Help for a newbie?

[ponygirl]

Hello ladies!

I've used weight training in the past to lose weight-I went from over 200 down to about 135 and looked pretty good (I'm 5'2") and was solid. But then I got divorced and spent a little too much time on the couch if you know what I mean. Anyhow, I've put back on about 30lbs and am starting to work out again. My goals are to tighten up and define (I still want to look feminine) and drop my fat. I checked out this site on and off for the past few days and you ladies have made some awesome progress. I just wanted to see if any one wouldn't mind sharing some tips on eating and supplements as these are my weak areas. Honestly I know nothing about supplements. Any advice would be much appreciated- Thanks so much!

[redsquirrel]

What does your diet look like now?

What foods do you not like?

When you say you started working out again, what does your training routine look like?

[ponygirl]

Thanks much for responding!
I've tried really hard to clean up my diet
Okay bear with me because I give new meaning to the word amatuer(spelling?)

Anyhow, I'm also trying to clean up my diet but a typical day looks like:

Breakfast- Oatmeal w/1cup skim milk and a piece of fruit (7 am)

snack protien pudding(9:30 am)

lunch chicken or turkey sandwich and maybe a side salad and a juice (no dressing) (11:30am)

dinner is grilled chicken or grilled petite pork chop with a vegetable (green/wax beans or carrots) and nuked red potatoes
no butter just spices (5-5:30)

for a snack I usually have a graham cracker with a minute amount of peanut butter and a cup of skim milk
or maybe a piece of fruit- banana orange or plum? (9??)

I'm single and bad about cooking for myself and am usually pretty hungry by the time I get home so if it isn't fast I won't make it- I'm not currently taking any supplements-

I've checked out a number of the other posts regarding diet and I've found a lot of people say dairy is a no-no but I LOVE cereal and I really enjoy drinking milk too. In fact I'm a carb addict (I used to have a terrible problem with soda, I could finish a 24 pack of Dr Pepper by myself in three days-guess we know where those extra pounds came from = 0 )


Sugar is also a BIG temptation for me- I'm in withdrawl now from the caffiene and sugar as I'm just trying to get back on track and the headaches can be a bummer

I love fish, shrimp, beef chicken and turkey

Not a fan of a lot of vegetables (I have to force feed myself broccoli)

As for training- please don't laugh- but I have several of Joyce Vedral's weight training videos, in fact they're the only exercise program that I've ever been able to stick with and what helped me lose the weight the last time. I don't have a gym membership and it's not in my budget to get one any time soon so I work out at home with free weights. I'm a bit uncoorordinated and it really helps me to have a video to follow along with, I usuallly alternate upper and lower with abs (depending on the tape I'm doing) and folllow each sessions with 10 to 20 minutes of cardio on my elliptical trainer

I'm lucky in the fact that I seem to build muscle easily and my legs stay tight pretty much regardless of how my weight fluctuates-my calves are actually pretty cut

My problem areas are my upper arms and my belly- I carry most of my weight there and don't curve in very much in the waist line
So that's about me in a nutshell-any suggestions are much appreciated

[Puddles]

I'll let Red comment on the diet overall. I gotta say though...Red finally convinced me to drop my skim milk and that was a big key for me...I had been stuck for a while and then saw very good results after avoiding dairy in my diet.

Since you don't want to spend a lot of time cooking for yourself, you should try cooking in bulk once a week. I usually take a few hours on a day off and prepare stuff for the week and it makes life so much easier. When I get home from work I can just nuke stuff. It's also great for eating on the run if the food is already sitting there in the fridge. The easiest way to store most foods for me is in big ziploc baggies, then at the end of the week I just toss it away, don't even have a container to wash. LOL

Some things you can do like that are chicken tenders, just take a 4 lb bag and cover them in your favorite spices (even something as simple as smothering them in mustard will work) then bake them on a cookie sheet in the oven all at once. Once they're done, put em in a zippie and you've got a lot of protein for the week. Burgers (turkey or beef) can be done on the grill and stored in a baggie. Make up a big pot of brown rice and it's ready for the week. My recent favorite for breakfast are protein pancakes, make up a huge batch of them and store them in the freezer in a baggie, in the morning nuke it and you can eat it driving to work, no mess to deal with each day.

[redMachchick]

What are protein pancakes???? Sounds pretty interesting!:D :D

[Puddles]

Originally posted by redMachchick
What are protein pancakes???? Sounds pretty interesting!:D :D

I think Sana posted a recipe in the recipe forum here but basically it's oats, protein powder, egg whites, water, splenda and you can flavor it with cinnamon, vannilla, you can add sliced almonds, if you're creative they are good. I add a little applesauce to help keep them moist. Mix it all together and cook in a non-stick pan sprayed with pam. They're more like big oatmeal cookies than pancakes and they're pretty tastey and give me what I need for breakfast every day. I'll go over to the recipe forum next and bump it up for ya. :)