#1- Exercise- I don't have much time for it. BUT I have started riding my stationary bike (have rode it the last 4 days) I ride for 20 minutes, I focus on the RPMs, the mileage, the calories burned, Heart rate.
Today I rode for 20 min.;
Level 2
RPMs- 90-100
Heart rate- 135 (first 10 min. kept it around 110 the last ten min. bumped it up to 120-135)
calories burned- 122
miles- 7.20

Is this enough??? (to start) Where should I keep my heart rate?

#2- My daily meals- I drive a truck for a living so I'm eating at alot of restaurants.
I focus on;
Breakfast- eggs and any kind of meat.

Lunch and dinner are basically the same.
Any meat, small amount of salad, small amount of green beans.

Snacks- pork rinds, cheese, slim jims, or summer sausage.

I'm not much of a water drinker, although I'm ordering water with my meals instead of the usual diet drink. (I'm trying to add more water)

How does this sound to everyone else? Is there things that I need to change so I'm not doing this the wrong way?

Thank you in advance.

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Restarted 1/01/2009
Restart weight 345
1st Goal- 315 by my 41st B-Day (May 4th, 2009)

I can't give you advice on your exercise. Your food looks pretty good, but you might want a little more variety on the vegetables. Perhaps some broccoli and cauliflower, or some zucchini or yellow squash. The snacks might be a tad high in sodium, but if that doesn't affect you, that should be ok. If you can carry stuff like celery sticks, sliced bell pepper, jicama, etc., you could have some with your other snacks for a veggie boost.

And WTG on drinking the water. It's been just about a year since I gave up regular soda drinking. Now it's an occasional treat, not a several times daily event. And I try to use only Splenda-sweetened diet drinks, too. I do think that my health has improved. I drink water, tea, and decaf coffee.

Hope this helps you. Come back for lots of support. This is a great bunch of people. Wishing you much success on your low carb journey.

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Nita

Time2Lose:

I think you are off to a great start and I applaud your willingness and enthusiasm... your line of work makes any dietary or exercise changes more difficult.

I think the 20 min. on the stationary bike are a good start, but if you could bump it up to 30, it would be even better. Aim for 5-7 days per week. While some will tell you that you don't "have" to work out with this woe (way of eating), the truth is, eventually you WILL and if you start out exercising, you will be that much further ahead! Since you have to sit so much, I would try to walk every chance you get as well. Walking briskly is by far the BEST exercise anyone can do and the great thing is that you can do it anywhere!

Your diet looks great -- I would be REALLY careful with those snacks though. You are already admittedly not drinking adequate water and those are very high-sodium snacks. They can cause serious water retention and make you feel like you are not losing even when you are. I second the suggestion of taking fresh veggies on the road to eat as snacks. String cheese is another good option.

I realize that being on the road makes it difficult to get in enough water, but consider this:
1) Your body NEEDS water in order to lose weight. The burned off fat is flushed out when there is adequate water intake. Also, cells are less likely to hold on to fluid if there is adequate water intake. If the body is even SLIGHTLY dehydrated, the cells hoard fluid thinking that they are being deprived! And
2) Drinking enough water will protect your kidneys from the effects of ketones. Please don't misunderstand; I do NOT think this woe (way of eating) is dangerous, but when you are losing weight, your urine output is the biggest output of burned off fat. This burned-off fat is in the form of ketones and they can put an unnecessary strain on your kidneys if there is not adequate fluid to dilute them.

Believe me, I know that most people hate drinking water (I did!) and it can be a real pain when you feel like you have to run to the bathroom every hour or two. But here's the interesting thing. If you will raise your water intake to at least 8-10 glasses per day (1/2 your body weight in ounces is the guideline I use), two things will happen.
First, you will slowly, but surely start to like/crave water. I thought that would never happen, but after a few weeks of making myself drink the water, I found it easier & easier and then I actually WANTED it! The second thing that will happen is that your bladder WILL eventually adjust (unless you just have a really tiny bladder). In the beginning I was running to the bathroom every hour; now, I'm drinking the same amount and I can go 3+ hours between potty breaks!

I truly hope this helps & please keep posting your progress so we can see how you are doing! Best of luck!

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Summer

sounds like you're off to a good start! i would echo the other fine advice you've gotten here: keep up the good work on the exercise and gradually add more as you become more comfortable with it. keep working on the water intake, which does get easier over time (and is especially important with the salty snacks you eat, as summer pointed out), and work on increasing your veggie intake. it's almost never veggies that slow down our losses, after all, and they're so good for you!

keep us posted as to how it's going!

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Tim

I don't have much to add to the great advice you've already received. Bt as to your question " Where should I keep my heart rate" fwiw I joined a gym last summer and got one free personal trainer session. I told him about my low carb [rpgram giving him examples of what i ate. heapproved or at least did not disapprove. but on thing he told me made a lot of sense. If i do an aerobic exercise at 8o% maximum heart rate I will burn more carbs than if i exercised at a lower intensity of 66 to 70% where i would burn a higher fat %. given that i have lower glycogen stored in my muscles a better fat burn % is a definite plus HTH

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]

I haven't been able to resist weighing myself. Wednesday (day 14) I weighed and lost 12 lbs.(338 to 326), Went out of town that day and did really well, came back and weighed and gained 2 lbs.(328) Exercise feels as if it is getting addictive, when I ride the bike I still feel like I can go for a walk or do something, I haven't felt that way in a long time. Now If I can get that water to be addictive.

It Isn't discouraging me like it used to do in the past. I realize I will have days like that and also when you look at it in the sense of not being a diet but a way of life you don't let it get you down as easy. Now if I weighed myself and gained every time that would be different.

Adding more veggies. Today I had 12 wings and celery for dinner.

:( Still have to add more water.


What other snacks can I get that isn't so high in sodium? I know of one, thats sugar free jello.

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Restarted 1/01/2009
Restart weight 345
1st Goal- 315 by my 41st B-Day (May 4th, 2009)

Tim - Congratulations on the great weight loss! as far as lower sodium snacks I might suggest strawberries, raspberries or blackberries. they're pretty low carb. I was going to suggest turkey and cheese rollups but they might be on the high side for sodium. That's your call. Hard boiled eggs are always a great snack and you can boil up a dozen at a time to have them handy. You might try looking in the cooking section for ideas. snacks

I sometimes make the one minute muffin but usually for breakfast though sometimes for a snack if my carb count for the day has room. Check out this thread for the OMM

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Hey Tim, how's it going? Just wanted to check in on you and see if you're still truckin' (sorry for the pun).

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Summer

oh, summer, you're so NOT sorry for that pun!

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I had a lot of trouble getting the water in also, but I found that Walmart carries the quick packs of drink mix, like Crystal lite, you can get several flavors and just pour it into a bottle of water, you would be surprised how much water you can get down this way. Ginger

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Ginger
Starting weight 3-17-07 223
Current weight 214.4
Total lost -8.6

I'm still trucking.

I rode the bike today for 30:00, L2 @ 100 RPMs or more, burned 210 calories, went 10.80 miles. At 100-105 RPMs heart rate stayed around 145-150 anything over 105 RPMs HR went over 150, I tried keeping it under 150.

Weigh in today was 329.

It doesn't seem to be falling off as it did in the past (2000 lost 18 lbs in the first 2 weeks) But 9 lbs. gone is better than nothing.

Two bad habits I still have to break-

#1- Its like Lawbooks said "Its not a diet its a way of eating" so it isn't going to happen over night. (I need to forget about past success's THAT I QUIT ON!)

#2- WATER- STILL NOT GETTING ENOUGH!!!!!

I might not be eating enough either.

Yesterday-
11:00 am- I ate a handful or two of pork rinds for breakfast and about 12 oz of water. (was at a hotel so breakfast was limited)

2:00pm- 20 oz. diet Mt. Dew


5:00pm- Salmon and steak both a little bit bigger than a deck of cards each, broccoli, salad (with a little bit of diced tomatoes, a little diced onions, blue cheese dressing) about 64 oz. water.

10:00pm- 20 oz. water and a handful or two or three of pork rinds.

2:00am- half of an Atkins bar (peanut butter crisp)

I really could have ate less for dinner, (I was stuffed) that would have allowed me to get hungry and eat around 10:00pm like I really had planned.

Let me have it guys!!!! Tell me what you think.

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Restarted 1/01/2009
Restart weight 345
1st Goal- 315 by my 41st B-Day (May 4th, 2009)

BTW mods, Can we change the name of this thread to "time 2 lose journal"


Thank you guys for responding to my posts, its definitely helping, knowing I have people interested in my progress.
THANK YOU!!!!

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Restarted 1/01/2009
Restart weight 345
1st Goal- 315 by my 41st B-Day (May 4th, 2009)

per your request, i change the title to time 2 lose journal, and moved your thread to the journalling forum. happy journalling!

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My meals for Thursday,

11:00am- Half of a Atkins bar (peanut butter crisp)

2:00pm- Went to a buffet with the wife, had 2-3 pieces of baked fish, 1 cheesburger (no bun of course) a baked chicken breast, broccoli, a little taco salad no shell (meat, lettuce, cheese, diced tomatoes, sour cream) 3 strawberrys. About 24 oz. water.

9:00pm- 16 chicken wings (medium @ buffalo wild wings), diet coke.

__________________
Restarted 1/01/2009
Restart weight 345
1st Goal- 315 by my 41st B-Day (May 4th, 2009)

Friday- Exercise, Bike- 30 minutes, RPMs 100-105, Miles 10.80, HR 157 (calories burned, I hear are innaccurate on machines, they dont take into account your weight, at least mine doesnt)

Breakfast- 10:00am- will be half of a Atkins bar (peanut butter crisp)

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Restarted 1/01/2009
Restart weight 345
1st Goal- 315 by my 41st B-Day (May 4th, 2009)