Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

My friend and I are trying to book a big fitness bet. We're having trouble working out the details. We basically want to each set a few quantifiable goals each, make sure our lists are similar to each other's in difficulty, and then base the winning/losing of the bet on how many of the goals we each achieved.

I need some help thinking up some goals.

We're probably gonna run the bet over a 1 month period, then settle up, tweak it, and make another.

So, some goals I had in mind were:

lose x% of bodyfat
Be able to (bench, squat, w/e) y reps at x lbs

I was also thinking of making one goal that just restricts foods. So like, no pizza, candy, ice cream, etc. the whole time.

And I was gonna make one rule: no playing poker past 11pm five nights a week (to help regulate sleep schedule, because my sleep schedule sucks and makes me unable to do anything active some days)

I don't think that a goal like 'go to the gym x days a week for y minutes' will be good for me because it'll make it more of a drag and less of a challenge with goals. Also I could just half ass it when I go to the gym.

I also don't want to go as far as counting calories or anything that takes that much work.

I'm not looking to train for a marathon. I just want to be healthier.

Any ideas for some measurable goals I could have that would be important to me getting in better shape?

Real quick about me:
I'd say I'm equally interested in getting stronger and dropping some weight.
I hate distance running more than anything. I don't mind lifting.
I don't cook at all. I don't eat super well, but I have no problem sticking to a diet as long as the food is easy to prepare/order. (This could be it's own thread, but ez prep/order healthy foods would help me out a lot)
There's a gym 2 blocks from my house that I'm not a member of yet.

Any questions are welcome. Thanks guys.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

random 4am suggestion: make some sort of challenge course that you can't do now, but want to do in the future.

like run a < 8 minute mile followed by 10 pullups followed by 100 pushups and 100 situps and time yourselves and see who wins.

no idea what your fitness level is, but something like this may be fun. are you hsp jman or other jman? aren't there different ones. if you are hsp jman you didn't look that out of shape.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

I would advise that setting some times to play poker,
for example a standard job usally starts at around 9 and finishes at 5 so why not make set times to play poker as saying " no poker after 11pm" is ok but just sitting looking at a computer screen for the amount of hours straight without a break if the games are good is obv going to be bad for you.

so for example playing between the hours of 9-5 each day alone would make u alot healthier an prob feel better for it. obv as the games prob arnt as good at them kinda times u could set 8 hours a day playing poker (if wanted) having 3 breaks for example a half hour morning break a hour lunch and another half hour afternoon break.

Outside poker times you could go for a walk once a day maybe in the morning and a run once a day for like 10 minutes (not along time as you said in ur post u dont like running distances) doing this would also make most poker players probly dont get fresh air let alone any exercise.

On the Food side you could maybe set a diet of 3 meals a day with one meal a day being a salad type dish or pasta dish. (pasta dish being super easy to make... as u said u dnt cook much) You could also list the food you would generally eat like pizzas etc. and make them some kinda treat once a week for dinner/lunch or w/e. that way it may give u some incentive to eat healthy so when the day comes once a week you could eat the pizza or w/e. For the 3 set meals a day i really wouldnt have a clue what would be best to eat as eating salad/pasta day in day out for a month would become boring so research in some good healthy meals would be a must!

id imagine if u followed this for a month with some weight lifting etc. you would be alot healthier.

hope this gives u some sort of idea. gl in the bet.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

Personally i was never a huge fan of running but i made a goal 2.5 months ago to run a marathon in under 4 hours (doing blackpool marathon april 28th) mostly for a goal that gets me out of my comfort level and because it's something i want to do before i die so there's no better time than now.

But since doing that i've become pretty obsessed with my 4mile and 3mile times since a lot of the short runs are always these distances.

I think even though you hate long distance running you'd very much enjoy a 5km time goal. It's just extremely competitive against yourself to push yourself over and over again, to fight with your mental toughness and to push through pain. This could be one of the bets. Then add a food restriction bet w/ some kind of point scale and then a lifting bet.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

If you go fast food, make some better choices. Get the chicken sandwiches (non fried) at burger joints, go to subway more etc. Also, el pollo loco has great tasting chicken that's not fried. Just order one of the chicken piece meals, not any of the burritos/tacos/nachos.

It's hard to eat that great if you aren't willing to prepare stuff yourself.

As far as fitness, how about having one part of the bet be who progresses the most in the big lifts over a month?

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

[ QUOTE ]
If you go fast food, make some better choices. Get the chicken sandwiches (non fried) at burger joints, go to subway more etc. Also, el pollo loco has great tasting chicken that's not fried. Just order one of the chicken piece meals, not any of the burritos/tacos/nachos.


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't usually eat at fast food places like these. Some places near me I like to order from:

http://www.milios.com/menu
http://www.silverminesubs.com/menu
http://www.narotisserie.com/Kipps_Menu.htm
http://burritodrive.com/BurritoDriveMenu.html
http://www.jimmyjohns.com/menu/menu.aspx

Suggestions? I don't eat many vegetables.. So subs with just veggies are no good.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

timed mile would be ok

percentage of bodyweight you can bench would be ok

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

Give us some numbers for your current bench, squat, etc... and we can help you adjust them for a reasonable 1 or 3 month goal. IMHO, people grossly over exaggerate how much they can improve their lifts in short periods of time, so that could work to your advantage.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

get mostly chicken at kipp's, and for a side get mixed veggies, beans (puerto rican or black) or jalapeno peppers. Aim for a higher chicken:sides ratio.

Mexican is kinda hard to eat clean. Lots of fat. Just control portions. Avoid creamy sauces, opt for tomato and green salsas because it's just veggies and tomato sauce basically. Get corn tortillas whenever possible.

At sub shops, going for extra meat is fine. There's some fat but most deli meats are mainly protein. Pile the veggies on though, so you feel fuller. Watch out for sauces. Lots of fat in those tasty sauces.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

for mex get fajitas

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

Thanks guys. The bet is mostly booked, but I could still use more help finding food.

Anything decent at http://unos.com/ or at chinese places?

Looks like jimmy johns has a low carb option where they just wrap your sandwich in lettuce instead of bread. Sounds a little unappealing, but probably will be good for me.

How good/bad is it to eat cheerios and 1% milk for breakfast, and tuna in a bowl with like 1/2 a serving of mayo for lunch, then another bowl of cereal for a snack, then order something for dinner?

I'm basically asking if cheerios and 1% milk is an ok healthy meal, even if I eat like 2 bowls of it. I know tuna is pretty healthy, even with the little bit of mayo, right?

[ QUOTE ]
are you hsp jman or other jman? aren't there different ones. if you are hsp jman you didn't look that out of shape.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah I'm HSP Jman. Thanks. I'm not obese or anything. I just am very inactive, and I used to be in very good shape once upon a time. I'm probably 15 lbs heavier than I should be.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

Eat whatever you want, Just keep the content ideally. ("Im on a diet i cant eat pizza" People who say that i laugh in there face.)

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

I'd do the fitness course for the prop bet. It sounds like a fun challenge, and you'll get to test endurance, strength and general fitness level, not just pure strength like testing the benchpress or whatever.

As for getting healthy, there's a ton of ways but there's one thing common to all of them: eat healthy and exercise regularly.

To build muscle you eat at a caloric excess and lift weights. To lose weight you eat at a caloric deficit and exercise. Either do a ton of cardio or lift to increase your metabolism. Diet always has to come first though.

As for eating healthy there's a ton of stuff in the FAQ's but here are some highlights.

Eat multiple times a day (5-8 meals). This will ensure that your body always has energy to burn and to build muscle. It distributes your energy intake evenly over the day so the body won't have as much excess calories that it will try to convert to fat.

Eat protein to build muscle, and fat and carbs for energy. 1/3 protein, 1/3 carbs, 1/3 fat is a good mix, but there's no nead to get religious. For building mass you need about 1.5g of protein for each lb of body weight. Remember that every ounce of fat is 4x more calorically dense than protein or carbs, so although 10g of fat doesn't sound like much it can be a lot of calories. The difference in eating a sandwich with or without mayo can be pretty staggering.

Eat good carbs and good fat. Try to limit animal fats and highly processed carbs. Fatty meats, fried food, most fast food (hamburgers, fries, pizza, mexican, chinese), white bread and pasta are all pretty bad.

Dead animal carcas is good (chicken, fish, lean-cuts of beef and to a lesser extent pork), veggies are good, fruits are good but don't go nuts with them cause they have a lot of sugar (the good kind though), potatoes and yams, brown rice and whole wheat pasta. Most sauces are bad except mustard, hot-sauce and natural salsa. Nuts and seeds are good but very calorically dense. Natural peanut butter is the same.

Rice cakes are awful, soy protein is bad and fruit juice is bad. Chips, candy, cakes and soda is bad, diet-soda is fine . Coffe and tea is good but skip the cream/milk. Non-fat/skim milk is fine but kinda depends on the person.

Regarding your breakfast, cheerios has a lot of highly processed grains and isn't optimal. It will shoot up your blood-sugar levels which stimulates fat storage, and then come crashing down which will give you cravings. At least it's not loaded with sugar like most other cereals though. Most breakfast cereals are considered breakfast candy in the fitness world.

Good old plain oats is your best bet for a good carb breakfast. Just eat em raw with skim milk. Eggs are great too. Make an ommelet with 1 whole egg and 3 egg whites for a great start to the day (add veggies to taste).

Yoghurt is good and cottage cheese is good.

I've rambled enough, just hit me up with more questions if you like.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

we did our fitness championships based upon %-age of body weight.

bench at 75%, curls at %25, and then did max reps within 2 minutes.

then, simply add a mile or 2 mile run or both.
best time wins.

we also added cals, like push-ups and pull-ups.

i like the %-age thing for your bets because it takes
into account that you might be 5'4" and your buddy is 6'10".

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

[ QUOTE ]


Looks like jimmy johns has a low carb option where they just wrap your sandwich in lettuce instead of bread. Sounds a little unappealing, but probably will be good for me.

How good/bad is it to eat cheerios and 1% milk for breakfast, and tuna in a bowl with like 1/2 a serving of mayo for lunch, then another bowl of cereal for a snack, then order something for dinner?

I'm basically asking if cheerios and 1% milk is an ok healthy meal, even if I eat like 2 bowls of it. I know tuna is pretty healthy, even with the little bit of mayo, right?



[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Jman, I think the problem some might have with cheerios and milk is that there isn't that much protein in that sort of meal. It's best to eat protein regularly with each meal to keep your metabolism moving normally and keep you from feeling hungry too soon. If you really want to eat that, you should add some nuts or have a little turkey sausage or a couple eggs with the cereal for bfast. If you want to be extra low maintenance on the food, look at NutriSystem or any of the similar meal delivery programs. Ridiculously simple, good food, however it is kinda pricey. Good luck with your bet.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


Looks like jimmy johns has a low carb option where they just wrap your sandwich in lettuce instead of bread. Sounds a little unappealing, but probably will be good for me.

How good/bad is it to eat cheerios and 1% milk for breakfast, and tuna in a bowl with like 1/2 a serving of mayo for lunch, then another bowl of cereal for a snack, then order something for dinner?

I'm basically asking if cheerios and 1% milk is an ok healthy meal, even if I eat like 2 bowls of it. I know tuna is pretty healthy, even with the little bit of mayo, right?



[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Jman, I think the problem some might have with cheerios and milk is that there isn't that much protein in that sort of meal. It's best to eat protein regularly with each meal to keep your metabolism moving normally and keep you from feeling hungry too soon. If you really want to eat that, you should add some nuts or have a little turkey sausage or a couple eggs with the cereal for bfast. If you want to be extra low maintenance on the food, look at NutriSystem or any of the similar meal delivery programs. Ridiculously simple, good food, however it is kinda pricey. Good luck with your bet.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah i think nutrisystem might be a little out of his budget

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

[ QUOTE ]
tuna in a bowl with like 1/2 a serving of mayo for lunch

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm curious about this also. I just bought some tuna, which in the past I've always let swim in mayonnaise. Is a little bit of low-fat mayo ok? If not mayo, what is a good substitute? Do people just have it plain?

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

Mayo is bad.

I believe tuna in oil is fine. Or you could get tuna in water, throw it in a bowl with some rabbit food and pour olive oil over it.

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

[ QUOTE ]
we did our fitness championships based upon %-age of body weight.

bench at 75%, curls at %25, and then did max reps within 2 minutes.

then, simply add a mile or 2 mile run or both.
best time wins.

we also added cals, like push-ups and pull-ups.

i like the %-age thing for your bets because it takes
into account that you might be 5'4" and your buddy is 6'10".

[/ QUOTE ]
What about the increased workload for the 6'10" guy because of his longer limbs, especially for the bench-press?

It's very hard to find a "fair" fitness test. If it's just the motivation you're looking for then pretty much any of these are good.

If you really want to win the prop then the old adage is always true: "The competition is won in the negotiation"

Re: Help Me Make a Fitness Bet, Please.
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
we did our fitness championships based upon %-age of body weight.

bench at 75%, curls at %25, and then did max reps within 2 minutes.

then, simply add a mile or 2 mile run or both.
best time wins.

we also added cals, like push-ups and pull-ups.

i like the %-age thing for your bets because it takes
into account that you might be 5'4" and your buddy is 6'10".

[/ QUOTE ]
What about the increased workload for the 6'10" guy because of his longer limbs, especially for the bench-press?

It's very hard to find a "fair" fitness test. If it's just the motivation you're looking for then pretty much any of these are good.

If you really want to win the prop then the old adage is always true: "The competition is won in the negotiation"

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point, I guess. It's just how we did it in our fitness
competitions. Seemed better to go for max reps at an agreed
upon percentage then, say, just max weight. Typically, the
bigger guys are stronger and would win most "max weight"
weight lifting competitions.