Bit of advise please (health+exercise).

[benneh]

I would imagine quite a few of these threads show up, so apologies in advance.. But a lot of the members in here seem keen on fitness, so I'm visiting to pick brains:

I'm 24, I haven't really partaken in regular exercise since I was 17-18 (driving made me so lazy), I never seemed to put any weight on, probably due to smoking heavily and one thing and another.
But about 4 years ago I knocked booze and 'none prescription medications' on the head, and about 14 months ago I quit smoking (from around 30 a day). I wouldn't say that I've felt a major improvement, but I'm definitely not quite as short of breath, and a few quid better off .
Over the last 13 months however I've put on about a stone and a half/ 2 stone and I'm feeling a bit out of shape. I'm quite lucky really because I'm naturally (or at least was!) quite skinny, so I get away with it to a degree, but I've got to the point where I want to ditch the extra baggage and tone myself up (particularly my stomach/chest).

My diet is pretty bad. I eat sporadically, more irregular snacks than meals. Mainly things that are simple to prepare, I don't enjoy cooking and usually opt for sandwiches of something that i can just throw in the oven and garnish with salad (fish in breadcrumbs/chicken kievs etc), and I tend to eat late at night. So any advise on diet and timetables for food would be appreciated.

Exercise wise I'm not a fan of the gym, it's just not my preferred environment. I'd far rather be outside or doing sit-ups etc at home, so the gym's out for me. Again any advise on exercise would be greatly appreciated. I've recently started riding a mountain bike for an hour and a half every day around a local park, and whenever else I can feasibly use it as transport. Lots of uphill sections and I usually come back knackered (which I can imagine is a good thing ), but I haven't started to do any kind of toning exercises/working out or anything yet.

I'm wondering exactly how unfit I am too tbh, because sometimes if I really push it for 15 mins I'll be totally short of breath, heart beating really hard and generally flustered, is this normal?. It's alien to me really, as a kid/teen I was so active and fit I can't remember being out of breath!. I don't want to take it too quickly and drop dead (I really do feel quite unhealthy).

So yep, I'd really appreciate some advise from those in the know, should you frequent these parts .

 

[Morba]

3 things from a very quick read:

your eating habbits might be poor, but the timings could be great. just need to change the crap (yes including sandwiches!) for something a bit more healthy

exercise - go find sometrhing that you like doing, if the mountain bike riding is ok, carry on with it. there are not many people who can go all out for 15 mins and not feel out of breath ;]
there is a few threads on here regarding working out at home, no weights involved just body weight exercises, might be worth digging some of those up.

motivation and goal setting - one of the big reasons why people slowly give up any change in lifestyle like you are doing, is unrealistic or non existant goals, this leads to a lack of motivation which eventually leads to people giving up. set yourself some realistic goals then measure them regularly to make sure you are on track.

cant give much more than that due to being on my phone (this is hard haha!)

 

[Fraggr]

I think you've pretty much answered your own question there. You know your eating habbits are bad, and that you are eating too late, you've started exercising.

Yes, it is normal to feel out of breath after going all out for 15 minutes.

When people give up smoking they put on quite a lot of weight. Just keep loads of celery chopped up in your fridge and eat on that instead of indulging all the time. I remember reading somewhere that it actually takes more energy/calories to eat and digest it than you get from actually eating the stuff. Just eat your main meals, and snack on this and other things that aren't calorie rich.

I'd recommend getting a load of mates together and playing football a couple of times a week for 1-3 hours. Put in a load of effort and it'll really pay off, you can burn a few hundred calories each time. Lets say you burn 500 calories 3 times a week = 1,500 calories = 1/2lbs. Cut your daily calorie consumption a small amount, working towards how much you actually need (GordyR's guide says 12-13 times your body weight in lbs is how much you need).

Don't be disheartened that you don't look like a Spartan in a week. This type of thing takes time. I got bored with getting a 6 pack about 2 months ago, but I've started again with that in mind.

Edit: I'd like to point out that is a conservative number for the football thing. I played today and I still feel tired now.