Diet and Exercise

[The Matt]

Share things that work for you for your health and fitness here.
I'm trying out a diet that is reeeeally working good for me, high protein, low carb. I love my meat, and I hate all things vegi. Here's what I eat.
Breakfast: Bowl of Special K, and a banana. (You need some carbs, that's your energy. I get mine in the morning.)
Lunch: 3 Tilapia Fish seasoned with lemon pepper, and a green salad with Thousand Island Dressing.
Supper: 2 Baked Chicken Breasts, seasoned with lemon pepper, and a green salad with Thousand Island Dressing.
Snacks: I allow myself one sweet a day, normally a Nutty Bar, and a glass of milk. In between meals, I'll snack on bananas.
I allow myself one cheat meal a week. (mmm Chinese food) It's important (to me anyway) to let yourself cheat a little bit, otherwise you'll get sick of the diet and give up.
I know it's not a lot of change, but this works for me. Anyone have any tips on a high protein diet?
Exercise
CARDIO! I walk 2 miles a day (sometimes more, never less) 6 days a week. Walking is therepeutic, it can help to treat many many mental disorders, and general feelings every person alive has sometimes such as depression and anxiety. Some good cardio exercises I know of without needing equipment is walking, jogging, running, going up and down stairs, (If you have two steps you can do it!)
I like to work out at the gym, free weights not only can help you build muscle, but it takes away a lot of aches and pains after awhile. I don't really know what most of the exercises I do are called, but I work arms, upper legs, calves and hamstrings, back, shoulders and abs. 5 days a week, 2 day rests. It's VERY important to take rest days, if you work out every day you're going to shock your nervous system. And it's important to give each body part you work at least three days to rest, otherwise all you're doing is tearing down muscle.
So that's what I do...a few other tips: If you're doing exercise to build muscle mass as well as trying to lose weight, don't check the scale all the time! Building muscle will cause your weight to fluctuate. Don't look in the mirror all the time! If you look at yourself every day, you get used to seeing yourself and you won't notice that you're losing weight. Another thing I had to learn was don't try to think behind what people tell you. People have been telling me I'm slimming down, and I just thought "Oh they're just trying to encourage me because they know I'm trying to lose weight." It took a complete stranger (someone that lives down my road) to tell me it looks like I'm slimming down for me to start believing people.