A Journey to Fit – A Five Part Series: Part 4 – Diet and Suppliments

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Please note:  There are a TON of links in this post today… please feel free to click on as many as you like, as they add information to my blog from external sources… and I do not earn a penny, nor have I been paided for these links, these are products that I actually use!)

As you have no doubt been away if you have been reading my blog over the past few months, you know that I have dropped an enormous amount of weight by incorporating a few key changes into my lifestyle… it isn’t a diet, it isn’t an exercise blitz, it is a permanent change that I have made and, with the help of my family and a trainer of mine, I have had rousing success!

The third part of my four part series on my weight-loss success today deals with the hardest part of my program for me to (person) assimilate into everyday life; that of my diet.

Diet

Photo courtesy http://mjgradziel.com/

Before I started my new fitness program, my diet pretty much matched my exercise - that they were both ”A WREAK”…   Looking back now, it would be nothing for me to digest more than 3500 calories a day, (most adults need between 2000-2400 calories a day).  This was in part because of some of the following items (i.e. identified problem areas):

• Drinking sugary sodas
• Too much caffeine, (specifically coffee)
• Eating chips, dips, and other fatty snacks
• Late night snacking
• Candy
• Fast food
• Large portions/ second helpings

When I started my fitness program, I had to address these things first before I could focus on a healthier diet, (i.e. the foods I ate)…. my behavior had to be modified before anything else would change.   Here are some of the things I enacted immediately to help curb this problem areas:

• I changed to drinking only diet soda, fruit juices, and 0 calorie flavored waters/water
• The caffeine problem goes along with this first change… I still drink coffee and diet colas that have caffeine in them, but I have also begun drinking alot of alternative beverages and when I do drink coffee, I use low-cal dairy and Splenda instead of the old regular creamer and sugar.
• Replaced fatty snacks with an awesome product, RICE CAKES… (no, not the old rice cakes made of cardboard)… I use specifically Carmel Corn Quaker Oats (R)  Quakes and other flavors of the same variety… delicious snacking with hardly any calories and NO FAT!  (No, I did not get paid to say that, I just love these things!)
• Late night snacking has ALWAYS been a problem for me… so I enacted a new rule of no snacks after 8pm… and since I need at least an hour to digest food before doing cardio, I do my cardio in the evenings to enforce this rule.
• Going right along with late-night snacking was CANDY!  I am talking about my old addiction of Fireballs… use to have at least 2-3 a night.   I was able to replace this hard addiction with two separate strategies:
  • Sugar-Free Jolly Ranchers
  • Wrigley’s 5 Gum – Flare

• This was an easy one… I just stopped… there is no way around this, you HAVE to stop eating fast food.  This DOESN’T mean you can’t eat out, (see below), but eating out “fast food” is a huge no-no.
• I have ALWAYS loved to eat, (you don’t get to 350lbs hating food), so I have enacted a new method of pre-measuring most of my meals using Ziploc (R) “Twist and Loc” storage containers… and for free form meals, (i.e. usually supper), where food is served family style, I have had to learn self-control, (the whole “use a smaller plate” does work, btw).

So, once I was able to control these “problem areas”, I was able to begin looking at my diet selections and make healthier choices.

Staple Foods for Nutrition

Below is a listing of things that I eat on a daily basis, juxtaposed against a listing of things that I “USE” to eat… hopefully you will see the difference and what is being avoided now on an ongoing basis.

Breakfast Oatmeal Raisins 0 calorie fruit drinks Skim or 1% milk	Breakfast Poptarts Sugary Cereal Sugary Soda Whole or 2% milk
Lunch Tuna Vegetables -Corn, Peas, Green Beans Salads	Lunch Sandwiches Pizza Frozen Foods Canned Pastas
Mid-Afternoon Snack Protein Energy Bar –or— Granola Bar Raw Fruit -Apples, Grapes, Strawberries	Mid-Afternoon Snack Chips Candy Bars
Supper Vegetable Stir-Fry Avoid Wheats and Pastas Lean Meats -Trimmed Chicken, Lean Beef, Fish	Supper Fast Food Pastas, Breads, Sandwiches Fatty Meats -Bacon, Processed Meats
Mid-Evening Snack Avoided if possible Rice Cakes	Mid-Evening Snack Whatever I could get my hands on

A few things of note here:

• Breakfast and Lunch are pretty set daily… yes, I eat Oatmeal EVERYDAY… and yes, I eat Tuna ALMOST EVERY DAY… (good source of protein, cheap, easy to store and prepare)… alot of people have asked me if I get sick of it… and the answer of course is YES!  However… my thinking is:  “I’ve abused my tastebuds for so long, they not only could use a rest, but I will lose the weight to prove they can handle great taste in moderation!”

• The biggest change I think that made the biggest immediate difference in weight was the change of my drinking habits:  I was able to cut a TON of calories almost immediately by simply drinking diet or 0-calorie alternatives to what I was drinking before… below are links to some of the alternatives I use:
  • Diet Snapple Lemon Tea
  • Great Value (Walmart) Sugarfree Single Drink Mixes
  • Sam’s Choice (Walmart) Diet Cola
  • Sam’s Choice (Walmart) Clear American

A Note on Eating Out:

One of the hardest times for me is when my family and I decide to eat out, (not talking about FAST FOOD HERE, I mean sitdown eat out).  Gone is my routine and daily set menu… in comes the huge menu with tons of naughty choices… I have found that a salad is almost always the best way to go, as long as you remember a few things:

• Stay away from a ton of fried or processed toppings, (i.e. Buffalo Chicken salad).
• Stay away from heavy dressings… nothing ruins the healthy benefits of a salad faster than gobbing a ton of regular ranch dressing on it.  Use vinaigrette and oil based dressings to cut the calorie intake.  (My favorite of this kind is Ken’s Steak House Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette .
• If they don’t have a low-calorie alternative where you go, ask for the dressing “on-the-side” and then lightly dip your bites… I find I only use about 25%-50% of the smaller amount of dressing you usually get, thus lowering your calorie intake by the same percentage as opposed to having the kitchen glob it on for you.

Supplements

As well as change my overall diet, I have begun taking several different supplements to enhance my overall heath, overall performance in my weight lifting and cardio, and to aid in weight loss.   Below is a list of supplements I am either currently taking or plan to take as part of an ongoing regiment.

• Vitamins – I am currently taking Equate Men’s Health Once Daily Formula
• Protein Bars – As a snack in the afternoon, I generally have a Protein Bar – usually the BALANCE Gold Chocolate Peanut Butter.
• I am currently also taking a few things to boost my metabolism.
  • Fish Oil – helps regulate cholesterol, has anti-inflammatory properties, helps high blood pressure and heart health, depression, as well as boost metabolism.
  • Green Tea Extract – helps boost energy level, increased metabolism and fat oxidation, as well as an increase in overall calorie burn.
• I am also taking two supplements for basic muscle recovery.
  • L-Glutamine – helps recovery of muscle tissue and regulates protein absorption.
  • Vitamin E – protects cells from free-radical damage and helps cells recovery/heal
• I am also taking/will take two different strictly muscle-building supplements:
  • Creatine (Body Fortress) – improves performance in high-intensity exercise, increasing energy levels, and speeding up recovery rates.
  • Protein Powder (Six Star) – provides necessary building blocks to produce amino acids that are used for building muscle tissue.

Nothing too earth-shattering here… pretty straight-forward:  less calories in, more calories burned = weight loss

It all wraps up tomorrow!  Have a great day!

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Wrathofnino Posts You Might Enjoy:

• A Journey to Fit – A Four Part Series: Part 1 – Introduction
• A Journey to Fit – A Four Part Series: Part 2 – Weight-Training
• A Journey to Fit – A Four Part Series:  Part 3 – Cardio

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Tags: caffeine, calories, creatine, diet, fast food, fish oil, fitness, green tea extract, gym, healthy, journey, L-Glutamine, nutrition, protein, supplements, tuna, weight loss, weight-lifting