Health

[Duffman]

THIS IS NOT A PERSONAL ATTACK

I just cant do it, I want to but everytime I try it never follows through.

Backdraft,

If you tell yourself you can't do it, you might as well not even try.

If you REALLY want to do it, you will.

It is not "it" that doesn't follow through, it is you who does not follow through.

I went through this for a long time. I have finally learned that the only way to lose weight and keep it off is to burn more calories than you take in. You can try all of the fad diets ever invented, they just won't work in the long run. If you want to eat more, you have to work out harder.

Start by cutting a few hundred calories a day. It isn't as hard as you think. Next time you find yourself at the Mickey D's drive thru, skip on the fries. Compliment this with walking a mile or two. You may find that you start to lose a few pounds. This will help motivate you to take further steps.

The most important thing is that you commit yourself to some combination of calorie reduction and increased exercise. It has to be something you can live with, because you will need to do it for the rest of your life to keep the weight off.

Just giving you advice helps me stick to the program. Good Luck.

[SARfreak]

Backdraft- It's gonna take a lot of will-power to suceed in this venture. It may help if you start substituting other foods for the junk food that you like to eat. Drink fruit juices (100% juice, not the 10% crap) instead of soda, eat crunchy veggies instead of chips and fries, eat fruits instead of candy. One of my favorite treats is frozen grapes. Just go buy a bunch of grapes, being em home, wash and toss in the freezer. They're sweet and refreshing after a workout, on a hot day, or anytime when you're craving something sweet. You'll soon realize that you're not really craving the junk food, but the things associated with them like the sweetness or saltiness. Junk food can be easily replaced with healthy alternatives that give you the same satisfaction. As for gatorade/ powerade, if you decide you want to drink it, get the powder mix and add a small amount to water. It will get rid of the chlorine taste and give you a small amount of electrolytes and carbohydrates. It's ok to drink it in the "normal" concentration when you're working out, but anytime else you should drink it "diluted", just so you have the taste but aren't filling your gut with unneeded minerals and carbs.

rfcmitch- Vitamin supplements can be beneficial to your overall health. Most people don't get all of the required nutrients from just the foods they eat, so a general daily multi-vitamin is ok. If I were you I would concentrate on weight training to gain strength instead of focussing on just "bulking up". You want to make your muscles stronger, not necessarily bigger. With weight training, you want to focus on ultimately making your muscles longer and stronger and bulking up isn't necessarily good for the purposes of gaining strength. Consult someone about strength training (an athletic coach at school or someone of that sort) about the best way to train your muscles into being stronger as well as flexible.

DFD- Solubility of vitamins is just the way that your body processes the minerals. Some vitamins are fat soluble, some are water soluble, it just depends on their chemical composition. Fat soluble vitamins are absorbed from the intestines along with lipids and can accumulate in the body, making toxic shock a possibility if you ingest too much of them. Water soluble vitamins are absorbed with water from the intestinal tract and remain in the body a short time before they're excreted. It's not a matter of being "ripped off" by the company that makes the supplements because you're urinating out the unused vitamins, it's a matter of only ingesting as much as you need and you need both fat and water soluble. While you can get many essential vitamins from the foods you eat, most (95%) of people don't eat enough diverse foods to get all of the needed ones and daily vitamin supplements are necessary to maintain a balanced intake to maintain a normal matabolism.

[EoneTiller]

i like to lift wieghts at the firehouse. at home i run on the treadmill or just run outside if its nice.

[Quigger]

I also have realized that I need to get in shape. Running and biking have come to mind for a good work out.

[Gx7E10]

Spelled Creatine.

[dfdex1]

Creotine is crap. Friend of mine used it did nothing,its todays snake oil. All it does is add useless bulk and messes with ur ticker. Try stagering your workouts like dont go in the gym and lift 100# every day cause then your body gets used to it and dont do nothing. It also depends on genitics too,like it dont matter if I worked out or not I have always been a moose,some people are just small.
Also check the soulbilty(sp?) of vitaim suppliments. Yeah you may get 500mg in pill but how much of that is going to get abosrobed and how much is going to get tossed away in your urine? Your body will only take what it needs. I peronsonally think food is a better way to get vitamins and minerals than a pill.
-dfd

[rfcmitch]

The best thing to drink besides water I would say is Gatorade, not that power ade stuff it tastes nasty. Some people could probably argue with me on this one but Gatorade is always better than chlorine tasting water. Infact, with me if I drink Gatorade in the place of pop, I will lose about 5 pounds in a week. Then with a little excercise and dang fool...

Nother question real quick... anybody take any supplements? Vitamins? Criotine I think it is? Or any other stuff. I mean not hard core stuff but little things, and do you think it makes a difference.

And with the criotine (and I know that is spelt wrong) does anybody use it? What form? Drink, pill etc. And do you think it really makes a difference.

Any tips on how to really build up would be helpful. I got all summer to work my butt off to improve myself and anything that can help get me started to bulk up would be great. Thanks.

[backdraft663]

My problem is, I eat to dang much food. I keep on saying it is ok to eat this, this time I will just start tomorrow, I been doing that for a long time. I also have a problem with drinking Soda. What is the best thing to drink besides water.

[SARfreak]

A few things I find help:

Take a big piece of poster board and outline your goals. Make a chart on the poster board of the days of the week for the next month or so and each excersize you want to do. Mix it up a little, so you don't wear yourself out. ie: Mondays is running, tuesdays is swimming, wednesdays is biking, thursdays is upper body strength, fridays is lower body strength, saturday is a team sport (get together with your buddies and play b-ball), sunday is rest day. Don't work out on your rest day, your body needs it. That doesn't mean sit around in front of the idiot box all day, but don't do a lot of strenuous and regimented activity.

To lose weight: Limit the number of times you eat-out every week. Make yourself go home and fix something for dinner instead of the local grease-o-matic. Don't go food shopping when you're hungry. Eat more veggies than cookies. When you shop, drive the cart right past the bakery section, cookie/chip/soda aisle, buy leaner meat. It takes a lot of will power, but don't give in!

Make up rewards for yourself when you do something healthy or meet your excersize goals for the week. Don't make the reward a food reward or extra rest days, make it something enjoyable, like going to the movies. Eat dinner before you go to the movies so you won't be inclined to buy popcorn/soda. Stop drinking soda, it's bad for you all around.

To make the time go by easier and to make workouts more enjoyable, find a workout buddy or listen to music.

One more tip for running: don't start of by running. Your first week should be walking, second week a brisk walk, third week a jog. Walk/jog/run for 15 minutes, stop, turn around and go back. You will notice that as you progress, you will get further and further each time you go.

Good Job, guys, not a lot of people have the motivation to start a program to better their health. Good Luck, and happy running .

[rfcmitch]

Well I am not in the greatest of shape, but in better shape than some. My thing would to walk a lot, fast like around town. Then speed up... I am just gettin ready to come up to school and run the track for a bit everynight or atleast every couple.

The whole liftin weights thing dont help for me. I lift and I lift, but for some reason... I am not getting any bigger and I try everything. So I cant give anyone tips on that.

Oh and ride a bike. Not down hills but the other way, UP! That helps for sure as long as you dont die in the mean time... lol good luck everyone.

[dfdex1]

I had two things that really opened my eyes to getting in shape.

At our Christmas party I bought the whole group pizza and we all ate up,then my adviseor says ok guys gear up! We looked at him with a dumb look like "Hey we just ate a ton of pizza-we cant work." he said I dont care gear up, so we did and he handed us two scott packs and told us to grab a set of irons and a high rise and goto the stairs and run up and down till he said stop-----after 5 minutes of running up and down 4 flights of stairs I was about to puke in my mask,like it was in my mouth!

The next was when we did SAR with rescue randy in full gear. After going through a maze of tables and chairs and then haveing to go back dragging randy and as soon as we got out of the "fire" and into the lobby I ripped of my mask and helmet and layed on the nice cool,cool floor I seriously thought I was going to die! LOL

I got a treadmill and use that alot,also I use a tire and stand on it and use heavy sledge hammer and hit the tire---after 5 minutes it will wear you out it was good practice for that roof venting drill.
Lifting wieghts is also good.

-dfd

[backdraft663]

I usually dont wear out at scenes and trainings cause my adrinaline (spelling) rush going. Thats why many people can keep going and going.

[explr985]

I could use some help with this too, I weigh 185-190, but i dont wear myself out during training or on the fireground.

[backdraft663]

I read the post below, and thought about asking this question.

What do you all do to stay in shape and good health? I am way out of shape and a little on the husky size, I want to loose some weight and get into shape. I just cant do it, I want to but everytime I try it never follows through. I live fairly close to the fire house( 300 Steps lol), I am out of air and stuff before we even get to work. I just want to do this but nooooooo I can never follow through with it, Anyone got any good ways to do this?

Thanks