Slashdot Mirror
Foods for Geeks Over 30?
tliet asks: "Being a 30+ geek myself I've discovered that the continued consumption of pizzaslices and cola has a rather unpleasant effect on the body, especially if one is over 30.
Not being aware of this in my twenties it's becoming awfully clear now that this lifestyle has to be changed. So, it's water and greenfood for me now. I'm wondering if older geeks like me have changed their eating habits while maintaining the geek lifestyle, e.g. having dinner at 01:00. Also, what do older geeks consume to stay alive?" Ah, how timely this question is....
I went through a similar process myself. When I first started working in the computer industry I suddenly gained 20 pounds over the course of a year. I went from 165 to 180-190. This weight gain was not due to muscule build up but rather fat build up. I have two recomendations for you. First I'll assume you are a meat eater. Find a diet program. Learn how to eat. Period. Beleive it or not for some people the Jenny-Criag diet actually works. What they basically teach you is how to eat smarter. By eating more meals but at smaller portions throught the day, you will start to loose a siginificant amount of weight even without execersing. The meals you choose should consit of whole-grains, vegatables, and meats. A friend of mine went through this program with excellent results. Basically he ate approximately a handful each of grains,veggies, and meats. He lost about 50 pounds and went back to a more stable weight. Because he altered his metabolism, he shed off a lot of excess fat as well, without doing much excersise. Second, if you are a vegaterian, then I suggest you look at a book called ``the Vegaterian Way'' It is a good introduciton to vegaterian nutrion and cooking. Now if you start on a healthy well rounded vegaterian diet you will loose a siginifiant amount of weight in terms of body fat. However, just because you give up meat doesn't mean you will become healthier. You MUST eat a well-rounded diet. Just as there are meat-eaters who have horrible diets, there are vegaterians who have horrible diets. Personally I am a vegaterian, I did so for personal and health reasons. Being a computer person it has help me a lot in maintaing my weight. However, I too must watch how much I eat, otherwise I risk eating too many calories as I would on a diet of pizza or burgers. Last, you should take up some form of daily excersise. This is very important. My personal combination is Yoga and walking. I do Yoga simply because it is something I can do, most of the time, in the privacy of my own home at 0$ cost. But if you choose to do Yoga I suggest you seek out a qualified instructor and learn from him or her as much as possible, and only when you feel comfortable start practicing on your own. As for walking, while I was in school I used to have to walk every where, its amazing how walking burns a lot of calories, now a days I walk my dogs around the neightborhood in the evenings. Other excesises are martial arts, weight lifting, areobics, etc.. Choose one and stick to it. Which ever diet you choose. Remember avoid fast food like the plauge. And try and avoid processed foods as much as possible. The key to maintaining your diet is by making the food your self. Not only will you know exactly what is in the food, but you will have more control over what you put in your body, and it is a fun activity cooking your own food. If you don't know how to cook, then start with basic recipies and gradually build up to more complex ones. I couldn't cook a potatoe five years ago, but over the course of a year, out of necessity, learned how to cook for myself. Not only will you save money, but it is a rewarding skill. Some things to remember: 1) Avoid fast food. Make your own food instead. 2) Drink lots of water 3) Avoid sodas, drink lots of water 4) Avoid fad diets like the Atkiens diet like the plauge. 5) Eat a varity of foods 6) Eat whole-grains instead of processed grains. Ie brown over white rice. 7) Eat fruits instead of sweets 8) Eat lots of dark-green vegatables 9) If you eat meat, try to eat free-range or organic meat products. A lot of meat(in America) is raised with the use of rather nasty steroids and other chemicals which you ultimately ingest. 10) Cut back on your intake of dairy, if you can cut it out all together. Personally I still have a pizza every once and a while. But I limit how much dairy I consume. For instance instead of cow milk I now drink Soy or rice milk. 10) Eat smaller portions. Don't stuff yourself at each meal. 11) Do some kind of excersise. Good luck!!
My wife tried to get me to start the Body for Life thing, she's all into that. Actually she's into any fad diet, she doesn't actually do them but she loves reading about them.
but the meth stuff, I about choked on lunch (hamburger, yogurt & apple - yeah I should have skipped the burger)
Chris Cothrun
Curator of Chaos
Bleh!
As a former Tubby Geek(TM) I recommend the following formula to maintain the geek lifestyle and not looke like a barge. Eat a big lunch a reasonable breakfast, and skimp on dinner.... That way when you are up till 2AM coding and get the munchies, you can snack and not put on the pounds. I always aim for about 2000 calories a day. Thats pretty reasonable for most 20-30 year olds, unless you are VERY active. When out backpacking (one of my hobbies) I usually budget between 3000-5000 calories per person per day. THe best way to stay slim is to not sit on yer hiney all evening. I got a stand for my Mountain Bike and when watching TV I ride my bike. Or I use my Rowing machine (for a few minutes at a time). Staying in shape keeps me sharper, helps me sleep better, and helps me with the ladies. Plus its damn hard to clean a 5-12 when yer ass is too big to pull up with two arms!!!
Rule of Life Number 2: Remember, it can all go to hell at any minute. --Jimmy Buffet
In the year since I've made these little changes, I've steadily dropped poundage - I'm down to about 168 (76 kg) now. There's still a slight paunch if I slouch, but compared to last year, I look positively skinny now, and none of last year's pants fit me anymore. It's weird looking at that new, much smaller pair of pants and realizing that they fit me just fine!
I've normally been able to get about 20 minutes total of walking in on weekdays, walking from the train station to the office. Now, with Chicago fuel prices reaching insane (by US standards) levels, I've dusted off my bicycle and started pedaling, instead of hopping in the car and going for long weekend drives. Even though my new car is much more fuel-efficient than my old truck, the bike's better for me...
--
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
Coffee, Mt. Dew, Chinese food and White Castles.
--
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Mod that up!
As with everything, the key is a good balance.
I get disgusted with those Fad diets, like the high-protein, low carb diets! Talks about friggin' unhealthy... But back on topic:
Plan, be reasonable, cut back gradually on the bad stuff, replace with the good stuff. I stopped eating chips after forgetting to buy them a couple weeks in a row, and then decided that I just didn't want to eat them anymore.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Huzzah!!! I second this. I lost around ~40 lbs. last winter. It wasn't all that fun, but I felt a LOT better about myself after doing it.
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
Decreasing the number of calories you take in is a start for losing weight, but in and of itself, it's not the way to go. You also need to find a way to increase the amount of exercise you get.
A few years ago, I noticed that I was turning into a bit of a "clydesdale". Not good at all. I tried running, but in my mind that is just a silly thing to do. I found it insanely boring, and it felt too much like exercise. Going to a gym to work out also has never been my thing.
So, one day some friends of mine took me out mountain biking on some of the easy local trails. Since that day, I've basically been hooked. In my mind, bikes are probably the most versatile machines humans have ever invented. They're toys for children and adults. They're a super-efficient mode of transportation on the road. They're a serious sport both on and off the road. And most of all, they're healthy.
Now, whether I'm commuting on an old beater of a road-bike or going through trails on my mountain bike, I'm always having a good time. And even though it doesn't feel dreary enough to be healthy, I *am* getting (almost) enough exercise in my life that I feel good about myself.
It's only software!
While the Hacker's Diet doesn't really cover nutrition, it gives you the tools to continue making forward progress and more importantly, keep the weight off when the diet is over. Just a minute or two each day to record your weight and calorie intake. He even provides programs, complete with source code, to help you track everything. I extended it a little bit into a CGI that I run on my FreeBSD box, so I can enter my foods and calorie values from anywhere.
That said, nutrition and exercise are also very important. Lots of other good comments here on that stuff.
Say hello to zMac.
Yep. In general, you should try to avoid eating for at least 3 hours before bed (so no bedtime snack). Basically, your metabolism slows down when you sleep, so any calories that are still being digested will turn directly into fat cells rather than be burned off as would happen when you're awake.
Oh, and like the poster below, I agree that actually going outside for a walk is far more enjoyable than a stinkin' treadmill. ;-)
Say hello to zMac.
A couple more suggestions...
I'd substitute an eliptical running machine for the treadmill - easier on the knees and back, and you can run backwards as well as forwards - add a little spice to an otherwise mundane workout.
I can't find the link to them at the moment, but studies have also shown that it is better for your sleep (and therefore your whole body, physical and mental/emotional) if you don't eat a large meal too soon before drifting off for a full night's sleep. So, no huge meal at 9, then drop out at 11/12 (adjust these times forward or backward depending on your own schedule).
--
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
Of course, I have since gained it all back, but it did work, and I wouldn't doubt that it would work again...
First off, I lowered my fat and carb intake - it is tough, to find foods that have low fat and low carbs (for instance, many times when you see a "low fat" food, look on the back, and see how many carbs there are - bet there are tons in many foods - but the sugar will quickly turn to fat, so you want low carbs as well). I wanted foods that tasted good, were easy to make, and were cheap - not an easy thing to do. Most of the stuff I did tended to be homemade - what little I could find pre-made tended to be vegetarian in nature, and expensive (comparitively).
Walk - or do some exercise. I walked about a mile each day after work, not quickly, no power walking - just normal walking.
Cut out soda - I started drinking a lot of water, and also flavored water, that used artificial sweeteners (instead of sugar - no carbs)...
Need potatoe chips? Lays makes a brand of potatoe chips that are cooked with olestra, rather than vegetable oil - much lower fat, and they taste great (but be easy on them - olestra is a "fake" fat, and your body with flush it out via number 2, if you get what I mean, and can be nasty if you eats too many).
Finally, don't deprive yourself - at the end of the "week" on a Friday or Saturday, I would go to Jack in the Box and have a burger or chicken sandwitch, coke, fries, as a "treat" - then it was back to the regemin for another week.
I did this for about a month and a half - the first month I lost 20 lbs, then plateaued. What happened to knock me off the diet was not walking anymore. It wasn't because I got lazy, it was summer came around in Phoenix, temperatures soared above 100 in the evening, and I would be damned if I went out into that crap.
But now I am thinking about trying it again, and maybe do something different for exercize in the summer months - I really need to get rid of this weight myself (as I too am an aging geek, approaching 30 - want to live to see 60 and beyond, certainly)...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Has anyone tried that 'eat right for your type' stuff, where they tell you what you should eat based on your blood type - ?
:-)
And on the subject of exercise - have more sex.
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
Let's say you want to weigh 220 lbs. Eat no more than 2200 calories per day. 180 lbs? 1800 calories. Multiply your desired weight by 10 to get how many calories you should eat per day.
How many calories are in a pound?
3500. Burn 3500 calories and you've lost a pound. Stop drinking 3500 calories of soda and you've lost another pound. It's easier to lose weight by changing your diet than it is by exercising. Drink water. Just consider the number of calories in everything you drink in a typical day. You'll lose a few pounds a week just from drinking water.
What should you eat?
Fruits. Vegetables. Stay away from breads. No more candy bars. If you can't create the same food at home, you probably shouldn't eat it.
When should I eat?
Don't eat before bedtime. If you're hungry, drink a couple glasses of water instead. Water is filling! Also, by spreading out small meals throughout the day, your body will spend the entire day digesting which in turn, burns more calories per day.
Exercise is no fun? :-) Leave things laying around the house that you know you'll need later just so you have to get up to go get them.
You're right. So don't exercise. Just find something to do away from your computer. When you go to the grocery store, make a lap around the entire store before you start shopping. Try hitting golf balls at a driving range. Buy a dog just so you can walk it.
1. Eat right, and eat the amount of food your body needs in a day. A mere extra 350 calories (think: half a Big Mac) a day translates to 3 pounds of weight gain a month. If you want to lose weight, aim for a 500-750 calorie a day deficit.
2. Exercise. Not only does this improve your overall health, but the more calories your burn, guess what? The more you can eat without going into calorie surplus and thus gaining flab.
3. Behavior. The big problem is, people tend to lose 5-10 pounds, and then go back to their old eating/living habits. Guess what? The flab comes back, and the exercise benefits go away.
Be realistic, too. If you want to lose weight, the most you can lose and remain healthy is about 2 pounds a week, if you're lucky.
There's a lot of solid information out there, avoid the 'fad' diets, they're a bunch of garbage. Your body is like any other equipment, except it comes with no manual. Learn about it, study it, and it will generally do what you want it to for a long time.
--
One word: Dilberito.
"From Dilbert Creator Scott Adams comes a totally new, delicious meatless, hand-held meal that will change the way you think about convenience foods."
I just had to say it. ;-) Apologies to the younger ones who haven't seen the movie.
The truth shall set you free!
Move out of the city and I'd die of catastrophic brain hemorrhage within hours.
A little podunk one-horse farming town like DC is already enough to keep me pretty edgy. Once I get back to New York I can stop wasting my time on Slashdot and start living again.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
You'd be surprised at how many buildings actually have showers. Talk to your building engineer/super and see if there are any surprises.
Alternatively, you can probably get a free health club membership if you talk three or four of your co-workers into joining. Or just claim to have talked them into joining, even if they were already planning on it.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
Why has no-one modded this post's parent up? Informative with a capital I (sorry - the kids have been on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang marathon this weekend).
--
Yes, the nick is flamebait
A bit sad to miss out on all that Real Food you could be having, though.
sudo ergo sum
Seriously. It may sound odd, but cooking yourself good-to-excellent meals is an astonishingly pleasurable experience. It can also be very healthy.
Put off buying that new Nvida card and invest some money in good kichenware equipment, particularly things like *good* knives.
Here is one to get you started.
Ingredients
Salmon (about a fist-sized peice)
Pasta (any kind except flat sheets)
Coriander, basil and parsley. (get living plants or fresh bunched stuff, nothing else will do, the dried stuff sucks)
Vinagrette (pre-made shop stuff is fine, substitute any salad dressing if you can't find some)
Olive oil.
Method
* Turn on the oven and heat it up to about 250C
* Boil the kettle, you'll need the water for cooking the pasta in a moment.
* Strip off any bits you don't fancy eating from the salmon (bones, skin, eyes etc) and wrap it in some tinfoil. Put the tinfoil wrapped salmon in the oven (assuming it's heated up now).
* Pop the pasta in a pan, douse with the boiling water and bung on a bit of oil and cook (boil) until the pasta is chewy.
* Reboil the kettle and use the water to douse off the starch and gunk from the pasta. Drain off the pasta and chuck on some olive oil (very little, you only want to lightly coat the pasta w/the oil, so put a wee bit in and stir the whole lot around until it all looks sligtly glistening)
* Take the salmon out the oven (about 25mins will have passed, I'm assuming) and unwrap it. Chuck away the water that'll have collected in the bottom of the foil and let it cool down.
* Get a big bowl and chuck in the pasta and then shred/flake the salmon in to it. Chop up the coriander, basil and parsley roughly and pop them on top. (More coriander than anything else) dribble a bit of vinagrette on and shake it.
* Eat.
Back in my day, working with computers involved lifting large tape reels, finding and replacing bad tubes, and walking all the way across the room just to read what you just typed on the LF printer.
Now-a-days you lazy kids have it easy... "Ohhhh, logging onto a remote machine takes too much effort to type my password over again" or "I actually have to lift this fancy-schmancy flat panel monitor onto my desk? Can't a temp do it??" Do you know that all of the respecable hard-working user interfaces, such as line-feed printers, way at least twice that of a monitor.
If you want computer workers to get excercise in their jobs, then start using respectable computers that have tubes and no monitors! Use respectable media like Reel-to-reel tape drives instead of the unnessecary CD Burner.
-vax computer, vi, lynx. 'nuf said
OK,
- B
--
http://www.bradheintz.com/
- updated
The food you eat will affect just like it affects everyone outside your spere of reality. Look at http://navigator.tufts.edu/ for a plethora of links. Or just switch to V8 not cola, light beer not beer, and a gym membership not premium cable.
Morning:
Eat a solid breakfast within an hour of waking up. I'm guilty of breaking this one though, opting instead to leave a bag of muesli in the office and crunching a bowl of that while reading slashdot.
Lunch:
If anything I'd say cut down almost completely on junk food. If you can't get anything else for lunch then try and get the junkfood that is (seems) a little bit healthier, i.e. not MacD's. It might sound like an oxymoron (healthy junk food) but rather get a frame grilled burger, for example, then something deep fried. Preferably though you should be making/buying sandwiches or rolls of some sort. Warming up last nights leftovers in the microwave works for me too.
Supper:
Cook your own supper! It doesn't take as long one might think, especially once you get a few recipes you know how to do. You'll be finished chopping, dicing and bundling into the oven before you know it. It's kinda boring if you're on your own but getting a friend/wife/g.f./s.o. to help should make things more fun (and even quicker too). Only get junk food if you are really beat or something like that. Again stick to the healthier side of junk food.
I find it discouraging that so many people focus on the eating side of the equation.
Eating healthy is great - there's certainly no harm in cutting down on the amount of crap that you eat. But look around a little. People eat crap the world over, but only Americans are grotesquely fat. Why? Because they sit around all day worrying about diets. All that most people's "diets" ever lead to is cycles of weight loss and gain, frequently accompanied by malnutrition.
There's a much simpler answer: Kill your car. Get rid of the damn thing. It's killing you.
Build exercise into your daily life. Ride a bike to work. Too far? You're too fat and lazy? (Hint: about 20 miles is too far to practically bike to work if you're not a serious cyclist. If you're balking at anything less than that, then yes, you are too fat and lazy) Then at least walk to the subway station and ride that. Every one of my friends that started driving to work flabbed up within months. Those that woke up and stopped driving came right back down.
Never again take an elevator unless you're going up at least 10 floors. Anyone at any age can climb 10 flights if they really need to. Anyone under 40 who can't jog (I didn't say sprint) up 10 flights without breaking into heavy breathing is seriously out of shape and needs to be jogging up a whole lot more stairs. Living in a low-rise city (Washington DC) I haven't been in an elevator for years, except in security buildings where the stairs aren't accessible.
There are other advantages, too: Biking in a city is much faster than driving, and jogging up the stairs is much faster than taking the elevator (jogging up the stairs in my apartment building carrying my steel-frame bike is still faster than taking the elevator). So you save time AND your body.
Whenever you need something from the other side of the office, stand up and get it that very moment. Rather than dialing someone's extension or sending a quick email to answer a question, just walk over to their desk. Don't stay in your chair more than 15 or 20 minutes at a time. There's always a reason to take a little walk around the office. It'll clear your head and help you live longer too. And you'll have a chance to chat with other people, making friends in the process.
Want pizza for lunch? No problem. But don't have it delivered. Get off your spreading rear end and walk the four blocks to pick it up.
You'll be amazed at the difference. Eat what you want, and keep fit at the same time. No need to waste money on gym memberships. Between that and the thousands you'll save by ditching the car, you can afford a giant vacation to Bali each year to show off your new fit self.
-- raju1kabir
mid-30s
190lb
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
All geeks under 30 should also heed the warning: sitting in front of a computer all day and night cannot be healthy. I'm only in my 20's, but the gut has begun to form. Trust me: chicks really don't dig guys with large guts.
My current plan has been to work out 300x more than I used to. That means I go rollerblading around the neighborhood for at least 45 minutes every other day. I'm also trying to do a lot of work on my house since the weather's nice. Basically, I'm spending less time on the computer and more doing more laborious tasks.
Food has been a sticking point, too. I was getting way too much food into my system, and healthy or not it was making me heavy. My solution to this was to eat a very light breakfast and then a nice lunch: turkey or ham sandwich, pickle, and a few chips. I'm also staying away from sodas when possible. For dinner, I tend to fix about the same amount of food I used to eat and separate it over two meals. Another good choice is a baked potato or good french bread and salad.
So far, I've been doing this for about 6 months and have lost a few inches--my jeans feel much nicer now. Oddly enough, I'm also happier because I "seem" to get more work done. Good luck with your endeavor!
Long, cute, or funny Sigs are just another form of over compensation, used by geeks, nerdz, etc.
This is at a cost of $2.10 per unit for the supplements, a loss of an hour a day at her console ($50-100 depending on the person) and nothing for her gym membership provided by her primary employer. This brings her weekly program cost to over $400.
In response, I have been using large amounts of methamphetimines. An eighth of an ounce a week costs around $300 in any large metro on the west coast. I have lost 25 lbs. in the same time.
My costs are 1 hour a week to score; $300 for the supplement; a GAIN of 3 working hours a day; and a loss of approximately 1 hour a day looking for the bugging devices I am convinced the government, friends, family and coworkers have started putting in my keyboard, clothes, and lighting fixtures. This brings my weekly program cost to a gain of $400 a week, which I place into my fund for eventual rehab, making my adjusted total cost zero.
Let's recap: Body for Life Program: -400 Meth addiction: 0
The choice is obvious.
7. What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.
I've recently broke that big 30 barrier, and I've been noticing lately (since about 29 or so):
:)
I need more sleep
If I exercise, I find out very quickly how good of shape I was in at the end of high school/beginning of college (and how I wish my body was that way now)
I *need* to eat healthier.
So let me explain:
I get tired quicker. If I go for a jog, I used to be able to run 10 miles at a drop of hat, in 'the day'. Now, a few miles and I want to keel over on someone's lawn for a nap.
If I don't eat healthy, my insides quickly let me know. Indigestion, gurgling, you name it. I'll find out. I'm slowly realizing that if you take the time, and you listen, your body will tell you more then you ever thought it could. (rather rudely sometimes, but...)
It seems like all my 'computer friends' are slowly all growing up. There's less lan parties, less endless hours on irc, less bar hopping, less getting trashed every Thursday, Friday and Saturday (using Sunday as recovery time). Now everyone's getting married, having kids, houses, mortgages, kids in sports, kids (did I mention that?).
With all this new stuff coming in, the time on the computer is the hardest thing to make up. I find I'm falling asleep at night with all sorts of code and ideas and crap going through my head. Wakeup, kick the monitor on and type it in before I get a shower and head to work. Otherwise, if I try to put too much time into the comptuer, the wife will not be pleased, and the kids won't get the time they need either.
Anyway, back to what to eat: whole grains (drop the white-bleached-bread), FRUIT, water. Yes, water. It's one of the best things for you and most people don't get the daily does they need. Eat smaller - most people garble down why more food then they need. Cut your portions down. Eat more often. Yes, that will help your metabolism and it'll help you burn callories quicker if you want to lose that gut and extra pounds.
Stay *away* from fast foods. There's not much worse then the crap they give you at those fast food places. At first I thought this was a load of crap, but after not eating any for 6 months, I went and a had a burger from one of the national chains - damn did I feel horrible for the next 10 hours. It felt like I had ate a friggin rock. No more of that crap from now on, let me assure you.
Don't skip meals. Make 'lunch' your biggest meal. At nite, eat a salad, and don't put a ton of goop and crap on it.
My wife, about 8 months ago, started us on this 'new eating scheme'. (I don't know what book she got it out of, I can get the info if someone wants it). It's not a diet, as I've known them, but it's more of a lifestyle change (or minimally eating habit change). It's very similar to the above. It's not cheap at the grocery store, but quite honestly, after a while you'll feel better. When you eat better, you have more energy, you're apt to get more exercise, and you *think* more clearly.
Don't believe me? Try it. Get an hour's worth of exercise everyday. (try walking to start off, stretch before and after).
Go to bed at a timely fashion, so make sure you're getting minimally 6 hours of sleep. Some people require less/more, so if you're getting the minimum, leave yourself time to get a few hours more. But make sure you go to bed earlier. And if you're married, make sure you both do, and take advantage of that extra time alone when you're both not so tired
You'll also be amazed at how hard you'll sleep if you get a bit of exercise each day. Personally, I took up mountain biking. But that's another story.
That's my $.02. Good luck to all you fellow aging geeks out there.
http://slashdot.org/~tf23/journal
I didn't have to hit 30 to know my body needed to change...I was about 15 when I really started to cut back in earnest. :)
/. could fit two of themselves in those jeans.)
When I graduated from the 8th grade, about six years ago, I weighed 247 pounds. For a 5'7" female, that's not healthy! A few years before that my mother had gained a good deal of weight as she attempted to LOSE it on 80's fad diets, and as a result was diabetic. In fact, when I was 10 she had a hyperglycemic stroke and had to learn to speak all over again (she's doing great now, btw). It eventually got through my brains that sitting at a computer and playing Nintendo and eating potato chips/little debbies/Coke all day was REALLY increasing my chances of the same thing happenening to me. I wore a women's size 20 (!!) jeans (if you don't know what size this is, go to a Kmart and check out the plus size section. I'm willing to bet most of the skinny geeks on
I started out with little things. I recall using the cement steps in our basement as a stepping machine, and I would do 100 reps on it a day. I also began watching my thinner friends eat (by this time I was a freshman in high school) and I saw how much more slowly they were eating than I was. I'd eat my lunch slowly enough that by the time I was done, I couldn't go up for seconds. It didn't seem like much, but the excess weight came off so quickly at first that I lost about 45 pounds my freshman year! It was at this time that I bought a belt, a men's 38" in very cheap leather, with four punched-out holes in it each an inch apart. I remember wearing the belt buckled so it would be at its smallest..but that would still be about 35" or so.
So, I got to buy new clothes *G* and I entered my sophomore year of high school, in which I discovered skateboarding. I was never good at it. Ever. But it made me run pretty fast to try to catch up with my runaway $13 board. Off came another 20 pounds, and I put two new holes in the belt.
My junior year of high school I lost 20 pounds due to a deep depression. No, I do not recommend losing weight in this way. Do not, I repeat, do not starve yourself. I am still feeling the effects to this day of the calcium deficiency I developed (my teeth are horrible). When I got so depressed I could not eat, and I felt so nervously jittery that all I did was exercise. (It was at this point that I discovered my mom's stepping block, a sturdy plastic step with adjustable legs, and exercise videos, which make you feel silly but are WONDERFUL to do in a nice cool basement when it's 90 degrees outside.) The pounds came off and stayed off, but I would rather have done it in a healthier manner. Again, I got new clothing, and put two new holes in the belt.
My senior year and freshman years of college were tumultuous, but I discovered new exercise videos. I also discovered that when I got to college, the shopping center was a mile and a half from campus. Often I would walk three miles a day, then go to the campus rec center and swim for a half hour. Unlike some of my friends, I LOST about 10 pounds my senior year and another 10 my freshman year of college. I put two more holes in the belt (which is about due to be replaced) and I also discovered running, which is surprisingly fun.
I worry about some of my geek friends who sit around, snarf Doritoes and Mountain Dew all day, and play Counterstrike as their most strenuous activity. Sure, their metabolisms can handle it now, but they're not going to be healthy later on. They also scoff when I talk about calorie content and exercise time, and often try to pressure me to eat more tator tots in the cafeteria.
What'd I eat? Normal stuff. I just cut back on fatty things and began to eat more fruits and vegetables. I've never been able to eat much for breakfast (usually a granola bar or a Pop Tart will suffice). At lunch I will have a sandwich with lean meat, a little mayo, and lettuce, with a salad on the side, and a cookie or two. At dinner I'll usually have something a bit more substantial, but I won't eat all that much of it. The key is moderation and exercise.
Let's see. 45 + 20 + 20 + 10 + 10 = 105. I've lost 105 pounds! No gimmicks or shakes or diets...just normal foods and exercise.
This was entirely too long. ENTIRELY. Wow. Maybe I'll help someone though.
Angry IT woman in big clompy boots. And talking lint!.
Get some exercise. If you don't like gyms - get a treadmill - a decent one which can tilt. Doing 5km a day walking on a treadmill can work wonders. At lunchtime, have a light meal, and go for a 20-30 minute walk and clear the cobwebs out.
As for food - breakfast is important - moreso if you do that 5km a day in the morning. Lunch? Easy - small portions of leftovers from the dinner the night before or soup or a small garden salad. Dinner? Eat what you would normally eat, just don't eat the whole pizza - have 2 slices - don't forget that pizzas do have a bunch of goodness in them. Save the rest of the pizza for future dinners or for lunches. Always make dinner and plan for saving leftovers - cutting down on eating out of a restaurant or company cafeteria saves me $25 CDN a week.
Beer? Drinks? I personally don't drink soda (unless it was made from barley) so I have a can of apple juice (200% daily recommended vitamin C). Oh yeah - take supplementals just in case you do something silly like try skimping on some food group or other. But yeah, don't drink the whole 12 pack in one sitting - share and save for later.
For me, that formula has worked to allow me to lose 5kg this past month. So far I feel great.
But yeah, just like on slashdot, moderation is the key...
I donate all spillover Karma to the charity of my choice... Ada was still a babe despite what people may say...
Read The Hacker's Diet by John Walker (of Autodesk fame).