Over the last 6-9 months I have noticed that I have really been putting on the pounds. And it's really stupid.

First of all, 6'2", 256 lbs as of preemployment physical Tuesday. I've noticed that my clothes don't fit right anymore, and feeling sluggish overall. And in being completely honest with myself,, I eat like shit. On top of stress from work (which will be changing in the next week, just waiting on the phone call now on when to start) and not sleeping well (5 month old little dude) its not helping.

I've grown to feel somewhat Dependant on energy drinks, which just isn't good for you no matter what the weight is. On a work day I average 2 a day, just a plethora ofbad shit and calories going in, all empty.

We haven't been eating very well here lately, some of the stress is money related, hence the reason for the new job, and can buy shit food for a lot less than good stuff to feed 4 people (have 5 people in the house, me and the wife, 2 stepsons, 10 and 12, and the baby) and some nights need a quick dinner, which is usually pretty bad overall.

I stay up later to get chores done, and take the overnight feeding for the little dude, so my sleep is cut short. Good thing is when I get to sleep its deep quick and usually restful for the short time I do sleep, 6 hours if I'm lucky.

I have been tracking steps and activity time onj my phone, usually pretty close but doubt the distance is, I'm active for between 1.5-2 hours, between 9000-11000 steps, phone says 7.16 miles today but today is at the upper end. And my new job will blow all of this out of the water.

Now, I need to eat better and drink more water. That will make a huge difference. The stress going down will be great too, as well as much more active. I need to buy better food for the family as well. Cutting out the energy drinks will be a huge help and put money in my pocket as well.

I can't drink coffee, save the occasional Starbucks flavored stuff that is just as bad as the energy drinks with the sugar and calories. What can I do for energy which without coffee or crap filled drinks?

I want to see how active I am at the new job before trying to add exercise, and want to try to drop some weight to be easier for my body to take all the changes.

I'm not a breakfast eater, never really have been, but I know its hugely important. Would a high quality protein shake be a decent breakfast and help with some push in the morning?

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, its late and little dude has a cold and I've been taking care of him all night. Please add your insight and advice and motivation, I need to lose the weight and be healthier for my family.

Congrats on the decision to change. It sounds like you need to settle down your work life, and try to straiten out a few things at home. Without these two, it may be hard to make a permanent change for the better.

I'll try to hit a few things that stuck out to me. Other that are better qualified will be along shortly. Jump on the My Fitness Pal app train. How do you stop drinking energy drinks? You... stop. I did the same thing. Just water and black coffee now. Protein shakes are a supplement to help a good diet. Not fix a bad one. If early morning is busy, scramble some eggs and refrigerate them. Then microwave a few of them for breakfast.

Breathe.
Tell your wife you lover her often.
Also ask her to help you with your bad eating habits.
Pound water all fucking day.
Hug your kids.
Do it for your kids and help teach them how to eat healthy.
Do it as a family.
Relax.
Grab an apple, piece of fruit or yogurt instead of shitty snacks
Stop buying chips and shit food.
At least walk daily.

Develop healthy habits and train your body to be healthy and learn healthy habits. It really is easy.
Set goals and reward yourself when you reach them.
Do it for your family, do not let your enemies outlive you.
The best of luck.

What you're experiencing is the blooming of your body's desire to implement Dad Strength, the untapped potential in our bodies that is preserved from teenagehood for when we have little humans to tickle and toss in the air and hug until they squeal "Ugh dad I can't breaaaaaaaaaathe". I literally was there,

 

Step 1:

Load MyFitnessPal onto your phone. Track EVERY. SINGLE. CALORIE that goes in your fat mouth. You'll be shocked how much you actually eat. 6'2", 256 isn't awful, but there's a lot of work to be done. For 2 weeks just track EVERYTHING you eat.


Step 2: Forget the "steps". Here's the issue, in order to burn fat, you have to do MORE than normal. You have to burn MORE than you consume. It's not quite as simple as "eat one calorie, burn 2, lose weight" but it's close. But if every day you do 11000 steps, you're gonna need to do 13000 to lose weight, you feel me? Tracking activity that you do every day isn't really super helpful except to know if something has changed. (am I making sense?)


Step 3: After you've got an idea of how many calories you're consuming, THEN you can think about diet. Emphasize protein, fats, then complex carbohydrates. Start rethinking the way you eat. You can eat whatever you want BUT: FOOD IS FUEL. You can have a single donut, or you can have a fist-sized chicken breast with broccoli and a cup of rice. Once you get the mental discipline of this down, the decision will be easy. Eating the right things in the right amount will give you the energy you need, and times when you need a boost, a little cup of black-as-my-ex-wife's-soul coffee never hurt anyone.


Step 4: Move Heavy Things. Best way to lose weight and feel great is to pack on some muscle. Muscle increases the number of calories you burn just standing around, and also makes you able to do cool stuff and makes you harder to kill and makes your wife wanna hop on that D.


Step 5: Stay here, man. Document your progress. Share your triumphs and failures, we've literally all been there, and to a man, everyone in the SD&F forum wants everyone else to be stronger, faster, better versions of the people they are right now.

They do make energy drinks that are low cal. I love Rockstar recovery!

And stop feeding your family trash. Good food doesn't cost that much more.

Amen to this. Good quality food doesn't cost more. What does cost more is adding some high quality food to your grocery tally without removing all the boxed shit you buy now.

Monster Ultra's are good.
RockStar Zero is another.

OP, is your wife completely on board with this? That will make things a lot easier. Paleo was the route I took, but my wife wasn't in on it at first. It was a losing battle. When she realized she needed to lose some weight too and jumped in, things went smoothly. Now we're both back to the weight we were when we got married.

Yeah good point. Don't do what I did.

 

Having a 5 month old at home does make it hard to lose weight.  Around that age the wife and I tried taking the little one in a jogging stroller and began exercising.  That didn't work well for us at all.  Too much 'minutia' to deal with.  Stroller, bug spray, sunscreen, hat, milk, ...then it got hot around here.

What works for us is the hand-off system.  She goes for a jog on one evening, I ride my bicycle the next.  

My 19yr old BIL is living with us while he goes to college here in the the States.  He is also able to fill-in as a sitter as needed in the evenings when he is at home and studying.

At 5mos, if you are still getting up to feed, change, soothe at night .. it gets better.  Soon the night time sleeping will jump to 10-12 hours and you'll be able to exercise more. Ours started sleeping through the night right around 6 mos.

Calmed everyone down, and I think the lower stress levels took an inch off our waists.

TRG

For the energy drinks, cut them all out.  If you cannot stand coffee and need caffeine, try the water drop additive stuff that comes with caffeine in it.  

You can eat healthy and clean pretty cheaply, if you do not mind eating repetitive meals.

for breakfast everyday I eat either: Bowl of oatmeal with a handful of raisins or 5-6 egg whites with hot sauce.

For lunch I usually have a can of tuna and a small spinach salad.

Dinner usually is a chicken breast, greek yogurt, and some sort of fresh vegetable (usually zuchini, spinach, cucumbers).  Cook the chicken breast plain on a grill and add some hot sauce for the meal.

I don't have much variety but I can ear cheap and relatively clean.  My wife and I are on complete opposite shifts so we eat a meal together maybe once a week at best.  

Water as appropriate.  I just cannot stand the taste of water.  I have been on threads in GD saying I barely ever drink any.  I started drinking alot with the Mio drops in it then slowly used less and less of the Mio until I didn't mind plain water.  Weird I know but it worked.  

I can't say I agree with this, I willingly pay more, but damn you can live much cheaper on shit food.  Bread and pasta? Cheapest filler shit I can buy.  Spaghetti pasta vs spaghetti squash?  It's like 3-4X as much for example.

Protein and fresh veggies are costly.

My wife likes it when I go out of town, her food bill drops quite a bit because I like to eat a lot of fresh veggies and meat.  When I'm out of town I figure my food costs at about $35/day, that includes two of three meals a week eating out and the rest shopping from a grocery store.

Brown rice and beans don't cost much of anything. Eggs were super cheap until all the chickens got salmonella, they still aren't that bad.

When I finally decided to start on a healthier lifestyle, I as almost
the same size (Height and Weight) as you are. Here are my suggestions.





1. Take it slow.


Changing
a diet, especially when it involves other peoples meals, is a big deal.
Part of why we eat what we do is because we enjoy it. Make subtle
changes to your families menu to phase out less healthy foods for
healthier foods. It will take time to transition. You are not going to
change overnight, and you won't succeed if you try to. You are heading
down a lifelong path of healthiness. No sense in rushing into it.

Likewise, your body is going to reject any exercise you start with. Go easy in the beginning and you should be fine.





2. Track your calories in and out.


Even
before making a single change to your diet, start tracking with
myfitnesspal. Get a food scale. Measure everything so you get proper
info. Most tend to underestimate just how much we eat. When I started
tracking, I dropped weight like someone cut off my leg. Turns out, I was
not only eating unhealthy food, but too much of it. Just by portioning
properly, I saw nearly immediate results. Given the right amount of
calories, the body has an amazing ability to sort the problem out. Many
here will advocate paleo. I am generally on the paleo wagon, not because
I believe it has magic powers, but because it makes it easy for me to
eat a ton of food, which I am inclined to do, and yet still manage to
stay within my target caloric range. Find a diet that works for you.  http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/





3. Exercise.


With
your diet in check, pick an activity you like to do. Few have the
willpower to stick with an task they don't enjoy. The primary means of
cutting pounds is diet. Exercise is merely a supplement to that. I enjoy
running and lifting weights, so while I wind up sore and tired, I find
the motivation easy to come by.





Random stuff:


Better general health and better food will give you the energy you are lacking. Until then, caffeine pills might be an option.


Drink more water. I carry a 32 ounce nalgene everywhere. If I am feeling really hungry, I drink a full quart of water. Next thing you know, I am not very hungry. Water is damn near a magic pill. Most people would benefit from drinking an extra glass or two a day.


Protein shakes are supplements, not food. If it is the only way to get yourself to eat in the morning, then I suppose it is better than nothing. Eat food.


Finally, don't worry about dropping weight to make it easier on your body. Sure, be careful. Listen to your body. Certainly talk to a doctor to be sure whatever plan you come up with is safe. But ultimately, you just have to get up and do it.  
 

I have pretty much cut out the rice, and yes eggs are the cheapest protein, but I'm not eating them every meal either.  I know there are cheaper options if you want to go all institutional and have similar things all the time, but I am a foodie so I try to make a variety of fun, good food, believe me, I love dessert baking/yeast bread--it sucks giving that up for the most part!

Fresh vegetables are one of the killers for me, as I try to get a decent variety of them, and I think it really makes a difference to eat them.  I know a bunch of people who just eat meat+potatoes or sandwich+chips ALL THE TIME

My morning energy drink is a mocha made at home.

almond milk vanilla unsweetened 1 cup 30 calories 1 gram carbs
walden farms calorie free chocolate sauce 0 calories
bunch of espresso 1? calorie

The best thing you could probably do for energy though is wake up drink cold water and workout it will jump start your day.

feeding 4 people decent food is going to be way cheaper than eating junk.

what's a whole chicken cost? some greens and a veggie and your whole family is fed for around $10
i get big ass 5lb pork sirloin roasts for about $10 cut it in to chops or roast the whole thing and you got food for a couple days
these are both thing you just season throw in the oven and forget about till the timer goes off.
i make smoothies at home bout $1 worth of greens another dollar of berries nuts and carrots some liquid and ice makes about 40 oz i have a couple slices of some nice meat and goat cheese as well for added protein and calcium so probably about $4 for my lunch with some expensive taste in meat and cheese.

Just start looking at what you are eating in a day and what you can replace it with that is healthier and less expensive eggs and bacon for breakfast is probably going to give you more energy and be less expensive than a couple energy drinks

This really needs to be stressed more.  It is very very easy to grab an extra 100-200 calories of intake per day for most of us by choosing the wrong foods or eating in the wrong ratio.

For instance, if you are 'only have two small sandwiches' for breakfast.  4 pieces of wheat bread, toasted, is about 250 calories.  Add a smear of mayo, then a slice of lunchmeat, or two, slice of tomato, piece of lettuce, a pickle ... seems reasonable and its 500 calories or so.

But, you get even more 'mouthfeel' and 'eat time' if you make two open face sandwiches (half as much bread).  Ditch the mayo and lunchmeat.  Use a few slices of avacado instead for the protein.   Mayo?  I know it's just eggs and oil, but instead sprinkle a salt free seasoning on the tomato.  Make a small salad of the lettuce.

Keep the pickle, or thin slice it and add it to the salad.  A homemade jar of summer cucumber pickles makes it cheap, easy and a good DIY thing to keep on hand.  Easier to control the salt levels as well.

You will have more on your plate for your eyes.  Taking a longer time to eat keeps the brain happy.  This gets the 'Thanks, I'm full." chemicals flowing and you will eat fewer calories.

TRG

Op, are you going to join a gym or buy your own weights?

Good, because here is what you're going to do. (  The crap that passes for information in this Fitness forum is mind-boggling).
1. Lift weights. Squat, deadlift, bench press, shoulder press, lat machine, then pull-ups/chin-ups. Punch those exercises up on you tube, there will be 20 different vids showing you how to do them correctly. ALL that info is out there. More built muscle= more calories burned.
2. Eat meat. Dead animal is your friend. You want to consume your lean body weight in protein every day. For you, maybe 230?  ( wow that's a lot.) Yup. While you are looking for 10 lb bags of chicken quarters, look for bulk, QUALITY protein powder. 100 grams in a shaker is easy peezy.
3. No rice, potato, pasta, bread, donuts, cookies, fruit, or sweet sugary or starchy anything.
3a. Eat vegetables. The greener the better.  Want a salad?  Stuff it with veggies. Use real dressing, not lite or fat free= full of sugar. Bacon and eggs for dinner?  Go for it. Kids will love it.
4. You just stopped eating breakfast and lunch. ( But I have to have my breakfast/ lunch!)  No. ( I'll be hungry all day!!!)  Yep. ( If I don't eat I'll wind up on the floor like a Dr Phil reject in a puddle of my own piss!) Well, let's hope not. Mankind has been walking the earth for millions of years, having not eaten for 1 or 2 or 3 days. It didn't kill them, it ain't gonna kill you. I think you'll survive until dinner. Remember, HUNGER IS FAT LEAVING THE BODY!
New job, lots of walking?  Perfect!
5. HIIT. High intensity interval training. A newly discovered modern term for sprinting your balls off. Or rowing, biking, stepmilling, any short duration activity that burns your lungs, exhausts you and makes you consider barfing. If sprinting, pick out 100yds of flat terrain/ or treadmill, walk/jog for 10 mins to warm up, stretch your legs thoroughly, Then, RUN! I mean all out- balls to the wall- lions without collars are chasing me fucking death sprint. On my treadmill, I'm up to 9mph, as fast as I feel safe without getting splattered on my basement wall.  4 minute recovery then twice more. You might want to do this on a Sat or Sun because your stomach will hate you and you'll pretty much be shot for the rest of the day. If you can do this in a fasted state, even better. 12 hours is good, 16 is better.  "Fasts and Sprints for Fast Fat Loss by Fred Duncan"  Local guy, has his shit together. Google his name, good articles.
6. Work the muscle- lift weights, feed the muscle-meat and veggies,  rest the muscle- Sleep.
7. No alcohol. Any gains you make in cardio fitness, or fat burning, or muscle building are negated by booze. Like a sloppy drunk who crashes your dinner party and knocks over the cake, you go from" Hey, this is nice" to "that was a lot of wasted effort".  My single biggest roadblock to fitness.
Just looking at some of the other comments in this thread--"Take it slow'  why get fit in 3 months when you can spend a year doing it? hell, make it 2 years. The crawl, crawl , crawl plan.
' The family menu" does not change. Mom and kids eat whatever, Dad eats veggies and lots of meat.
' Your body is going to reject any exercise you start with.'  Between this and the CCN Twinkie diet story, um, just, please stop posting here.

Lol, you think fitness only takes 3 months? It's a life long journey.

Uh .. yeah, because being shot for 'the rest of the day' is exactly the kind of energy level he needs while dealing with a 5 month old and loss of sleep.



TRG

Kaik, this is not about what I think, this is about  OP'S asking  how "to try to drop some weight."

Again , OP is not looking for a babysitter,  and he's drinking 2 energy drinks  a day. He "wants to try to drop some  weight". Can we stay on track? This is a fitness forum, not the Real Housewives of AR15.Com.

Then why did you write out a long list of what you think? And the first thing you did was bash this forum with your opinion.

Your advice is a recipe for failure.

OP needs to work on one thing at a time. Doing multiple things all at once starting out leads to burnout.

Diet is the number one thing he can do to improve his health and well being. He should focus on that.

Dude, he's way smarter than you, everything you say will be wrong and trying to make a point is pointless.  It will be considered 'crap that passes for information...'.  Unless you like kicking against the pricks, then carry on.

SCW shakes head, mumbles something caustic about the 'hunger is fat leaving the body baloney....


Good luck OP.  A lifestyle change is needed, hope you find the one that works for you.

Thanks and the insight and information, its a huge help.

Some clarifying, the pedometer on my phone is just trying to get a somewhat baseline, I have been thinking of this for a little bit. It's interesting to see how much I'm moving, and I know I need more to make a difference, be more of a catalyst than it is now.

I'm not going to wipe myself out where I can't help around the house, 3 kids and housework that I can't do, that's not fair to the wife. As little dude gets older, that may be easier to do, but now it just can't happen.

Wife is on board, somewhat. We are going to be able to do more grocery shopping and can plan better meals. I have used myfitnesspal before and liked it, just downloaded it on my phone. Tracking my food will show me everything I'm taking in, and I can make better choices from there.

Breakfast is hard for me, between the time I have and never being much of a breakfast eater, that is where a protein shake comes in. I know oatmeal is a good choice, but time is the factor here. I can try it out and see if I can do it. I don't want to wake up earlier as my sleep is short as is.

My boys love salads, and one loves veggies, the other won't eat veggies unless they are potatoes in french fry form. He also doesn't like eggs () but does like meat (taught him well) so that can be a challenge for some dinners.  I know that I can be creative and find some ways to get him to eat veggies,  but are they still going to be healthier than what he's getting now?

The family menu is going to be the hardest part, but can work with it to make it work. Chicken salad, shrimp salad, steak and veggies, grilled chicken and veggies, beans, brown rice, can all be good, nutritious meals, and make enough for lunch the next day. And portion control. And water and milk to drink. Better diet will help with better sleep and better energy, negating the need for shit filled drinks.

If you are really serious about tracking what you eat, buy a food scale. It will keep you in check.

SCW, thank you for joining this thread and contributing, ah, nothing.  At least Kaik copied an article from Womans Day magazine about diet being the number 1 thing. Welcome to 1995. Again,  OP needs to lift heavy, eat meat and do some cardio, a concept that seems to be absent from your self centered posts. But kaik, SCW, go ahead. You're really giving Zsa Zsa Gabor a run for her money. OP is looking for advice and you two failed miserably. THIS IS A FITNESS THREAD, not an I am such a bitch thread,

You must be a super buff dude that all the chicks dig, is your name Shaft?  I am surprised you haven't posted pics of your hot bod so the OP could admire it.

Glad you could let us know what you THINK again.

I agree. I love having mine. I don't have to guess what 6 oz looks like. I toss it on the scale, and good to go. Then put the food into MFP.

I think I spent $25 on one. You can get a cheaper one. I need an accurate one for applying chemical treatments.

Going to order a food scale soon, its handy for general cooking as well.

I am going to go to all water, maybe milk with meals for flavor. Cut out soda, energy drinks, and sweet tea (that's going to be hard). We are researching new recipes for meals, especially for veggies and healthy version of what we already eat. I am looking at different diets, and I know low carb is not going to happen with pasta for example. For now we are going with healthy choices and  calorie counting.

As far as energy, better eating and cutting out the crap drinks and food, will lead to sleeping better and more energy and feeling better overall, especially as the weight comes off, sounds right?

I drink unsweet tea, no sweetener at all. After a while you get used to it.

Eating better food will definitely make you feel better.  Just remember processed sugar is the devil.

There is a sound body of evidence that sugar is sugar.

TRG

I have an issue with unsweet tea, it's just not good to drink at all. I don't know how yall do it. Almost rather drink nothing at all!

Here is how I stand now, just for a baseline. I also remembered that we tossed our half working bathroom scale in our move, so we need another one of those as well.

With a shirt:


And without:


I'm not the bulkiest of guys out there, so carry most of the weight near the waist. That's the shit I want gone.

The devil!

Think of your body as a swimming pool. The deep end is the last to drain and that's your belly.

That makes perfect sense, and if it was just belly fat then fat deposits would still be around the chest and legs, not doing anything for those areas.

I drank water all day except for dinner, had some milk with a lot better dinner. I did feel laggy and dragging this afternoon, don't know if it was lunch or no caffeine, but I know that I will sleep well tonight and that feeling will go away soon.

Dinner was pork chops with sriracha and one with a little bit of mushroom. Steamed broccoli with a splash of lemon juice, from the lemon not the bottle stuff and the milk. Delicious and filling, and the kids had some with the shake n bake and mashed potatoes, still better than the crap we have had. Looking into new recipes that are easy and the kids will like but not repetitive.

+1 on the fitnesspal app.


I watched a friend go through 3,000 calories last night in 1 meal. He admires my metabolism.

You are north of 6,000 calories a day. You will be in denial until you track it. I was there. Eat what you think is healthier and type it in to the app.

Oh I don't doubt it, some days I can see even closer to 7500, and easily 1k just in energy drinks and sodas. That's just the calories, never mind the horrible shit in those things. It's crazy to think that in a quick cheap lunch you can take in a full days worth of calories, and no actual nutrition. And I am guilty of this, but now I can't have that, its just not good.

I have started using the myfitnesspal app too.

Just rereading everything here.

You are making complete sense. As far as the steps it was tracking and seeing if one particular day, for some reason Thursdays, were more steps and further distances, at least according to the Samsung Health app. I have been trying to employ more walking into my day, even if its just .1 miles more, to get more out of me.

Myfitnesspal app is on the phone and been using it religiously since Sunday, and sparingly before. I did the math yesterday on lunch and saw on average what I was consuming, and its a wonder I'm not fatter than I am. Lunch of a drive thru, 2+ energy drinks a day plus soda, and dinner from a bag or box, its a pretty big number on a good day, and that's not including any shit snacks.

As far as food goes, looking to go simple. Chicken breast, steak, pork, fish, then add veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, salads, etc and then maybe some simple rice. I do have a George Foreman grill and its awesome for simple and quick, and can use that for easy meals and still be in target.

I need to figure out breakfasts, that is the big hole in my day. Gets to 11 and if I have not eaten anything I am hungry as all hell. I wake up at 6, so 5 hours awake will do that. I asked about a protein shake, and the biggest reason is this morning, for example. I was up, dressed, and got the dog walked, but tiny guy was awake and hungry. Got him all squared away and it was time to go.a shake I can pick from the fridge and go, and still have something. I know I can't eat eggs on the way to school and work, even though I would eat all the eggs if I could. (Cue the "all the steak and eggs" scene from "Parks and Recreation" TV show). Mind you, that's not every day, but can not be planned for.

New job will be a lot more physical, going back to the shop, working on cars. That's moving heavy tires, running all over, and being outside. One of the last shops I was in I lost 40 lbs over a summer, gained it all back, but wasn't the best way. Would that so hot that I would skip meals because I didn't feel like eating, and that's just not OK. I am going to set up a lunch program, a lot of chicken salad and bchicken beans and rice, throw it in the fridge at work and eat on that. Missing meals I know does more harm than good.

I can buy cheap hot dogs, buns and friies for $8, pasta, sauce and meatballs for about the same. Package of chicken alone is about that, plus more for veggies and all. I have made it a week feeding 4 for $35, all cheap and bad shit.

O read this and can't help but feeling derp.

First off, we all eat the meat in my house. Better quality the better.

Cant work out to the point of complete exhaustion, can't leave my wife 3. Kids and the house. She works from you and watches little dude all day, my days off are my days. Not going g out and working myself dead and leaving little dude with her, and not have any time with him or the other 2 boys because I'm worked out completely.

Don't really think anyone would really condone skipping meals ast all, much less when I am not sleeping well and starting a high physical level job. Read above, food is fuel.

Cut out simple carbs, look for complex carbohydrates. What are good sources here?

I'm not an expert but here are a few things for you to read.  While I haven't become an underwear model over the last few years, I do try to pay attention to the glycemic index and eat on the lowest end of it I can.  

Here is the article that caused me to start learning about what I was stuffing in my face a few years back.  Since reading this I have really improved my blood work in all parameters, feel better, function better, etc.

What does it mean to be Fat Adapted


Here is some info on the glycemic index for you-

Glycemic Index

Lots more reading about natural sugars, carbs, the index, the limitations of all of this.

Food sugars and limitations

Not sure this has been addressed or not.

One of your posts sounded like one or more of your kids didn't like veggies so meal planning was a challenge. Nip that in the bud now. Let your kids know your house isn't a restaurant and they eat what is served. It might be tough for a few days, but they will adapt. It will meal planning, grocery getting and the kids' long term health much better.

If I misread, then disregard.

But it's still good advice for someone.

I don't post much but feel I can offer some insight. There are two trains of thought in this thread and both are correct depending on personality traits. Let me explain. Most people in this thread seem to be of the same type. Which by the way I wish I was. They look at a problem and go through the ways to fix the problem and go in order. Diet being the first. Then excirsise being the second. I'm lumping both groups together to simplify things but really there are several steps in both. Most people think I'm fat what should I do.

Part one. I drink pop which is wasted calories so I should cut that out. Then I don't eat the best food so I will try to eat better. I can change my diet but what about what the rest of the family will eat? I'll make a meal that is better for them but still they enjoy. Part two. I will try to be more active because I don't walk enough now. Every step counts right. Maybe I'll add a family walk every week. After awhile you may decide to go for a jog a couple times a week by yourself. Remember every step counts. Then after you stick to all theses thing you decide to take up running or lifting weights because you can see and feel a difference and want it to continue. That's how I see group one.

Then there is group two who I think 15ladder is. This is my personality. I'm going do do this shot now and I need all of it. This is the addictive personality. If you just start with diet and you fail you have only failed one thing. You think to yourself oh well I'll get back on track tomorrow but since I had that scoop of ice cream I've already lost so I'll eat a bag of chips and all the candy I can find laying around. This is why we are so stringent about diet because if we fall we know it's off a mountain and not a small hill therefore we strive for perfection. Then you add excirsise to the equation. It's not let's try to walk more it's  I want to run a marathon or deadlift 500lbs. That's why for me it's easier to do all of it at once. I will eat right and excirsise to my limits because that's what keeps me on tract because if I'm not doing everything to my best I've already failed myself.

Now with all that being said group one has a much easier time making this a life long trend and probably will be more successful at it in the end. But for group two baby steps just doesn't work. there is a reason this group is so strong or fast or slow and weak. It's passion. Not that group one doesn't have passion it's just not as singular in nature. Group one has passion but is more spread out and not all encompassing to one thing. Group two wants it and wants it now. Which is why I think group one is more likely to succeed but when group two is on the ball they can achieve great things in short order. This is just how I see the two camps in this thread. I'm not trying to demonize anyone just seeing both sides for their merits and faults. Also sorry for typos or grammatical errors since I typed this all from my phone.

Holy wall of text. Press the return button every once in a while.


I used to be a want it now guy. I had to force myself to set long term goals. That is how you become successful.

Fitness isn't a destination it's a journey that takes a lifetime.

Breakfast is the easiest and fastest thing in the world.

This evening take a tupperware or pyrex (2cup), put in 1/3 to 1/2 cup oats, 10-20 g of protein powder (for flavor), drop in some frozen fruit (I use berries or mango or peaches), fill the rest of the container with almond or soy milk, then put in the fridge overnight. In the morning you wake up to tasty cold oats.

You can slurp that down in minutes, then get the balance of your protein intake from a shake.

Easy-peasy.

Veggies. other than potatoes.  Corn is actually a grain.

Some folks can get away with oatmeal or brown rice.  I would try to cut that out or really limit your intake.

Sorry about the wall of text. Tried to clean it up some.