Nutrition Plans and Exercise Plans

Are there any websites where you can maybe get free nutritional plans or exercise plans?

I had started earlier this year being really good with my food and exercise, lost 10lbs, then I became lazy and got bored with it.

Honestly, to be really healthy, I should lose 50lbs. But I am going to start with a goal of losing 20lbs. I've managed to keep the original 10lbs off that I lost (well, give or take, sometimes I'll gain a pound and then lose it, etc).

My main problem is that I am sooo bad at cooking for myself, and most exercise bores me. I am the type that needs to be told what to do when to do it in order to get things done. And I can't afford a personal trainer. But if I had meal plans printed out, and stapled above my desk, I could follow it and buy all the food ahead of time, etc. I also hardly know how to cook for myself, I tend to do a lot of microwaveable meals, and I know most are pretty bad for you. So I am learning to be decently healthy in the kitchen and it's not easy. Oh and I am super picky. I don't like most fruits and veggies. I do love smoothies, so I try to get my fruit intake with smoothies, veggies I'll eat if they are in soup or cooked in something else (like pork roast, etc).

I didn't know if there was anything out there offered like that on the internet. Something that could give me, like, breakfast: banana, orange juice. Lunch: blah blah, and milk. Dinner: chicken, etc. LOL, you get the gist.

As far as exercise... I have an elliptical in my house. I have a Wii Fit, LOL. Oh and my driveway is sooo steep, so I am thinking running up hill a few times a day would help a ton?! Even my step-dad who is in shape, works out almost every day, and has some abs, is fairly out of breath when he walks up it.

Thing is, I just know I can do this. Because I did it before and did really good but I never had a solid "plan" and just kind of got lazy, plain and simple. I'm not going to lie, it's the holidays, and I know I'll snack on some cookies and goodies but I think if I can begin eating healthier in general now and exercising right now, it will make it easier on me come January when all the holiday goodies are gone.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Well, I love strength training and I used to know of a good website. I'll see if I can track it down tomorrow. Sparks is really good for nutrition plans and tracking what you eat, but I don't like it because there is a lot of stuff on their website. I like a simpler format like myfitnesspal.com. MFP doesn't recommend food to you, but it will track what you enter.

You can borrow Bailey.

Seriously.... that's what's working for me! Portion control, and Bailey!! She makes me get up and get out even when I don't want to, even when the weather is crappy.

ohhh my dad had printed it out! He needed to lose weight, so it was all a diet plan, and it was like 4 weeks (I think) of different food each day, and then it restarted.

I'll see if I can find it at all

I am doing sparkspeople. Yeah, the website is cluttered, but I like their app, which I mostly use. I also go to the gym and while I need to do more strength training, right now I mostly do cardio. I try to do intervals and do that for at least 30 min, preferably 45. I love, love love the couch 2 5k app.

So far I have lost 26lbs... And realistically, I think I want to lose another 25.

We should have a chaz biggest loser

I do love a little friendly competition.

As for exercise, I love the insanity workout.
It's a 60 day program and it's TOUGH (like, sweating, panting, sore, pushing harder than you ever have..tough)
but it's different, only 45-50 minutes a day, and the daily DVD is easy to understand, fun & fast paced

As for diet, I would suggest a consultation with a nutrionist
I would also suggest a multi-vitamin. I'm a college student, so yea, things are missing in my diet lol frequently. So it's nice to have a daily vitamin that helps fill the gaps.

Someone shared this with me and it's amazing.

It's been a part of my plan for a month and a half. That first document is the best. I review it all the time.

Ahaha a reddit link! (I am subscribed to r/losit as well as r/keto)

I am not much help except to say I have cut nearly ALL carbs out of my diet and OMG the difference. I have lost as much weight since the big of Nov than I had running for 5 months (including entering a race) I can tell you exercise becomes far more exciting when you have more energy and its easier. I am so stoked to pick running back up again.

Thanks! I'd love if you could find it!

I was using MyFitnessPal on my phone to keep track for a while but it didn't help me make healthy choices necessarily, LOL. I was basically just counting calories.

Congrats on the 26lbs! So how often are you going to the gym, and when you go what exactly are you doing?

Chaz Bigger Loser could whip my butt into shape!

Thanks! I'm going to go read this.

I always hear mixed things about carbs. Like, some day cutting them out is bad, etc. I guess it just all depends on our individual bodies. I am glad it's working for you! Maybe I will try to be more carb-conscious. I'm pretty sure I eat a lot of carbs!

Its not bad for you as long as you eat enough vegetables etc. The only people I think it would be bad for are people who have a hard time keeping weight on. There is a very interesting book, I mentioned it in my low carb thread called Good Calories Bad Calories. Fascinating and very good read. (I particularly like it as it discusses all sorts of scientific papers and discusses who funded them, and how things like the food pyramid came about) It makes a compelling argument linking the rise in Americans eating carbs and the rising obesity epidemic as well as the rise in some diseases...

Cutting all carbs out would be horrible but we typically eat carbs in such excess. Most low carb diets just include a healthy amount of carbs as opposed to what we normally eat. However, to your body, calories are calories. You can cut out whatever specific food you want but if you are eating too many calories you won't lose weight. It doesn't matter what food your calories are coming from for weight loss. Low carb diets that are extreme are dangerous and they "work" cause they limit what you can eat to such a degree that you end up eating a low calorie diet. I track my calories very closely and for the first few weeks I ate complete junk, tons of carbs, etc. I lost just as much weight as when I eat good. Obviously you should eat healthy foods for health reasons but for weight loss purposes your body is indiscriminate.

I'm on r/loseit as well, extremely motivating! Someone linked me that handbook in my intro thread, and I adore it.

Sorry, but you're very mistaken. The way fats, proteins and carbs, and yes different types of carbs are metabolized and used differently by your body. You may not notice a difference in eating high carbs one week and then low carb the next, but over time you definitely will.

It influences not only your waistline, but your hormones. Effects on Insulin, Leptin and everything else greatly influence how your body metabolizes, what it metabolizes and how it is stored. So from a day to day or week to week view, yeah it doesn't make much difference, but then if your goal is something you can get in days or weeks, i'm guessing long term health isn't on your radar.

I have to say this is wrong. Based on long standing (and long ignored) scientific resarch.

I was eating ~1100 cal a day and am HUGE (and anyone who has hung out with me knows it wasn't due to eating 'bad'). I dropped carbs am still eating 1100 calories and am dropping weight nicely without feeling tired, hungry etc. They don't limit that much. Loads of veggies, dairy and meats. The only thing it limits is bread/pasta and fruit. Really when you look at nutrition there is nothing fruit gets you that you can't get from veggies.

ANd if you aren't eating loads of carbs you don't need all sorts of antioxidants.

I am glad that you lost weight just eating right. But to assume that is everyone's issue is very damaging. You have no idea how much it hurt when people just said 'eat healthy and exercise'. I took up running, I ran a LOT. I ate 'healthy' ie multi grain carbs, lean meats, lots of fruits and veggies and very little crap. I lost next to nothing despite nearly half a year of trying. Full blood work showed no issues. And then to have people say "well only if you ate less" "or you need to be more active" (more active than 5-8K every other day?!!?) "or just eat healthy" It hurt. It made me feel like a failure. Sure if you eat less you will loose weight. I cut calories back to 600 a day plus exercise a few years ago. THAT is how far I had to cut to loose weight. And I did lol. I lost 60 pounds. But it was horrible, I was miserable and it was no way to live so they all came back on.

There is LOADS of research often ignored (no idea why) of very very good research, very non biased with good results. That shows low carb diets actually are very healthy and reduce the risk of cancer.

One has to consider that "eating healthy" is set up by bureaucrats, lobbyists, and politicians. That's what we've been taught for years. Our diets were based on grains and corn because it is easy to grow, store, and process. It isn't really all that healthy for a multitude of reasons. But it does make it easy to feed a nation, which is what they're concerned about. Then the ag groups got strong and we get what we got.

I took a second read of the carb section in my nutrition book. Apparently, a small percent of the population has a higher insulin response and tend to gain more weight when on a high carb diet. Overall, statistics show that people on a high carb diet weigh the same or less than those on a high fat diet. So, eating fewer and "better" carbs apparently is the answer for a select few with high insulin response. In the general population, however, carbs are not the major culprit.

And again, I really think most people can certainly stand to reduce their carb intake. I know a lot of people who eat practically a carb-only diet but I also think the general public is too quick to jump on the "low carb" bandwagon and limit their carb intake to dangerously low levels and send their body into keytosis, which is just dangerous.

PS I second the Sparkpeople recommendation. I really like their app and they have nutrition plans.

Not sure if you are talking about me or in general but my goals are long term. I am more interested in getting healthy and adding years to my life than being "hawt". lol

then you should be conderned about eating less carbs. You might want to trade in your nutrition book.

it's hardly a small percentage and a select few that have an increased insulin response. Obesity rates are out of control and diabetes rates seem to double every 10 years since carbs became the staples of people's diets. When 2 million people in this country have insulin sensitivity disease as a direct result from receptors being burned out from eating too many carbs and the resulting insulin response, I'd hardly call that a select few. Diabetes should be a rare disease, not a common one. at the current rates of increase we'll be at a rate of 1 out of 3 having the disease in the next 40 years. That's not a select few.

in the major population, carbs are the major culprit for poor health. They make you fatter. They stimulate hunger they increase the insulin response and women pay attention. you spend billions per year on trying to look younger, and nothing will age you faster than increased insulin levels over the years. You'll age faster than you want to. Save some money and cut out insulin stimulating foods like carbs.

Triglyceride levels in your blood, which are proving to be a better predictor of strokes and related heart disease than cholesterol. wanna know where the majority of those come from? It isn't from the fat you eat. It's carbs again.

They cause long term inflammation in the body, there's the anti oxidant stuff Dekka's already been talking about. In archeological records the first records of inflammatory joint diseases and things like dental cavities are first noted when the cultivation of grains became a staple to the human diet. Just something to think about.

it's not about just cutting carbs, it's about where they come from. Grains, pasta's, white rice etc should be severely restricted, and almost completely eliminated. Carbs from veggies, more than ok. and studies on ketosis vary widely. There are many good arguments that thru evolution, humans are supposed to to use up their glycogen stores periodically, and switch from a primarily carb burning body, to a fat burning body for energy.