Some Guidance, Please

[heywo]

Hey Folks,

So I'm reaching the point in my weight loss journey where I'm really trying to buckle down and get serious. I started this summer because I had reached 250 lbs and I got pissed at myself. I decided to try and run a 5K which helped me get started and I was able to pull that off.

Currently, I've lost ~25 pounds, so I'm somewhere around the 225 mark. This was mostly achieved through diet, running (I went from not being able to run a mile, to being able to run a 10K now! ), and not much weight training.

My goal is to be around 200 by December. That's when I'm graduating from college and I would really like to be a much more reasonable weight for that event. I'm not going to cry if I don't reach it but I would like to get as close as possible to it.

Basically, I'm looking for guidance specifically on weight training and diet. This is in addition to my running, which averages about 12-15 miles a week (I'm training for a 10K, and next summer will be participating in a Ragnar).

Diet

I'm a college student, and I'm extremely poor. I'm trying to keep my budget around $20/week for food if at all possible. I've budgeted myself to allow a maximum of about $30/week. I like paleo, but it's just not the easiest to pull off so I just try to be as reasonable with my foods as possible given my location (the U.P. of Michigan). Right now it involves oatmeal, pasta, ramen, tuna, eggs, farm fresh meat (from my family), frozen veggies, and any free meals I can squeeze out from events on campus.

Any suggestions/tips for a low-budget college student? I'd like to mix things up and maybe try to eat a bit healthier, but I'm willing to make sacrifices due to cost.

Weight Training

With weight training, it's something I used to do a lot but tapered off. Now that I'm losing weight, I've realized I lost a ton of muscle - back in high school/early years of college I could easily bench around 200+ pounds...now it's a struggle to do 135 at 3x10. I'm easing into it as best I can using information I've gleaned off the forums/Steve's posts.

Right now a friend of mine and I are trying to work out MWF using the basics from this post. I have to admit to being slightly clueless, but I've always been a free-weight and body-weight workout kind of guy, so this stuff is right up my alley and I would really like to learn more.

Most of our workout consists of the basics: planks, bench press, pull ups, chin ups, planks, lunges, curls, push ups, squats, deadlifts, etc. We 3x10 (typically last set to exhaustion) and are doing about 5 exercises during each workout plus some other ones to help fill in the blanks.

My workout buddy is a girl, which actually kind of helps since she rarely weight trains (despite my advice to do so) and I'm obviously not super advanced so we're at about the same level so we can help each other out. I would like to try and get more knowledge to help out the both of us.

So any tips, suggestions for weight training would be great. I'm mostly looking to regain my muscle mass since I've lost so much of it and my workout buddy wants to tone up and become stronger. Simple is great. I'm just looking to learn more and get more serious about it, and figured this is a great community to at least help me get started in the right direction.

Thanks in advance!

[Timmy M]

IMO for your situation you seem to be doing pretty well workout wise, i would say try to keep your carbs around working out and remember u can eat a lot more eggs than Conventional Wisdom says so, so perfect cheap fat/protein source, maybe try to incorporate circuits, supersets and intervals to help burn a bit more fat

a circuit i used to do before i realised i hogged half the free weights room in my rather small gym:

Deadlift, Bench, Squat, Bent Over Row, Lunge, Shoulder Press, Stiff-legged/Romanian Deadlift, Upright Row

can't remember reps but i tended to keep the same weight for the same 4 then dropped it for the last 4 but kept it the same

one that i do now is more explosive but will tax your grip like made and get you nice 'n' sweaty

Clean and Press, Snatch, Overhead Squat, High Pull, Clean, Front Squat, Lunge, Back Squat, Deadlift

same weight (i o 40ish kg) i do 5 reps (each set'll last about 2-3mins like that) but have done 10 before which is pretty tiring, and good luck doing more than 3 sets

[The Purple Diane]

I would get rid of the oatmeal, pasta, and ramen. I know it's cheap, but that stuff is terrible for you. Try and substitute cheap fruits and veggies; try to add more fat if you're still hungry (that will help the weight loss better than carbs).

Good luck! I hope this helps.

[catspaw]

Any suggestions/tips for a low-budget college student? I'd like to mix things up and maybe try to eat a bit healthier, but I'm willing to make sacrifices due to cost.

Your diet is going to be almost everything here (80% diet, 20% exercise is a number that has been floated around). As such, that's where I'm gonna add some tips.

1) Make a few "bulk" (ie: large batches) of paleo recipes with cheap ingredients. A great example of this is this meatloaf. Leave off the bacon (it doesn't need it), and use the cheapest ground-protein (pork, beef, turkey, whatever) you can find. The bulk of it is ground meat, frozen spinach and mushrooms, which you should be able to buy all of for way under a dollar per meal.

2) Egg dishes are your friends. Eggs and vegetables, whatever vegetables are on sale that week. When you go to the grocery store, look at the price per pound of the veggies and pick up whatever's cheapest. Frittatas, omelets, whatever. Great for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

3) If you have a farmer's market nearby, visit it. Ask the people selling their produce what is currently available for cheap.

4) Go to a bulk food store and buy nuts. Nuts are calorie-dense so BE CAREFUL with portions, especially since you're trying to lose weight, but they're extremely filling for only a few pennies.

[Loren Wade]

Catspaw keeps going around and replying to threads with everything I want to say.

Golden words right there. You don't need to eat ramen and pasta. You can still do paleo.

Bulk foods and cooking is incredibly smart right here. You can get a huge bag of frozen chicken breast for less than $10. That'll last plenty long.

You can make this work paleo.

[shinigamiPUNCH]

I budget around $50/week for groceries for myself and my 2 kids. I do a lot of tuna (I know, mercury is an issue) and whatever produce is on sale. I also eat 2 - 3 eggs every day since they're cheap. Another thing I do is pretty much hit up grocery stores for sales on meat items. The funny thing about ramen is, while it's cheap, it doesn't ever satisfy and keep you full for very long. Also, with tax return money (I do work but am also a student too) I bought 1/8 cow to put in my freezer and paid for a share at the local CSA. I also can/freeze everything I can so that when prices go up in the winter, I'll still have stuff to eat. Oh, also around harvest time I hit up everyone I can find for free or cheap produce to can/freeze.

I also have had to resort to straight up canned veggies during a particularly bad 2 months last winter.

I think it's awesome how much consideration you're putting into your diet - though it can be hard on a tight budget, that you're aware of eating healthy is important. It will save on medical costs down the road.

[catspaw]

Catspaw keeps going around and replying to threads with everything I want to say.

Trying to make you obsolete, Loren!

[afflictionreckoning]

I find pork and chicken to be the cheapest meats. We like to cook them in something like a thick tomato sauce with other vegetables and it makes for a pretty solid meal for a relatively good price.

[heywo]

Thanks for the input everyone - I'm trying to find a decent balance with the food. I will see about trying to integrate some of the better foods into my diet over the course of the next couple of weeks and continue to tweak my workout routine. Tonight I'm working with someone who does a fair amount of working out so I'm interested to hear his feedback. Hopefully I'll see continued positive results as the weeks go on!

[Hrunter]

Catspaw keeps going around and replying to threads with everything I want to say.

Golden words right there.

Female counterpart, perhaps?

[The Purple Diane]

Female counterpart, perhaps?

Evil twin, more like!