Diet-Fitness-General Wellness Your Thoughts?

[DubCoffman62]

Beer is my issue. I LOVE beer, all kinds of beer. I mean its not like I get hammered every night, but I do enjoy having an excellent random craft beer with dinner or whenever I actually get to sit down and relax at night. I know some/most people would judge, saying I drink too much. Well I think drinking soda/pop/coke is fucking disgusting. I maybe eat fast food 5 times A YEAR, my wife cooks at least 5 times a week. I take my lunch to work. I don't eat junk food, however I do occasionally like some ice cream (Jeni's, yum).

But I just cannot lose the extra 10 pounds or so and its got to be because of the beer. I wish I could give up pop or potato chips or whatever other processed crap people eat to lose those 10 pounds, but I only have beer to give up, and I won't. Ill just continue to work out 5+ times a week and drink my hopped up beverages.

I love beer too. However, after getting into pretty decent shape I had started to get my love handles back. I quite the beer in early November and alcohol altogether since early December and they've pretty much gone. I've kept my diet pretty much the same but the lack of alcohol has had two effects. Number one all the extra calories from the beer and then the extra calories from the bad decisions I'd make with alcohol in my system. I'd go out and eat a spinach salad, dressing on the side with some salmon or ahi of chicken or steak on the side but then after a beer or two would say "fuck it, give me the onion ring appetizer with the ranch dipping sauce" or "fuck it, give me the cake for dessert" or I'd stop for a pint of Ben & Jerry's. It's amazing how fast that shit melts away when you stop eating that garbage.

 

[CentralMOBuck]

I love beer too. However, after getting into pretty decent shape I had started to get my love handles back. I quite the beer in early November and alcohol altogether since early December and they've pretty much gone. I've kept my diet pretty much the same but the lack of alcohol has had two effects. Number one all the extra calories from the beer and then the extra calories from the bad decisions I'd make with alcohol in my system. I'd go out and eat a spinach salad, dressing on the side with some salmon or ahi of chicken or steak on the side but then after a beer or two would say "fuck it, give me the onion ring appetizer with the ranch dipping sauce" or "fuck it, give me the cake for dessert" or I'd stop for a pint of Ben & Jerry's. It's amazing how fast that [Mark May] melts away when you stop eating that garbage.

QFTMFT! I can't recall the last time I had a beer and all the bad dieting that comes with when I drink. But going from 200 to less than 185 was really fast once I stopped drinking all together.

 

[Dee-Liem]

Girl Scout Cookie (Season).

Darn. More incentive to run then.

 

[THEWOOD]

1 maybe 2 each night during the week, and some nights I don't drink at all, how sad!

Friday/Saturday it all depends on what is going on…

My wife does 95% of the grocery shopping(since she does 100% of the cooking) and she doesn't buy junk food. She goes to Whole Foods every Monday and gets meals for the week. We always have leftovers from dinner, so that is what I take for my lunch at work.

The one thing I would like to kick is the cereal I eat when I get to my office. I wake up at 5am, get ready and am on the train by 5:35, in the office by 6:20. Usually have a cup of coffee then a bowl of cereal around 8am. Lunch 11-1130, then if anything before dinner it is an apple/banana for my train ride home. In the gym around 420pm, then home for dinner around 6pm. In bed by 9pm and do it all over again.

 

[Buckeye513]

Alcohol slows lipid and carbohydrate oxidation processes for x amount of time after consumption because metabolizing acetate takes priority. That's not a big deal in itself, but it adds up when you're drinking every night for months. If you're drinking high ABV beers, I guess in theory it would be better for you from a weight perspective to drink three on Friday and Saturday instead of six over the week.

 

[AKAK]

Alcohol slows lipid and carbohydrate oxidation processes for x amount of time after consumption because metabolizing acetate takes priority. That's not a big deal in itself, but it adds up when you're drinking every night for months. If you're drinking high ABV beers, I guess in theory it would be better for you from a weight perspective to drink three on Friday and Saturday instead of six over the week.

I don't remember asking you a god damn thing

(Diabetics take note of his post though)

 

[exhawg]

1 maybe 2 each night during the week, and some nights I don't drink at all, how sad!

Friday/Saturday it all depends on what is going on…

My wife does 95% of the grocery shopping(since she does 100% of the cooking) and she doesn't buy junk food. She goes to Whole Foods every Monday and gets meals for the week. We always have leftovers from dinner, so that is what I take for my lunch at work.

The one thing I would like to kick is the cereal I eat when I get to my office. I wake up at 5am, get ready and am on the train by 5:35, in the office by 6:20. Usually have a cup of coffee then a bowl of cereal around 8am. Lunch 11-1130, then if anything before dinner it is an apple/banana for my train ride home. In the gym around 420pm, then home for dinner around 6pm. In bed by 9pm and do it all over again.

I'd be interested to see what would happen if you could cut out/down the carbs for breakfast and lunch. I'm sure that's easier said than done with your schedule.

 

[DubCoffman62]

I'd be interested to see what would happen if you could cut out/down the carbs for breakfast and lunch. I'm sure that's easier said than done with your schedule.

I eat most of my carbs for breakfast and lunch. I get up at 130am, have coffee and a banana, get to work at 3am, have my "lunch" around 730am, usually what my lunch girl brings me is something like eggs, meat, beans with corn tortilla or menudo or caldo de res on the weekend, I'm home by noon, I workout and afterward eat raw veggies and lean meat like chicken breast or steak, no carbs unless I do a lot of cardio, then I'll have some steel cut oats with some nonfat Greek yogurt to add texture and flavor. I've been doing this for two months and it has served me well. Most importantly though has been no alcohol and no drinks with calories. Strictly water and the occasional sugar free redbull.

 

[CentralMOBuck]

The one thing I would like to kick is the cereal I eat when I get to my office.

I eat Greek yogurt and drink a protein shake for breakfast daily. Sometimes I'll mix a bit of granola in with the yogurt.

 

[AKAK]

I'd be interested to see what would happen if you could cut out/down the carbs for breakfast and lunch. I'm sure that's easier said than done with your schedule.

When I look at his post, what concerns me is that 14 hour gap between 6pm and 8am more than what he's eating.

 

[LostLassie]

I've often seen the suggestion that we avoid eating after 7PM. There was also a guy who was promoting the idea of half-day fasting. His idea was to wait until later in the day to eat, but 14 hours any time would seem to apply. He claimed it was really good for you--giving the body time to heal & cleanse between meals.

 

[Buckeye513]

When I look at his post, what concerns me is that 14 hour gap between 6pm and 8am more than what he's eating.

All the cool kids are into intermittent fasting.

 

[DubCoffman62]

I've often seen the suggestion that we avoid eating after 7PM. There was also a guy who was promoting the idea of half-day fasting. His idea was to wait until later in the day to eat, but 14 hours any time would seem to apply. He claimed it was really good for you--giving the body time to heal & cleanse between meals.

Another good way to cleanse your body is to try to only eat things that are easier on the liver and kidneys. Those are some busy organs, you gotta be good to them.

 

[AKAK]

All the cool kids are into intermittent fasting.

I don't think the rest of what he's saying is supporting that though. (and I may be reading into it). My guess, looking at it, is that he's probably having a pretty big meal (dinner) AFTER he works out... then he's having a couple beers, firing up some catbolic responses... etc.

 

[exhawg]

When I look at his post, what concerns me is that 14 hour gap between 6pm and 8am more than what he's eating.

Noted I'm not very knowledgeable concerning diet and fitness I just do what I can without having to live my life around a meal and workout plan. I don't think I'm too far off of a 14 hour gap. We eat dinner 6-7 and breakfast is 7:30-8 so if dinner is ready when I get home from work and I swim the next morning and can't eat breakfast until I get to work I'm probably right at 14 hours.

When I get up I'll have a glass of grapefruit juice at 5:45 to get something in my system before I workout. I've been successful losing weight by eating a mix of peppers, onion, mushrooms, turkey sausage, an egg and egg white most mornings for breakfast. If I swim I'll get a 6" flatbread with egg white, ham, cheese, and veggies at Subway. Lunch is either a salad with oil and vinegar or celery with natural peanut butter. Halfway between breakfast-lunch and lunch-dinner I'll have a handful of almonds to put something in my stomach. If it's a salad day I'll have some almonds at lunch since my salad only consists of lettuce and green olives. For dinner I do my best to avoid sugar and non whole grain carbs. For me portion size at dinner is the key. My wife has recently gotten into Greek yogurt so I might give that a try as an evening snack.

My goal is to lose between 50 and 60 lbs from January-April. It's pretty ambitious, but that should be most of the fat I have left. In May-July I want to hit the weights hard to see if I can add some mass before vacation in July. So far I'm down 10 lbs while focusing more on weight training than cardio. Starting next week I'm going to shift my focus to a mix between weights and cardio and then to mostly cardio for the last month.