Mad Scientists can be Healthy, right?

[RisenPhoenix]

Morning all,

I just joined the Rebel army. Or maybe I should say I intend to join the army. Whether or not I make it past boot camp is another matter entirely.

Anyway, just your average, run-of-the-mill Mad Scientist bent on taking over the world though the wonders of Microbiology. In my spare time of not plotting the world's demise, I can be found reading books (now that grad school is over I can do this again with increasing frequency), cooking meals which do not kill people (that's for the world ending-plots, after all), and practicing aikido.

Any tips on how to do any of these things (or weight loss) better are much appreciated.

[Laureleye]

Welcome to the forums. I don't have a druidical or monkish bent, but the day hasn't come when I won't put in my 2 cents worth anyway.

Do you practice your aikido consistently? If so, what would you like to do on your other days? Beginners body weight is never a bad place to start, or cardio in the form of plain old walking or maybe interval training if you're up for it. As for weight loss;

* Lose the junk/processed/sugary food/drinks. Go primal or paleo if you want. I know you're planning on world domination, but sometimes things go wrong and you'll want to be able to outrun the peasants with their pitchforks. Can't do that if your body doesn't have quality fuel, right?

* Head out to somewhere like myfitnesspal and determine how many calories you need to maintain, and how many to lose weight. You'll find that eating fewer calories is a lot easier once you've cut out most of the junk.

Ask in your guild; I'm sure you'll get more specific advice there. Good luck.

[RisenPhoenix]

Welcome to the forums. I don't have a druidical or monkish bent, but the day hasn't come when I won't put in my 2 cents worth anyway.

Do you practice your aikido consistently? If so, what would you like to do on your other days? Beginners body weight is never a bad place to start, or cardio in the form of plain old walking or maybe interval training if you're up for it. As for weight loss;

* Lose the junk/processed/sugary food/drinks. Go primal or paleo if you want. I know you're planning on world domination, but sometimes things go wrong and you'll want to be able to outrun the peasants with their pitchforks. Can't do that if your body doesn't have quality fuel, right?

* Head out to somewhere like myfitnesspal and determine how many calories you need to maintain, and how many to lose weight. You'll find that eating fewer calories is a lot easier once you've cut out most of the junk.

Ask in your guild; I'm sure you'll get more specific advice there. Good luck.

Hiya!

I do 6-10 hours of aikido classes a week, plus maybe another hour or so of free practice when I can find a willing body (very easy at the moment, since my dojo is nearing it's next rank test). When I started a few months ago I was going to switch off between going to the gym and dojo on alternate days, but found I was absolutely miserable at the gym and just would think about how much I'd rather be at the dojo.

As for food, I do eat surprisingly healthy for a bigger guy - enough so that I've gotten more than a few comments from co-workers. Grad School/unemployment knocked most of the (very expensive) junk food off my list a while back. The same goes for soda/juices - my key beverages are water, coffee (with a dash of milk or half and half), and tea. And the occasional beer or three. My cousin does Paleo and we've talked about it - not my thing, though I am making a conscious effort to reduce the number of carbs I take in (dropping my daily lunch sandwich for.... something to be determined, limiting my rice in take/ changing at least to quinoa, not eating pretzels/cracker goods, etc). Last calorie count I did was rough, so I'm planning on starting a food journal starting tomorrow (new work week and not going to be subjected to these last few Turkey Day leftovers given to me by my family).

That being said, I'm definitely going to join myfitnesspal. Hopefully I can track calories a little better with it's help (though I've heard calorie counting websites can be a pain if you cook most of your own meals, which I do).

[Bekah]

Having an almost entirely Druidical bent, yet needing to lose copious amounts of weight, and entirely on board with your Mad Scientist world domination philosophy (except maybe that I should run things )

my 35 cents on the subject are ditto to what Laureleye said....her plans are great.

Paleo (or as close as you can get) and regular exercise of some strength training/cardio combination (really whatever you want to do will work...I like Yoga (hence the Druidian) because it can encompass both, and give you the focus and clarity that you need for world domination.

I am too fat to adequately practice yoga at the moment...so Im doing the BBW (Steve has a whole post about the Beginners Body Weight Circuits) and walking on the treadmill (On my particularly exceptional days, I do jog/walk intervals) I dont know what Akido consists of in that respect, but supplement it with what it doesnt have, and be consistent and cut out all the crap food (feed the junk food to the prisoners...they dont need to eat well and they wont see your plan because junk food makes people happy, and they wont try to stage a coup)

I'm glad you are here and look forward to getting to know you more

[Bekah]

My version of Paleo is MUCH higher carb than the traditional strict Paleo. I am shooting for mostly grain free...but I eat LOTS of potatoes and if my brain feels wonky from too low carb, I eat rice if I need to. I aim for about 100 grams of carbs per day. So if you feel better doing it that way, which it seems you might, there are lots of us that tweak it too, so do what works for you (not that you wont, but I didn't want you to think we are all strict Paleo purists.

[RisenPhoenix]

Thanks for the tips! Aikido is very... I guess yoga-esque is a way to describe it. It's one of the reasons I skewed a hair more towards Druid instead of Monk during that amazing character creator. It's all meant to be very fluid, bendy, and capable of laying attacking enemies out on the floor without them knowing what the hell happened. But there is very little striking (a few movements which can be actual strikes, but we always practice with a partner and pantomime these. Even pantomimed versions will suffice in 'real' versions of the techniques, since the attacks are meant not to harm, but to throw the opponent off balance), and using strength is something that is actually looked at as an incorrect usage of the technique. So strength training is definitely something I will need (and enjoyed when I was in college and lifting with friends).

Also, in the land of "Holy crap, I didn't see that coming," according to My Fitness Pal, I am not over-eating, but UNDER-eating. Somewhat drastically (based on a two day spread of today and my plans for tomorrow. I guess I AM starting that food journal today). With a tendency to overload on protein (I blame my love of walnuts, chobani yougurt, and chicken for this).

Huh. I think I may have to take my Doctor up on that whole "Visit a nutritionist" thing if this pattern holds true for a few weeks.

[Bekah]

Also, in the land of "Holy crap, I didn't see that coming," according to My Fitness Pal, I am not over-eating, but UNDER-eating. Somewhat drastically (based on a two day spread of today and my plans for tomorrow. I guess I AM starting that food journal today). With a tendency to overload on protein (I blame my love of walnuts, chobani yougurt, and chicken for this).

Huh. I think I may have to take my Doctor up on that whole "Visit a nutritionist" thing if this pattern holds true for a few weeks.

I had/have the same issue, with undereating. I gained all of my weight from medications, and when it came time to lose it. I just didnt eat much and it didnt come off, but I couldnt force myself to eat more (long story there) so I ate LOTS of calories with small amounts of actual food (cheeseburgers and milkshakes...seriously) and I lost a ridiculous amount of weight (almost 80 lbs) and the nutritionist explained it like this--our bodies need a certain level of calories just to function (Basal Metabolic Rate--BMR) and anything below that, our body thinks we are starving, and the heavier your weight, the higher your BMR, so while you may be eating enough for a 130 lb person, its no where near enough for a 200 pound physically active person...so your body thinks you are staving, and holds on to every single calorie it gets its hands on and turns it to fat, to keep your brain fueled first. So you have to eat your BMR at minimum or you will NEVER lose weight, and I gained back that 80 lbs because my default when I am stressed it so not eat, rather than eat more...so the crap hit the fan in my life, I stopped eating again...gained back the weight.

So I totally get that. Chobani yogurt and Chicken <3 (allergic to walnuts...but they are yummy too, I just dont want to die)

[RisenPhoenix]

Yum indeed - except for that whole death thing. I heard that kinda sucks (my current roommate and one of my past roomies are allergic to nuts. It would make me sad.)

It also dawns on me I should maybe put a goal in here. I'm 26, I wear a size 40-ish pants, and I weigh ~250 pounds. I would really like to lose 30 pounds and/or fit into size 36 jeans. If I lose more, cool, but at the moment, I'm trying to keep things realistic by putting a 10 pound weight-loss achievement in front of me and seeing how it goes from there. Here's to hoping, right?

[Bekah]

I'm trying to keep things realistic by putting a 10 pound weight-loss achievement in front of me and seeing how it goes from there. Here's to hoping, right?

You can join the challenge, its all about working on specific goals.

My take on weight centered goals, is that they are a bad idea....our bodies do crazy shit, and I can gain and lose 5 lbs in one afternoon, depending on things as simple as how much water I drank in the morning. Have you ever heard of SMART goals? (Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timed)

A better idea if you want to have a goal of "lose weight" that is more do-able...would be something like your fit into a size 36 jeans by June 1st (and adjust it after you get an idea of how much you lose on average once your food is ironed out, if you think you will make it before then, or maybe it will take longer) rather than something like an open ended 10 lbs. Most of us (it seems like anyways) use the 6 week challenges as built in time deadlines and base our goals on those (like one of mine is to be grain free 100% at the end of the challenge) and I know that for me, focusing on the scale is a BAD idea, so Im not even going to weight myself at all. I have an idea of what my weight is, but I will know im losing if my clothes get looser, and will take pics at the beginning and end of each challenge to have a visual of how I'm going along.

You dont have to take my advice obviously, but thats what works for me.

[Laureleye]

You can join the challenge, its all about working on specific goals.

My take on weight centered goals, is that they are a bad idea....our bodies do crazy shit, and I can gain and lose 5 lbs in one afternoon, depending on things as simple as how much water I drank in the morning. Have you ever heard of SMART goals? (Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timed)

A better idea if you want to have a goal of "lose weight" that is more do-able...would be something like your fit into a size 36 jeans by June 1st (and adjust it after you get an idea of how much you lose on average once your food is ironed out, if you think you will make it before then, or maybe it will take longer) rather than something like an open ended 10 lbs. Most of us (it seems like anyways) use the 6 week challenges as built in time deadlines and base our goals on those (like one of mine is to be grain free 100% at the end of the challenge) and I know that for me, focusing on the scale is a BAD idea, so Im not even going to weight myself at all. I have an idea of what my weight is, but I will know im losing if my clothes get looser, and will take pics at the beginning and end of each challenge to have a visual of how I'm going along.

You dont have to take my advice obviously, but thats what works for me.

I second Bekah's advice here. Take measurements or pick out some goal-clothes. By the way, the nice thing about the beginners body weight (or the angry birds) is that you don't need no stinkin gym, you can do it anywhere.

[RisenPhoenix]

I definitely have a few more goals besides the weight thing - my weight's just pretty solid over time, hence why I tend to go by it. I do have some goal clothes that I'm hoping to fit into, and I have taken measurements of my neck, chest, stomach, waist, and thighs to document what happens over time. I've got a bunch of reading and planning to do, but I plan on making some more solid plans in the next week or so. Or maybe 2 weeks. Once my rank test for aikido is done and I'm not going crazy about it.

[Bekah]

Kick ass You can do it, Im sure of it!

[minderly]

Morning all,

I just joined the Rebel army. Or maybe I should say I intend to join the army. Whether or not I make it past boot camp is another matter entirely.

Anyway, just your average, run-of-the-mill Mad Scientist bent on taking over the world though the wonders of Microbiology. In my spare time of not plotting the world's demise, I can be found reading books (now that grad school is over I can do this again with increasing frequency), cooking meals which do not kill people (that's for the world ending-plots, after all), and practicing aikido.

Any tips on how to do any of these things (or weight loss) better are much appreciated.

ooh, what's your focus in micro?