Seeing Results But Need Help

[Highscore2600]

Hey guys and gals. I recently started my diet about a month and a half ago, and I'm starting to get stuck now. About a year ago I was very regular at the gym for about 3 months and gained some muscle, expanded my shoulders and chest a little. I'm about 5'11 and weight 206 now, about a month and a half ago I was about 225. So here's my regiment.


I've been doing a lot of cardio exercises. Mainly focused around P90x Yoga. I've been watching my intake with MyFitnessPal on the Droid and have cut out most sugars except for the occasional green tea. Now I've noticed results: I'm more energetic and feeling better when looking in the mirror. I've lost a lot of weight in my upper abdominal, face, chest, legs, etc. BUT I can't seem to lose that ugly lower fat.


My normal diet includes a lot of foods from Wal-Mart mostly, and pre-packaged. Mostly because I don't have the time to cook up a home meal. And bottom line, I don't know if what I'm eating is right. My intake mostly consists of turkey, chicken, rice, and normally subway for lunch since its right across the street from where I work. I admit to once or twice a week to a small snack of chips, and Chinese take-out, and one or two meals with fries.


This maybe a bad diet, but its miles better than what I was doing. I'm keeping my calorie count around 1200-1400 and doing a hour of cardio 5 times a week. I'd like some advice cause now i seem to be rubber-banding around 204-208 the last 2 weeks. Thanks.

 

[PLB]

Well, 2 weeks isn't a long time. I realize that it's frustrating, though. When you say "pre-packaged" foods, what exactly do you mean? Frozen meals? Lean Cuisine-type meals? There are lots of ways to get around lengthy meal-prep situations... do you own a crock-pot, some single-serving sized plastic containers, and a freezer? It might take a while to get organzed, but you could start to make large meals, then freeze single portions so that they are easy to reheat later. This way, you only really need to cook once a week, then after a while, you'll have an assortment of different types of meals in the freezer. You'll have to incorporate this into your diet gradually, as you probably won't want to eat the same thing every day at the beginning. For snacks, once a week, pre-cut some veggies and keep them in the fridge so that they are ready to eat when you need a snack.


There are tons of blogs out there that can help with recipes and ideas... you're not the only one who doesn't have time to cook! Many of the blogs will be written by busy moms, but even if you're not in that boat, the idea is the same Here's an example of one way to do it: http://mamaandbabylove.com/2011/04/05/freezer-cooking-with-slow-cooker-recipes/


The other piece of advice that I would give would be to start strength training. Cardio will only get you so far. Strength-type activities will help you retain and build lean tissue which is actually beneficial for your metabolism (and body shape).