As has been my traditional New Year's resolution for the past 10 years, I want to lose weight. I know I can do it because I have done it before. It took alot of discipline and motivation but I managed to lose 65 LB's in my 2nd year of college. I loved the gym. Myy motivation back then was to make the Junior B hockey team and to land some ladies. I was able to do both. I made the local JR team and we actually won the Atlantic Junior B Title that year / Brag. I also met my future wife that year. Over the past 10 years I have slowly lost motivation to hit the gym on a daily basis. I am now at my heaviest weight ever and am serious about dropping it. All other facets of my life are going well. Great wife, beautiful son and an amazing job paying me more $ than I ever thought I would be making at my age so now I am focusing on my health.
The biggest hurdle I have when dieting is to plan my meals for the week. we both work, so we don't always cook the most healthy of meals. I am looking for healthy meal ideas that are easy to make. I know OT has alot of healthy people here ( Big Earn, FWK, etc) and I am looking for any meal suggestions that are healthy and coincide with a daily workout plan ( which I will also be doing).
So WUG OT?

Thanks fink. I just made my first tuna melt. I love tuna sandwiches but wanted to try out our new toaster oven. I used dry tuna ( no mayo) on two slices of bread and thinly sliced some cheese on top. Was really good and really filling.
Ideally I would like to cut out soda, chips and beer for at least three months. Not sure if this will happen or not but that's the plan.

replace every drink (soda, juice, beer) with water.

missing out on delicious nectars sucks for the first little while but the old maxim is true "water: the more you drink, the more you shrink"

[edit] also, losing weight is a simple formula. burn more calories than you take in = weight loss

Doing something similar as well, trying to drop about 20 lbs asap. I'm tracking all my calories and exercise using fatsecret.com, they have a mobile app if you've got a smartphone as well making it easy to enter stuff, a little time consuming but it really helps you realize how much you used to overeat.

I'm not changing what I eat significantly I'd say, more so portion sizing and making small substitutions and omissions. Cutting out soda completely, eating the leanest meats available, trying not to eat 2-3 big meals but maybe 4 smaller ones. A healthy cereal (with skim or 1% milk) or oatmeal as fink mentioned is a good breakfast. Drink your coffee black if you normally use cream. It gets old quickly, but chicken is your friend. Really helps balance your carb/fat/protein ratio while dieting, especially if you want to add in a little muscle with that fat burn. Something else that I have found to work is actually eating lean cuisines. If you can balance the extra sodium you are getting from it being a frozen meal, they are pretty effective at keeping your calorie intake down if you substitute them for a meal a few times a week. Fruits and vegetables are also crucial, they tend to keep your meals filling yet low in calories. Just rambling off some ideas, hope any of this helps.

oatmeal and eggwhites
chicken breasts,spinach, and broccoli
fish and sweet potato

eat that every day until you go insane and have a mental breakdown, then start adding beef, whole grain breads, whole wheat pastas, fruit, and salads

 

Originally Posted by AFink93

I've been changing my diet alot the last 4 plus months. Still haven't found the gym motivation again yet but I lost about 35lbs just by eating a little better. Cut out soda. Thats huge. As far as meals I eat two packets of oatmeal for breakfast most days. I put a little bit of PB and J in there and it's yummy...

I honestly believe this is the crucial first step to building a successful diet plan that you can use long term (even past the 'dieting' stage) to maintain healthy eating. Was always a chubby kid, and similar to OP I wanted to play varisty basketball more than anything. All I did as far as eating was cut soda, overconsumption of juice and sugary drinks, and cut out fatty condiments (mayo, dressings, etc).

Minimizes calorie intake more than people realize, and to begin with you probably shouldn't even change what you are eating for the first few weeks. Many diets change too many variables too quickly, thus leaving your body craving everything that is bad after 2-3 months.

Thanks for all the tips guys. I will be noting these ideas down and going to the grocery store. As for Glo4m, I am a horrible late night snacker which has been the death of me over the last couple of years. Cutting out all snacks after 7pm will be hard, but key to losing weight. Thanks again everyone.

Mind is kinda blown that somebody can not like water

 

Originally Posted by TheWhitePele

Because ts tasteless. You get strawberry flavoured youghurt, milk, sweets, ice cream etc.

Chicken flavoured crisps and so on

You wont find water flavoured anything because it tastes horrible. Drink it because i have to

crystal light is your friend

 

Originally Posted by El Burro

Don't eat or drink anything that isn't a whole food (meat, fruits, vegetables). No processed foods. Butter is okay; margarine is not. Olive oil is okay; vegetable oil is not (hydrogenated oils are terrible). Sea salt is okay; table salt is not.

If you stick to those rules, you'll be lean in no time. Even more so if you start doing a lot of squats, deadlifts, pull ups, etc.

Sounds like paleo/primal, which is what I just started.

 

Originally Posted by danomite

Thanks for all the tips guys. I will be noting these ideas down and going to the grocery store. As for Glo4m, I am a horrible late night snacker which has been the death of me over the last couple of years. Cutting out all snacks after 7pm will be hard, but key to losing weight. Thanks again everyone.

Dude, its tough, but its absolutely critical. I have had to make adjustments myself since sometimes you get so hungry its hard to fall asleep. 2 things have helped me: #1 is a tough exercise regiment during the day. You obv fall asleep easier at night, even if your stomach is growling at you. #2: Melatonin. It helps you fall asleep and as far as I can tell has little or no side effects. Nyquil and the like make me feel like shit and are probably habit forming. Melatonin works like a charm (for me). Might be worth a shot for you. You can buy it almost anywhere OTC. GL.

Get a big bag of chicken breasts and cook the whole thing (or half) at once, blackening them on the grill is pretty good, or just in the oven. Then you have a healthy base for meals all week, put it on salads, make sandwiches, just eat it, etc. Makes it pretty easy to eat healthy.

It is amazing what a difference the "simple" things make. Most of them have already been mentioned:

water>soda
nonfat milk > regular
fruit > potato chips
salad > french fries
eliminate sugar
grilled > fried
whole wheat bread > white

I can personally tell you that these simple changes can go a very long way. I'm down over 30 pounds in the last 2 years when I really started watching what I ate (granted I also workout daily), but I am by no means a hardcore dietician.

paleo diet and crossfit gym = success

also, lots of bad bad bad conventional advice in this thread

Join this site

You can track your calories (has a very good database that includes chain restaurants) and also track your exercise. I've lost about 25 pounds since September and while every day hasn't been perfect, it's a great way to keep myself honest when adding up those calories.