Health and Fitness

[jessb]

Anyway, I'm off to have dinner now with my daughter; organic beef, tomato and basil sausages, cobs of fresh sweetcorn, steamed broccoli and new potatoes with homemade onion gravy! Yum!

 

[Sel]

I go to the gym..usually about 4 times a week for like 1 1/2 hours each day.. tready/cross trainer/bike and weights. Might start using the swimming pool aswell when it gets warmer..

I dont eat much, probably nowhere near enough..i drink alot of coffee though

 

[spilota_variegata]

Oh my god spilota you are a machine!!! That's bloody impressive! Is it good for you running every day tho? Is it back for your knees with the shock?

I've never had a problem with my knees or back but I think that's because I'm a reasonably light person. I must admit, I've got some niggly little pains now that I'm long in the tooth, but nothing that I could class as debiltating.

Just have to make sure I wear the right shoes and warm up and down before/after running.

 

[Pike]

gym 5 times a week... just weights... no cardio haha

 

[falconboy]

I lift weights - 100kg, every time I stand up.
I walk a lot - I can never find the damn remote control.
I eat all 5 food groups - Maccas, KFC, Pizza, Fish and Chips, Chinese



But in all seriousness, I haven't been overly fussed with diet etc until last year and then dieted and lost 16kg, 116 down to 100. My diet has changed a lot. Hardly ever eat takeaway, use a lot of products with artificial sweetner, and use lite milk instead of full fat milk. Its pretty easy to keep that 16kg off but a few more would be nice. Other than yesterday at my wedding dinner (Yum), I'm currently not eating much so I can loose a few more kg before our holiday.

Problem is, I'd love to loose 10kg in the next 17 days.

 

[GSXR_Boy]

All i can eat every day

I walk/waddle to the car if that counts?

 

[Miss_Kaos]

Im 15 and not expecially fit or healthy, but im working on it and doing pretty well i think (15kgs in the last 3 months). everything ive lost is just from eating as little processed food as possible, avoiding mum'sdelicious baking, and walking/jogging/running or bike riding every night and hiking almost every weekend. this is in between being in yr11 and working, so im pretty proud of myself (gloat over)

 

[Fuscus]

My family has a shocking tendency to gain weight ( my mother has her own postcode :shock: ). And being a nerd doesn't help.
Fortunately I know how to control my weight and height, but it takes both effort and organization.

 

[Fuscus]

double post

 

[pythonmum]

Jess - I want to have dinner at your house!

Our family is currently in a CSIRO study where they have made the "Total Wellbeing Diet" book content available online. I decided to give it a go for hubby and I when we returned from holidays 2 weeks ago because the fridge was bare. Even more compelling was the full length mirror in the holiday unit which showed me that I was starting to get a fat ***! (Hubby only admitted to the belly when it started shrinking.) Hubby and I have been following the diet for 2 weeks and the kids eat the CSIRO family dinners, but normal otherwise. I've lost 3 cm around my waist and hips, plus 2 cm around the thighs. I think I've lost 2 kg, but didn't own a scale for the first week. I definitely lost 1 kg this week and only want to lose 1 more at most. (I'm 5 foot 7 inches and 57.8 kg.) He has dropped 4 kg in 2 weeks with plenty of exercise. The diet is low fat, limited wholegrain carbs, lots of lean meat and LOTS of veg. The kids have commented that they enjoy the new meals we are trying and are learning to like different vegetables. For this alone, it's been worth it.

Serpentor - you are probably familiar with the diet. I'm not following the exercise regime due to hip problems that have been treated by two physios, a chiro and an orthopaedic surgeon, all with very mediocre results. Got a steroid injection on Tuesday when I could barely walk, so I'm good for walking again, but little else. I do a lot of stair-climbing at work, which keeps me surprisingly fit. Weights for upper body would be a good idea, but I count the heavy loads I carry at school as my resistance training. On weekends I go walking with son and dogs. Husband trains weights with some cardo 3x/week, 2x boxercise (he loves hitting things) and 1-2x cross-trainer at home.

 

[waruikazi]

I try to run a minimum of three times a week on a 4-5km kinda distance, i like to do 4km in 18minutes and 5 in around 23minutes. I also do 80 push ups 5 nights a week. And in footy season i do a two hour training session twice a week along with one game, i still try to fit my runs in along with footy training.

Diet... I eat what ever i feel like. But that usually consists of alot of fruit and home cooked stuff rather than takeaways etc. But i do drink an awful lot of beer and have quite a gut form it now.

 

[Serpentor]

Serpentor, u sound like u really know your stuff! Why don't u live in Melbourne?! I need someone to sit me down and work out a healthy eating plan and an exercise regime.

The only exercise I do is walking to work and while at work I usually take te stairs down the floors. I do between 100 and 200 situps every other day. I'm getting quite a good 6 pack coming along. I really wannna work my chest but unsure wot I can do at home for this? Also my biceps have shrunk they used to be alot bigger. I'm 25. Any suggestion?

As someone else said here, pushups are quite good, but there's no use if you can't get out the required repetitions. The movement is right though. Anything with a pushing motion is serratus anterior work, or the muscles on the front side of your chest. Have you ever done fly of any sort? dumbell fly? cable fly? If you lie on your back on a bench or swissball, and bring your arms out to the side like you're being crucified, but not all the way, cause you still want a bit of an angle in that elbow, then bring them back up in front of you, over the centre of your chest. Do it with weights or a cable machine. That will target pec major and pec minor more than pushing exercises will. http://www.exrx.net/AnimatedEx/PectoralSternal/DBFly.gif is what it looks like, but try to have a little more of an angle through the elbow at the bottom of the rep than this guy does. I find it not only puts less stress on the elbow joint, but you can get more range with the humerus.

I'm really enjoying reading your responses serpentor - nice to hear a sensible, knowledgeable approach to health and fitness.

I am an ex-chef married to a chef so we eat pretty damn well in our house! We use a fair amount of butter and olive oil in our cooking, but avoid trans-fats as much as possible. We balance out the fat in our diet by eating almost all unprocessed foods; our grocery shop consists mostly of seasonal fruit and vegetables, legumes and meat. We both work fulltime and don't have lots of spare time, but food is a priority in our house - I bake all our cakes and biscuits using real butter and we cook pretty much all our meals from scratch (we sometimes cheat and buy sausages, pasta and pasta sauces premade - although we often make our own!) My 4yo daughter and I eat vego 2 or 3 nights a week, but my husband is a meat eater!

We definitely eat more than we should, but its hard not to when the food we cook tastes so good! I also love to cook puddings and desserts like fruit crumbles and pies, and I make possibly the best chocolate brownies known to man!

I go to the gym 2-3 times a week and run 5-8km 2-3 times per week (I am training for a 14km fun run in a couple of weeks!) Because I don't really limit what I eat, I use my exercise to keep my weight down. I still weigh a bit more than I should (I'm at the upper end of the 'healthy' BMI) but I far prefer that to watching every mouthful I eat and denying myself the pleasure of cooking and enjoying food with my family and friends.

Sounds like a great household regime you have there! staying away from the processed foods is one of the best things you can do to stave off diabetes. I would change the amount of butter you use though. Obviously there are a lot of recipes that require butter for it to work, but for general frying, use something with a high smoke point that has a large proportion of mono and polyunsaturates.
Olive oil has a great proportion, but its chemical structure doesn't hold up too well to high heat. I think it's the flavenoids in it that suffer the most, but I'm not sure. Try something like rice-bran oil, or a nut or seed oil instead. They tend to have high smoke points unlike butter and olive oil, and are also high in mono and polyunsaturates. They also don't taste any worse, which is the most important thing!

One thing I try to tell everybody concerning diet, is that the worst thing you can do is stress about what you are eating. If you have to eat all day every day, it's not the best thing to stress about.

Anyway, I'm off to have dinner now with my daughter; organic beef, tomato and basil sausages, cobs of fresh sweetcorn, steamed broccoli and new potatoes with homemade onion gravy! Yum!

yum! sounds great.

Jess - I want to have dinner at your house!

Our family is currently in a CSIRO study where they have made the "Total Wellbeing Diet" book content available online. I decided to give it a go for hubby and I when we returned from holidays 2 weeks ago because the fridge was bare. Even more compelling was the full length mirror in the holiday unit which showed me that I was starting to get a fat ***! (Hubby only admitted to the belly when it started shrinking.) Hubby and I have been following the diet for 2 weeks and the kids eat the CSIRO family dinners, but normal otherwise. I've lost 3 cm around my waist and hips, plus 2 cm around the thighs. I think I've lost 2 kg, but didn't own a scale for the first week. I definitely lost 1 kg this week and only want to lose 1 more at most. (I'm 5 foot 7 inches and 57.8 kg.) He has dropped 4 kg in 2 weeks with plenty of exercise. The diet is low fat, limited wholegrain carbs, lots of lean meat and LOTS of veg. The kids have commented that they enjoy the new meals we are trying and are learning to like different vegetables. For this alone, it's been worth it.

Serpentor - you are probably familiar with the diet. I'm not following the exercise regime due to hip problems that have been treated by two physios, a chiro and an orthopaedic surgeon, all with very mediocre results. Got a steroid injection on Tuesday when I could barely walk, so I'm good for walking again, but little else. I do a lot of stair-climbing at work, which keeps me surprisingly fit. Weights for upper body would be a good idea, but I count the heavy loads I carry at school as my resistance training. On weekends I go walking with son and dogs. Husband trains weights with some cardo 3x/week, 2x boxercise (he loves hitting things) and 1-2x cross-trainer at home.

I'm not actually familiar with the diet. would you care to explain it? Sounds very interesting, as the blokes at CSIRO are usually on the money.

I don't promote diets in general, I just encourage people to eat all things, but in moderation. Variety is most important, lots of different fruit and veges, cook with the right oils, and try to avoid processed foods (this extends to overly processed milk too)

 

[pythonmum]

The CSIRO diet is heavy on protein. For women the daily diet is 300g lean meat per day, 3 serves dairy (serve = 200 ml low-fat yoghurt or 25 g normal cheese), at least 2 1/2 serves vegetables per day, but you can eat as much as you want of nearly anything except potatoes, 3 serves fat (serve = 1 tablespoon olive oil), 3 serves wholemeal bread/cereal/rice (serve = 1 slice bread, 2 serves fruit (serve = 150g fresh fruit). I find it hard to eat enough meat at lunch, but enjoy tearing into all of the veggies. You are supposed to have fish/seafood as your protein at least one lunch and one dinner per week, red meat for at least 2 dinners, eggs as you wish. You should also follow an increasing exercise program. You are allowed 2 'luxuries' per week (= 150 ml wine, 20g chocolate).

My main critique is that legumes are difficult to work in because they use up your bread allowance. I like to eat beans or lentils more than the diet generally allows. The above diet is for weight loss. When the goal weight is reached, you start adding calories in 500 kJ blocks until stabilised. Studies on women with 'Syndrome X' have show that the CSIRO version is more effective in losing midriff fat than diets with less protein, but the same kilojoules. I'm no where near overweight, but wanted to take off 2 or 3 kg around the middle, which has worked very quickly. I also enjoy cooking new dishes and have had fun trying new recipes. My trolley is at least half vegetables with this diet and a couple of the recipes have been particularly great hits, like rack of veal with seeded mustard marinade and roast vegetables - beautiful!

 

[TahneeMaree]

day time staples... junk foods and red bull, cause I'm lazy
get good home cooked veggies and meat almost every night though
own a treadmill, but work so much that I just wanna chill out when I get home
not gaining any weight though... so I must be doing something right? or maybe too stressed to put on weight?

5ft tall @ 41-42 kg

 

[jessb]

not gaining any weight though... so I must be doing something right?

Ummm, you're 20. That is the reason you're not putting on weight! Your metabolism is working at peak condition and keeping you skinny. Now is a good time to start thinking about improving your eating habits, otherwise when you hit 30 you will really struggle to keep your weight down!

 

[TahneeMaree]

lol yeah I did for a while, lost 5kg down to the weight I am now and did some treadmill sessions, I SHOULD start it again, I love the running, just a bit lazy too.

 

[pythonmum]

Pump up the music on your iPod or get a TV in front of the treadmill. Makes the time go quicker!

 

[Serpentor]

Pump up the music on your iPod or get a TV in front of the treadmill. Makes the time go quicker!

Don't fall into the trap that a lot of gym-goers do though, where they dawdle on the treadmill with their eyes fixated on the TVs.

 

[TahneeMaree]

LOL dawdle? Nevar! I power walk during the shows and do sprints ans jogs during the add breaks ^_^
REALLY should start doing it again...

 

[JasonL]

I was a health / exercise nut BC (before children) now I spend all my time looking after them, taking them to sports and doing homework.... I'm also a foodie, and will eat anything that tastes good, and won't substitute flavour for health...full cream all the way.. but being a foodie, I won't eat crap take away, No maccas for me thanks..... last night I went for a 12km jog, with dodgy knee and hip joints... Oh the pain..... and made a chicken, advocado and potato pizza for dinner...