(note: this is sort of an extension of my post found here: http://www.traineo.com/11_393_0.html . just wanted to put it in the right category)

- breakfast: lately i’ve been skipping. (bad, i know! but i’m a junior in highschool, and sometimes there just isn’t enough time. in those cases i’ll buy a yogurt or something at school before class). usually i’ll eat some cold cereal, but i prefer eating dinner leftovers! (yes i’m weird) a lot of my diet is Korean food, which mostly consists of lots of rice and cooked vegetables.

- lunch: i pack a sandwich that consists of 2 slices of whole wheat bread (love my fiber!), mayo (we have a huge jar that we can’t waste), various cold cuts, and a slice of krafts American cheese (bad?). i’m too lazy to put any lettuce in (my mom does though), but i would put in tomatoes if we had any. i also bring a dole fuit cup, a caprisun (is high fructose corn syrup bad?), and occasionally a small bag of chips. (note: i eat my lunch sporadically throughout the school day)

- dinner: usually we eat nice n’ hot home-cooked meals, but my mom is visiting Korea right now, so we’ve basically been surviving on ramen and burger king for the past 3 weeks =S

- water: i’m pretty good with the 8 glasses a day thing, learned that when i was young

- protein: i'll choose chicken/fish over steak anyday. yay for me. i also often eat eggs (i use vegetable oil to fry them)

- fiber: i use a mix in powder supplement (benefiber)


looking back on all that i just wrote, i can see the areas where i need to clean up. i need healthier snacking options! packaged foods would be better because i’m always on the go.
thanks!

and please read my other post while you're at it (to get some more background info on me and my exercising)

http://www.traineo.com/11_393_0.html

My 2c - bear in mind there's a lot of variance in how people to choose to go about their diet modification.

At the end of the day, it's a pretty simple equation:

Calories In - Calories Out.

You've got to burn more calories in a day than you take in. Now just being alive and breathing you're burning calories. For some people just mild diet modification can make a massive difference.

You'd be surprised at how much some of the stuff you're eating is setting you back.

For example - that packet of chips has enough calories to sustain my evening meal.

But the Burger King is the real killer. Let's say you had a Whopper with cheese, regular fries and a coke - you'd be looking at almost 1700 calories!!!

That's almost my ENTIRE daily food intake at the moment.

To lose weight effectively, you need to know what the calorie count is of the food you're putting in, how much exercise burns how many calories for you and how much your body needs to start the process.

Now how you choose to affect your calorie intake is up to you and there's a lot to choose from. Whatever it is you go for, make sure that it has a good 'exit plan' - so that when you reach your goal weight you can eat healthily and enjoy life without falling back into bad habits.

Two examples of what I've done:

I'm currently on Jenny Craig. The reasons -

* you know exactly what you're putting into your body
* your consultant will work out the right calorie setting for your body
* it's easy - you buy most of the meals from them, supplement with general groceries
* it provides good methods for getting back into real life

If you check out my page you'll see I've averaged 1.5 kilos a week loss for the last three weeks. I expect that to slow over time, but it's good so far.

The only other time I've dieted was using the Atkins diet. A lot of people have a lot of scorn for this approach, but it worked wonders for me - you just have to make sure you get enough of the right kind of salad and veg and you can take it off so fast. If you follow their plan all the way through the 'lifetime maintenance' phase is not too different from what most people would normally eat, just not as many carbs in the diet.

However, I'd only recommend the most disciplined of people take this approach.

Anyway, good luck with it all - glad to see you're making the changes you need.

hey, thanks for the response. and yes i know, chips and bk = evil. that's why i need better snacking options! but things like the atkins diet and jenny craig are just not options for me.

when i do have to go to bk though, i always get the chicken fries, abstain from the french fries, and fill my cup only 3/4 of the way. (w/ iced tea b/c i don't like coke)

but once my mom comes back, i'll be eating healthier for sure, so not to worry.

so i'm more curious about how healthy things like caprisun and dole fruit cups are. also american cheese.

random note: i am really really really craving some korean food. haven't had kimchi in 3 whole weeks! =X

oh! and kelsey, i saw on your profile and read that you're a graphic designer. i'm at the point in my life where i have to decide what i want to pursue. i'm having trouble narrowing down my options (flute, web/graphic design, math... and i'm still even considering med school) care to share what it's like?

You can get really creative with healthy snacking - there are some things which are considered 'free food' on JC which my partner and I snack on.

For example - fat-free salsa (for chips) is pretty low-cal and a lot of the stuff they use in it would be considered free food. Whack that in some tupperware with some carrot sticks and you've got a fairly portable low-cal snack.

Tomato slices on lite crisp-bread with some sea salt is yummo. We also put on 'Sambal Badjak' an Indian chilli chutney type thing. It's so hot we can't put enough on anything to count its calories.

For general food bulking out we make an awesome bake of slices of eggplant, zucchini, mushroom, onion, garlic, turnip with each layer drenched in a tomato-based pasta sauce.

I'd avoid ANYTHING with high-fructose corn-syrup. We have far too much sugar in our diets - what with all the breads, pastas and junk food we eat. That sort of thing will slow down your metabolism so fast it'll make your head turn.

Check out some of the low-cal recipe books. The pictures make it easier than online searches.

As to the lifestyle stuff:

At Uni I studied Opera at the Queensland Conservatorium. At the time it was the best vocal institute in the country. It was great and horrible at the same time. I was the only one in my class to graduate and the entire process destroyed my love of music and performance for many years to come. After a few years I got back into it, formed a band and gigged around Sydney. Enjoyable as it was, it was never the same and even today music is something I'm a little conflicted over.

If you found the right institute that both pushed you hard AND encouraged you then the music angle could work out. Just bear in mind that there's *very* little call for classically trained musicians in any kind of venue that's likely to make you anything like a living wage. Doing it for the love gets old when you can't afford bread. You have to be better than every single one of your peers to be able to get the choice positions that provide enough for you to live on.

Otherwise you're stuck teaching music, either in school or privately and doing the odd show for your local community theatre. Either way, it's usually not enough to satisfy the passion that brought you to music in the first place.

I'm not trying to discourage you - just bear in mind that if you want it, you have to *really* want it. More than anything, more than breathing. And you have to be willing to give up anything, do anything and focus entirely on it as a goal. Only then can you hope to compete at the level that it's worthwhile.

As to design. I really love it. I spent nearly eight years developing and teaching multimedia, design and film courses in addition to doing most of the marketing for the multi-million-a-year college. Had about a $250K a year budget for my marketing & design.

These days I'm a freelancer. I work from home most days. Get up late, go riding around Melbourne's parks on my bike and come home to my office where I work with my wife in a big-ish loungeroom overlooking the water in Melbourne's docklands. It's great. I also work with a programmer to develop new web applications (similar to traineo, but for other industries) that make more regular income than just one-off design work.

I had an odd route to getting to where I am and for most people the first years of being a junior designer can be pretty lean, cash-wise. If you can get together a kick-ass portfolio, get a position as a junior in a cool firm or two and do that for a couple of years you can then go freelance, make great money, keep your own hours and choose the jobs you work on.

Overall, it's pretty cool.

My Dad was a maths major, in the top 1% of the country. He wound up a teacher too. Again, not a lot of call for maths unless you're super good, super motivated and want to work in some very esoteric areas.

No doctors in the family, but my doctor friends have done well in life. Bear in mind they're in their mid-30's, still studying hard for their specialties (the way to make great money in medicine) but they own their own houses and lead a great life. They can have some pretty antisocial hours tho!

If there's any more questions, feel free to ask.

Sue, I know you didn't ask my opinoin, but i'm going to give it anyways.

What is your passion? Take that, whatever it is, and do it for a living. Just do that all the time.

My three passions are helping people, music, and martial arts. I work in the healthcare field and I'm training to take ove the family business (long term health care for the mr/dd).

I play music everydya, with whoever I can, or by myself. I play paying gigs here and there.

I teach and study Kung Fu and Tai Chi everyday (something is done everyday).

I make my living with my passions. Makes life a helluva lot more enjoyable when you're always doing what you like.