and salad. Finished half of it.

-2 bananas

-flavoured ramen, 2 snicker bars

Stop substituting juice and/or eating snicker bars and clean up your diet. Just push on through for a while and you'll get over it real quick. I can't really tell you how to create motivation other than to think about why it matters, really dwell in it, and use that as fuel for the fire.

If all you want is to lose some weight, it's not even necessary to give up chocolate, simply control your portions. (Hop on Google, calculate your BMR [basal metabolic rate], go to a site like fitday.com and enter your food intake, then make whatever changes are necessary to be eating 500-1000 calories less than what you need in a day). But if you want to be optimally healthy, follow the link and eat according to those guidelines.

I know what you mean with motivation, despite that, in the end my addiction takes the better part of me, although I'm sure if I give my best I'll be able to deal with it but it will be painful and hard. Should I just cut out the chocolate altogehter in one shot? I was thinking of reducing the intake to 1 bar next week, and eventually nothing. I think that I'll aim to destroy my addiction, instead of co-existing with it and still lose weight.

I'll limit myself to one glass of juice per day.

Also, I don't know what you're doing in the gym, but 1) Do cardio after weight training, or preferably later/earlier in the day.

I used to do 10 mins of cardio to warm up, but went for 20 minutes now that I aim to lose weight. I don't think I would be able to do cardio after weight training, I usually end up tired and not fit for a cardio excercing. I go to the gym after work, around 3-5 pm depending on the day.

2) Whatever you're doing in the weight room that's taking you 100 minutes, it's wrong. Give us a sample routine, please.

Well, perhaps not 2 hours, but 1 hour and a half minimum, up to 2 hours. I do that because I enjoy the training. Should I train less per work-out? On work-out #1 I do cardio 20 mins, legs 20 minutes, chest + triceps 20minutes and abdominals 10 minutes plus stretching 10 minutes. Work-out #2 cardio 20, upper back + biceps 30 mins, shoulders 20 mins, lower back 10 mins and stretching 5 minutes. I can provide you with a more detailed list of my work0outs if you want, with reps etc.

The John Berandi page was an interesting read, I'll be reading more about nutrition.