New to healthy living

[DePerc]

Hey everyone. I just found this site and I'm very impressed with how informative it is.
I'm a 21yo uni student, and I've decided it's time I started taking better care of my health, before I become a victim of my own lifestyle. So I've just quit smoking, I'm working on improving my diet and I want to start going to the gym starting next week maybe. I'm 180cm, 64kg, so obviously I'm not trying to lose weight, but rather put on muscle and increase overall fitness. I've read a lot about workout routines on this site, but there's so many different aspects to a good workout I'm finding it all a bit overwhelming. Would someone like to help me design a good beginner workout? I was thinking about just doing some cardio for the first 2 or 3 times I go, just to bring my fitness level up a bit before I stress my body too much, but I'm not sure if this is actually necessary. I've been improving my diet, but when I start going to the gym it's going to need more improvement, at least an increase in how much I eat. Any tips/advice would be much appreciated.

[Nokie173]

Hello & welcome to the site!!!

1st off… Good job for quit smoking!!! Tough one eh?
2nd… You said you have been working on your diet, what are you eating and when are you eating?
Since you are trying to bulk up… make sure you are eating enough. Make sure to have protein in every meal.
3rd… People start out with a full body workout every other day and do cardio the other days and 2 days of rest.
Example:
M-weight
T-cardio
W-Weight
Th-OFF/Rest
F – Cardio
Sat- Weight
Sun – OFF/Rest

By doing this… It gives you both weight and cardio workout and give your body some time to rest.
Some people like to do split workout too… But for a start out, I think full body wortkout is good for now.

[DePerc]

As far as diet goes, the major change I've made has been to stop relying on junk food. I've always been an "eat what they like and don't put on weight" kind of person, so I've never had a second thought about just grabbing something convenient instead of something healthy. I've struggled to eat breakfast at times, I just don't feel like eating until about 10am, but I just need to get into the routine I guess. Here's a sample of the types of things I eat (not all as single meals):

Breakfast
Cereal and milk (muesli, bran)
Coffee
Juice
Eggs
Bacon
Toast

Lunch
Salad (chicken/beef/ham/fish)
Sushi

Dinner
Spaghetti bolognese
Chicken rogan josh with rice
Lamb stir-fry

I try not to snack in between meals, which is more to do with budgetary concerns than health concerns. I realise a lot of places in my diet where I could make easy changes to make it healthier, such as using whole grain breads and rice, but I still need to learn about how to best manage what I want to eat in an efficient way. Little more reading to do.
I had a question about weight training: how do I determine what a good starting weight is for machines or free weights? I also had a medical concern. I have non-rheumatoid autoimmune arthritis in several joints, my wrist is giving me the most strife atm, and I wanted to know if there's anything in particular I should pay attention to, so as to not aggravate it further.

[Nokie173]

Here is an example for diet... Not all at once tho.. options you can have...

Breakfast: Eggs, oatmeals or wheat toast, almond butter, nut butter and eggs/ lean meat
Snack: Fruit, low fat cheese, plain yogurt, nuts (almond, cashew, walnuts, etc…)
Lunch: Fruit, salad with lean protein, wheat sandwich or grilled fish/protein and steam veggies
Snack: String cheese, deli meat (turkey), nuts, grilled chicken breast, veggies
Dinner: Grilled/steam lean meat/fish, beans, veggies, salad or steam veggies, good fat like (nuts of low fat cheese, avocados)

Here are some of the things I like to get when I make a shopping list:
Carbs: Brown rice, oat meal, wheat bread, high fiber cereal, wheat pasta…etc…
Veggie: Asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, lettuce, sweet potatoes, spinach, zucchini…etc…
Dairy/Eggs: Egg whites, eggs, low fat cheese, low fat cottage cheese, plain yogurt, skimmed milk.
Fish & Meat & pultry: Tilapia, salmon, Catfish, snapper, Tuna (2-3 per week max), Chicken breast, lean ground beef, soy meat, turkey breast, sirloin.
Fruits: Apples, bananas, blueberries, raspberries, grapefruits, kiwi, oranges, pears, peaches, pomegranate, strawberries, tomatoes
Good Fats: Avocados, olive, olive oil, fish oil, nuts (Almonds, Brails, Cashews, Chestnuts, Coconuts, Hazelnuts) flaxseed, flaxseed oil, peanut oil
*Of course.. I may add more of take out some.. it really depend on my meal plan that week.

As for weights… I agree with Lesplease. It helps a lot when it comes to proper forms. If you’re not comfortable, you can use machine and use lighter weights for free weights and try to workout what you can and slowly increase your weights when you’re comfortable. My joints hurts from running. I like to use this supplement call “Triple Flex” But of course… It’s only an aid to help… But make sure you don’t over due and injure yourself. Take slow and easy.

TripleFlex:
http://www.tripleflex.com/