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2004/05/04, 05:29 AM
Hi everyone. I'm pretty new to FT, in fact this is my first post, and I just started the exercise plan today.
A little background, I am 24 years old. I was overweight (but not obese) all through grade school and high school. I'm 5'7" and I reached about 190 around the age of 19. I decided it was time to take action, so I cut out soda from my diet entirely, started eating several small meals throughout the day and became more active and dropped back to about 175 and felt great.
My problem now is that I'm starting to put some weight back on since a car accident back last August. I know that getting into a stricter training routine will help immensely, but getting older and dealing with the real world is making things hard. I drive pizza delivery, so on a typical work day, I wake up around 1 or 2pm, go to work around 4pm or 5pm, and then work anywhere from 8pm to 1am. Then I am usually trying to relax and playing some video games or hanging out with friends till about 4am or 5am.
Now it's summer, and I am part of an annual Shakespeare troupe and I've been cast in a part that I feel would suit me best to slim down and look as fit as possible: Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet. It's hard to convey that I am the baddest man in Verona when I've got a pot belly and such.
I don't wanna bulk up too much, though strength training is something I really need to do because of my back problems. I have set myself up on the 3-day a week home-exercise routine here on the site, which should work out great for that...I started tonight, as I said, and I found that I couldn't even complete all of it, so I think it's going to be right at my level...I'll take it slow because I can't afford an injury right now.
My biggest concern is with diet. I want to increase my metabolism so I can have the energy I need to get out and be active on my days off and not just feel like lounging around the house like a couch potato. But with the way most diets are structured, I have problems with this. It's hard for me to go around counting calorie intake on a day to day basis. I know I'm not eating enough, and I have a good idea of what types of foods I should be eating. But most of the diet structures out there are either calorie based, or time-centric (breakfast, late-morning snack...etc.) which is kinda difficult to calculate when some days you may be up at 11am and others at 4pm, and never really go to bed at the same time.
I know, it's a bizarre situation, and getting on a set sleeping schedule would probably be easiest, but when you are in the car for multiple hours a day, it isn't that simple, and I'm a night crawler which doesn't help matters. Anyone have any ideas how I might be able to space things out properly on a schedule where meals come at odd times and not the same times every day, without starving myself or overeating on a regular basis? Thanks. :-)
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2004/05/04, 05:55 PM
Well, you are right, it does seem like I'm making excuses. However, when I did it before, it was quite easy because all I had to do was cut out soda. Once I got down to about 175, I have been stagnant since, and fluctuate up around 185 and back down to 175 and up and down and up and down. I really think the main issue is with my diet, because it is very hard for me to work with the schedule I have without either undereating or overeating. That's why I made the post, I'm looking for ideas for working within my very bizarre schedule. I'm very serious about this, otherwise I wouldn't be here at all, nor would I have ever actually started my workout plan. But working out isn't going to do any good if I'm not getting the right kind of diet, ya know? :-) Sorry if I came off sounding lazy...I'll admit, I can be. It wasn't the intent of this post though so sound like a whiner. I'm more looking for a diet solution that will work with my very unstable schedule.
For now, since I checked in with the nutrition planning section here, and therefore I know I have been starving myself, so I'm just going to try to eat a lot more through the day. I'm thinking high protein, balanced with some carbs, and low in fat and complex sugars? I'm going to try to get at least 5 meals in a day, and see how that works. But I'm still open to suggestions.
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