Hey all...

I want to go on a diet.. maybe loose like 10 lbs.... for snowboarding next season but really i want to go on it because i want to see how different i FEEL after...

currently I'm on a excellent diet of:

chinese food daily (stir fried beef and noodles and broccoli)
subway
BBQ Sausages and burgers
Chicken wings
Pizza
Lotsa Chips
and a healthy does of alcohol....daily.. usually...

I'm a guy, I'm 5'8 and I weight about 165 right now..
I have big arms and about a 30 waist....
I'm not chubby or anything...

here's the dilemma.. I work about 13 hours a day... (inc drive time) office job... at a computer...so I dont have a lot of time for working out... even when i do im so exhausted from work.i dont want to....

I go thru spurts of working out consistantly for a month and then chilling and not doing anything for a month...

the outcome is always the same.. i look and feel the same before and after working out even after months.. i actually gained weight working out at the gym.. then i started doing p90x stuff which is good for cardio. i noticed a diff there but i never lost weight .....

if i DONT work out at ALL.. i still dont lose weight.. nor do i gain any really...i never seem to change which really seems to me like working out is a waste of my time.. naturally i fight, snowboard, rock climb and play basketball. so i get workout and i swim a lot...but im givin up on the gym-style.......cuz there's NO difference.. ever.....

bu i do FEEL tired alllllll the time.... not sleepy tired but like i dont wanna move and i think its from the foodi eat.. i eat whatever..whenever.... i dont eat a LOT by any means but i do eat junk food a lot and i want to give it up for a bit and see if that helps me change hwo i feel and I also want to lose a few lbs if its somehow possible....

so i WONT be giving up alcohol.. but everything else i dont mind:
I want to buy thigns that aren't super expensive and maybe replace the money id spend on junk food anyways.... and that are QUICK and easy.. (i dont have a blender... nor would i be motivated to blend stuff. i LOVE cooking but i do it like once a week cuz of time contraints. (my daily commute is 1.5 hrs each way)
so im looking to pick up food for breakfast.. lunches and dinners.. and snacks...im more of a eat throughout the day.. not huge meals kinda person..
I also cant get to the grocery very often since its usually closed when i get home....

so i like to buy months supplies of things if i can lol

so i need some help on what brands and how to portion it etc and what to get.. i was thinking of

-bottled juices
-yogurts
-applesauces
-canned fruit ? (wont go bad)
-nutrigrain bars
-v8 drinks... (i HATE tomato juice) but i saw a commercial for a new drink or ppl like me? is that any good?

do i need meat in here or something?

i also take two MegaMens Sport Multivitamins and Omega 369 caps for those daily recommendations.... so i want to make sure im not missing out on somethign and my teeth start falling out or something but i donno what to get... like once or twice a week i CAN cook chicken breasts etc.. but the rest of the week i find myself just grabbing something on the way home cuz im too tired to make food.. i dont even really LIKE the fast food much. jsut the convenience....

help please..

sorrry for the long post~

also im in Canada so anythin exclusive to the US or elsewhere may not be available to me...

thanks a bunch~

Well I think you're on the right track since what you eat is hugely important.

One thing right off the bat is to read some of the stickies in the nutrition area of the board. That'll help you figure out what's healthy and what isn't.

My guidelines are to eat real food as much as possible. And what I mean by that is to avoid packaged, processed foods that are full of preservatives and artificial ingredients. I eat lots of fresh veggies, fruits, grains, beans, lean proteins, and so forth ... and try to minimize anything in a package as much as possible.

Loving to cook helps ... there are a ton of things you can make in advance and either refrigerate or freeze for your weekly meals. Also there's a lot of stuff you can do with a crock pot or slow cooker if you have one.

One of the things I do is make a big batch of oatmeal on Sunday nights and the scoop out enough for breakfast during the week - adding in yogurt and/or fruit for some extra nutrition and flavor. I make my own yogurt, but you can buy it in large tubs - just get plain unflavored - and then scoop out enough for one serving and add your own sweetener and fruit in the morning.

I also boil a dozen eggs at a time and eat boiled eggs for snacks during the week. Usually a boiled egg and a can of V8 is my afternoon pre-workout snack.

You can buy chicken breasts in bulk at Sam's Club or Costco and cook them all up at once - better even if you have a grill. I grill a dozen at a time and then use them in all kinds of ways - chopping them up for chicken salad, putting them in pasta, or in a casserole, that kind of thing.

If you're going to eat canned fruit, make sure that it's canned in juice (not syrup) and has no sugar added. But truly I recommend fresh fruit over canned - and frozen if you can't get fresh. Canning is done with high heat, which destroys many of the nutrients in the fruit.

Same with veggies, fresh, then frozen, then canned only if it's a last resort.

Hope that helps some.

heya.


so I went out today and bought a ton of food... fish filets... a ton of chicken breast..... whole wheat pitas and bread... im gonna cook up the chicken.... chop it bag it and freeze it for sandwiches and salads and stir fries...... i got some turkey meat and roast beef for sandwiches.... frozen veggies for stir fries... some canned fruits in juices......pears and apples...... brown rice....diet pop (for my alcohol addiction...(mixes)) frozen fish filets ill cook up individually for dinners with lemon and rice.... and... ya. some other stuff... lettuce for salads.. ill ahve to buy but i dont mind picking that up on the way home from work each week .. ill eat a ton of salad.. i love salads..... im pretty excited about this stuff..... i figure putting in some minor effort up front.. cooking and bagging and freezing.. should give me over two months of frozen goodies minus the picking up the not frozenables... like lettuce and stuff i think this will work out...

im gonna try and keep my daily calorie intake to 2000 a day...... and eat smaller meals..... but 4 times a day... and fruits as snacks... etc....instead of potato chips..... beacuse i been working out lately. i put on a lot of muscle.... so im not up from 155 to 176!!! thats not good for me.. im looking built and bulk..... thin at waist but i wanna look lean.. so im hoping this new diet will help me feed the muscles and lose the weight.... im gonna start swimming a lot to lean out more...

wish me luck!

Sounds great. Good luck and let us know how it goes.