Help me get my abs back

[cbx]

You can have it back men. It only takes you wanting to. If it's motivation, which is what I struggle with, join a group type, get lifting buddy, or a trainer.

That's the main difference. Back then you had Sargent Major yelling at you. Now you don't.

This trainer of mine is a real prick to me.....and I love it.

Seize the carp.

[Eurodriver]

I've been watching my diet religiously since I made this thread, and I have done an excellent job of keeping my calories down. This is easy to do simply by counting my calories. Before I didn't care and I would eat an entire large tuscan six cheese pizza from Papa Johns by myself. My buddies would sit on the couch and have 40 wings, three pizzas, the works and just go to town. Now that I know I only need a certain amount and have a goal I can limit myself pretty easily.

The one item that I cannot keep down is sodium. I have an arbitrary limit of 2300mg a day that I thought looked good for my calorie level. I am averaging ~3,200mg/day.

I thought sugar would be what killed me but surprisingly my sugar intake is pretty low. I suppose this is due to not drinking soda or chowing down on a bunch of candy/pastries. Sodium is just kicking my ass though. It's in everything.

[BuzzinSATX]

I've been watching my diet religiously since I made this thread, and I have done an excellent job of keeping my calories down. This is easy to do simply by counting my calories. Before I didn't care and I would eat an entire large tuscan six cheese pizza from Papa Johns by myself. My buddies would sit on the couch and have 40 wings, three pizzas, the works and just go to town. Now that I know I only need a certain amount and have a goal I can limit myself pretty easily.

The one item that I cannot keep down is sodium. I have an arbitrary limit of 2300mg a day that I thought looked good for my calorie level. I am averaging ~3,200mg/day.

I thought sugar would be what killed me but surprisingly my sugar intake is pretty low. I suppose this is due to not drinking soda or chowing down on a bunch of candy/pastries. Sodium is just kicking my ass though. It's in everything.

Congrats on your willpower.

All I would advise is try and eat more raw green leafy stuff, citrus, and ginger as you can fit into your diet, while also upping your water intake. I believe these help your liver and kidneys to process out the crap in the system.

I'd also advise eliminating as much processed food as possible, but you already know that.

Best wishes on your continued success!

[bp7178]

I've been watching my diet religiously since I made this thread, and I have done an excellent job of keeping my calories down. This is easy to do simply by counting my calories. Before I didn't care and I would eat an entire large tuscan six cheese pizza from Papa Johns by myself. My buddies would sit on the couch and have 40 wings, three pizzas, the works and just go to town. Now that I know I only need a certain amount and have a goal I can limit myself pretty easily.

The one item that I cannot keep down is sodium. I have an arbitrary limit of 2300mg a day that I thought looked good for my calorie level. I am averaging ~3,200mg/day.

I thought sugar would be what killed me but surprisingly my sugar intake is pretty low. I suppose this is due to not drinking soda or chowing down on a bunch of candy/pastries. Sodium is just kicking my ass though. It's in everything.

Start cooking your own food and your sodium will drop.

Panera Bread has a ham sandwich that they tout as being a low calorie choice. Which its among the lower, but it's about 2230mg of sodium. In a ham sandwich that's 620 calories. Add a cup of french onion soup and its another 1800mg. That place is worse than McDonalds and dumb people think its healthy.

On the pizza. Two slices would be an entire meal. If you ate the whole thing, its 2560 calories, 104g fat, 24g sat. fat, 6400mg sodium, 304g carbs, 16g fiber and 112g protein.

Eating 2.3lbs of pizza...which is 133g per slice x8 taken from their website...plus whatever you're drinking, would grind your digestion to a halt. With that much sodium you'd feel like shit for days.

[cbx]

Start cooking your own food and your sodium will drop.

Panera Bread has a ham sandwich that they tout as being a low calorie choice. Which its among the lower, but it's about 2230mg of sodium. In a ham sandwich that's 620 calories. Add a cup of french onion soup and its another 1800mg. That place is worse than McDonalds and dumb people think its healthy.

On the pizza. Two slices would be an entire meal. If you ate the whole thing, its 2560 calories, 104g fat, 24g sat. fat, 6400mg sodium, 304g carbs, 16g fiber and 112g protein.

Eating 2.3lbs of pizza...which is 133g per slice x8 taken from their website...plus whatever you're drinking, would grind your digestion to a halt. With that much sodium you'd feel like shit for days.

I second this. Salt is a tough one. You need some salt. But not whats out there.

Learn to like saltless food is my best advice. Restaurant food hard. Way overloaded with salt.

It takes time to learn all of this eating better business. The curve is steep, because the education is lacking. It takes time. You'll get there.

For me and my wife, our own food prep had been the golden key to success.

[para13cord]

If you have an iphone id reccomend trying the myplate app. Its kind of a pain in the ass for the first week or so figuring out the portion sized of the food to get accurate calories, but once you do they are saved so if you eat a lot of the same meals it gets pretty easy.

I agree with what everyone else is saying, if you want to loose bodyfat it is all about what you eat. Having an app like the above or similar that can show you in real time your calorie intake and how its broken down into carbs/fat/protein is very eye opening.

[Eurodriver]

So its been 3~ weeks or so and I'm already noticing results. Certainly nothing drastic, but it's pretty crazy how fast your body can slim down when you aren't cramming 4,000+ calories of fast food into it every day. I haven't really weighed myself. I don't care what my weight is (I'd like to weigh more, honestly) but it's certainly motivating when you begin seeing results.

[Nightstalker865]

So its been 3~ weeks or so and I'm already noticing results. Certainly nothing drastic, but it's pretty crazy how fast your body can slim down when you aren't cramming 4,000+ calories of fast food into it every day. I haven't really weighed myself. I don't care what my weight is (I'd like to weigh more, honestly) but it's certainly motivating when you begin seeing results.

Congrats. Keep up the good work!



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[Eurodriver]

I did some cardio today. I ran three miles in 24:18. Not my best time, but considering I haven't walked much in 8 months, let alone ran at all, it wasn't bad.

The interesting thing was I didn't really get winded at all. I sprinted a few times but felt some pain so I kept it at a slow pace.

I did 15 minutes on a rowing machine afterward and did 30 seconds of intensity every 2 minutes but even that didn't wear me out. I want that feeling where you just bend over with your hand on your knees unable to breath and your heart is about to explode but I can't really think of anything that will get me there that doesn't involve hard impact on my feet.

Ideas?

[bp7178]

If you want to be better at running you're just going to have to run. No way around it.

Most fit people tend to hover at about a 9:00-10:00 pace, so if you're in the low 8 range you're doing pretty good.

I've never been able to get my HR that high on a rowing machine. The resistance just isn't there. A lot of the stationary bikes you can find at your typical gym have interval programs on them that really jack up the resistance. If you can keep your cadence, RPM, high it will gas you pretty quick and is much safer than trying to run repeats or intervals. In general, running fast is going to expose any weaknesses in your form and lead to injury faster. Not that its a huge problem, just be cautions if you're recovering from an injury.