Researching Vitamins/ Metabolism and healthy Eating and getting CONFUSED

Anyone knowledgeable on this subject?

Trying to help keep myself healthy during this challenge

I'm 39, weigh 211 (Down 35)
I have given up Colas, drink water and a few cups of coffee with heavy cream, no sugar throughout the day

I have a quit smoking plan in place for April, currently smoke about 3/4 pack a day

I'm not active as such, working my way up to a 5k walk daily...

I do have a sit down job unfortunately

Typical daily diet:

Breakfast:
Rolled oats with whey protein and flaxseed
1 poached egg

Lunch:
Chicken Caesar Salad homemade
W/ Renee's low fat dressing

Supper:
Chicken/ Fish or lean Red meat
W/ cauliflower, baby carrots

Snacks (throughout day)

Fresh celery, broccoli or cauliflower
1/4 cup almonds
Strawberry smoothie (1 cup frozen berries blended with 1 cup organic soy milk)

Current exercise:

Siren and I do 3k at least 5 days of 7


Any advice?

I don't have a specific "plan" or name for my method but it's pretty simple I think

- Cut at as many processed foods as you can (anything with an ingredients label)
- Shop local and organic when you can
- Drink plenty of water. More than you think your body can hold lol your pee should be clear
- Lean healthy proteins (I cut out red meat personally and stick with chicken/turkey)
- Especially if you aren't a big vegetable fan, get a JUICER i love mine. A green juice per day (celery, kale, cucumber, carrot, parsley etc..) gives you most of your servings of veggies and helps keep me full and focused
- Healthy dairy: Almond milk, Plain yogurt
- workout when you can, make it a part of your daily routine. I "earn" TV time by giving an hour to working out after doing homework.

- What works best for me is..
~ breakfast juice (green juice)
~ breakfast meal (whole wheat bread, almond butter, plus a hardy fruit like apple)
~ heavier lunch meal: lean protein (usually chicken breast), whole wheat grain (pasta, rice), spinach
~ lunch snack (apple w/peanut butter)
~ dinner juice (green with heavy leafy greens and carrot)
~ dinner (some lean protein like chicken, whole grain)
~ bedtime snack: usually something sweet..I really like honey and frozen grapes!

Not really sure about the "ideal" number of meals or anything, this is just what works for me. Like you, I spent A LOT of time researching and came up with A LOT of confusing stuff. I ended up with this because it keeps me full and it works for me.

I found this extremely useful


Your diet sounds perfectly reasonable to me go with your gut honestly, way too many fads to keep up with.
I say keep it up, the c25k workout works for a lot of people and you are certainly on the right track.

As for vitamins, I take a multi and a cod liver oil everyday just because. Not sure if it's needed really but I'd like to think just in case my body is getting what it needs

ditch the low fat and nonfat anything. eat "real" foods (if you cant pronounce/dont know any of the ingredients, dont eat it!) and dont be afraid of fats and proteins! for that matter, dont be afraid of food! :rofl1:

canola oil is garbage. dont be afraid of butter. eat lots of meats fruits veggies nuts whole grains, etc.

I agree with the others, I don't have much to add, I'm trying to get the rest of my weight of too

the school coach suggested a carry a soup can in each hands when I walk. I tried it once and OMG so I went out to Walmart and bought little weights specifically for it and WOW... Would be worth a try

Fran, thanks.... It's a work in progress and you can research yourself to death lol

I do use the reduced fat Renee's but that's it, I use extra virgin olive oil and real butter (margarine kinda freaks me out)

Though I have to admit, I'm going back to the oatmeal packages, they are not as good but I cannot get the from scratch oatmeal to taste good..

Are you losing weight? You said you're down 35 lbs...how long have you been at your current weight, eating this type of diet, etc?

Because it sounds like you're eating a pretty ok, healthy diet for someone your age/activity level. If you're still losing, and it's just slowing down, that's normal. If you're "stuck" instead of changing your diet, I would just increase your exercise. If possible, add some light cardio and strength training to your walking.

Do you drink teas? Lots of teas, especially green teas, are supposed to be great for metabolism.

ETA: Also...is that what you eat EVERY day? Or almost every day? It's definitely not a bad diet, but I would try to switch it up to a little more variety.

I do switch it up, but it's a close daily, sometimes a bit different and I was down 50 pounds but fell off the wagon, climbed back on a couple weeks back, down 6 since then...

I am trying to be realistic as well, to restrictive never sticks, for instance today I am eating supper at a friends and will be having homemade taco's not something Id normally eat

Only thing I could recommend would be to add some lifting or strength training. Your food looks pretty good. Building muscle will improve your health and strength and it will help you lose fat because having more muscle will increase your total daily energy expenditure. It's never too early to add strength training to your workout routine.

Keep it up I'm down 23 lbs and counting since the first! It's so exciting.

I really want to add in some strength training, but I've been told I should get a bit closer to goal for that and concentrate on Cardio for now? I've also no clue where to start with that type of training and the Cardio is easy in the sense it's simple.... Walk/ Jog/ Bike etc

Oh, and here's what I've decided vitamin wise:


Women's One(1) A Day ( Had good reviews everywhere I read for being what it says it is and safe)

B100 complex (freakin HORSE pill!)
Magnesium
Calcium

Those vitamins sound great, and that's all I've ever taken.

Who said don't start with strength training yet? A doctor or professional, or just someone somewhere? I think doing something with small weights (even just 2 or 5 lbs) or even just your own body weight (push-ups, crunches) would help increase your metabolism and make you appear slimmer and feel stronger than just cardio.

Swimming is also an excellent exercise, if you have access to water.

I read it a few places, but I think now looking back they were talking more about lifting etc..

I have some small weights at home and want to start doing push ups and so on, I'm so out of shape a push up or sit up is not a pretty thing!

http://m.gnc.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2133791 -I take this (sorry for the link ... It's a PITA to post pics on the phone, I know it's a hair vite but it's complete enough for me to use it as a multi (since most multis upset my tummy)

For weight loss / appetite control I take this believe it or not-

http://mobile.walmart.com/m/phoenix...a-Dietary-Supplement-with-Acai-Berry/13352479

I actually like the one with just the hoodia that sells at many dollar general stores but Walmart is more convenient. You take one pill in the morning after breakfast & one after lunch/dinner & it really pulls the lbs off, not only that, it curbs appetite (I never feel hungry on it unles I have not eaten Ll day or something ) & it helps with bloating/excess water. I love it AND its only like $6 at the most.

Waiting on the strength training is definitely bad advice. Body weight exercises would be great for you right now. Push ups (if you can't do them start with 1 minute planks and build up), burpees, lunges, crunches, squats, squats, squats. Building muscle will help you lose the fat faster and strength training while losing fat helps minimize the sagging skin. You will also already have the strong tone muscles underneath the fat so you'll be 10 steps ahead when you get to a lower weight and the muscle tone shows.

This is my first time trying to lose fat WHILE strength training and it has worked miracles! I firmly believe it is THE factor that made this time different. It has made the weight come off faster and I have not hit a single plateau at all. I weigh less EVERY week!

GOOD LUCK!

Sorry, I have no input on vitamins. Alls I know is I feel really good as long as I eat a well-rounded diet and stick to whole foods. I just try to eat as many different color, natural foods a day as I can. lol

I totally understand not know where/how to start. I never would have been able to without a class or trainer. Even now that I know what to do I don't fully believe that I will be able to ever do it by myself. I'm just not motivated on my own. I need a "leader".

I do squats , push ups strength training, & running. Every other day I run on the running off days I strength train

Weird question, but is it true that in Canada margarine is pink?

The key to making from scratch oatmeal taste good is raw honey. Raw honey, and heavy whipping cream. You don't need a lot of cream but oh my gosh it makes all the difference in the world.

I use grass fed organic for anything dairy. If I had a reliable raw source I'd go with that, but if you're using dairy the top priority should be grass fed, then organic after that. Especially if you're using whole fat dairy because that's where all the toxins go. The dairy being grass fed changes the nutrient profile, much like feeding chickens flax seed changes the nutritional content.

Grass fed milk is high in vitamin K2 (not the same thing in leafy veggies). It moves the calcium out of your bloodstream to your skeleton, so you don't get calcified deposits in your arteries.

Make sure whatever vitamins you take are easily digestible. I take two chewable children's vitamins a day, because I know they're going to get absorbed. Beyond that, I use vitamin B complex and folic acid supplements because I'm celiac and don't have any fortified cereal grains in my diet. Fish oil, MSM, a daily chewable vitamin D/magnesium/calcium, and astaxanthin (really really good for your eyes and nervous system).

I also take chlorophyll because my nose is sensitive and it makes me have less BO. lol

Exercise and weight training are great. I do burpees every day. Jump rope is awesome. There are a lot of great youtube workout videos people have made. The nice thing about them is you can change up your workout a lot and not get bored while trying out different videos and working different muscle groups.

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Never seen pink margarine, so I'd say at least not around here...

What's a burpee?

I never thought of jump rope! That's a great idea!!

Jump rope is pretty high impact, so if you're overweight I'd check with your doctor first, it could be tough on joints. Doing it on grass or dirt would probably be ok, but I'd still check.

Definitely look into work out videos on youtube. If you have a laptop, you can do them easily anywhere at home. Just look up beginning strength training or beginning exercise for weight loss or to increase metabolism.