GAY How to be fit -OR- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Salad

Breakfast

- Eggs
- Turkey Bacon
- Greek Yogurt
- Mixed vegetables
- Occasional fruits
- Tea (sugar and creamer sparingly)

Snacks

- Almonds
- Can of tuna
- Lunch meat slices
- Peanut Butter

Lunch

- Salmon filet (cooked or raw)
- Tuna steak (seared in olive oil)
- Lean chicken breast (cooked in a variety of ways. I'm no cook, so most of them include applying heat and some kind of spice or sauce)
- Salad (mixed greens with vinaigrette or light use of other dressing. I've found buying the "light" stuff is only a marginal difference because I use so little of it anyway)
- Water (occasionally I'll go nuts and have Crystal Light or tea)

Snack (same as above

Dinner

- Larger portion of chicken or fish with a cooked vegetable. The steam in microwave bags are about the best thing ever invented.
- Occasional beef, as lean as I can get it and grilled or seared

So, back to this. I have a few questions.

First off, fruits. I've been hearing that some fruits are bad (wtf?!?) like bananas and such. Is that bullshit or is there something to it?

And tell me more of these micro steamer bags of veggies. I don't think i've come across them yet. But I also skip right past the frozen veggies aisle as I mostly buy whatever I use fresh.
 
So, back to this. I have a few questions.

First off, fruits. I've been hearing that some fruits are bad (wtf?!?) like bananas and such. Is that bullshit or is there something to it?

And tell me more of these micro steamer bags of veggies. I don't think i've come across them yet. But I also skip right past the frozen veggies aisle as I mostly buy whatever I use fresh.
Fruits are either, depending on the meal plan you're using and your end goal. I like fruit too much to give them up so I eat them anyway.

They're pretty cool. If I had a microwave and used plastic bags I'd be all over them. It's a Ziploc bag with some holes cut in it. You pit your veg in the bag dry and microwave it. The steam released cooks the stuff while keeping it moist and delicious.
 
Fruits are either, depending on the meal plan you're using and your end goal. I like fruit too much to give them up so I eat them anyway.

They're pretty cool. If I had a microwave and used plastic bags I'd be all over them. It's a Ziploc bag with some holes cut in it. You pit your veg in the bag dry and microwave it. The steam released cooks the stuff while keeping it moist and delicious.

Hmm.

Interesting, but I wonder if investing in a flash steamer might be better. Thanks for the info.
 
Your workplace allows you to take 15 minutes breaks every hour? That is a luxury.

Most work places where you aren't chained to a desk or phone don't mind if you take 10-15 minutes out of an hour to refresh. I've been doing it for years at multiple employers.
 
Hmm.

Interesting, but I wonder if investing in a flash steamer might be better. Thanks for the info.

The ones already in the bag are STUPID convenient. Many times frozen veggies are actually healthier for you, because they can pick them at their peak and flash freeze them. Most 'fresh' veggies are picked before they are ripe. Some are even gassed to force them to ripen unnaturally.
 
Obviously inspired by Jimmy's pic thread (which I totally won, btw) I decided to create a thread about how my regular diet and exercise and hopefully open a dialogue of other fitsters about their routines. This thread will also be about making the necessary life changes to become healthy.

To start off I need to emphasize that getting fit is a change of your lifestyle. It's not dieting SOMETIMES, or exercising SOMETIMES, it's re-thinking everything you do. What you eat, what you drink, WHEN you eat and drink, where you go, who you hang out with, all of these things will likely change as part of the process. This isn't like making it a habit to pick up your socks or kicking a heroin habit, this is serios bisnis.

DIET

Your diet is the most important part of being thin/fit. You can exercise religiously but if your diet is shit you will always be fighting an uphill battle on roller skates with a stick and maybe the other guys have cannons or something. You cannot succeed without taking your diet seriously. That isn't to say that you have to give up good food entirely, but you have to moderate it with extreme prejudice. Unless you are like April or Juli, who seem to have the metabolism of a Tasmanian Devil who also happens to be a crack addict, you cannot just eat whatever you want.

To lose weight in a healthy manner your diet should largely consist of vegetables and lean proteins. Fish and chicken are my best friends. I eat one or the other for basically every meal. Red meat is fine is small doses, but it's substantially fattier and is harder for your body to break down, approach with caution. Carbs (lol, cliche) should be eaten in extreme moderation, and if you can cut them out entirely that's even better. And here's the big one: Stop drinking. I don't mean switch to shots or light beer, I mean stop drinking. If you're serious about cutting pounds it's only in your best interest to abstain from alcohol. Alcoholic drinks are just hollow pointless calories. They do nothing but bog you down and slow your progress. If you aren't willing to give up alcohol to get into shape then you probably aren't ever going to get there. It's all about sacrifice.

As far as your meal schedule goes there are various approaches. There is a lot of logic to the concept of multiple ~300 calorie meals throughout the day to keep "stoking the fire" of your metabolism but some people can't manage that do to work or other constraints. At the end of the day if your intake is lower than your output you will lose weight, how you take in those calories is going to be up to your discretion and schedule.

My standard diet is as follows, this is in simple list format to give an idea of the foods that I eat, I do not necessarily eat everything on the list at each sitting.

Breakfast

- Eggs
- Turkey Bacon
- Greek Yogurt
- Mixed vegetables
- Occasional fruits
- Tea (sugar and creamer sparingly)

Snacks

- Almonds
- Can of tuna
- Lunch meat slices
- Peanut Butter

Lunch

- Salmon filet (cooked or raw)
- Tuna steak (seared in olive oil)
- Lean chicken breast (cooked in a variety of ways. I'm no cook, so most of them include applying heat and some kind of spice or sauce)
- Salad (mixed greens with vinaigrette or light use of other dressing. I've found buying the "light" stuff is only a marginal difference because I use so little of it anyway)
- Water (occasionally I'll go nuts and have Crystal Light or tea)

Snack (same as above

Dinner

- Larger portion of chicken or fish with a cooked vegetable. The steam in microwave bags are about the best thing ever invented.
- Occasional beef, as lean as I can get it and grilled or seared

EXERCISE

My exercise regimen is fairly aggressive. I work out basically all day in some form or another between P90x, weights, push ups, sit ups, pull ups, etc.

Morning

- P90X/P90X2

This is a great program and out of all of the video/home cardio workouts I like this one the best. I tend to focus on the Plyometrics (jump training) and Cardio-X work outs but also mix in core and yoga (which is amazing for healing up sore muscles). The exercises are difficult and fast paced and you can get a very serious work out in a half hour. The work outs themselves go for up to an hour so I may preference is to skip certain sections one day and do them the next to mix things up and save time. I just recently "got" P90X2 and the "Plyocide" work out is insane. If you want to get into this I highly suggest starting with the P90X Cardio-X work out and the slowly moving into the others as you progress and get stronger. Be VERY careful when you try these and take it easy until you acclimate because you easily could injure yourself by jumping in and pushing yourself too hard.

Evening

- Weights

I have the luxury of having a fairly well-equipped (HA HA)...gym at my office so when I'm working there I take hourly breaks and go do an individual exercise. It helps to break up the day and helps keep me going. If I have time in the afternoon I will actually change into gym clothes and run a complete high-output exercise before I go home. Your weight training work out should be structured around your own goals and if you have no idea what you're doing (and be honest with yourself if you don't) it may not be a bad idea to get a personal trainer. If you have some familiarity with being in a gym but need structure or a list of exercises I highly recommend an app called "JEFit Pro", which is available on the Google Market (no idea if it's available for Iphone, nor do I care). JEFit will give you a basic full body exercise program with guides on how to properly do each exercise and also tracks your stats and progress. It's a great app and will keep you focused so you don't "gym float", which circles into next point: you are at the gym to work. Do not go to the gym to dick around, take it seriously, otherwise you're just wasting time. Leaving your phone/gaypod in the bag. If you "need" music to work out get a cheap mp3 player that only plays music. You should not be watching TV/movies while "exercising", you're just distracting yourself from the actual work. Go to the gym to work. Don't bullshit with people, don't read books, don't text, don't sit on the equipment munching on your hard earned PowerBar for the 15 minutes you put in on the ab machine, just. fucking. work. Get your work out done, take it seriously, then go home.

For home gym I highly recommend a Bowflex. They're compact, safe, easy to use, and versatile. The caveat: Don't buy a new one, they're grossly overpriced out of the box. You can get a used Bowflex on Craiglist for less than $200. I just got one a few months ago in trade for a junker laptop that I installed a hacked version of Windows XP on. They are a great way to have a home gym that will fit anywhere and will have the ability to work out your entire body.

I'm tired of typing, I'll add more later, or I won't, dunno. My plan is to add a section for body weight and ultra-cheap exercise options, I'll try to do that today.

Feel free to flame or praise me now.

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Most impressive.

However, i'm tempted to believe that since you're a leprechaun that you magically willed yourself to a tight bod. Please confirm/deny thanks.
 
...

Most impressive.

However, i'm tempted to believe that since you're a leprechaun that you magically willed yourself to a tight bod. Please confirm/deny thanks.

I don't believe in that nonsense. I'm a snake handler through and through.

The snake's venom will grant me a place among god's chosen.
 
The ones already in the bag are STUPID convenient. Many times frozen veggies are actually healthier for you, because they can pick them at their peak and flash freeze them. Most 'fresh' veggies are picked before they are ripe. Some are even gassed to force them to ripen unnaturally.

Hmm, valid point.

I should probably get over my fear that microwave ovens are a secret source of cancer.
 
Hmm.

Interesting, but I wonder if investing in a flash steamer might be better. Thanks for the info.
We have a couple bamboo steamers that work awesome, it's not as fast but they're cheap and last forever.

And really, cooking most vegetables is super fast anyways. I don't really think a special steaming device is required. Put 1/4" of water in a sauté pan and cook your veg on high with the lid on. Mixed veg (broccoli, carrots, peas, etc) take about 10 mins. I do carrots solo for 5 mins and then drop the rest in for the other 5.