Day 1 of journey. Hello, Names Anthony. (pics Inside!)

[clerythecleric]

Hello,

I'm here to introduce myself... Names Anthony. I have been working at a desk for the last 5 years and have done virtually NO exercise. I'm vegetarian yet diet consists of pizza, chips, sweets, chocolate, Coca cola. As You can imagine i'm VERY unhealthy however I have made a conscious decision to start doing something about that today.

I have an exercise bike that i purchase a while back which I have just started using today. I ran through a 10minute intensive workout however I was only able to do 4nhalf minutes and i was too physically exhausted to continue. I'm hoping with time and dedication this will ramp up and i'll be doing 10 minutes a day without any problem.

I'm a COMPLETE NOOB when it comes to exercise, diet and how to 'take care' of myself but I plan to take action and change that. Below you'll find pictures (I know very unattractive) which i plan to take on a weekly basis to showcase 'journey'. I'm joining a number of forums and plan to make 1 of them 'home', I plan to take onboard any advise i can get about both exercise, plans and nutrition.

I think biggest struggle through this journey will be diet, It may sound stupid to some but i just have no idea what to eat or how often or how to work out if i'm eating the right stuff? I have been through documents and forums posts ect... What I feel i really need is just someone to give me a weekly schedule and say 'This is what you eat' and 'This is when you eat it'. I know i am unlikely to find anything like this but that would be the best way for me. The exercise itself doesn't scare me as although iam unhealthy i'm also a very determined person and as a passionate gamer.. Once I set a goal I stick to it until I reach that goal.

So Hello to everyone, I look forward to meeting and speaking with you in future.

Thank you for reading,
Anthony

Pics:
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[Boss Man]

Hi Anthony, good to talk to you

Firstly WELL DONE, for taking this first vital step to a better you. This is all about the long-term not the short-term so you do have to be patient and realise it won't always go smoothly and it will take a reasonable amount of time and then many years of effort and sensibility to prolong results.

I'm not trying to patronise you, but you do get some people who think what equates to unfeasible levels of results, relative to an approximate or exact time frame, can actually happen, or they think the results should be centred around cosmetic change and seemingly for one event, rather than seeing things as a "bigger picture" scenario for the rest of their life.

As for the something like the diet, I feel this would be a good starting point before addressing exercise and I could just give you a plan that would be feasible to work with, but I would rather address current habits, to see if you are doing things that might require wholesale change or just some tweaks here and there, but despite your admissions making it look like you might be better off with the former scenario, I don't want to prejudge on this occasion and assume that is so, so what times do you eat at and what foods do you eat at those times?

[clerythecleric]

Hi, Thanks for the reply.

I Understand exactly as you say. While I do want to lose weight and possibly tone in the process. I'm not aiming for a quick 'cosmetic' change with the intent of going back to bad habits later on. I want to change the style of whole life. Currently up until now, I didn't exercise or go out and i'm not a very active person. I want to eat healthier, feel healthier and be thinner/better shape. I don't expect a dramatic change over night.

Now, As for eating habits. Up until now they have been very very bad, I had no plan and no structure. Sometimes I would eat just a pizza in the evening and nothing else all day and other days I would eat Super noodles, egg noodles, Pasta caked in butter just whenever I felt like it.

Today I have been to tesco and bought the following;
Rice, Sweet and sour sauce, Quan sausages, Quan Chicken bits, Lettuce, Raisins, Bananas, Pistachio nuts, Brand flakes as well as porridge.

I tried to get stuff that I felt was not that bad for me but that I would believe to be filling and provide energy. current plan (feel free to point out any flaws) for breakfast is to alternate between brand flakes/weetabix mixed with fruit and porridge on other days. I have breakfast around 9 O clock in the morning. I then plan to do cardio exercise a hour after breakfast (around half 10, luckily with job I work from home 2 out of 3 days + weekends and so getting this in will not be difficult for me). A small snack of fruit after exercise and shower...either a banana, pack of raisins, maybe some apricots or an apple. I then plan to have lunch around 1 O clock (possibly 12 if i find i'm getting too hungry, I will have to adjust accordingly) which would consist of 1 of the following (to be determined when i completely write up plan).

1.Rice in sauce with some quan sausages cut up or quan chicken pi eases.
2. A salad made up of Tomato, lettuce, a small amount of salad cream.
3. Tortilia wraps with Quan mince cooked in sauce with bits of lettuce and a small amount of strong cheese ontop

At around 3 O clock I will have a snack consisting of either a hard boiled egg, some pistachio nuts (as i'm told they are good protein) or some ready to eat apricots.

I will then have dinner in the evening around 8 O clock which will consist of the same things mentioned earlier. As I have never really cooked before I don't know many recipes so I will be doing more research into healthy recipes I could do to have at dinner and lunches in those times but this is what I have come up with so far and what I have planned to stick to this week.

Throughout the day I plan to drink as much water as I can as I've been told this is important, With all these changes I'm expecting energy to increase quite alot as currently i'm drained ALL the time which I owe to life style.

Feel free to criticise if i'm doing something wrong or suggest something better =)

[Boss Man]

Some of your snacks look a bit low calorie and the last thing you want to do is under-eat as that can be counterproductive.

I've given this eating strategy to people before, so hopefully it should work for you.

Breakfast

Option 1.

Bowl of Whole-grain Cereal and 1 rasher of Bacon, fat trimmed off and scrambled Eggs, (2 Egg Whites + Yolk)

Option 2.

Protein shake, small portion of Nuts, (excluding higher carb ones like Cashews, Chestnuts and Grapenuts), + Apple. Give the Apple 10-15 minutes to digest to improve digestion.


Snack

Option 1.

Portion of Turkey + Orange

Option 2.

Small Portion of Peanuts, some Chicken + Raw Carrot.


Lunch

Option 1.

Large Beef Sandwich with trimmings, I.E. Tomato, Lettuce, Cucumber etc.

Option 2.

Bowl of Chicken Soup, + Pot of yoghurt.


Snack

Option 1.

Turkey + Cashews

Option 2.

Ham + 2 large Tomatoes


Dinner

Option 1.

Pork with mashed Potato.

Option 2.

Chicken and Rice

Option 3.

100g Halibut + Broccoli


Snack

Option 1.

Beans on Toast

Option 2.

Ham Sandwich, no trimmings.

Easy on the bread with both options.

You could add a few things to certain meals, like Sea Salt, Cracked Black Pepper, Parsley, Mustard, Herbs, Garlic.

[clerythecleric]

Hi Boss Man, Thank you so much this is exactly what I was hoping for.
I have only 1 small issue, I'm vegetarian :O. If i substitute the bacon and ham ect for 'vegetarian' alternatives (Veggie bacon, Veggie Ham) will that still be ok?

All of the things you suggest have 'veggie' versions of them but i'm assuming the nutrients and proteins ect won't be the same?

Regards
Anthony

[Boss Man]

Yes you could do that, but of course there would be a few minor differences in the nutrient profile of the alternatives, but nothing major that might hamper any benefits of the plan, I would have thought.

[clerythecleric]

So far so good. Only been 1 week and noticing some big changes to . Looking forward to what i'll show in a month or even in a year