Cubdriver

Atkins or any other diet will work if you follow it but that's the rub, you probably can't follow such diets to the letter every day of the week, all year while on the road and off. Fad diets are always highly restrictive and they do work with an exceptional amount of effort if you stay with them. I have been experimenting with Atkins lately and got my weight under 200 after a few weeks, which is great. But come on I am not giving up some wine and what happens with the Atkins diet while I am doing that? In addition, my coworkers love to go to Panera every Friday and have bagels. They are not all going on Atkins diet just for my sake. So I am trying for a moderate position on diet and remain flexible about it. But I do it on the days I can and I always get some exercise.

Mattio

That's the beauty of just flat-out counting calories. You don't have to avoid carbs or avoid fats, etc. Just eat obviously healthy foods as much as possible. You can find the calories for pretty much any food online until you get the basic idea.

Eat whole grains instead of other grains if possible (oatmeal instead of cereal, whole wheat instead of white)
Don't eat hydrogenated oil
Don't eat artificial ingredients
Eat plants like the other guy said
And if you're going to exercise, don't do atkins. Your body needs some carbs (,not as many as most people eat, though,) for fuel and completely eliminating them is not only bad for you, but you would probably not have the best disposition because carbs affect your mood. But I'm talking fruits, veggies, and whole grains.

moonkey

LoneStar,

If you think staying in shape on a ACMI schedule is hard, try a Regional... I've done both and I miss the 2-3-4 days sit at the hotel where I could spend time on a good workout. Aside from the pain of leaving the family behind, the "17 days" is great, and the backside of the clock didn't really affect me when there was a 9 hr time change.

Try the Regionals with 11/12 days off and the other 19 working all day with limited time at the hotels. There is some good advice in this thread, diet + exercise is good, but even exercise without the diet helps, you increase the metabolism and burn more calories. My $ 0.02.

Mattio

Absolutely. If you put on a decent amount of muscle, it sort of has a buckling affect that makes the fat not look as bad.

always one

I don't have a schedule as demanding as yours(17 days gone and international flying) but I have a demanding schedule as a regional pilot. Many years ago I had to change my life if not my career would had been shorten. I have made many changes in my life including diet, exercise, stress releiving and emotional connection.

As holistic medicine covers all aspects of the body and mind connection not just symptoms. The same way you have to treat your career as a holistic pilot.

This includes physical and psychological. Not just take care of one aspect but treat your career as a whole.

Diet is very important. I have reduce the amount of meat I eat. I am not saying eliminating it completly but a meal here and there with no meat will be good for your body. Skip a day once a week and you will see a diference. Also avoid eating foods high in sugar, salt and fat. Read the ingredients anything that has high fructose corn syrup or corn syrup avoid it. High Fructose corn syrup is in many items and that is one of the reasons we have a high% of obesity in the US. Avoid ingredients that are 10 syllables long. Rule of thumb if you cant pronounce it dont buy it.

I rarely have alcohol and no caffeine and this has help me a huge amount. This are tough choices but in the long run they will be beneficial for you and your career plus when you retire you will still be able to enjoy your senior years.

Exercise! This is very important even on days that you don't have time find a few minutes to do a small routine. Every morning after getting up and showering I do at least 15 minutes of stretching including yoga and a few pushups. If I have time I will do more. Find a routine you like and go for it. Also vary the routine that way you dont get bored. Somedays I run others I go swimming and others I will dl some lifting. Do anything you like but keep at it.

Finally you have to take care of the stress and emotions. This is very important. Specially for pilots. We have to find a way to release all this burden. If not it will take a toll on your life. Rememeber never repress what you feel. There are helathy ways to releasing this emotions and do not worry what others think about you when you are feeling an emotion. Remember it is your life and your health.

Various methods I have learned and used are Breathing. Yes breathing is important and a great way to release stress and store emotions in your body. ANd I don;t mean regular breathing but breathing exercises. You can learn this through the internet or through a Yoga class. Also Yoga has been a life changer in my life. I reccommend joining a class learning and taking this lessons while flying. Also body relaxation is important and it can be learned easily. Finally meditation. Try to find 20 minutes to a day to seat in silence and become aware of your thoughts. Its insane how many thoughts are running through our mind and this is exhausting physically and emotionally.

There is much more you can learn and it will help your career and improve your life.

Finally on your time off get involve in your community and you will meet people that will become your friends. I started taking dancing lessons and it has improved my physical condition and social life.

Take care and things will change.

LoneStarM1A

Thanks for all the replies. The feedback is helpful and I'll try to employ some of the strategies I've read here.

PS: Moonkey, I feel your pain on the regionals. Prior to my current gig, I did 7 years at an "11 days off" regional with 5 of those years on reserve. Trust me, the bad habits started there.

throttleweenie

There's no way around it: you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. You gain or lose only fat, protein, or carbs, or some combi of that. 1# of fat = 3,500 calories, but you can't burn only type of energy (calories) or another, it's a combi of them. Low intensity = higher ratio of fat to carbs/protein.

Run. If you can't run, then walk the stairs, or jump rope. Or walk. The 16oz curl is not exercise, it's beer consumption, or as I see it, a reward for a doing a good workout.

My TIC description of beer as it relates to exercise is the "beer/mile equivalency". One mile running (or 8-10 minutes of rope or stairs) = one beer.

Kidding aside, you have to get out and move, but you also have to reward yourself or you won't keep it up, no way around that.

I'm not a intense as I used to be, but my balance wasn't right unless I did at least a five miles for every day. Day off means Ten-miler the next day, or no beer for me.

Seriously, get a jump rope and use it. That is a pretty good every-muscle-used exercise.

TW

BWavlaw

My girlfriend is a nutritionist and I have always found a way to keep myself in decent shape. I asked her opinion and she said the best thing she could think of is a weight watchers type program that is not so much based on the food you eat but the quantity and frequency of your food intake. It takes a bit of math to count points but it works. In addition I recently bought a pair of Vibrum running shoes (the toe shoes) which fit perfectly in the rear or front pouch of the Luggage Works roll aboard, they bearly take up any room. I try and run 3 miles on long overnights and 1.5 on the short ones. Once you start, and start gradually, it will become routine and you will feel better both mentally and physically. Hope this helps.

Ar Pilot

Buy this book:
RossTraining.com - Never Gymless

Don't eat like a fatty. Everyone is different when it comes to maintenance calories and food intake. Figure out what works for you. Don't follow a fad diet.

This will help you rethink all the BS you've read about how to eat properly.
Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health

Mattio

Interesting website, Ar Pilot. I've always found myself prone to not eating for a large portion of the day and then eating large meals when the hunger catches up with me and I decide to make something or get food somewhere... According to that site, it looks like I have some healthy natural instincts.. However, I would think you'd want to use the fast portion carefully if flying a plane. Don't want to have extremely low blood sugar while shooting approaches to minimums..

That diet sort of looks like a zig zag diet on steroids. For OP, a zig zag diet is the type of diet like I recommended. 3 days of dieting followed by 1 day of eating as much as you're hungry for. The dieting portion burns fat and muscle while the non-diet portion helps you put muscle back on. I'll have to look into this website more.