Sport Drastic Diet Change

Sport Fitness
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bubbles89

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Hi All,

I'm in desperate need of a total diet make over. I have so many bad points about my eating habits.

Firstly I am a sucker for sugar. I crave sugar so much and my partner constantly has chocolates stacked in the cupboard and it's so hard to resist temptation but I've managed. I mostly crave sugar in the morning between 10 and 12. I always have breakfast that usually consists of Toast. I'm not a big cereal person but if I'm always up for findind something new.

I love my fruits and yoghurts and they don't go astray in my diet I always have my fair share of servings. I generally have healthy lunches. Usually chicken salad or chicken sandwhich on turkish bread. Dinner generally consists of meat (white or red) and veg, (potato, corn, carrot & peas)

I know its really vague diet structure but my main concern is my sugar cravings. If anyone can help me it would be muchly apprecaited. If you need any additional questions answered please ask as I am happy to answer.

Thanks
Sarah
 
Fruit and yogurt are sweet like you said. You could also use a little honey. If you are eating clean enough and working out you should be able to have a cheat day once a week. This helps me. I am able to control cravings and still lose weight. I only get to cheat if I stuck to the plan though. So it also works as a motivator. Cheats also help your body stay out of starvation mode where your body preforms its duties with less calories making it harder to lose weight. Cheats help trick your body, eating 5-6 small meals a day also helps to trick it.
 
Toast (especially white bread) for breakfast will likely leave you hungry soon (could that be your morning sugar craving?).

You may want to change your breakfast to be more substantial, emphasizing low glycemic, high fiber carbohydrates (e.g. oatmeal, some whole fruits), protein (e.g. eggs or egg whites if you are a cholesterol hyperresponder, nut butters), and good fat (e.g. nut butters). Skim milk plain yogurt contains protein and low glycemic carbohydrates and would be good to include in your breakfast.

Avoid or limit preflavored yogurts, which are typically high in sugar (add chunks of fruit to plain yogurt instead).
 
You sound like me! I have a weapon of a sweet tooth and this is what I eat on an average day and it's helped me lose 48kg!

Breakfast
Porridge with blueberries, banana and strawberries stopped with spenda as well as a tiny bit of honey and a cup of tea. Depending on how hungry I'm feeling I might also have a piece of toast with an egg or vegemite

Mid morning snack
Differs from day to day but normally something like a skim coffee with a piece of fruit or yoghurt with muesli/almonds and other nuts

Lunch
Turkey with cranberry sauce and salad on multigrain bread with a diet soft drink/cup of tea and maybe a piece of fruit

Afternoon tea
Once again depends on how I'm feeling but maybe carrots with tomato salsa but normally sweet tooth kicks in again and I'll have raisin toast or fruit bun or a piece of fruit

Dinner
I still live at home so normally eat whatever Mum cooks but if it's my choice it will be something like a chicken stirfry with plum and sweet chilli sauce with is amazing I have a recipe if you're interested.


Dessert
Low fat ice cream in a cone and maybe some almonds

I tend to have a sweet spin on almost everything I eat and treat myself to banana bread every once in a while. Also I mix up lunch sometimes having ham with honeycup mustard or chicken with sweet chilli sauce almost always on multigrain or sometimes sourdough depending on what we've got in the house. Oh and another thing you could try having a chocolate protein shake at night when those chocolate craving hit, I sometimes do this and it gets rid of that need for chocolate and fills me up!
 
Firstly I just wanted to say that I've seen your other post and you look absolutely amazing. Your such an inspiration to everyone out there to show that it can be done if you try.

I really appreciated your diet plan it will help me out heaps. It's good to know that others quite often experience the same cravings as I do.

However I've come across a bit of a problem. I don't know whether it's weight gain or if its muscle gain but I tried to put on a pair of jeans I bought about 4 months ago and I'm struggling to pull them over my legs. They are not skinny legs jeans and they did fit before and I have gone from 64kg to 63kg and up to 65kg. I ideally want to drop to atleast 60kg as a min but I don't know what to do.

Do you mind if I ask what your exercise routine was like?
 
It depends on the week but normally I manage about 2/3 weights sessions a week, a spin class and run the other days. If you let me know what exercise you're doing at the moment it will be easier for me to compare and give a comparison because mine has been a bit all over the place since building towards my half marathon and now backing away from it!
 
At the moment I am adveraging 3 days a week at the gym but I'm trying to go 4-5 if I can. I generally start with the Treadmill alternating 5 mintues walking on a high spead and then running for 5 mins on a steady speed for an average of 25 mins, then jump on the bikes for 15 mins and then I lift leg weights in reps of 10*3 and then use the crunch maching ball for reps of 15*3. Then I finish with v sits with the medicine doing reps of 20*2 or if I'm feeling up to it 20*3.

It's generally the same thing each time I go. I may subsititue the leg press for hamstring curles but its generally the same workout each time. Unfortunately I think I'm bulking up in my legs a little too much rather than toning them. I'm so confused about my workout and feel that I'm not getting anywhere but I know that my diet is in a really bad state so by changing that it will help.
 
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Hey, thanks for your compliment in my Help me optimize my tummy thread. :) (I'd add a link but I haven't made enough posts yet to be allowed to do so.) I figured I should answer here...

Diet

In the morning I eat a big bowl of plain oatmeal (rolled oats + skim milk, 4 minutes in the microwave) with a tablespoonful of raisins. I actually eat more than what makes me feel full. This way I last all five hours until lunch without being distracted by hunger pangs close to lunch, and I have the stamina to resist all temptations that I come across in the meantime (and believe me, I have a sweet tooth too!).

During the week I have lunch at the great cafeteria where I work, which serves lots of healthy, substantial and tasty salads (e.g. bulgur salads, cabbage salads, bean salads). This is usually my main meal of the day. Some days I supplement the salads with a meatball.

In the late afternoon I snack on an apple or two, and if I have bad sugar cravings I eat at most two dried organic apricots. My method of snacking on the apricots drives my office mate crazy; I'll nibble on one for like twenty minutes before it's gone. :rolleyes: But hey, snacking like this is getting me results, so...

For dinner I'll eat more salads (usually takeout this time), but a smaller portion, or dark bread with sausage or another topping - on the days when I work out I often have both (a small salad before I head to the gym and a slice of bread with topping afterwards).

For late-night snacking I go for carrots and/or a childhood snack of mine that everyone always thinks is really weird, namely frozen corn. That's right, I'll put loose kernels of frozen corn in a bowl and eat it like it was ice cream. I like the taste, and it takes forever to eat because the corn needs to defreeze once it's in my mouth, meaning that it satisfies my oral fixation. :D I know other people probably won't like this (my excuse is that my mother used to give it to me if I was hungry before dinner) but I can highly recommend finding creative snack solutions like this one so that you still get to feel that you are indulging while really not hurting your caloric deficit that much.

On the weekends I drink some alcohol and partake of whatever delicious home-made foods and desserts are put in front of me - just a little bit of dessert though - and I probably don't maintain a caloric deficit then, but then I compensate during the week by eating very sensibly, as you can see.

Exercise

I hit the gym 2-3 times a week and do 30 minutes on the stair machine and 20 minutes on the elliptical machine (FWIW, the machines tell me I burn 500 calories in total doing this) as well as 2*15 crunches (with a 10 kg weight), 2*15 roman chair exercises (ditto), and three arm exercises that I can't be bothered to look up the names of, if that's okay. :) On the days that I don't go to the gym, I try to go for a long (8.5 km) walk. I walk fast, so it takes me an hour and twenty minutes.

I used to run instead of going to the gym, but then I sustained an injury (shin splits). :( I look forward to being able to run again, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the upper body strength working out at the gym gives me - it's nice to be able to carry heavy shopping bags home without thinking twice about it. :) Hmm, I just realized that if I start running again at some point I'll have to do weights at home...

Hope this was useful to you. :)
 
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I just don't understand what i'm doing wrong. Ok I will pick one thing that is my biggest weakness which is choc chip cookies. I can't help it but I generally have 1 a day and then another small treat of a night time. My exercise routine is very similar to everyone else's that I have read except for that cheat.

I am writing a voe tomorrow (a contract if you wish) I know it may sound stupid but hopefully it will help me stick to my goals. I'm going to do a whole new journal and start right from the beginning with a clean diet. I'm going to count my average calories and take this very seriously. I've got to a point where I've never been like this before and my determination is very high. Summer is just around the corner and I want to have a kick ass body for the beach so it's time I went hard out.
 
This is probably going to be criticed by just about everybody but this is what I have been doing and it's worked.

I'm going to recommend that you give this a try for at least two weeks and see how it works for you, try and clean up your diet in small ways even if this means making your own choc chip cookies so you know exactly what goes in them and using the lightest margarine you can find and spenda instead of sugar.

Then for the week ahead exercisewise try...
Monday- 45 minutes on the treadmill of your 5 minute run and 5 minute walking making sure that when you're doing the 5 minute running you're puffing and wouldn't be able to hold a conversation

Tuesday- Your weights day, if you have a knowledgeable friend make them join you at the gym and teach you how to deadlift and sumo squat. Do 4 sets of 12 alternating from one to the other building up to a weight that is heavy for you and you're struggling.

After deadlifts altlernate 4 sets of 12 of leg press and walking squats holding 6kg dumbells.

Then 4 sets of 12 of bench press, pull ups on the bar and tricep dips.

Finish off with plank which you can do 4 times for as long as you can hold it, aiming for at least a minute.

Wednesday
If you've got access to a spin class do this otherwise walk at a speed where you can talk but not hold a normal conversation for 45 minutes

Thursday
Do the weights again

Friday
Back to the running 5 minutes on 5 off like before

Saturday and Sunday
Take the day off from the gym but stay active, if you can find a friend who wants to do something fun and active like have a game of tennis or go for a bike ride, something fun and different.


Feel free to mix up the cardio days eg if there's a spin class on a certain day swap it for another but the main aim in my routine is to do weights then cardio weights then cardio because I find I get more out of it.

Goooooood luck and remember that if you put in the effort you WILL be rewarded, there's no question about it.
 
From the pics you posted in the other thread i think you look great allready and dont need much improvement, but i give you credit for not being satisfied.

Try adding some nuts to your diet. They have good fats and protein in them that will help you to feel full for longer and should help stopping the cravings.

Also try to up the intensity of your workouts. Dont just stop at 10 reps when using weights, try to get 1 extra rep every time (or at least quite often). If you do the same amount of reps every time your body gets used to it and makes it easier each time. You have to really push yourself each workout if you want results. Same goes for the cardio, it has to be progressive or it wont work.


Hope that helps. :)
 
Thanks for all the great advice. I went shopping today and I was so proud because I walked straight down the junkfood isle without stopping and wanting them. I have found some wicked smoothie recipies which I feel they will stop my sugar cravings. I made one today and they are soooo yummy. It's based on fruit and yogurt and I put a little scoop of light icecream to thicken it up. I won't always use icecream I might substitue it with Ice and have a frappe style but it was great.

I have a whole range of fruit and veg and I'm actually excited to start a whole new phase of clean eating. I'm definately going to be in it 90% (as i have read in other posts you can not be in it for a whole 100% but you gotta be close).

I'm not concerned about my weight as such but I just feel that I have no structure to my body. I just want an overall toned look to feel confident and sexy in summer. It's one thing to be skinny or slim but its another to be toned which is the results I'm after.

Everypennyspend thank you so much for you comments about my exercise plan I will definately work on what you have provided for me. Your a great inspiration.
 
Excellent. Well I have a great update and I'm so proud. I ran 5km's today. Its the first time i have every done anything of the sort. I'm stoked and I felt so good about myself (except for the excessive huffing and puffind) but I do have a question for anyone that can help.

I have a feeling I'm not burning enough calories compaired to my calorie intake. I tried to monitor the calories I burn today and it i swear it doesn't even reach 500. Could this be possible?
 
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