UGH I HATE NEW LIVEJOURNAL. I just typed this really long comment and LJ's terrible flash ate it. >:(
It was kind of rambly but it boiled down to: google everything! I googled ANYTHING that came across my radar and I didn't really know what it meant. There's so much out there that it can seem really overwhelming, but that also means that you can skim three articles on just about any topic and see if they agree with each other. I googled all kinds of things - "health benefits of fiber," "healthy fats," "complex carbohydrates," EVERYTHING. I also googled a lot of individual foods - "butternut squash nutrition" plus "butternut squash recipes" equaled a very delicious and informative week. I honestly just tried to ferret out every hole in my knowledge that I happened to stumble over.
Specific resources: My Plate has great basics, The Calorie Counter has nutrition facts for the kind of food that comes without labels, Livestrong has all kinds of random articles (along with some bullshit, of course). No single site really grabbed me, otherwise - I liked dipping my toes in a lot of different places before making any conclusion.
Sorry this isn't that exciting or unified a strategy! I really learned things only in bits and pieces, not in any organized way. I found it more manageable and more interesting to investigate areas as they caught my fancy instead of setting out to find all the answers all at once.
Thank you for the links. It's really nice to know there isn't one place to see. I don't feel like I'm trying to find the "right" site now. Now I have some good key words to look up. This is really helpfu for me.
I was wondering about your 30 minute fitness goal - how did that work out? I'm doing a diary to keep track of how I'm working out. Right now it's weight traing and cardio because they seemed the simpliest to start.
Anytime! I just remembered this has good nutrition basics as well.
I made my 30 minute goal this summer, but it took a solid year to do it - I had shin splints and I was very out of shape and had long stretches in that year where I didn't run at all. What really worked for me with running was a 10% rule - I would run every other day for the same length of time, and then I would only increase by ten percent the next week. I judged myself by time rather than distance, and went as slow as a snail, so I ran a very slow ten minutes for a week and then the next week ran a very slow eleven minutes. Some other tips: keeping your heart rate up for 30 minutes increases cardio fitness fast, so it's a great idea to run for a couple minutes and then walk until your heart rate starts to slow and then run again, instead of doing it all in one chunk. Listen to your body and never be afraid to NOT push yourself early on, because it takes way longer to recover from injury than to slowly increase your distance/time. Slow and steady gets you to the point where you can run the race. My cardio was obviously running, I don't know much about other kinds.
Weight training is not something I did, but it's something everyone will tell you is a GREAT idea for losing weight. Muscle literally burns calories when it's just sitting there. Make sure you're stretching to prevent injury in both weights and cardio!
It was kind of rambly but it boiled down to: google everything! I googled ANYTHING that came across my radar and I didn't really know what it meant. There's so much out there that it can seem really overwhelming, but that also means that you can skim three articles on just about any topic and see if they agree with each other. I googled all kinds of things - "health benefits of fiber," "healthy fats," "complex carbohydrates," EVERYTHING. I also googled a lot of individual foods - "butternut squash nutrition" plus "butternut squash recipes" equaled a very delicious and informative week. I honestly just tried to ferret out every hole in my knowledge that I happened to stumble over.
Specific resources: My Plate has great basics, The Calorie Counter has nutrition facts for the kind of food that comes without labels, Livestrong has all kinds of random articles (along with some bullshit, of course). No single site really grabbed me, otherwise - I liked dipping my toes in a lot of different places before making any conclusion.
Sorry this isn't that exciting or unified a strategy! I really learned things only in bits and pieces, not in any organized way. I found it more manageable and more interesting to investigate areas as they caught my fancy instead of setting out to find all the answers all at once.
Reply
I was wondering about your 30 minute fitness goal - how did that work out? I'm doing a diary to keep track of how I'm working out. Right now it's weight traing and cardio because they seemed the simpliest to start.
Reply
I made my 30 minute goal this summer, but it took a solid year to do it - I had shin splints and I was very out of shape and had long stretches in that year where I didn't run at all. What really worked for me with running was a 10% rule - I would run every other day for the same length of time, and then I would only increase by ten percent the next week. I judged myself by time rather than distance, and went as slow as a snail, so I ran a very slow ten minutes for a week and then the next week ran a very slow eleven minutes. Some other tips: keeping your heart rate up for 30 minutes increases cardio fitness fast, so it's a great idea to run for a couple minutes and then walk until your heart rate starts to slow and then run again, instead of doing it all in one chunk. Listen to your body and never be afraid to NOT push yourself early on, because it takes way longer to recover from injury than to slowly increase your distance/time. Slow and steady gets you to the point where you can run the race. My cardio was obviously running, I don't know much about other kinds.
Weight training is not something I did, but it's something everyone will tell you is a GREAT idea for losing weight. Muscle literally burns calories when it's just sitting there. Make sure you're stretching to prevent injury in both weights and cardio!
Reply
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