Hey, i just been thinking, i rekon i am preety unhealthy, i go to sleep at 11pm, wake up at 6:30 for college, and go to college, then just sit there on the computer, and then at break just go and stand outside, then i get home, and i just sit at computer, so i hardly get any excersise, i mean i tried doing some pushups, and i can only do about 20, if i do those so called "girl pressups" were your on your knees, i can do 40-50, dunno if its my muscles that are weak in my arms or just fat on my boddy and coz of week stomach muscles, coz my upper arm just doesent seem small, i mean, some people are stronger than me, yet there upper arm muscles are smaller than mine :s, i dunno if my muscles must be less developed or somthing :s. Anyway, how many situps, pushups or w/e can you do? i am curiouse to see how unhealthy / week i am. Any suggestions on other better excersises useing no like propor excersise equipment. Also, i am trying to eat more healthy, my parents used to buy me loads of ready meals, such as, curry, caseroles, stuff like lasagna etc.., i told them to stop getting this crap for me and get Special K, coz if its there i will eat it, anyway, i used to usually when i get up at like 11am on weekends have one of these ready meals, then maybe have another one, and then at night at about 9pm whilst watching dog or Southpark have another one, anyway, in the morning i have replaced that with Special K, and at night Special K too, i still have dinner that my mum cooks, anyway, is special K really healthy? is it doing me bad eating that all the time? At college aswell, at dinner we usually go to tesco's, i usually have somthing like chicken and mayonaise sarnie, or chicken wrap, sometimes sushi, and i dont think any of that is healthy, what healthy stuff thats like ready, not needing to be cooked and i find in a supermarket, any recommendations on good food? Oh and about drinks too, what should i drink, i mean at home i usually just drink fizzy stuff, at college i usually live off the pepsi machine lol or the coffe machine oposite it and get mocha, is cranberry juice good? I know this is like a very wierd post, but just wanting advice and info etc.. as i want to loose weight .
Well I'm not super healthy, but I do pay attention to my diet. I tend to steer away from greasy, fatty foods and fizzy drinks - mainly because they cause spots, and mine are almost all gone, don't want more As for press-ups, I can do more than 20 for sure. I can probably do around 40, nothing special but then I rarely ever do press-ups or arm exercises. Special-K is supposed to be good for you, and will most certainly be better than a ready-to-go meal. I eat cereal quite often at night, I do get hungry a lot - if you want to lose weight you shouldn't really eat after dinner. After dinner, the amount of exercise you do isnt suffienct enough (in most cases) to burn off what you have eaten. Try and skip that last snack at night in my opinion. All fruit juices are going to be beneficial to your health, they contain large amounts of vitamins and the sugar in them is better for you than the sugar in fizzy drinks.
The best drink is probably water, drink plenty of it. Exercise for me consists of playing football at the weekend (soccer to those of you in the us) and going to the college gym on fridays to have a workout/play table tennis. A few months ago I used to go running at 7:30am every morning before school, you should try jogging to get overall fitness up. Push ups don't really give a good indiction of fitness, mainly strength. For my diet, for a few years I've been avoiding having greasy foods especially McDonalds. I never go to McDonalds any more, and I don't miss it at all. I try to keep chocolates to 1 small bar a day max. I would suggest keeping off the fizzy drinks, especially if you drink non diet coke etc which are absolutely saturated in sugar. To summarise: Drink plenty of water Stay off greasy and fatty foods Stay off sugar filled fizzy drinks Play sport, and actually have some fun. It's much better when you're playing to win, instead of playing to "get your daily exercise". Choose healthier alternative snacks when you can (a little indulgence doesn't hurt if its occasional) Don't skip meals, have breakfast! Try not to snack in between meals too much.
Good advice from Addis. The most important aspect of your diet is to eat a well balanced range of meals. Breakfast is very important as it starts your metabolism early on in the day. I would try to avoid ready meals as much as possible as the majority of them have little nutritional value and are packed with additives to keep the shelf life up. I was watching something on the TV the other day and one of the additives that is described as a food colouring is actually crushed beetle! All legal and above board :s Try to go for grilled meats like chicken, fish or lean red cuts. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruit and make sure that you have some complex carbohydrates as well, potatoes, rice etc. Its a good idea to stay away from bread as much as possible in my opinion, a lot of people have gluten intolerance and it can make you feel tired and groggy if you eat too much of it. I wouldn't worry too much about how many push ups or sit ups you can do as your muscles aren't even fully developed yet (no offence but you're very young!). Go to the college gym if they have one and start a weight training program. You dont need to go nuts at first just start to get the muscles working. Bigger muscles burn more calories even when you're at rest so it will help to keep the weight off. I would recommend using a step machine or rowing machine for cardio work, jogging does burn a ton of calories but its very hard on the knees and you'll probably tire really quickly if you are unhealthy at the moment. You need to try and get your heart rate up to about 140-150 bpm for 20mins to get the best cardio burn. If you cant manage that work your way up to it in small steps. Finally, drink LOTS of water! You need at least 2 litres a day. Avoid coffee and fizzy drinks as much as possible, they will both dehydrate you. In fact I would avoid fizzy drinks all together if you can.
Woah, crushed beatles, thats sick, what additive is that ? Thanks for all the advice guys, its really helpfull. In my room is have this wierd excersise thing, all it is, is your put your feet in it, and then its got a spring in the middle that connects to this handle which you hold, dunno what it is, but what stuff can i do with that? Are beans healthy?, what about pailu rice?, i like the curry beans and tika flavourd beans etc.. from hinz, are they unhealthy?, i have lots of other things like pikel, pikeled onions, stuff like that, is all that ok too?, i dont really like apples, but i like banannas, are they good?. Also, i know chocolate is fatty, but is dark chocolate actually fatty? as milk is not used right? so it cant be that fatty? I really really dont like water on its own, so most of the time i drink the C orange juice, dunnow ho makes it, but its got a big C on the front, i also like Ocean spray cranberry juice, are these unhealthy and filled with sugar?
Orange juice isn't a bad idea, I think the good ones provide 1 portion of your 5 daily fruits and veg, and the vitamin C helps your body overall. I don't know much about the dark chocolate. That exercise machine sounds a bit like a rowing machine.
Yea but the excersise machine is only like a giant spring with places to put your feet, then you hold onto the other end and like pull.. Also, a couple of days ago, i jumped over a small gate, and even since that my bottom left back has been hurting right, it died down, now today i ran from my house and just went like 7 hourses down, it made my back hurt again :s, i notice i get this alot in my lower back when running or doing stuff, you think thats down to been unfit, my parents say so, but i dunno..
Be very careful with lower back pain, it is probably due to the fact you are sitting down most of the day. Its a good reason to strengthen your muscles as it provides more support and you strain less when your exercising. All chocolate is bad, dark chocolate still contains a huge amount of fat and sugar. Its OK if you have it once or twice a week in small amounts but it had no real nutritional value. Bananas are good, quite high in calories compared with other fruit but there is more out there than just bananas and apples! The beans in baked beans are healthy but some of the sauce can contain a lot of sugar and salt. Its better to go for the reduced sugar/salt varieties if you can but either way its still better than a burger or something. If you dont like water try a low sugar fruit squash to add to the water. Its really important to drink enough fluid.
What kind of excercises can help reduce lower back pain? Oh Oh, what about dried fruit, i love dried fruit, thats ok right?
You need to strengthen your mid section to reduce back pain. Sit ups, or better still crunches (same as sit ups but slowly and only lift half way). Make sure your lower back is flat against the floor and your legs are bent. To do the back lay on your front and lift your head and chest off the floor slightly. Be careful and do it slowly so you dont strain anything. If you're sitting down for long periods keep your back straight and sit upright, try to get up and walk around every 15-20 mins or so. Dried fruit is OK but dont eat too much, maybe a handful a day. You will spend hours on the bog otherwise, trust me!
just a quick comment, kind of off-topic: push-ups aren't a good indicator. There are many ways of doing push-ups, some better, some worse, and some easier and harder. And I don't mean "girl" push-ups (knees on floor) vs. "regular" pushups. Even in discussing strictly "regular" pushups, there are lots of different ways to position your arms and how far to spread out your palms on the floor to make it more or less difficult and to put stress on different muscles. Each modification can make a big difference. Benchpressing, for example, is more universal but even that has different styles and some people have bad form too. Same as above goes for sit-ups, crunches, w/e u wanna call it. Someone may have stronger abs but not be able to do as many if his or her upper torso is larger and heavier, for example. And there are also lots of different ways to do them. It's just not very meaningful comparing those things due to so much variation...
Hmm so I was looking at this thread again just now since I never got to really read through it yet since I've been busy (just skimmed it before). And I don't get all this fuss about sugar. Seriously, I was under the impression that there really isn't much wrong with sugar. Only if you're diabetic. But what makes you unhealthy is fat on your body and cholesterol clogged in your blood vessels. But sugar doesn't really contribute to either. It's eating fatty foods that does. Like greasy junk food or things with lots of saturated fat. Oftentimes, foods like cheap candy contain saturated fat additives like "enriched soybean oil" or something like that. You can often find the word "enriched" on those type of things, and what that means is that they take some oil, which is normally unsaturated, and saturate it by infusing it with hydrogen -- and that's what "enriched" means in the food industry. Saturated fats have the characteristic of being solid under room temperatures, whereas unsaturated fats are liquid -- like vegetable oil. Therefore, they do this "enriching" procedure in order to turn the oil from liquidy into a viscous glaze or something. Like the coating on an M&M candy is probably that stuff. Another additive that can be found in packaged foods all the time is "high fructose corn syrup," which I think is kinda the same idea but I'm not sure. I know, however, that that stuff is bad for you too. At least that's how it works in the US with the list of ingredients which is required by law on all packaging. I have no idea how the UK handles the issue with requiring or not requiring food products to contain a list of ingredients, but I imagine the system must be similar. So anyway, those "enriched" things in packaged foods should be avoided and same with that high fructose corn syrup. That's why stuff like cheap candy is unhealthy but I don't think the sugar itself is. If I am wrong on that, I would really like someone to explain to me why sugar is bad. But for now, I indulge in chocolate all the time and love it lol. And I don't ever get fat, I'm really lean and can run like hell. So I don't understand why u guys are saying chocolate is bad. Even if it is, it can't be anything near as bad as greasy french fries.
LOl, i never ever ever ever eat candy, only chocolate and maybe some midget gems now and again?, so saturated fat is what all hardens in ur blood vessels? uh thats scary, maybe my blood vessels are allready clogged, like when i been sitting down, i remember once, i stood up, got this wierd sudden rush to my head, and heard wierd stuff, sounded like surge of blood, and i nearlly passed out, my vission went nearly white for abit, this happens regular, no were near as bad as that tho, but i can go dizzy, kind of wierd vission, and get this wierd rush to my head, also, when i attempt pressups, it feels like my head is going to explode :s I just found out how far i can run yesterday, and it wasent very far, from bus station to whsmith bus stop as i missed the bus, i almost beat the buss there, but needed to stop 3 quearter way there, and i felt dizzy and hardly couldent stand up, but started running again, and my chest got so sore, mabybe thats something to do with me having asmha (dunno how you spell is lol)
Sugar is very high in calories (400cals/100grams) and your body will turn these calories into stored fat unless you burn it off. Its not really bad for you in small quantities but bear in mind if you eat a lot of it all the time it can actually bring on certain forms of diabetes as it messes with the natural levels of insulin in your body. Enriched oil is called hydrogenated fat or oil in the UK and as stated it is a chemical procedure to turn a vegetable oil into a state more similar to animal fat. It should be avoided at all costs as recent studies show its far more harmful to the body than normal animal fats. Finally, chocolate IS bad for you! Well in large amounts anyway. It has TONS of sugar and TONS of fat! Stop trying to convince yourself otherwise!! LOL!
