Paleo Noob

[klown07]

Hello everyone. My name is John, I'm 32, married, have a 4 yr old daughter who is my sunshine. I'm from California, 5'6, and I weigh 180 lbs. I'm just going to try and be completely honest and without making any excuses. My wife and I are overwieght, we eat so horribly, love junk food, soda, and sweets. We are always tired and out of shape. And our bad eating habits are spilling over to our daughter, we get all the cheap, bad, processed stuff for us to eat. I'm on social security, I have a hearing aid on one ear, and a cochlear implant for the other. My wife works at a school kitchen. I won't speak for my wife, but I will say for me, I am pretty much lazy, back is bad, I sit at the computer all day every day. I suffer from heart burn, and acid reflux. I am completely out of shape. I came across the Nerd Fitness website, and was blown away by a lot of the stuff I read. Don't even know how I came across it.

 

I am all of the above, no excuses. BUT, I do have the desire and want to change all that. I'm sick and tired of living this unhealthy way. Sometimes literally. We can't afford two separate eating lifestyles, so my wife and I are both on the same page to try and make changes. My short term goal is to lose 30 lbs. But my life long goal to maintain a healthy lifestyle. We currently don't do any kind of exercising. We plan to start next month with this whole Paleo Diet thing. But it's so overwhelming and i have so many questions, don't know where to start. We can be quite picky with foods. Besides water, what other drinks can we have with meals, that are easy and cost effective? What about breakfast? What can we eat for that? what about someone who doesn't work at an office type environment? What can my wife take to eat on the go that will stick with the Paleo Diet? I am more than willing to cook meals, and learn new things. We can't start the Paleo until next month, for many reasons. But, I am more than willing to start on some exercise. I know we are supposed to warm up before doing anything but uh......how do we do that? lol I am a total noob sorry.

 

Thank you all for having me, and I'm sorry for all the questions, I'm very overwhemed. Hello and nice to meet you.

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Hi, John!  Welcome to the Rebellion!!!!

 

You're in the right place and you've made a great decision to get healthy.  Lots of people have similar struggles here - so stick with it.  (BTW, I'm 5'5" and weigh 169 - we're pretty similar since I mostly work at a desk too).

 

Since you are really starting at the beginning, I recommend that you take it slowly and make gradual changes.  That way, you don't get so overwhelmed.  If you really don't do any exercising right now, start with walking.  It's easy on the joints, you all can do it together, and 20 minutes every day will strengthen your body.  Plus you don't need anything special to do it.  Swimming is also good, but depending upon where you live, that can be hard to arrange.  You can also start the basic bodyweight workouts - just use the easiest version of each exercise for a few weeks.  Let me know if you haven't found that list yet. 

 

Food-wise:  Also take it slowly.  Every three to six weeks, make a change .... like cutting out soda.  If you dive into a whole new way of eating, you may find it too hard and give up.  Both body and mind need time to adjust.

 

To answer the questions:

 

1) what to drink with meals.  Water or milk.  If water isn't appealing, you can put a little fruit juice in it, but just a taste.  You might get a filter if the water doesn't taste good to you.  Cut out soda gradually - depending upon what you've been drinking, it may have caffeine.  I drink coffee, and I know all too well what caffeine withdrawal is like.  Youch!

 

2) Breakfast.  I am lazy and eat eggs nearly every day.  I wisk eggs, shredded cheese and some bacon or veggies in a microwaveable bowl and microwave for two minutes (stirring occasionally).  Some places have more ideas, like http://nomnompaleo.com/ - I just don't bother much with cooking in the morning unless it is a special weekend.

 

3) Lunch ideas:  http://nomnompaleo.com/post/41273165683/whole30-day-23-packed-lunch-ideas - I need to work on lunches myself.  I've been considering getting a bento box to make them more interesting, but I'm waiting to see how my job situation turns out. 

 

4) Warmups - for walking:  http://www.pbs.org/americaswalking/health/healthprewalk.html 

 

Take it slow and let us know how we can help.  If you like support and guidance, sign up for the Level 1 Rebels guild for the challenge starting Monday.  Instructions here:  http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/33328-challenge-instructions/ and the guild forum is here: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/forum/352-level-1-rebels/

 

You can do this!!

[klown07]

Thank you so much! Your response is very encouraging. And thank you for answering all my questions. I actually tried out Steve's 5 minute workout last night, and man, I'm so out of shape I felt sick, body shaking, wanted to throw up. I was ashamed of myself not being able to do a 5 minute workout. lol. I'm going to definitely check out the links you've provided and do some bookmarking and reading. I did read elsewhere the same thing you're telling me. Take it slowly. I appreciate that you reminded me because I was ready to dive head on in this thing. I don't want to end up crashing and failing. I appreciate you, this forum is awesome

[Tanuki]

I agree with starting small - actually making big changes can be a bit on the painful side too, as I found when I tried Totally No Carbs day. After a nice breakfast of fruit and yoghurt, lunch of eggs and... I don't remember the rest of the day because I was struck with crippling migraines. Not uncommon, so I hear. Now I'm cutting carbs gradually - no bread at lunch, for example, and then once I'm used to that and have plenty of lunch ideas (no more standing in the kitchen whining like a sad puppy because 'what do you eat if not sandwich?') I'll focus on other meals. But maybe not breakfast. Slowly slowly.

 

Just maybe keep a Paleo awareness whilst starting out on the dietary road - it's going to be hard enough switching from takeouts to cookery as it is, without losing simple things like rice and bread and potato and pasta. Recipes like that (very common, very popular, easy to find and be inspired by) will get you cooking, and then once you're confident with cooking, meal planning, buying fresh produce, then start thinking about how to reduce the rice/pasta. I keep failing at this. I got all pleased at some new recipes I found and made my family risotto and it was only when I sat down that I thought hang on... there's not really much going on in this dish, is there? It's rice with bits in! One thing I'm gonna start doing is making all my usual nice stir fry and Asia-inspired recipes but just skipping the noodles and rice and adding more veg. Same dressings, spices, wines and so on, but losing the mentality of neeeeding to put it on a carb. I'm sure it'll be great on its own, and one less pan to wash.

 

A good first change can be cutting down on refined sugar, corn syrup and white carbs, so swap your bread and pasta for wholemeal. I felt pretty amazing after only a couple of days of doing this. Then it became easier to start reducing amounts. I switched sugary cereal and granola (also very sugary) for muesli (apple and sultana, but my next step would be fruit-free and lower sugar) and tried to stop seeing meals as "pasta/rice/potato with things on" and more like "proteins and vegetables with a small side of carb."

 

Start with cooking. Easy stuff first, work your way up. Once you're confident in the kitchen, you'll be more confident about making bigger changes

[peelwandelaar]

Hey klown07 !

 

When you first start working out -or after years of inactivity- your body has to get used to moving, let alone increasing your fitness level. Over here in Holland we call that "activating your body", and I think it would be a good thing of you concentrated yourself on that the first couple of weeks. Take small walks with your daughter, ride your bike to go shopping if it's not too far and do some chores around the house. Your body needs to get used to moving again before you can put more stress on it, not doing this will only lead to injuries and unnecessary muscle pain and consequently demotivation because your recoup takes longer.

 

For breakfast, you could try coconut milk as a vatiation, mixed with some grated coconut and fruit like blueberries. Really you can make paleo as exotic and expensive as you wish, but there's lots of recipies on NF as well as other sites. My opinion also is to take it slow changing your eating habits to prevent relapses in unhealthy habits or quitting your plans all together because it's too big of a change and too sudden.
 

You can also try reading about the 6 week challenges, they are great to incorporate your fitness and lifestyle desires into permanent habits. 

Rome wasn't built in one day, start with taking baby steps and you will get there! Meanwhile don't hesitate to drop me a line if you have any questions ok?

[Nightside]

Good luck with this, apart from Nerd Fitness which is the go to place there are other excellent sites such as Marks Daily Apple and Fitness Black book which have great advice and some free download books.

For diet advice the "Diet Doctor" site is excellent and has links to a lot of other nutrition sites.

[ehon]

Hello!

 

Congratulations on making the decision to make changes. That's about where I am currently. I have read A LOT of stuff about making changes (ALL habits, not just eating and exercising) and the bottom line has been, like all the responses above me, gradual changes and small realistic goals. I hope to see you and your family succeed. I hope all of us here can be an encouragement. 

[Ãœberleben]

Welcome to the Rebellion

 

Pretty much in agreement with the comments made above.  Slow changes are always better than rapid, massive changes.  If you suddenly turn your eating habits an entire 180, you run a higher risk off falling off of the bandwagon.  I'm sure you don't want that as much as we don't want to see that happen!

 

Also, while paleo/primal is popular here, it's not the be all and end all.  Eating healthily is way more important than religious paleo eating.  If you live on junk food and meals cooked out of boxes, just switching to fresh veggies will make a big difference in the quality of your eating.  Same with cutting out processed sugar/fats/etc.  Take it slowly and focus on what you can do in your budget, not what the guidelines of a specific eating plan are.  If you end up not being able to afford it, you're also likely to fall off of the wagon.

 

The fact that you're here shows that you're wanting to change your lifestyle the best advice you can possibly receive is that it absolutely won't happen overnight.  You're not going to wake up tomorrow and be perfectly paleo, exercising every single day and feeling great about everything.  But you'll do great, the community here are fabulous and are here to help you through the sucky points.

 

Drop me a line if you need someone to help keep you on track or if you need pretty much anything! 

[todssc97]

 Welcome to the Rebellion