Old School

Jaz & Postscript

Judgeing by the Ops opening post and mental attitude.

Telling him to blow all carbs out of his diet when he hates Veg, drinks fizzy 'pop' and doent exercise much is way too extreme, he will do it for a couple of days and be back to where he was..and feeling shit about himself again.

Ive seen it gazillions of times.
To affect long term change youve got to hit baby steps, phase it in, there is Diet and there is losing weight

Diet is a permanent state -- its better the OP has a permanent diet of healthy eating before moving onto losing weight and testing his will power.

Peace out Fat boys

So, do you think I should gradually phase out all the crap?
Like say I would drink 2 cans of coke a day, drop that to a couple a week, and things like that?

I'm trying to replace crap with good, by drinking blackcurrant and water today rather than fizzy coke.

I need to plan a healthy diet, so I can buy the stuff at the weekend and prepare for each week as it comes. When I fail to plan, I just eat crap all week.

I have tried before completely cutting out fizzy drinks, only to bounce back on to them a few days later.

You answered it yourself.

If you want a sugar fix eat some fruit (apple etc), least then you arent getting e-numbers and instead getting antioxidants etc into you

drink blackcurrent and water and have an apple
once youve gone a week without fizzies you are on the way to forming a permanent 'normal' habit.

Get the salad sandwiches into your diet-- if you have to, put a bit of low fat dressing on it to make it more palatable.

its just really simple easy stuff you can stick with.

Ok, it's time to play the "I'm a personal trainer" card again.

Typically, the reason someone would start going to the gym and then give up in the following weeks is because in their heart they want to do it, but they're just not excited or stimulated about going - which basically means you're not enjoying the exercise you're doing, therefore you need to change it.

There are so many forms of exciting exercise out there it's unreal. I spent about 18 months doing parkour three times a week, and it's sickeningly difficult, but horribly effective at burning the pounds and shed loads of fun (especially in summer). Alternatively (as already has been suggested) various martial arts will have the fat dripping off you. Personally (from experience) I can recommend good old fashion boxing and Brazilian Ju-Jitsu. Both will have you completely fucked, but again, lots and lots of fun.

Most PT's in gyms will give you a complimentary session (though if they're anything like me, they will assume the sale and try and book you in for paid sessions off the back of it, so watch out for that), but they're a good opportunity to be guided through some weights-based training that you may be unfamiliar with that you didn't know you'd enjoy.

Personally, if I was in your position (which I was once, and it was lunchtime military fitness classes that got me hooked on training again, which it what actually lead me to becoming a PT in the first place), I'd play around with various forms of physical activity to see what stimulates you, and go from there.

As for diet, that's a massive post in itself, but the advice dished out (no pun intended) here already will definitely point you in the right direction

I did try Krav Maga once a week, but I felt like I didn't really fit in, and I didn't know anybody, and everyone was ALOT more experienced and it was a small class.. so I cancelled it.

I do want to try some form of martial art. I have looked at Jui Jitsu (however you spell it) but I don't think there are any classes local to me (Near Mansfield, Notts). However there are many kung fu classes local.

My first goal is to go a week without any fizzy drinks, as of today. If I can make it past this weekend, that will be a major stepping stone. I am also looking at blending some veg, as I just can't stand it whole.

And also, as I type this, some work friends just invited me to go snowboarding once a month, so thats a plus!

see you are taking your first steps into action.
admit it you feel awseome already?

not dont be a cock and stick wtih it and pretty soon you will be DA MAN!

I think this all started around two situations:

1 - Split with my ex girlfriend, had major depressing few months, comfort eating most likely

2 - Getting with my new girlfriend, and letting go of my physique cos I felt I didn't need to try as much.

But now I am going to (was guna write "want to", but thats negative and future tense) get back in shape so I can feel proud of my body, and feel healthier, and do some cool sports like martial arts and snowboarding. Thats my mission.

I think I'm guna cancel the gym, buy some weights for home, and start running, maybe even on a school running track after hours. Then I can spend more money on my diet and sports.

Actually you know I don't disagree with your point. That's why I tempered it a little with talk of detox, juicing to break the veg mentality, rest, bit of fruit...etc, try to break the patterns and make it a bit more do-able. Although for me any sort of half measure doesn't work, if I give the compulsion any sort of encouragement, it's all over. Working too, can actually see my feet now, but not the old chap...yet.

PS

I second what jaz says.

Thing to do is hit the worst offenders first.

Sugar loaded drinks are absolutely the worst thing for weight control (and that includes "Natural" fruit drinks and sugar in tea/coffee etc) and your health generally - they massively raise your insulin making you hungry all the time, not to mention rotting your teeth and putting you at risk of diabetes.

Next on the list is anything else with high refined sugar content.

Next thing to eliminate is starchy white foods.

Tackle those and you will feel less hungry due to reduced insulin levels so a virtuous cycle kicks in. Then you can work your way to a more hard core program as jaz outlines.

As far as exercise goes, despite popular belief, weight/resistance training is actually much better for weight control than lots of cardio/running and has lots of other benefits such as increasing your bone density, lean muscle mass, ligament and join strength etc. Buy a cheap ass barbell and weights (from tescos or something) and do some dead-lifts at the very least.