Starting Paleo and 2 body weight workout questions

[Kroonermanblack]

Gettings all! I started eating paleo today (following the whole 30 program, as close as I can). And started the 'beginner body weight' workout today, so I have a few questions.

First: should I be worried about taking on 'too much' by doing a drastic diet change, and starting a workout regime at the same time?

Second: I found I was ok on pushups, plank, row (might want to up my weight here, 10lbs too puny to start?), the lunges and squats killed my thighs. The question is, should I skimp on these for now, doing, say, 5 of each instead of 20, while doing all 3 sets? Or would I be better off doing the full 20 squats and lunges, and only doing 1 set? I expect it's the former, because I actually did the latter, and think I could have done a bit more.

Third: Stretching as a cool down. I've never really stretched, so the only 2-3 stretches I know are hamstrings (bend at the waist and touch my toes) and thighs (try to pull the foot over the head while standing). Oh, and the 'give yourself a one armed hug' for arms.

Fourth: I had a bout with gout back in January, where my foot swelled up to a football size. I thought I was all better, but doing the lunges I discovered I was hesitant to flex that foot the same way I was flexing the other one, leading to me nearly falling over. Bad form? Will it get better as I work out more, and restor confidence? There wasn't any actual pain, but the flare up in the past was severe enough to give me mental blockage I guess.

Fifth: Since my goal is weight loss, should I be eating a before and/or after snack/meal of any type? Or can I just stick to my normal eating routine? Today I worked out around 530, and I would normally eat around 6 or 7 (but I'm typing this now and am running a little late).

[Centurion]

I'll answer what I can as best I can:

1) 'Taking on too much' is a very personal thing, of you can cope with a drastic diet change and a workout regime then do it but if it means that a short time down the road you give up because you've bitten off more than you can chew then you've obviously done yourself little good for the long run and would probably have been better off easing into it (for example not going full out paleo straight away)

2) I'd say as far as body weight exercises go, where the only variable you really have is the number of total reps, more is better. So I'd say doing 1 set of 20 lunges/squats is better than doing 3 sets of 5

3) Personally I'm not sure there is a huge need for stretching if you are only doing bodyweight workouts. It seems to me that everyone has a different opinion on this, some say you should stretch before working out, others at the end. For me I've found as long as you are 'warmed up' you should be fine, you're unlikely to injure yourself using just your body. I never stretch when I'm doing any kind of workout on my own but I try to do regular stretching for flexibility rather than injury prevention

4) Not sure

5) Not sure about the actual mechanics of eating at certain times (again there seems to be a lot of differing opinions on this) but my only suggestion would be to not workout for an hour after eating but that is more to do with not throwing up if you do an intense workout rather than being about optimising weight loss

Hope that helps

[SpeedRacer]

If you're worried about taking on too much I would slow down (unless you're 300lbs+ and you drastically need to change for immediate health reasons). The reason is, because the feeling like you're taking on too much or changing too much too soon will leave you wondering "But I was happy before..." What you want to enact in your life is a gradual change, I don't know how old you are, but I'll guess that it took you your entire life to develop your eating habits and what you do. It's not going to be like a lightswitch to just cold turkey off wheat and gluten carbs, when you start craving and having to fight against yourself to not eat bread, that's when you'll start thinking "This sucks, I want to be happy again,"

Something I did was I gave myself a year. One year ago I made a decision to be healthy in a year. In that years time I weaned myself off all the crappy foods I was eating and learned how to cook and exercise properly. I'm only just now enacting all of the knowledge I've accumulated. You've got your whole life to be healthy, it's not a race.

[Kristen]

1. Maybe. But 30 days is a good amount of time to figure that out. If you feel beat, ease off a bit or take an extra rest day. If you feel strong, go for it.

2. Do as many as you reasonably can without killing yourself. When you're starting out, just shoot for a total number of reps. It doesn't matter much how you break them up. You can worry about numbers and programming as you get used to exercising and set more specific goals.

3. Always stretch. Every day. Even if you don't exercise.

4. Try some mobility exercises to target that foot. I had a surgery on my foot years ago and it took a few months of physical therapy to get all the mobility back in that leg, foot, and ankle. Most of it was mental, I think, but there was some pain working through it. If it hurts, ease up, but don't stop working on it.

5. I don't see any merit to following a strict eating plan unless you're an elite athlete. Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full. If you need a schedule for personal discipline (I do), by all means go for it. I just shoot for 3 square meals a day, plus snacks as needed.

Good luck and welcome!