halftruths

What Alecto said. The portion control aspect of calorie counting can be very important, especially if you have difficulty identifying true hunger between meals and satiety when you are eating. If you are accustomed to eating quickly and feeling full based on belly distension, then controlling the amount you eat at each meal by going for a certain caloric target can be extremely useful; you learn other body satiety signals, and rapidly learn what is physical hunger vs. just being "snacky". If calorie counting helps you get there and helps you determine how much and what type of food you need, go for it. It actually works extremely well for me, regardless whether I'm trying to cut or trying to gain.

Right now I'm working with inverse rows, weighted rows with resistance bands, negatives (as described above by bigm), and assisted pull-ups. The negatives and assisted pull-ups I do in a nearby playground, and I've noticed a huge difference in just a couple of weeks. I can't yet do a full pull-up, but I have made gains in terms of how far I can pull myself up. It's very encouraging, I would definitely recommend giving them a try. Playgrounds are genius for improvised workout equipment.

Never underestimate the value of beating the living crap out of an inanimate object!

All gym goers must also sport stoic expressions at all times. Anyone showing effort through undesirable facial contractions must leave immediately. The Planet Fitness staff must point and laugh as the perpetrator is shamefully ejected from the premises.

Freeweights. Coming in second is a selection of decent high-octaine exercise DVDs when I don't have the brain or willpower to push through a workout on my own. Third is my jump rope. My current #1 most anticipated addition to my home workout equipment is a big honking hanging heavy bag. Mr. Halftruths and I are setting up our own mini dojo in our basement and that is our most desired item. We love hammering away on them whenever we get the chance, and we now have the space for one of our own.

Dio's advice is good. I go through periods where my appetite doesn't just take a plunge - it rejects food altogether. This is usually tied to periods of high stress. When does your appetite decide to go on vacation? Are there any triggers or circumstances that are consistent with this? When my appetite takes a dive, I try to eat according to the clock and not according to a physical sense of hunger; in these periods, physical hunger feels the same as nauseous don't-you-dare-put-anything-in-me anti-hunger, so I can't trust it. I'll have small amounts of food around the times when I normally would be feeling hungry. Like Dio said, stick to easily digestible food in small portions. Smoothies can be good for this, and I find that whole-grain foods, veg, and basic proteins like eggs sit well.

This sort of self-talk is going to get you nowhere. There are variations you can apply to any exercise to make it possible. Try focusing on what you CAN do instead of on what you can't. As Oogiem said, a change in your mindset has to come from within. Work on that, and if you need to find someone who can provide external motivation, then join some sort of physical activity class that you enjoy or look to investing in a few sessions with a personal trainer who can tailor a fitness routine to suit your abilities. Get the crap food out of your house. Honour yourself enough to feed yourself quality food instead of disparaging it as "fancy" food. Fight the self defeating, self despising talk and drown it out with something more positive. Scream it if you have to. You said something very telling: "...trying to do the pushup, failing, falling down again, then realizing my fat is comfortable..." Maybe it is the excuses that are comfortable, and that you are using the fat as an excuse to avoid pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. This means one thing: you need to stop making excuses.

Planks and their gillion variations!

Correlation does not imply causation. Diseases caused by poor nutrition, poor hygene, and lack of physical activity cannot be narrowed down to the consumption of one, single, culpable food type. Nor can the lack of such diseases be boiled down to the consumption of that same food. Don't oversimplify.

Indeed. The bodybuilding capabilities of a well-grown 17 year old are going to be vastly different from those of a smaller 14 year old.

Hey Masaru - way to go on starting your epic quests! You should look at making your Pain & Sweat Quest much more specific - the other quests are pretty reasonable as far as solid goals go, but "Establish a workout habit" might be a bit trickier to achieve without the what, how, and when laid out. How do you want to establish the habits, what sort of workouts and activities will you do so, what is your workout schedule, and how are you going to make sure you stick to it? And nope - none of these quests are easy, not by a long shot. Stepping out of your shell and developing new habits is never easy, but it definitely gets a heck of a lot easier as time goes on!

Gratz, Thrym!! BMI might not be perfect, but it can definitely help to track and measure your goals and progress. And you've indeed made damned good progress. W00t!

Bow chikka bow wow!

Holy crap, dude, listen to what everyone else is saying and start eating a) WAY more calories, and WAY more varieties of food. Being on such a restrictive diet at your age when you do not medically need to lose weight is insane, stupid, and damned dangerous. Let's hit some facts here, which will just repeat what other people have already said: 1) You are 14 2) You are growing 3) Your caloric needs as a pubescent adolescent are VERY different from that of a fully grown adult 4) You will gain fat at this age. Your body NEEDS fat at this age if it is to properly regulate its own hormone production 5) You will likely not achieve the sort of bulking and cutting you want until you are at least a few years older 6) Being on a restrictive diet designed to cut fat at your current age will likely cause you to get further from your goals 7) Your current mentality and panicked approach to diet, exercise, and body composition could be setting you up for a lifetime of disordered eating and fitness behaviours. That will do you no favours in the long run. Seriously, you need to put the calipers, measuring tape, and scale away for the time being. You want to be healthy and set yourself up for good muscle gains as you grow? Focus on the following: 1) Learn how to cook. Learn how to cook well, how to cook a wide variety of foods, and how to cook healthy meals. That way you will always have the tools you need to eat healthy, interesting food (as well as seriously impress any current or future love interests). 2) Develop your palate so you learn to like a wide variety of foods. Develop a taste for sashimi. Investigate traditionally fermented vegetables. Methodically try every piece of produce in your local grocery store, then try every piece of produce in your closest ethinic grocery store. Stay away from junk, from processed foods, and from excessively sugary drinks. 3) Try a wide variety of sports and fitness activities and figure out which ones you enjoy the most. Note: focus on the ones you ENJOY the most, not the ones you think are going to give you the bulk and muscle you are looking for - this will help you develop good exercise habits and discipline. 4) Establish good sleeping habits. So your friends are up at 2:00 am playing the latest Halo. Want to be fitter than them? Want to do more for your body then they are? Get your ass into bed at a reasonable hour and clock between 8 and 10 hours of sleep every night. 5) Become aware of your own body's clues so that you can recognize and respond to it when it tells you when you need to eat, when you need to work out, when you need to rest, and when you need to sleep. 6) Eat enough food. 1500 calories is entirely too little for a small-framed 14 year old in a growth phase who wants to gain weight. If you want to here the sort of advice that people are giving you here from a professional, talk to your parents about seeing a nutritionist and a personal trainer who specializes in adolescents. If they won't send you to one and you are still wanting to get a plan tailored specifically to your needs and goals, save up your money and make the appointments yourself. Take these steps and the advice everyone else in this thread have been giving you and you'll be a living Adonis by the time you are 19. People will be wondering how the hell you do it and it will be so effortless and second nature you'll be amazed that people live any other way.

Love mine. I use it for a wide variety of pains 'n' aches. I got mine from a fitness store and purchased the more expensive high-density foam roller, like they have at my physiotherapist's office. It holds its shape longer than the cheaper ones, so is worth the extra couple of bucks.

Yah, mountain climbers are a great full-body exercise, as they also require you to work arms and abs/core in order to maintain proper form. For variations on lunges, I like weighted pendulum lunges (I hold one dumbbell in each hand - the guy in the video progresses to one dumbbell held overhead. Start without dumbbells and see how you do before using them), as well as jumping lunges to build explosive power. You can hold dumbbells during jumping lunges as you get stronger.

Welcome to the rebellion! Fellow karateka here. I'm not a big fan of running, but it's growing on me and part of that is due to how we train at my club. We do quite a lot of running, and usually spend half an hour to fourty minutes doing pure conditioning at the start of each class. Generally, we to either a really varied run (which includes hallways, stairs, parkades, fields, pretty much wherever Sensei takes a notion to go), or alternate sprints with full-power katas (sprint/run one loop, then do one kata, then do the running loop again, then do the next kata, etc), or wind sprints with random periods of techniques, push-ups, leg-raises, whatever worked in. The end result was that by the end of my first four months with the club, I could finally run 5 k. I've since started going on additional runs a few times a week during lunch. It's good for conditioning, and the gym across the street is to damn expensive. In terms of getting into shape for a fight, though, the short sprints are more useful than endurance running. In particularly, the run/sprint loops with alternating katas really works well. Additionally, you can do 30 second sprints or 90 second flat-out runs (depending on your level of fatigue), then rapidly cycle through a set of body-weight strength exercises (pushups, walking planks, etc), then explode back into the sprint/run loop. I find that this sort of stop-and-go activity more closely mimics the type of aerobic and anaerobic energy expenditure you get into a fight.

I like raiding the library for workout DVDs and trying out a whole bunch of different routines. It's a good way to get in some variation, and some of the DVD trainers are pretty good at yelling through the TV screen. You also might want to look into joining a specific activity or fitness group - BAM, instant social workouts. There are lots in each community with reasonable member dues. Look outside of the Big Shiny Gym to find an activity group. College and University campus recreation programs usually have lots on offer and their rates tend to be pretty inexpensive. That's how I found my karate group.

If you can push through another work out, go for it! Watch your form (as always) and see just how much you are really capable of doing. It can be really surprising how much you are still able to do. Like andygates said, your ability to move around will improve drastically once you warm up. Do expect to still be sore the following day, though, whether or not you do a workout. My DOMS take several days to go away completely, but working out really helps. Not doing anything will make it difficult to establish good exercise habits and will make the soreness last longer!

What everyone else said. I get wicked DOMS too, in particular whenever I alter my workouts to something really different. Both my husband and I could barely crawl out of bed the day after our first kickboxing torture session despite regular training in karate. When I was getting back into fitness after a period of laziness, my university classmate likes to give me a hard whack on the backside when they saw my hobbling around with sore muscles. Apparently my response, usually in the form of howled curses and invective, was entertaining. It was how they showed they care. Savour the DOMS. It is the sweet, sweet pain of self-improvement. I find that getting up and active helps a lot. Don't expect to crank through a heavy workout, but go for a brisk walk and stretch. The first few minutes of walking will be hell, but once your muscles warm up and get moving, it gets a LOT better and really cuts down on the soreness. And yep - the second day is always the worst for me too!

In my karate club, we start of class with a 40 - 45 minute workout which usually involves a fair bit of running. When I'm starting to peter out, I stop running and start chasing the person in front of me...then, if I pass them I chase the next person, and so on. Chasing is more fun, predatory, and ninjaish than just running!

In regards to the food issue, if your parents are concerned that things are going to get repetitive, try involving them in the conversation. Get a few cookbooks from the library that sound interesting, and show them the recipes you want to try. Keep the conversation away from the adherance to any one specific diet (ie: if you start bringing up Paleo as a food goal, they're going to assume you are getting neck deep in fad diets) and focus more on wanting to learn how to cook and being interested in trying out different types of cuisine. This could be approached more gently by wanting to try making different cultural foods - Japanese cooking, Thai food, traditional German fare, etc. You could also go the approach that you are learning about nutrition, food culture, etc in school and want to try different things out at home. Basically, bring the conversation away from a diet-and-fitness focus - after all, you know your parents aren't going to go for that - and bring it towards a food exploration/curiosity approach. You are more likely to be given the chance to take the reins in the kitchen that way. Show your parents the recipes you want to try, ask to go to the grocery store with them so you can get the ingredients, focus on how much fun it will be and how nice it will be for someone to cook for THEM for a change. Incidentally, it may be impossible for you to go full paleo with the circumstances of your daily life. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to improve your diet. Slow carb would likely be a more reasonable target, or simply going for a general reduction in starchy carbs and increase in veg and high quality protein. It would be more achievable and more palatable for the rest of your family. That doesn't mean that you aren't doing it "right". To borrow a phrase from one of my favourite bloggers (http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/), don't let your perception of the perfect be an enemy of the good. If all else fails, you can control the portions you take at the meal table. Dish up your own food, learn how to eyeball portion sizes (play around with measuring cups and different kinds of food when your parents aren't there to fret), and instead of asking for more meat or fewer potatoes, simply take more meat and don't eat all your potatoes. If cutting out the starch completely freaks your parents out, make sure to eat some, but ease back on the quantity. If you are usually served your plate pre-loaded at the table, be there before everyone sits down and help serve the food. Don't harp on why you are doing it if that causes your parents anxiety; I have a very fretful mother, and I find that going into detail about why I'm doing what I'm doing sets alarm bells off. If I just go ahead and do it without even bringing it up, then things remain a little more chill. In regards to the fitness aspect, good for you for starting up the running! I agree with many of the above suggestions - I'm a karateka and first became fit and became interested in fitness when I joined TaeKwon Do when I was 14. Needless to say, I'll always recommend martial arts as a way to fitness, but a big reason for that is because it gives you someone else at the front of class pushing you to work harder even when your body and mind have had enough. At the beginner level, it can be difficult to gauge whether or not you are physically pushing yourself as hard as you need, so having that other person there pushing you is very beneficial until you become more aware of what exertion levels you can reach. It doesn't have to be martial arts - it can be just about anything that piques your interest. If you join a physical activity group of some description, mix in some bodyweight strength training on your non-group days. This will keep you active most days of the week, and provide variety in your routines. PS: Parents will always fret - it's their job. I'm nearly 30 now and my parents have been fretting about me getting hurt in martial arts ever since I started at age 14, and my mom STILL eyeballs my plate suspiciously when I'm eating together and she's in a "you're feeling thin" phase. I'm sure I'll do it to my kids, too!

I've started using it as one of the main cooking oils when I'm making anything that I want to have a sort of South East Asian or Thai flavour to it. It is REALLY nice with pork, as well as lightly flavoured veg like snap peas, bell peppers, and the like. I recently did a stir-fry with snap peas, bell peppers, pork, and mango, cooked with coconut oil and thai basil, and it was divine. I would avoid using other strong seasonings with the coconut oil, though, as the flavour is fairly delicate; ginger, for instance, would overpower it.

Activity wise, my karate group is quite inexpensive (about 180$ for twice weekly classes for a four month semester, with occasional membership dues - $50 - and occasional facility dues when we go to different gymnasiums when the university centres are closed). I used to fork over a great deal of cash when I was dancing four nights a week - classes really added up, and there was the additional cost of the occasional costume or accessory, and I attended workshops which always hurt the pocketbook. I still go to dance class even after backing out of the troupe, but it is the occasional $15 drop-in fee instead of pre-paying for multiple types of classes each semester and I usually only go to a couple classes a month. Very occasionally I go to a semi-private kickboxing class which is $25 for three hours, but that's usually only once a month at the most. I do not have a gym membership. I'd love to get one as there is a gym right across the road from my office and I miss having access to a gym during lunch hour, but the dues are exorbitant (nearly $40 every two weeks, not including membership fees). When I'm in night classes, I do get an access pass to the YMCA gym that is attached to the Faculty of Extension building. It gives me some variety and I really find that the post-work pre-class workout helps me refocus for the evening. On the days when I'm not working out in the evening, I go for a run at lunch. In terms of equipment, I've scrounged most of mine from friends and Freecycle, or at garage sales (just picked up a good, solid set of freeweights for $5!). I don't have a lot of equipment outside of my various freeweights, but Mr. Halftruths and I are going to set up a fitness studio in OUR NEW HOUSE OMG. There will definitely be a bit of cash outlay for that as we are putting down a decent floor and investing in a good heavy bag to hang from the joists. I'm anticipating spending about $100 on the heavy bag, $200 on the flooring, and probably another $200 on miscellaneous furnishings. The nice thing about this is that once the sting from dropping a big wad of cash all in one go is over, it basically becomes next-to-no-cost to have private access to our own custom high quality workout centre. As far as food and supplements go, we do buy high quality farmer's market food. I purchase my meat from local small hold farmers - my sister and I split a pig in the winter, and I'm looking at getting a quarter beef or bison, plus some game meat when my buddies go hunting this fall. I probably spend about $40 per week on produce, another $20 on dairy and eggs, maybe $10 or so on grains, and if I averaged out our meat costs throughout the year, probably another $15 per week on that. Other sundry things will likely average out to an additional $15 to $20 per week and a bit extra for the occasional meal out. We do use protein powder but not a massive amount of it, so that likely works out to another $5 per week. Last time I did an exhaustive analysis of our spending on food, our food bill was about $400 to $425 per month. Keep in mind all of these figures are for two people.

The title says it. Just signed all the paperwork with the lawyers. Glen and I did own a condo before, but we watched the market and decided it was a good time to make the jump into an actual house. With a garage. And a backyard with enough land to set up a small farm, it seems. In the neighbourhood we wanted. In the price range we could afford. And with loads of room in the basement to set up our personal Fitness Studio of Doom and Pain! You will never see a heavy bag hung from the joists with such enthusiasm. We take possession two days AFTER we leave for our Germany Rampage. Here is the other part of the w00t - thanks to diligent planning, a somewhat frugal lifestyle, and a fondness for cheap or free entertainment, we were able to save up for our Germany trip while still squirrelling money away for the house. We didn't plan on doing both at once - the Germany trip was already 100% funded and planned when we realized that the housing market was heavily in our favour. If you know your financial goals and understand how to set priorities, you are totally capable of doing things people say you "can't" do. It takes planning, patience, and discipline, but it doesn't hurt that much (for this w00t, it didn't hurt AT ALL). Right now my brain is going "GermanygermanygermanyHOUSEOMFG Germany House househouse HOUSE GERMANY *explode*" So yes. Ridiculously excited. Much w00tage.