OK, I'm a Mom of 4, I work 40+ hours a week and spend nights cooking dinner for family and weekends cleaning house and doing laundy. In neglecting myself over the years I have managed to pack on some pounds and it's time to take them off.
I am 37 and in good health (other than the weight). I just quit smoking after 21 years and now it's time to some of the damage.
I have drastically cut back as far as what I eat. Lately for breakfast I have an egg and banana - Lunch is a salad with low-fat dressing and a low fat granola bar - Dinner is low fat cottage cheese, salad and chicken leg. I ride a stationary bike for 30 minutes in the evenings. I just started lifing weights about 3 days ago but have no idea what I am doing. teenage son showed me a few things as I want to work on triceps, and I also do situps for abs.
Can anyone help me plan this out?? Please?? I can really only work out in the evenings, possibly I could get up a couple of hours earlier in the mornings if that really helps.
Any ideas on diet would be appreciated too.
Thank you!
HELP ME!!! :-)
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cassiegose
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First of all.... Congrats on quitting smoking and good job getting motivated to make other healthy lifestyle changes. This is the first and sometimes the hardest step!
For meals... I don't think you're eating enough. Sometimes when you're starting out its more importantly to eat healthy choices than to cut way back on calories. This is because your body will adjust to your low caloric intake and will go into starvation mode shutting down your metabolism. You want you metabolism to go strong all day long. To make this happen its good to eat every 2-3 hours. Meals should be a carb protein combo with fruit before noon and vegges/protein in the afternoon meals. Sooo... based on what your current diet looks like we could change it to something like this...
Meal 1: 1 egg, 4 eggwhites, banana, and either whole wheat toast, or oatmeal, or grapenuts, or bran flakes
Meal 2: protein and fruit
Meal 3: large salad with protein and veggies
Meal 4: protein and veggies
Meal 5: salad, low fat cottage cheese (or low fat cheese) and chicken breast (breast are healthier than legs)
Meal 6: protein and veggies (if you have time before bed)
For your workouts... You're right about lifting weights! Thats one of the best things you can do for fat loss. You'll want to do this 3 days a week but don't just focus on your problem areas. By only working triceps and abs youre trying to spot reduce or take fat away from certain areas. This isn't possible. You must lose fat all over in order to get the fat off of your triceps and abs. You can get in a great weight workout just using body weight if necessary. Moves like lunges, bench dips, squats, calf raises, pushups, and pullups are all great and only require you to use your body weight. If you've never lifted before I would recommend going to your local gym and having a trainer get you started for the first week. This will give you some ideas for lifts you could be doing and will make sure that you know how to do them with proper form. Not using proper form can lead to injury.
For cardio.. the stationary bike is good. Try doing intervals on that a couple of nights a week where you pick up your pace for 30-60 seconds then slow it down for 30-60 seconds. This is great for burning fat! If you get tired of that bike you could also try other fat burning exercises such as running stairs, sprints, jumping rope, box hops, jumping jacks, ect. These are all high intensity cardio. These should be done two days a week on the days youre not lifting weights for about 20-30 minutes.
So.. in conclusion... three big changes that will help immensly:
Diet: eat 2-3 hours, veggies afternoon fruit before, protein with every meal
Weights: 3 days a week focusing on whole body not just problem areas
Cardio: 2 high intensity workouts a week either through bike intervals or other exercises mentioned. You can also do a third day of liesurly cardio if you wish.
Hope this helps! Ask more questions if necessary!
For meals... I don't think you're eating enough. Sometimes when you're starting out its more importantly to eat healthy choices than to cut way back on calories. This is because your body will adjust to your low caloric intake and will go into starvation mode shutting down your metabolism. You want you metabolism to go strong all day long. To make this happen its good to eat every 2-3 hours. Meals should be a carb protein combo with fruit before noon and vegges/protein in the afternoon meals. Sooo... based on what your current diet looks like we could change it to something like this...
Meal 1: 1 egg, 4 eggwhites, banana, and either whole wheat toast, or oatmeal, or grapenuts, or bran flakes
Meal 2: protein and fruit
Meal 3: large salad with protein and veggies
Meal 4: protein and veggies
Meal 5: salad, low fat cottage cheese (or low fat cheese) and chicken breast (breast are healthier than legs)
Meal 6: protein and veggies (if you have time before bed)
For your workouts... You're right about lifting weights! Thats one of the best things you can do for fat loss. You'll want to do this 3 days a week but don't just focus on your problem areas. By only working triceps and abs youre trying to spot reduce or take fat away from certain areas. This isn't possible. You must lose fat all over in order to get the fat off of your triceps and abs. You can get in a great weight workout just using body weight if necessary. Moves like lunges, bench dips, squats, calf raises, pushups, and pullups are all great and only require you to use your body weight. If you've never lifted before I would recommend going to your local gym and having a trainer get you started for the first week. This will give you some ideas for lifts you could be doing and will make sure that you know how to do them with proper form. Not using proper form can lead to injury.
For cardio.. the stationary bike is good. Try doing intervals on that a couple of nights a week where you pick up your pace for 30-60 seconds then slow it down for 30-60 seconds. This is great for burning fat! If you get tired of that bike you could also try other fat burning exercises such as running stairs, sprints, jumping rope, box hops, jumping jacks, ect. These are all high intensity cardio. These should be done two days a week on the days youre not lifting weights for about 20-30 minutes.
So.. in conclusion... three big changes that will help immensly:
Diet: eat 2-3 hours, veggies afternoon fruit before, protein with every meal
Weights: 3 days a week focusing on whole body not just problem areas
Cardio: 2 high intensity workouts a week either through bike intervals or other exercises mentioned. You can also do a third day of liesurly cardio if you wish.
Hope this helps! Ask more questions if necessary!
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cassiegose
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Christopheel
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cassiegose
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Here's a full body weight lifting routine that should take you about 30 minutes or less. And all you need is basic equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGYVctt5rUM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGYVctt5rUM