Exercise veteran with an eating problem

[fatasticourtney]

Hello all,

 

I am Courtney and I want to move out of a weight plateau. I am constantly battling myself when it comes to food. In the last couple years of high school, I started eating more natural foods, counting calories and exercising, which helped me lose a bunch of extra weight I had put on from puberty. I've always been a little on the heavier side for my height (between 135 and 145 lbs for 5'3) but I am also fairly strong, so I suspect some of that weight is muscle. I don't really ever know because when I do body weight exercises, I struggle (mostly with arms and core), but I know that I can go home and lift an armchair. I don't get it.

 

Since I started college, my diet has gone down the drain. I'm not eating in the school cafeteria anymore, but I always feel guilty when I buy food. Not just guilty for buying bad food, guilty that I have to eat at all. Part of me wants to feed myself well, but I always end up with too little food for the week and then don't go buy more healthy food and end up eating peanut butter for dinner. Not kidding. I know I stress eat, which school doesn't help with at all. 

 

I am not new to exercise. I played a high school sport for four years ( I am only 20 so it's not that far in the past), trained for and ran a half marathon last year and have recently become involved in Martial Arts. My exercise consists of the following: twice a week I practice Karate for two hours (more focused on basics), once a week I practice Karate for three hours (focused on basics for one hour and sparring for the rest), which includes what is basically a 30 minute HIIT conditioning segment. I occasionally go to a kickboxing class for an hour ( not a cardio-workout based class, we do a little strength conditioning and focus on fighting techniques) and once a week I work on footwork or handwork for fencing, which involves warmup with a jump rope and lots of ...well, fencing footwork.

 

I know I can do better than I am right now, but I am unsure how, which is where Nerd Fitness comes in.

 

-Your fellow Rebel

 

[Barfly]

Hi Courtney,

 

Sounds like you've got strength, you do plenty of cardio and you've got some killer ninja skills, too. Can you see what's missing? You mentioned it yourself - diet. You know what to do: with your activity level, you've got to eat plenty. Feel bad that you have to eat? Do you feel bad that you have to gas up your car? Would you rather fill it with premium, or the cheap stuff?

Whenever you can, eat the good stuff. Look for sales. Stock up so you always have something healthy to eat, especially healthy snacks.

Anyways...

Look around the site, there are lots of nutrition and diet forums. Tons of good stuff.

 

Keep in touch,

 

Barfly

[xoek]

I agree and I feel you, I feel like I do enough exercise and try to stay active, my problem is that my fat loss goals are also hindered by a bad overall diet.

[kellbot]

Eating healthy while in college can be really hard. I mostly drank and ate nachos. Now my strategy involves a lot of homemade frozen foods. On weeks when I am too tired or busy to cook, I've got my frozen soups, chili, and casseroles to fall back on. Even the "comfort food" items in there are still better than what I'd be eating if I reach for the stack of take-out menus.

 

What's your kitchen situation now? Are you in an apartment with a decent stove / full size fridge, or stuck in a dorm with a mini fridge?

[fatasticourtney]

Barfly - Thank you for reminding me that I do need to eat. I read your post before I grocery shopped today so I was able to refocus my efforts. I've been reading the NerdFitness articles for about a month now, so I know basic Paleo principles and applied them.

 

xoek - I know we can both overcome our current habits, we just gotta stay focused our missions

 

kellbot - I am in a very good situation; I live in an apartment with a stove and I share a fridge with my roommate. No more dorms for me! 

[peelwandelaar]

I've had the same problem with what I eat, and found kind of a remedy for it. I buy plenty of healthy stuff, and simply don't buy the bad stuff anymore. That way if I get the munchies after a night shift or after a workout I can eat only the healthy stuff I have in house, simply because there is no bread or peanut butter available to me. I always try to have at least 2-3 portions of boiled vegetables, frozen after I prepared them. I work out quite a lot so I always put an extra potatoe in the portion. That way, a single cooking session will provide you with 3 sessions of healthy alternatives. You can add any kind of spice or herb (caramelised onions, garlic, basil, sea salt) to get rid if any blandness of your boiled vegetables.

 

For snacks, you could try eating fillets of trout (we can get them smoked where I live, absolutely delicious) or other smoked fish, dried fruits such as dried apricots, banana or pineapple (dried pineapple is amazing!) assorted nuts (use the unsalted and uncoated ones, and don't eat peanuts). And get yourself a contact grill for your meat, chicken and fish so you don't need to use oil or butter.

 

It all boils down to having tasty but healthy alternatives in house and ready to consume, so you don't have to go out and drive through the hamburger joint. And keep on eating, you have to take in the calories to output them on your workouts in order for them to be more effective, Barfly and Kellbot are right.

 

Finally, osu fellow karateka

[Barfly]

Barfly - Thank you for reminding me that I do need to eat. I read your post before I grocery shopped today so I was able to refocus my efforts. I've been reading the NerdFitness articles for about a month now, so I know basic Paleo principles and applied them.

Cool! You don't have to go 100% paleo either. Balance.

[crazyjerseygirl]

I'm going to pop in with some advice from another angle.

 

It costs a LOT to eat healthy, or so many folks think.

 

Frozen veggies are super cheap and super good for you.  Buy em.

Cheapest dinner I ever made was a bag of frozen Goya stew veggies (these were starchy, but there are other brands) plus the cheapest cut of meat plus 1 can pureed tomato and a can of tomato paste.

 

Throw it all in a pot (with some water of course) and stew for 2 hours, yummy!