New diet. :D

[blackcasket]

Sooooo, I had dinner with my step-dad tonight. Seriously, he's the coolest step-dad ever. So anyways, we got together to talk about me starting to eat healthier, and we worked out what kind of exercises I should be doing to get the kinds of results I want. After our talk, it all seems like it's so possible. When I used to think about this kind

Comments

[dna_error]

The only reason you should have a protein shake in the morning is because your body's been fasting overnight, so you want to get nutrients in there pronto. So have some whey protein with WATER (having it with milk will slow down absorption due to the fat in milk). However, since whey is absorbed so fast, you will need nutrients again to keep your body in a positive nitrogen balance (negative = catabolism = muscle loss). So follow it up about a half hour later with a solid meal, like oatmeal and chicken, or something. Other than that, the only time you should be having protein shakes is before and after workouts. At all other times, eat concrete meals, since they are absorbed slowly and provide fuel for your body over a long period of time.

Oatmeal is a must, it's one of the slowest absorbing forms of carbohydrates, very caloric dense (you don't need a lot to get a bunch of calories), and has a lot of fiber (5g per 1/2 cup serving).

Cottage cheese is good too, if you can stand it. It has a good amount of protein and fat, it's a great meal right before bed time.

Before you go to sleep, I suggest you load up on a high protein, high fat, low carb meal. The protein will help keep you in a positive nitrogen balance through the night. Try and stick with slow absorbing proteins since you'll probably be sleeping for 8ish hours. Beef and cottage cheese have slow proteins. The fat will slow down absorption. Make sure it's a good form of fat. I recommend either cottage cheese, or flax oil before night. You can get a month's supply of flax oil for like $7 from http://www.bodybuilding.com. That's where I get mine from. Flax oil is very good for you, it has the Omega-3, Omega-6, and Omega-9 fatty acids. If you are petrified of shopping online, then just buy olive oil or canola oil. They're pretty good for you, not as great as the Omega's but still a benefit.

Let yourself enjoy a cheat meal every once in a while so you don't go crazy. I'm bulking right now so I cheat when I feel like it, even though I usually stick to healthy food instead just to make sure I'm getting all my nutrients. Then if I'm still hungry, I'll have some yummy in my tummy foodage.

Make sure you're getting 7-8 hours of sleep everynight. This is when your body releases the most growth hormone and testosterone. Plain and simple, if you're not getting enough rest, your results will be highly reduced.

[dna_error]

Hmm gonna add that milk slows down absorption due to the fat in it (if it's not skim) AND because the protein in milk is casein, which is a slower absorbing protein.

Also...hmm what was I gonna say...oh yeah, if you decide to count calories (and you should) and you don't bulk and either stay at maintainence/deficit calories, don't count fiber towards your calories. Fiber is not used for energy, and insoluble fibers just pass through your body. Here's a tip on counting calories. Protein and carbohydrates = 4 calories per gram, fat = 9 calories per gram. So let's take a slice of whole wheat bread. 4g protein, 20g carbohydrates (2g from fiber), 2g fat. This is what I think it is, I may be off by 1 or 2 on some of them OH NOS!!!! So, since you don't count fiber towards total calories, we'll have 18g of carbs to count as calories. Therefore, to attain our calories...(4 * 4) + (18 * 4) + (2 * 9) = 106 calories per slice.

Actually I sort of lied and don't feel like rewriting. You can count fiber towards calories, you can also not count it. But make sure you're consistent, in that if you do count them, always count them. If you don't, never count them. That way your caloric needs and intake are consistent as well.

How I envy all the good information you're starting out with. How I wish I knew all this when I started rather than accumulating it over like 3 years!

[blackcasket]

That's a lot of info to take in. Chicken in my oatmeal? Sweet.

Most dairy I'm gonna stay away from (except yogurt), so you won't see milk in my shakes. And yeah, olive oil was something I was going to start getting, but flax oil is better? Do you just drink it? Or do you use it to sautee the chicken and stuff?

"Before you go to sleep, I suggest you load up on a high protein, high fat, low carb meal." Like what? I've never really paid attention to that stuff before, so I'm just starting with a basic assortment of what I should eat and when, and then gradually I'll include other foods too, as I learn what can be substituted for what.

[dna_error]

Flax oil...I'm not sure if it can be used for cooking, think I remember reading that it can't. I'd stick on the safe side and just drink it. You use a tablespoon at a time, that's a serving. Some people like the taste of it, I think it's fucking nasty I'd rather eat out a 50 year old vagina that's never been shaved, has a yeast infection and gonorrhea.

High protein high fat low carb...here's some stuff you can have before bed:
-Tablespoon of flax oil + meat/fish (chicken, beef, turkey, tuna, salmon)
-Cottage cheese
-2 or 3 tablespoons of flax oil + a protein shake
-Casein protein shakes (they make shakes that don't contain whey but instead casein which takes a much longer time to digest, great for nighttime)

[dna_error]

By the way, what exactly are your goals, short term and long term? Specifics plz, none of this little stronger bullshit.

[blackcasket]

Eating healthy in itself is a goal, because I think it will be good for me in all other aspects of my life. As far as working out goals, I'm looking to lose my flab and have more defined muscles. I don't really want to put on a lot of size, though I know a little growth will be inevitable, because as it is, I don't have large enough muscles to make them defined. So, mainly I'm looking to get cut, and build endurance. I want to be able to run two miles in fifteen minutes without feeling like I'm going to die. I want to be able to pump out 50 push-ups in less than a minute and still be able to do more. I also want to look good doing it.

Long-long term...I want to be working out 2-3 times a week, eating good, making people who let themselves go jealous. I want to be happy with my body. I don't think I need to be all beefy to do that, just not quite so weak.

[dna_error]

Well I'm seeing two things, endurance and strength. They're slightly related, but you'd want to focus on one or the other. However, I think you mean cardiovascular endurance, rather than muscular endurance. I'll get to that in a second.

You want more defined muscles. What that is, is you want your muscles more visible basically. The only thing preventing your muscles from being more visible is the fat that surrounds them. So you'll want to lose fat (the flab). If this was all you were going for, I'd suggest dropping calories to around 250-500 below maintainence. However, you also want strength, so what you would probably be best off doing is eating at maintenance calories while also doing cardio. If you want to be able to run 2 miles in 15 minutes, then you have to train running. So run every other day. Don't start off with your max, until you die. Run like half a mile. Next day, run three quarters of a mile. Slowly build your way up.

There's a way to train strength in which you won't gain much size either. It's all about your CNS being efficient in firing as many muscle fibers as possible. For this, you'll want to stick to a program based around low rep, heavy weight. In addition, don't eat to bulk, eat to maintain. However, you're just starting out, so I'd recommend doing sets of 12-15 reps for every exercise. This is generally above the hypertrophic (growth) range for muscles so you shouldn't (although everyone's different you may find it does give you size) gain much size this way, but lots of endurance. I'd go with high reps for a while until you have your form down for each exercise. Then you may want to transition over into low rep strength training (2-6 reps, real heavy weight).

[alwaysruthless]

chicken and oatmeal mmm delicious

are carnation instant breakfast things good for you? i have one every morning cuz i am never hungry when i wake up.

[dna_error]

I'm not sure what flavor of it you have, but I'm looking at the ingredients for the milk chocolate instant breakfast kind.

Good for you sort of depends on what you're doing. If you're really into fitness, then no, I wouldn't recommend those for breakfast. If you just generally want to be healthy but aren't going to be a freak about it, then I think they're ok.

Barely any saturated fat, some protein, and the sugar isn't high fructose corn syrup (avoid this plzplz 2 all that read this). However, the sugar is maltodextrin, which is one of, maybe even the highest, glycemic rated carbohydrates. Simply put, your body absorbs this really quick, and you'll get a big insulin spike. If you don't use the energy from this quickly, then it'll be stored for later usage in your body as fat. Maltodextrin is one of those sugars that are GREAT after a workout because of the insulin quick absorption.

In general though, for the average person, they're better than a lot of your other breakfast choices. I'd pick that over bacon, soda, bologna, ...dunno, whatever else some people eat.

[dna_error]

Oh, I prolly made it sound a little worse than it is. The packet only contains 20g of sugar, most of it (maybe all?), maltodextrin. 20g isn't that much, so the insulin spike won't be that big plus if you just got done sleeping you won't have any food in you, so I doubt much of that if any will be turned to fat.