Healthy Living Thread

[Dave]

So, I really want to shed some poundage and need some help with healthier food options. I don't really care much for many fruits and vegetables and to make matters worse, I am a type 1 diabetic so fruits are hard on my blood sugars. This shit is getting harder and harder as I get older and I think shedding 15-25 pounds could make a world of difference in my quality of life. Lets see some kick as recipes and suggestions. Don't let me down!

[majorrajor]

Read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price.

That book completely changed my perspective on nutrition. Basically, he's a dentist and he studies all of these really isolated tribes (eskimos, people in South American jungles, etc) and he finds a few things in common with all of them. They are all really healthy, they have great teeth with no dental care (and the mouth can really indicate health), and they are all eating food that comes from the earth with some source of fat soluble vitamins.

Basically, eat whatever you like that comes from the earth. Meat, vegetables, bread, doesn't matter -- just avoid anything processed.

And read the book.

[Dave]

My biggest problem comes down to main dishes. I have high cholesterol so red meats aren't a great option anymore and I hate seafood (like the smell makes me physically ill) So my options are kind of limited down to occasional pork and boneless chicken. I'd love some ideas for different things that can be done with chicken that would help me to keep from crushing the carb meter, plus they are awful on my blood sugars. I do have a Barnes and Noble near my place, I may have to take a peek at that book to see what it says. But yeah, bread is another no-no (although I haven't been able to eliminate that from my diet, I may need to try to mind over matter and at least try wheat bread)

[Tyler]

Completely remove Soda and fruit drinks from your diet and drink a lot of water (a gallon a day). Get 8-10 hours of sleep a night. Start eating breakfast as well as a lot of smaller meals throughout the day. Try to eat good carbs like brown rice, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal. Vegetables are your best friend and you should start eating whatever ones you do like as often as possible. I also invite you to try vegetables you haven't had in a long time or ones you've never tried because you'd be surprised at how much our taste can change. Peanuts, Almonds, and all other nuts are good for you. Proteins are a very good idea as its what repairs and builds your muscles. Eggs, chicken, and fish are all very good sources of protein. Try to avoid any sugars as well as simple carbs as they are empty calories that just spike our insulin and store as fat. Understanding macro-nutrients is definitely a must if you would like to be able to look at a label and tell what your body is really getting. Then some light to moderate weight lifting and/or moderate heart rate (between 115-130) cardio will help you burn fat. 

Now this is all just guide lines and the stuff Ive picked up on so far, but I think its a great place to start. Doing some research would be very beneficial for understanding what we're putting into our body, how it works, and how to get healthy/lose weight. I started checking into all of this stuff just a few months ago and I can tell you personally, changing my diet, lifting some weights, and treating my body well has changed my life. My energy levels are higher, Im physically stronger, Im visually slimmer, I feel better in general, Im more confident, and I feel a sense of accomplishment and an overall 'high' after a workout. The best part about all of these things is that they are only a side effect of treating your body correctly.

As for kick ass recipes, I cant help you too much because Im just starting to cook myself after having NEVER cooked in my life haha, but I just found out baking a chicken breast is stupid easy. Just coat it with some oil and whatever spices you like (I used curry, going to try lemon pepper soon) and bake it at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes. It will be cooked through and still juicy, not dry at all. My first try at it was super delicious. Also for breakfast I eat one egg, another eggs worth of egg whites (I buy egg whites in the box), and some plain oatmeal with a little cinnamon and apple sauce for taste (tip: keep the oatmeal and apple sauce separate but put both on the spoon and eat at the same time, it a lot better then mixing it together).  Egg whites are purely protein where as the yolk has fat and (good) cholesterol in it.

What I invite you to do is start googling things. Grab recipes and try them out or check out some reviews on cook books and buy the best one you can find. Also since you have diabetes as well as high cholesterol Id suggest doing some research to find some great ways you can change your lifestyle to help keep those things in check. I do know managing, reducing, or eliminating stress can really help with your cholesterol levels. You have the worlds knowledge at your fingers so make good use of it!

Anyways, I hope this helps you Dave. Like I said before I've just gotten into changing my diet, lifting weights, and treating my body better and it has done absolute wonders. I cannot recommend it enough and hopefully some of this can help you on your way to achieving your goals.

[Dave]

I did give up soda 2 1/2 weeks ago, and that feels alot better. Replaced them with Diet Snapple and water. I usually eat and instant oatmeal pack for breakfast every day (don't care for regular oats) and almonds since I had a really low amount of fiber in my diet and I think it was doing some bad things to my plumbing Usually I'll but lettuce and have a salad with dressing and sometimes chicken in it for lunch. Dinner gets to be a problem because the wifes schedule is never consistent, so our hours of eating vary. Sleeping is what I'm working on now, as I suffer from sleep apnea (pretty brutally) but I've adopted using 4 pillows so that my head cannot get into a flat position where my airway blocks off. I feel I have the building blocks in place, but exercise is something I have never gone out of my way for because I find it mind numbingly boring TBH. I walk every day and just downloaded Wii Fit U on my Wii U, only to have it tell me I'm overweight at 219pds. I feel worse because it uploaded my old save from the first Wii fit from like 08' and my BMI went from 21.9 to 26.95 and my weight went from 166 to 219. It thinks my ideal weight is 177 so I've got to start working on shedding some of this weight. However working out has never been a strong suit of mine, so I figured I'd fix some of the diet and cut back on eating out to once in a while versus multiple times a week. I'm cool with oatmeal and an apple/banana every day, but I get bored as fuck of salads and chicken so I have to experiment. I did make some BBQ beans/coleslaw wraps a couple of weeks ago that were really good, and some pretty decent knock off low mein a few nights ago.

[Phil Jackson]

I'm no expert but I've been looking into this for a while and from what I've seen, the best way to lose weight while being healthy is to eliminate most of your grains consumption (pasta, bread, crackers, etc.) and limit it to small and infrequent portions of whole grains like brown rice when you do eat it. That's what I'm trying to do.

[zorgon]

Man, by far the hardest part of dieting is convenience. I live in Oklahoma City, and in most sections of the city, the grocery stores and food options are total crap. Just fast food, with local options usually varying on the worst aspects of American and Deep South cuisine. Only place you can get any real variety/health is the city center. So when I'm trying to be healthy I'm stuck at home being anti-social and cooking all the time....boo!

Personally, I think if you're creative enough, you can get over that hump and the actual "choosing healthy options" stuff is a breeze. You'll always be addicted to your fav foods (I can't live without pizza), but for the most part there's actually a lot of great food out there.

But for real, I agree with Washington. When I lived in Austria for 9 months I biked every day and ate out very rarely (as fast food basically doesn't exist in Austria), and had the healthiest months of my life. Just eat natural, unprocessed things, cut out the bad drinks, cut out the fast food.

[Sydney]

I posted this in Skype but I'm curious to see how this has been going.

I do not have healthy eating habits either and my main issue is the fact that I don't like salads. I have made it a focus of mine to avoid soda at all costs even though I love it and am trying to figure out a way to eat a smaller lunch.

Prior to 2014 (6 days ago), everyday at lunch I would always get a snack, whether it was a piece of candy or a cookie like I was a child or something. I'm trying to find substitutes but it's difficult as I just crave some sort of sugar type of food with my lunch?

Anyway, the one thing I've found to be good so far is just having a coffee & banana for breakfast. Now to identify certain snacks and healthier lunches for me throughout the day is ideal.


Back to Boston, have you tried stir fry for dinner? My gf cooks this for me a lot, it's basically grilled chicken (or shrimp, which you don't like), some brown rice, peas, broccoli and string beans with some sort of sauce. I think it's healthy and it's certainly delicious and easy to make.

[Dave]

I've cut down on alot of the stuff I used to eat. It's been over a month without soda, which I thought would be way harder to live without then it has. I just eat oatmeal in the mornings and try to either do a salad or half sandwich for lunch followed by usually a pork chop/chicken and vegetables.

Noodles and rice are hard because of the carbohydrates, but I need to try some whole grain/low carb sometime along with some veggies, I enjoy this with regular noodles but I'm not sure how I'll feel about whole grain ones.

It's been frustrating though giving up so much stuff I like and am not seeing any weight loss as of yet. Feels like I'm holding in a ton of water at this point, which is a bitter of a concern since I do have some bladder issues. Gotta see the doc about this.

Otherwise I bought a cheapy exercise bike as a birthday gift so that I can burn calories during this crazy winter stuff. Just have to stay with it and hope I can begin to burn more then I take in and keep going with the healthy eats.

I did make some really good baked bean wraps (pinto and black beans drained) with cole slaw inside a couple nights ago. Delicious

[Dave]

Bumping this old thread too.

I've kept up the better eating and started DDP Yoga about 3 weeks ago and things are improving.

Just bumped up to the Fat Burner workout on the DVD set today and it was kind of brutal, a big jump from Energy (2nd workout) I'll be sore the rest of the day.

I've managed to force myself to start eating a bit more fish even though I don't really care for it and have switched from white bread over to wheat which is something I didn't think I'd be able to do either.

BANG!