Fitness Thread

Quote: farmer_jack

Quote: girlpants

Quote: farmer_jack

Quote:

Anyone got any diet tips for a tight budget?

I have some, but I will have to post them when I get back from football. First time I've played since the start of July. I'm gonna be knackered.

Long game of footie, there 'Tin.

Apologies.

Tips for eating well on a budget, in my experience:

Bulk buy pasta, tuna, potatoes and pre-cook enough pasta for a few lunches. Buy a couple of tuppaware boxes and take tuna and pasta to work, perhaps chop up some vegetables and mix them in, or some salad. Jacket potatoes are a good nutritious meal so long as you don't load them with unhealthy toppings.

Another thing is, when you go shopping, make sure you eat before hand, that way you won't feel as inclined to splash out on impulse buys.

Stuff like rice, cereals, etc, you might as well just buy the supermarkets own brand, because they're basically the same and they're much cheaper. Plus again they last a while and they're quite versatile. You can have rice with allsorts, and cereal is a great start to the day. Breakfast is important, it'll help stop you eating a load at lunch, and lunches are invariably dearer than a bowl of cereal.

Wholegrain bread is reasonably priced. You could buy a large loaf and freeze it, then take out the slices you want for toast, or sandwiches, and defrost as neccesary.

Avoid buying drinks. There's no point. Water comes out of the tap and it's free. To mix things up a bit, buy supermarket brand soda water and have a couple of glasses of that in the day. Water is free, but it's also rather boring.

If you make a big stew, it'll last you a good few days, and it can be highly nutritious. Initially for all the ingredients it's a little dear, but when you spread the cost over three meals, it's quite reasonable.

Oddly, I had already started to shop in this style. Tins of tuna galore, Pasta, oodles of noodles, no potato's however. Avoiding the pasta/tuna combo though, I'm not a huge fan of tuna without something like say vinegar or mayonnaise added to it. Same with any fish TBH.

I have Tupperware, its just used for storing miniatures rather than food at the the moment .

Yuk. Add an egg, a pound of raw mince and some whey powder and milk and you got a deal

Quote: illusiveshadow

I feel I should probably join in on this, if a bit late. So, currently I'm 5"3 and not entirely sure of my weight (it likes to fluctuate anywhere between 9 and 10 stone), but according to wii fit I have a BMI of 23.5. I'd like to get that down. However, I would like to think that some of the weight is muscle as I weighed less before I went to America last year and I had a LOT of university fat on me then, while last year I didn't put on as much weight and could notice I was stronger and fitter from kickboxing.

Unfortunately, for the next two weeks I'm not going to be able to get to a gym as I'm interning in London, so if anyone has any ideas for exercises that can be done in a small room to get me working before university that would be good.

When back at university I will return to kickboxing at least twice a week, and try and get myself to the more hardcore Friday session as much as possible. I will also get round to checking out Maindy pool and, seeing as I have about five hours of contact time a week now, I WILL make time to go and use it. Apparently you have to go three times a week for it to become a habit, so I will attempt this. John likes swimming, so I might try and persuade him to come with me- I work better when I have someone to make me go/work.

I also need to cut down on the junk I eat. Work has been really bad because I get there early and don't get lunch for hours, so get really hungry but the only food we have lying around are biscuits. We also have too ready a supply of Ben & Jerry's/chocolate in the house, so I don't have to work to fight cravings/ignore them like I would at university, but instead can easily give into them. Hopefully interning will get me back on track of not being able to snack whenever, and so long as Grandma doesn't make dessert every night, I won't have that option either. I will also stop making meals with my housemates as half the time they prefer to buy stuff you shove in the oven, which is high in salt and fat and stuff, and I will save money specifically so I can afford to eat better/healthier.

Mum has just discovered she is close to having a dangerously high blood pressure, which is heridatory through her side of the family. (Her grandma died at 56 from a heart attack, and her Mum/my Nan has been on medication since she was my Mum's age). Obviously it's not a concern yet- my blood pressure is definitly healthy, it gets checked regularly when I get the pill- but getting into a healthy lifestyle now, eating right, etc, could help me prevent ending up like that when I'm older, so any other tips for what I could be doing would help?

Oh, and the main area I want to lose weight from is my stomach. What exercise is best for this, because kickboxing just seems to maintain my weight and build up fitness/strength rather than help lose any.

You can't spot-reduce fat. You can tone the area, but I think somebody else would be better to give advice than myself.

Do you have a peak flow monitor, Jamie? I use it as an asthmatic, but you as an ex-smoker might find it beneficial for measuring how your lung capacity improves after exercise and stuff.

How is your posture? Standing up straight and breathing from your diaphragm will help with breathing. Also, should you have any spare cash around, taking up a woodwind instrument will help, as it teaches you breath control. It was very beneficial for my asthma, and I got my peak flow up from 300 and something to 520.

Take baby-steps. These things don't happen immediately, and don't lose patience with yourself if it's not happening as fast as you'd like it to. Remember, as your fitness level goes up, everything else will improve too.

Also, if the weather was like it was up here, the humidity will have caused a bit of lung difficulty.

I've been at the gym today (and will be every day this week + weekend) but my main focus is eating plenty of calories, although not too much saturated fat. I tend to eat quite a lot anyway, but these extra calories the last few days are starting to make me a bit sluggish.

Sounds like a good system to me, Dan. My cardio consists of football once a fortnight, and walking to the gym. I burn my calories through doing the weights, but some extra cardio wouldn't do me any harm.

I have no problem motivating myself to lift weights; but getting me on the treadmill is a different matter entirely.

Slow and steady wins the race, as they say.

As for music, I used to but then I found I spent more time faffing with which song to put on than actually running. I don't use the music for when I'm on the weights, it tends to put me off but I might bring my iPod to the gym tomorrow and see how I get on.

Just got in from the gym and I hit the weights better than I have for a while. Managed to lift a bit more than yesterday too. Plus, a bloke asked me for tips on building his arms, so I took that as a back-handed compliment ;p