I Need Help Getting Started

Hi, I am Mike.  I am a 28 year old contractor who also works as a part time police officer and a firefighter.  I put it in my on December 26th 2008 that i would lose 100 lbs over the next year.  I was tired over being overweight and want to become a full-time firefighter.  No department wants someone that is 100 lbs overweight.  I set out to the gym thinking all I have to do is lose 2 lbs a week...not unreasonable in my mind.  I did great, losing from 310 to 280 in the first two months.  Then I hit a wall, got discouraged and slacked off for a couple weeks.  My weight came back up to 290 and again I hit the gym losing back down to 280.  I could not seem to lose below 280.  I am now back to 304 and cant take it anymore.  I just found out I have a baby on the way and I want to be healthy enough to keep up.

I believe that a lot of my problem is my fluctuating schedule.  I work for myself during the day and end up getting called to fill a vacation shift ending up having to be awake for 24hrs straight ....eating through the night to keep myself going. 

I started back to the gym today and am counting my calories.  Being a contractor/firefighter/police officer, I find myself eating whats conveinant between calls.  What can I prepare to take with me that will help me lose weight rather than Krystals at three in the am?  How should I prepare my meals during the day.  I am always on the go and rarely in a kitchen.  How can I get past my 280 lb wall.  Any help is appreciated

I think what helps me the most is to make one positive change at a time, and keep practicing that until I feel like I have it down, rather than trying to change everything at once.  Think about what you think is wrong with your current lifestyle.  Are you too sedentary?  Are you food choices poor?  Do you eat seconds routinely?  Do you eat when you are bored/anxious/sad?  Try to decide which of the poor habits you have that is the biggest problem.  Then just tackle that one problem, and cut yourself some slack on the rest.  Once you have a new good habit to replace the old bad habit you can tackle the next problem.

Also, losing a big number like 100 pounds is pretty daunting.  It sounds as if you need to make big changes to accomplish that.  But if you break it down to 10 pound goals, it becomes clear that you can make small changes and still make big differences over the long haul.

When I am really busy, it helps to have a plan about what I can eat that is healthy.  Instead of going to a fast food restaurant, try going to a higher end grocery store.  They often have really nice soup and salad bars, and some pretty healthy choices like rotisserie chicken.  You can put together a pretty healthy meal that is more expensive than cooking at home, but healthier than most restaurants.

Also, I buy things that I like (but don't adore) and portion them out in little ziploc bags.  Things like raisins, nuts, whole grain cereals.  I keep these with me for emergencies.  Then I can grab a fairly healthy snack that doesn't need refrigeration.  Apples, oranges, and bananas are also pretty transportable.

Good luck!

All the advice here is great, but even the best advice sometimes wont work. The SINGLE thing that worked the best for me was the old standards. You have heard them a MILLION times, it gets old, but most of the time they simply work. Much like you I needed to lose about 80 pounds to be my Ideal wieght. When you start, it goes really fast if you really stick with it, then your body starts to understand its got to work with what its givin and starts to work more efficent. I found i hit a wall at about 40 lbs. I stuck with if for about 4-5 more months with no change, i tried less calories one day, more the next, more exercise, less, I even tried bing days. Soon I just sorta got lazy, no change for all that work. I gained back about 10 pounds.. and now its been a VERY hard battle to get back to it. You really gotta count every calorie, and I mean every single one! Move some, I would guess you get a fair workout (if you are training for fireman?) never skip working out/excercise, you just cant.  You sound busy, thats good, 24 hour awake, thats bad (but its also life, sometimes you cant change it). As for meal, you just gotta make the time to make some, there are a MILLION things you can buy at the store that nuke quick, not all are tasty, but they are easy and quick, and almost all come in calorie counting packs, again not my recomendation, but if time is a problem it my be the only answer for short term. Fruit is wonderfull, you can actually buy a bagged salad nowdays. I know its not real help (actualy will sound annoying, Im not meaning to be), but if you cant find the time to make the meals or buy them, nobody else will do it for you. You have to want to lose the wieght. And I know its hard, really hard. I have fell off the wagon and am trying REALLY hard to get back on... not 100% succesfully yet (and I been trying for almost a year now).. I'm not gaining, but I'm not loseing either.. the only good thing is.. right now my habits suck, so if i can get back to the "right" way of eating I think i can turn it around. As the poseter above said, change things one aat a time.

I am a third shift worker in a hospital as well as a graduate student.  There were many times that I would be up for over 24 hours.  That makes it hard to count calories because most people would be asleep for 8 of those hours.  My best advice is to pack your own homemade dinner and healthy snacks.  Just say no to those taco bell runs or gas station snacks.  Food choices at 3 am are horrible and your body wanst nothing but sweets and carbs.  I make sure to only eat the food I bring.  I will also bring a resistance band to work and use that while I am sitting around bored on third shift.  I'm sure how much down time you have, but having a set of dumbells in the car can't hurt.  Try to make your spare time count.

Good Luck!

Well one thing I just want to say is just because your not losing weight doesn't mean your not healthy over the time your working out your gonna gain muscle mass and it weighs more then fat so you might actually be losing fat but just gaining muscle and not seeing it on a scale I haven't lost more then 3 pounds in the last month but I can see muscles I haven't seen since I was in high school.I just wanted to point that out don't stop doing your workouts just because you can't see it. It is going to work you just have to keep it up stick to a routine healthy eating and your exersize routine and ad a minute hear and there.

As for food I don't have the problem of doing anything like that I lost my job almost 2 years ago and haven't found another,But you can still invest in one of those I don't remember what they are called but I am gonna call it a thermal lunch box.keeps things hot up top and cold down bottom.Just make your food when you have time slap together a sandwich and just bag it if you dont like soggy bread stack the rest of the contents in bags and leave slices of bread in there too in bags,I used to do that when I had a on call job.Another thing I did was I knew where all the walmarts were and stores that were 24 hours that had fresh fruits and vegtables and if I was going to be around them I would grab some grapes and a apple and orange. I mean its not perfect but anything to stay away from McDonalds and burger king was a major thing I had to do.

Good luck I hope this helped you.

I'd recommend packing snacks that have a good protein and carb balance.  A great thing to take on the go is peanut butter celery.  This can be wrapped up in the fridge in advance or put together quickly on the fly.   Fruits and veggies are great too, I like to cut up apples and sprinkle them with cinnamon and put them in a container to eat for snacks at work.  String cheese is a good protein and makes a good snack.   If  you eat every couple hours small meals you'll be able to stay full and it's easier to avoid snacks.  Oh something else that I think is kind of cool.   Make a meatloaf in muffin tins.  You have easy lunchbox individual serving sized food.  Good containers can make salad on the go too.