The Health, Wellness, weight loss, and fitness thread

[gunslinger_burrito]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JrmTBj9puY[/youtube]

couldn't resist...

[gae86]

Hey guys, glad to see this thread.
I'm 29, and for most of my life I didn't pay a lot to being healthy, excercise etc. From 25 on I first started with boxe training, then running, now last year I got into crossfit. It's 1 year and half I've been exercising 4 times/week. Trying to eat healthy during week, and a little more "realxed" during weekends.
I see lot of people going nuts on paleo, or zone etc, but I still haven't started to get into nutrition in a more "scientific" way.

[gunslinger_burrito]

Hey guys, glad to see this thread.
I'm 29, and for most of my life I didn't pay a lot to being healthy, excercise etc. From 25 on I first started with boxe training, then running, now last year I got into crossfit. It's 1 year and half I've been exercising 4 times/week. Trying to eat healthy during week, and a little more "realxed" during weekends.
I see lot of people going nuts on paleo, or zone etc, but I still haven't started to get into nutrition in a more "scientific" way.

Right on!

You can actually eat pretty healthy without getting too scientific about it; that's only for when you really want specific results, or you're training at a higher level. If you're just training to get healthier in general you could easily get away with a simple diet. Just get enough protein, makes sure you get veggies every day, get some healthy fats in your diet (olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, avocado) and try not to eat much refined carbs and sugars.

[gae86]

Hey guys, glad to see this thread.
I'm 29, and for most of my life I didn't pay a lot to being healthy, excercise etc. From 25 on I first started with boxe training, then running, now last year I got into crossfit. It's 1 year and half I've been exercising 4 times/week. Trying to eat healthy during week, and a little more "realxed" during weekends.
I see lot of people going nuts on paleo, or zone etc, but I still haven't started to get into nutrition in a more "scientific" way.

Right on!

You can actually eat pretty healthy without getting too scientific about it; that's only for when you really want specific results, or you're training at a higher level. If you're just training to get healthier in general you could easily get away with a simple diet. Just get enough protein, makes sure you get veggies every day, get some healthy fats in your diet (olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, avocado) and try not to eat much refined carbs and sugars.

Yeah that's what I'm doing right now. I've cut down as much as possible refined carbs, eating more protein, seeds, nuts, olives and olive oil. As far the veggies they were already in my usual diet, so nothing different, just maybe paying more attention at how cooking them

[popvulture]

Hey guys, glad to see this thread.
I'm 29, and for most of my life I didn't pay a lot to being healthy, excercise etc. From 25 on I first started with boxe training, then running, now last year I got into crossfit. It's 1 year and half I've been exercising 4 times/week. Trying to eat healthy during week, and a little more "realxed" during weekends.
I see lot of people going nuts on paleo, or zone etc, but I still haven't started to get into nutrition in a more "scientific" way.

Right on!

You can actually eat pretty healthy without getting too scientific about it; that's only for when you really want specific results, or you're training at a higher level. If you're just training to get healthier in general you could easily get away with a simple diet. Just get enough protein, makes sure you get veggies every day, get some healthy fats in your diet (olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, avocado) and try not to eat much refined carbs and sugars.

Yeah that's what I'm doing right now. I've cut down as much as possible refined carbs, eating more protein, seeds, nuts, olives and olive oil. As far the veggies they were already in my usual diet, so nothing different, just maybe paying more attention at how cooking them

I'm super interested in getting a little more scientific with diet, myself! Any books or sites you'd recommend as a place to get started?

I started getting into fitness a few years ago when I quit drinking. That was a huge help in itself—I lost about 40 pounds really quickly as soon as I wasn't drinking at 12 pack of beer and a bottle of wine a day :/

The burst in fitness came naturally having all that new energy, and it's been really great, although I've wavered in my commitment mainly due to a lingering habit of chewing Nicorette. Finally off the stuff now—god it's nasty shit—it did a number on my overall motivation and definitely didn't help my stamina. Quitting that also meant, however, that I gained a few pounds back that I'd like to get rid of.

My main concern at the moment is really just feeling good—I'm happiest both mentally and physically when I'm at my ideal weight, which is about 185 (I'm 6'3"). At the moment I'm around 192-3, and would love to tone up a bit—I do yoga twice a week and run a couple miles probably three times, but I wouldn't say I'm at a good performance level in either activity. I eat pretty healthily but admittedly binge on bad shit a little too much intermittently. Basically I'm looking for some kind of diet/lifestyle that won't make me go insane—I tried to do the 4 hour body diet for a few days and wanted to murder everyone.

Anyway... that was all over the place, but seeing this thread got me psyched. Always into hearing what other people are doing in this dept, and what works for them.

[gunslinger_burrito]

I'm super interested in getting a little more scientific with diet, myself! Any books or sites you'd recommend as a place to get started?

I started getting into fitness a few years ago when I quit drinking. That was a huge help in itself—I lost about 40 pounds really quickly as soon as I wasn't drinking at 12 pack of beer and a bottle of wine a day :/

The burst in fitness came naturally having all that new energy, and it's been really great, although I've wavered in my commitment mainly due to a lingering habit of chewing Nicorette. Finally off the stuff now—god it's nasty shit—it did a number on my overall motivation and definitely didn't help my stamina. Quitting that also meant, however, that I gained a few pounds back that I'd like to get rid of.

My main concern at the moment is really just feeling good—I'm happiest both mentally and physically when I'm at my ideal weight, which is about 185 (I'm 6'3"). At the moment I'm around 192-3, and would love to tone up a bit—I do yoga twice a week and run a couple miles probably three times, but I wouldn't say I'm at a good performance level in either activity. I eat pretty healthily but admittedly binge on bad shit a little too much intermittently. Basically I'm looking for some kind of diet/lifestyle that won't make me go insane—I tried to do the 4 hour body diet for a few days and wanted to murder everyone.

Anyway... that was all over the place, but seeing this thread got me psyched. Always into hearing what other people are doing in this dept, and what works for them.

A lot of the more hardcore diets will make you want to murder people for the first week, if not the first two But that's because the body needs some time to adapt.

That being said, if all you're doing is yoga+running, and you want some more results, I'd highly recommend some form of resistance training, be it weights, kettlebells, or a good body weight routine. The short of it is that when you strength train (even if you're not trying to get huge) it works better to shed fat than tons of cardio, AND you get to have toned or ripped muscles, AND you won't get quite as wiped out as you will after lots of cardio, AND it's good for your joints if you do it right. I train adult gymnastics through the gymnasticbodies.com system at their master affiliate gym here in Denver, and it treats me really well. Even though I don't do much with actual weights, I've never been this muscular before (but I've always been a skinny guy...). I'd like to get into some power lifting or olympic lifting, but that would require a second gym membership, which I don't have the money for. I DO have a kettle bell and might get a second one to do two-handed work though. . .

jwar is the dude to ask around here if you want more info on weight training though. If you skim back through this thread, he's written a more than a few good posts posting routines and general advice/info.

[popvulture]

Yeah I know I need to bite the bullet and just stick with one of those diets for a couple weeks to truly experience how it'd make me feel. A friend of mine did the 4-Hour (Slow Carb?) diet for a while and said he had a clearer head, more energy, wasn't farting all the time (that's admittedly hilarious, but more importantly it's probably a sign of what the horrible stuff we ingest does to our guts). I think I just have a horrible time when it's so across the board prohibitive... no fruit, no dairy, basically just veggies and beans, haha...

I will definitely look back at Jwar's stuff, and it's cool to hear about your gymnastics! I'd love to be cut... I think after being an artsy, slightly doughy skater kid who played zero sports, then a skinny college/post-college kid who subsisted on cigarettes, pizza, beer and playing in bands, I'm enthralled by the idea of being in top physical form for once. Getting into the game in my mid 30s has been a little tough

[untilshewokeme]

When I went to the gym this morning I decided to try a new BCAA since well, I have so many to pick from at work. IT WAS THE WORST TASTING PRODUCT I HAVE EVER TRIED, and I have tried a shit ton. It was from this new brand called CrossFuel and it was "white raspberry" flavored. It was 15% raspberry flavored and 85% aspirin flavored. And they stuff was the color of neon piss (like after you take a multi-vitamin).

[Jwar]

Yea that sounds bad. I've had some bad ones before. My least favorite are the lemon flavored ones and it's weird because I love lemon. Oh and I swear I've had an orange flavored one too that made me want to barf.

My favorite is grape, strawberry or fruit punch. Really though, I want one that has no flavoring.

[untilshewokeme]

I thought I just saw someone do an unflavored one but I can't remember who. I am really not particular with the flavor as long as it taste good and doesn't taste like artificial sweetener. BPI has the best flavoring system per product than any other brand but we don't stock them in the warehouse so we rarely have them around unless they send us a new flavor to get feedback on.

[gae86]

oh btw any suggestion on BCAA? I used to take Biotech, but since I finished them I'm still without. I usually take a scoop of progenex more muscle every morning, plus a scoop of more muscle and a scoop of recovery after every workout.

[untilshewokeme]

BCAAs, to me, are pretty much all the same (except the new category that is emerging of BCAAs with Energy [added caffeine]). I think the whole ratio thing is a bunch of marketing bullshit. I really just look for a good tasting flavor and stick with it until I get sick of it.

If I had to recommend something, it would be BPI's Best BCAAs just because they other a good amount of flavor varieties that all taste amazing. Also, Scivation basically built their company on BCAAs alone so Xtend is another good option.

[Jwar]

I even think that the BCAA's with "energy" are mostly bs. LOL. There's been some around for quite awhile and I didn't feel shit from them. Now I will say this. I used to take a high dosage BCAA everyday, it was like 6000 mg and had glutamine in it which helps heal your gut. That shit actually helped me. Most BCAA's are WAY too low dosage if you get them in a powdered form. I use them only for the tiniest amount of energy, but I've gone months without and noticed no difference.

[Jwar]

I'll go further and say if you can afford to dose your own amino acids, like blend them yourself, you'll get much better results.

[gunslinger_burrito]

I try to keep my supplementation simple....but that's partially out of the size/limit of my budget.

I've been training probably 5 days a week lately, and sometimes twice a day...which I think has led to me feeling pretty burnt out. I'm not doing heavy weights or excessive cardio, but my strength has been at a pretty looooooong plateau; I'm not seeing much progress in my strength elements for gymnastics. So I'm going to try and pound a lot more food, and up my carbs significantly, to see if I can recover better/faster. So far, it seems to be helping as of the past couple-few days. I'm going to try it for a month or so and see what happens. If that doesn't work, I'll try reducing my volume. The tricky part is that I take classes, but they don't consistently hit the same elements every class each week....so I have to train on my own too, which is its OWN issue, because I don't know what we'll be working in class....