weightlifting, gym rats, bodybuilders,

[Jim]

Okay, cool.

Well see, I wouldn't mind building my body up as well. What kind of routine would you advise?

One of my biggest problems is that before I go to bed, I always watch a DVD or some TV and end up eating shit like crisps, cheese, sandwich, chocolate and such.

First, I obviously need to cut that out.

I'll try to drink more water, but I do that anyway so that isn't too bad.

While I don't think I can quit smoking I'm going to cut down; I'm going to try smoking 5 a day during the week, and between 10-20 if I go out. Which, for a smoker isn't that much. I mean it's not healthy but....

Do you advise early morning runs then? That's what I want to try and aim for during the summer, to get up about 6 when I can, go running along the beach, and then come home and shower and such...And then go to the gym in the evening. Maybe about four five times a week? Monday - Thursday and possibly Sundays.

How long would you suggest staying down the gym to begin with? (With a focused routine)

You have to understand....I've never worked out or anything of the sort, so I really am clueless.

As far as things I enjoy go, I'm going to play even more football. I played for my work team yesterday, and my level of fitness actually suprised me. While there were times when I thought I was going to be sick, my heart rate seemed to return to normal pretty quickly.

Thanks for the help, by the way.

[Eazy E]

I've also stopped drinking soft drinks which is like a crackhead giving up crack.

Oh man,  I used to down about 6 or 7 Coke's a day... it is fucking hard to stop.  I never have soft drinks anymore though.  My sister is HOOKED on Diet Coke and I can tell its really fucking with her, I think soft drinks have a bigger impact on your health (both mentally and physically) than you'd think.

[Timothy]

Giving up Soft drinks was a mother fucker.

But  after a about a month it isn't really that bad.

[Jim]

Well, personally, I found crack a lot harder to give up.

But soft drinks were a bitch to cut down on too.

[SLCPUNK]

Working out without proper diet is a waste of time.

I get sick easy with sinus infections, so I am often taking a week off from the gym. However I stay on my diet no matter what.

Sugar is hard as shit to give up. Hard! Ultimately though you feel so much better once all the crap is deleted from your diet.

[D]

See that's cool if you play football, that will motivate you even more to lift weights and do more jogging. cause once u are playing in something competitive, u want to do the best u can, so the stronger and better shape u are in, the better u will be able to perform, so playing a competitive sport always helps with overall fitness.

I had gained about 12 pounds and went to play ball and some shitty dudes were scoring on me and it pissed me off, so I lost that in about 2 weeks just  out of being competitive.

Hell yeah if u get up that early, jog, I am up all night and sleep into the evening so i do all my exercising in the evening and at night, I will ride my bike at 2am, so anytime u have spare time and feel like it, jog,bike ride,play football.

As far as lifting weights go, if you dont know what the exercises are, it is kind of tough to explain. Best thing to do is go to a bookstore and buy a muscle and fitness magazine or anything like that and follow a workout they have in there, once u are familiar with the different exercises it will be a lot easier to explain, I will PM u later when I get the time and give u a workout and explain the lifts the best I can.

If you give up that food before u go to bed *which is hard as shit* and just play more football, jog inthe mornings and start lifting weights when u can   u should see good results.

God damn no caffeine is making me feel weird as shit, I feel all disoriented, tired and just weird

how long till that goes away?

[Timothy]

God damn no caffeine is making me feel weird as shit, I feel all disoriented, tired and just weird

how long till that goes away?

How long has it been since you quite ?

it lasted  about a month for fot me.

[D]

today is my 3rd day

how exactly did u feel?

Im actually a little worried cause I havent ever felt like this before, it almost makes me feel schizophrenic or something. seriously no joke, I just feel disoriented and shit.

Did u feel like that?

[Timothy]

Yeah I felt disoriented and  tired.

The Tiredness is  from your body not getting the caffeine that it is used to  getting .

Being disorientedis more then likey cause your body isn't getting the amount of sugar it's used to getting ,which is causing your suger to drop .be carefull with that caus if it drops to low you can pass out .


But after the first week it all starts to get better then by a month you really want feel that way.

[Eazy E]

D did you just quit cold turkey?  How much did you usually drink during a day?

What I did was take a week where you just have one soft drink per day, then the following week cut it off completely.  You'll feel all shitty for the rest of that week, but after that it should be almost back to normal.

I would agree that it takes about a month or two to get rid of any cravings.  Stick with it though, it will feel really good once you're not drinking that shit anymore.

[SLCPUNK]

I get headaches when I quit drinking coffee. When I have quit I felt tons more energy and better overall.

I am down to 1-2 cups in the morning. If and when I do quit again, I'd taper it off. The withdrawl should last no more than a week. Tops.

[D]

Shit guys I was drinking 5 a day at least plus lots of sugary cereals.

yeah Eazy i quit cold turkey, My mom told me that I should cut down and gradually stop. like go from 5 to 3 then down to 2 and then 1, but I have little control, If I drink one Ill drink more, so the only way is to quit cold turkey.

Im glad feeling weird and disoriented and tired are just side effects, I am a hypochondriac and was getting concerned!

I've already lost 4 pounds in 3 days since I gave that shit up, I just want the side effects to seize, but Im thru with it. I can tough it out.

Yeah Timothy I felt a little dizzy earlier but I drunk a bunch of water and a little orange juice*which has sugar but i feel is much better than a coke*

Im not gonna cut sugar completely, Ive never been a big candy eater or ice cream eater though, so really Coke was my biggest sugar product, cause I dont eat a lot of sugar outside of that.

going to the movies and not drinking coke with nachos or popcorn is gonna be my biggest test

nothing like some popcorn and a large coke at the movies or some nachos, but I've realized that the food taste good on its own and that coke doesnt enhance the taste which has helped me a lot to quit.

I quit because I have been stuck on the same weight for over a year and a half, Im tryin my best to lose about 10-15 more pounds but Ive had no success.

I evaluated my diet and what I was doing, changed it now for the good and hopefully Ill hit my goals.

[Jim]

Well, unless you're going to make a living from it, I don't really see the point in completly giving up sugar, soft drinks or such.

I'm just going to try and cut down.

My biggest test will be not eating chocolate or crisps when I watch a movie before I go to bed.

And D, come on, let's be serious here....

....Screw going to the movies and not having a coke!! If ever there is a time to need a coke, it's at the cinema. That said...

....It's because of how much coke I drank that I couldn't concentrate on the Anakin / Obi-Wan fight, because of how much I needed the toilet....................

[Jim]

Okay, right.

Over the last couple of weeks I've sorted my diet out; I now drink a lot of water, eat more fruit and...etc., as well as eating hardly any chocolate, crisps and such...

...It's a start.

I'm going to start going for regular runs Monday comming up. But, before I start working out properly (I've decided, I want to work out as much as I can...No point doing it if you're only going to do it half assed?) I want to start doing just general work out routines...

...Now, I have started doing push-ups and sit-ups, but what else should I do, and how useful is it?

Answers on a stamped adressed...Urm, post.

Actually, forget the stamp. Just reply.

[D]

push ups and sit ups are very beneficial.

I had a friend tell me once that If i just did 20 pushups a night before I went to bed that I would be able to tell improvement and he was right.

I allow myself a cheat day a week. one day out of the week I can stray from my diet and eat late while watching movies and all that which is cool cause it makes the diet less stressful and less of a pain in the ass.

Do squats also, just squat down and then back up and do a bunch of thoughs and they will strengthen your legs a whole lot just doing that.

If u can stand it do lunges. u extend your right leg out and drop down on your left knee and then stand up, then extend your left leg out, drop down on your right knee and stand back up, do about 10 with each leg.

just little stuff like that will get u started.

but hit the gym when u can and do weights.

they should have workouts for each body part posted in the gym somewhere, do about 3 lifts and 9-10 sets for each body part.

do two body parts a day and u can do the whole body in 3 days.

i do Chest and Triceps one day
Biceps and back the next day
Legs and shoulders the third day and every body part is hit.

[Jim]

Brilliant man, thanks a lot for the help.

Ideally, I'd like to go down the gym about four or five times a week, and hit the weights properly...

...So how would I spread that out? Have three days where I do everything, like you said, and then a couple of days where I just mix it up, changing it every week? Or would not not be very useful?

Also, how long do you think I should spend down the gym, when I'm just starting off?

I'm actually taking this seriously, I'm planning on giving up smoking completly in the next few weeks......

[D]

If U wanna go to the gym more often u can always just do one body part a day, for instance

monday chest
tuesday legs
wednesday biceps
thursday shoulders
friday triceps
saturday back

or u can split some days

monday chest
tuesday legs
wednesday biceps and triceps
thursday shoulders and back


U can play around with it and see what feels comfortable

or u can do *put any two body parts together that u want, this is just an example*

monday chest and triceps  *triceps are used while doing chest so u already are workin them with chest which is why I go ahead and do those together
tuesday biceps and back Biceps are used during back so just as above its good to do them together, u dont have too though but it really hits that area very well.
wednesday legs and shoulders

then u could go on friday and do a total body workout where u do one exercise for every body part. take saturday and sunday off and start back monday

or if u like to go out on the weekends and dont wanna hit the gym on friday, do it thursday. your body parts only need 48 hours of rest before u can work them again so it would be ok to do that on thursday.

starting off your muscles are gonna fatigue pretty fast. id do for the first week or two maybe 6-8 sets per body part and after a few weeks go up to 9-12 sets per body part.

[Eazy E]

The first 1 or 2 times you use weights you HAVE to make sure they aren't too heavy.  I've had some people come with me to the gym before who say "I don't go that often", which basically means "I never go".  Then they try to "prove themselves" by lifting a heavy weight to start, and they'll be able to do it.... but then you won't see them back in the gym for a few weeks.  The next day they probably can't even straighten their arms.  Even if you're sure you CAN do more the first time you go, don't.  Also make sure you do a lot of stretching.


How often do you guys eat?  I've heard that if you eat small meals more frequently its supposed to keep your metabolism going, but if I do this I could easily end up eating 4 or 5 times a day.  Wouldn't that be worse?

I need to add some variety to my diet too... I can't cook anything.  What kind of stuff do you guys make?  I could go for some suggestions.

[D]

they have some great healthy choice dinners with high protein and low fat in the frozen foods sections that u can microwave.


If u eat 4 or 5 small meals, it keeps your metabolism going

U dont eat high fat high calorie food for 4 or 5 meals but for instance

breakfast oatmeal,eggs, a couple pieces of toast

a couple hours later maybe an apple or a piece of fruit

lunch maybe some baked chicken and corn

a couple hours later maybe another piece of fruit or some kind of vegetable

then eat dinner

and eat a few cups of natural popcorn or some fruit for a night snack.


Totally agree about not lifting too much weight

number 1 rule is "Be Humble"

Dont try to show off or do more than u can.

fuck everyone else, dont let people pressure u into doin more than u are ready to do.

U dont want an injury or to totally blow your muscles out at first.

[Eazy E]

they have some great healthy choice dinners with high protein and low fat in the frozen foods sections that u can microwave.


If u eat 4 or 5 small meals, it keeps your metabolism going

U dont eat high fat high calorie food for 4 or 5 meals but for instance

breakfast oatmeal,eggs, a couple pieces of toast

a couple hours later maybe an apple or a piece of fruit

lunch maybe some baked chicken and corn

a couple hours later maybe another piece of fruit or some kind of vegetable

then eat dinner

and eat a few cups of natural popcorn or some fruit for a night snack.

Do you mostly eat microwave dinners and easy to make stuff?  It feels like that's all I do... I'm trying to learn how to do some actual cooking.  I figure learning to cook is a skill that won't ever go to waste, and microwave dinners always feel like a cop-out to me.

LOL, and D you basically just named off what I'm eating each day... eggs/toast/cereal for breakfast, chicken and corn, and then maybe some pasta and a salad for dinner (with fruit spread out through the day).  I want to learn how to make good stir frys n shit.

How about protein shakes and stuff?  Do you drink that?  I remember having the shaker bottle and Whey protein back a few years back.