MoFo Health Thread

Same here. That's why I had to completely stop eating any sweets or snacks. :P


PS: I'm 6'4'' and 235 pounds. You're saying you can't be better than me?

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I share the same problem TUS. I cant have any packs of sweets, crisps etc in my house because I'll eat them until they're all gone. Even more difficult with kids in the house!! I've been mostly vegan for the past 2 and a bit years so that's definitely helped me and Ive been pretty strict in the gym for a good while now. In fact, the first month or so I lost a ridiculous amount of weight eating vegan. Obviously I do eat loads of fruit although could do with more veg. Berries and avocado and what I recommend eating although like everything, in moderation. Avocados especially are great because you can mix it with loads of food too. Also great on crackers with salsa!

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Too weird to live, and too rare to die.

I think you already have the right ideas. You're not going to just starve yourself into a lower weight, so at first you have to just replace the food with better food and still let yourself eat a fair amount of it. Maybe this means eating, like, a whole pound of grilled chicken, but that's still better. I didn't really start counting calories until I'd gotten to the point where I could eat--and be excited about--healthier meals, regardless of portion.

Huge, huge to apples, though. Very filling, lots of fiber, and helps with mid-day energy dips. I eat an apple almost every day and it's helped a ton. Also a pretty big fan of Atkins protein bars. I eat one with an apple for lunch nearly every day, and they actually taste pretty good. And plenty of water.

It really is mostly about the habit, though. I saw this just yesterday:



If you're already moving a lot as part of your job, that's a huge advantage, and I think you'll see pretty quick results if the food follows suit.

Sounds like in your case the biggest thing is just going to be making it easy, making it so eating better is the default. I'm lucky in that my wife is willing to make whatever, but barring that, doing the old "make five meals over the weekend so you can just take them in on weekdays" or something would probably help. Decent food just needs to become the default, out of habit, to the point where it's actually a bit easier. Particularly if you use the money saved on something cool (like new clothes. ).

@TheUsualSuspect Whole grains, green leafy vegetables and fruit are great (careful with bananas). I'm a protein bar naysayer - they're fake af, taste ****ty and I've seen people believing they're a healthy alternative actuall put on weight with them as they don't treat them as meal replacements.

Re: protein bars. I actually hate them, and that's probably not even the right phrase for the Atkins ones but "diet bars" doesn't seem quite right either.

Anyway. they're not like that flavored whey stuff. They taste like actual food, and they're not specifically about maximizing protein for weightlifting, or whatever. And you nailed it re: meal replacements. If you can have a bar and a piece of fruit instead of something bad, you're golden, but if it's just snacking throughout the day, not so much.

Nuts are also amazing. That's what he said... A handful of almonds/walnuts can stiffle a mild hunger pang. I'd stay away from peanuts, though.

@TheUsualSuspect

How much so you exercise?

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Totally feeling TUS here. I think you nailed it with the key word "motivation." That's been my experience. I'm short, pudgy, and fairly unmotivated for most things in life! Yaaaaay disappointments!!! So finding internal motivation is damn near off the table entirely. Strictly external drives for me. Same with my laptop (snickers). Office bets (as you mentioned), friend/coworker competitions, to support or provide stability for family, and even class-based routines where there are others to offer support have all really helped me in the past. In each of those situations I've found myself happier, eager to commit, and that I sleep much better. Stress seemed much less as well, I guess from physical venting. Whatever, it helped.

If you and the wifey are stuck in similar patterns as each other, then maybe some external influence may help start that motivation. At least until you both develop healthier patterns of your own to then reinforce each other more, down the road. I'm no health advice. I'm just speaking to the psychology of what (has) helped for me. Reading your post I recognize some of that. Especially the convenience of not cooking and eating out to compensate for a perceived lack of time. I'm right there most days. Or I have been for a while. I hate mornings and have NO interest in prepping a lunch. Most evenings I'm too tired to want to cook for that meal, let alone prepare something *gasp* "in advance" for tomorrow's. Taking a loaf of break and some lunch meat to keep in the office fridge does the job. Cheap, convenient, and while not necessarily healthy, it's better for me that what I might eat going out. I try to stash a bag of oranges or other fruits to munch on too during the day. Grab a fruit mid-afternoon and that covers my end-of-day cravings during the drive home when I might otherwise be tempted to stop off for a quick burger.

Hey man. Good luck to you. You're not alone. Well, except for the height thing. I can't reach that. But I'm with you on the other stuff! Well, I'm not married either, dammit. Hm. OK. I'm depressed now. *grabs a beer and pizza*

Seriously though. I'm currently trying to turn a few mental corners here myself hoping to find a path. Cutting back on my poor eating patterns and downing vitamins like cocaine are tiny baby steps enough for me. Next comes exercise. *cries*

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I use to do an hour on an exercise bike, but have fallen off that due to time. I wake up at 5:30 AM, drive to work, finish at 5:00 PM, get home around 7:00 PM, eat dinner, see the kid, relax for a bit and before I know it I go to sleep.

So currently.....ZERO.


I plan on getting back into that exercise bike routine though, it helps that Netflix is right there to keep my attention going. I watched all of Santa Clarita Diet on the bike.


Thank for the great responses everyone. My first step is cutting out the fast food and working from there.

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Suspect's Reviews

Jumping into this thread. I have a fair amount of weight to lose, plus I'm diabetic. At the end of 2017, my A1C was 7.3 -- not great -- and the doctor wanted to put me on a diabetes med. (I'm already on metformin but want to get off that.) I realized that I had two choices: go down the pill-path or make the changes to fix things myself.

I chose the latter and in late January I started easing into the keto diet (not realizing how polarizing it is right now... I didn't do it to be trendy). I did it mostly for the diabetes and hoped for some weight loss.

By April I had lost 22 pounds. That's still where I'm hovering, but everything I've read has said it can take some long periods of stalling to "right" the body from years of carb and sugar abuse. By mid-June I had more blood work done and my A1C had dropped to 6.6, in about five months. I'd never dropped it that much that fast, so I'm totally sold.

Plus, along with some weight loss and the great blood sugar numbers, any joint pain or aches were totally gone. I felt great. I slept like a LOG and woke up more refreshed. I had more energy. And I wasn't hungry in between meals. I ended up doing some intermittent fasting merely because I wasn't hungry.

Then late spring happened and I had 4 or 5 road trips for work-related stuff. So I was at the mercy of eating at restaurants with larger groups of people or eating at conferences, etc. Much harder to control food intake choices, so I half-fell off the wagon and the daily blood sugar numbers aren't as good as they were earlier in the spring.

So now I'm climbing back on the keto wagon because of all of its benefits.

And I urge everyone to watch the documentary "The Magic Pill" on Netflix. It's a real eye opener, and they're clear up front that it's got science in it but that it's also got a lot of anecdotal stuff too. I found it inspiring. I watched it at the height of my keto clarity about two months ago and was literally weeping at some points. I'm going to rewatch it just to help get myself completely back on track because keto (a way of living/eating, and not really a "diet" per se) has been the only eating change that's ever felt like it could stick and LAST.

Oh, I don't really "track" macros and that sort of thing. I did for a while till I got the hang of what the percentages of carb/protein/fat looked like in a typical day. And now I read ingredients on EVERYTHING, not just the carb counts. I'm excited to be getting back onto the keto wagon because of how great I felt, how good the blood work was, and maybe I'll lose more weight.


---


Let me add that I have two habits that have kept me really healthy. (Diabetes aside, I have had only one head cold in the past 15 years... no other illnesses of any kind.) I drink LOTS of water. I always have water by my side. Just ice water. Nothing special. Tap water with ice. I'm fortunate that I love it. And I make sure I get enough sleep. I work from home so that's been pretty easy for me. I'm a night owl, and I just had to learn not to feel guilty about "sleeping in" if I was up working till 2 a.m. or later. (Nothing against morning people, but it's amazing how judgmental folks can be if they hear you sleep late in the mornings... never bothering to ask when you stop working at night. "Buddy, I stop working when you're about halfway through your nightly sleep.")

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You know you can always hit me up for motivation. Promise I won't yell. Much.

Yes.
Terrible cucumber pills. got it!

It can definitely be hard to find time for exercise. I was always a pretty sedentary person, in part due to my choice in hobbies (gaming, reading etc.) and in part due to the fact that for most of my life, I was able to rely on a fairly overactive metabolism to stay relatively fit. Alas, age finally caught up with me, and I started to turn into the dreaded fat skinny guy - Tall and skinny but with a gut. It didn't bother me at first, but the change in body and advancing age started to affect my energy levels. I decided it was time for a change.

A while back I started an exercise program that is designed to be fairly intense for a short period of time per day (under an hour) for 5 days a week, with two rest days, as well as extra stuff to tack on if you are able. So far, it has completely changed both my wife's and my life. It's geared to make people more fit and athletic, as opposed to being centered around power-lifting or things of that nature. It also has a ton of nutrition advice, none of which revolves around portion control or depleted eating. It all sort of clicked in rather easily, actually. The cool thing is how every day is different, so boredom never sets in.

I won't bore you with details now, but the short and focused high-intensity work-outs combined with some adjustments to our diet were easy to implement and start providing results almost immediately. Let me know if you want to know more about it and I can post a few bits of advice.

Seeing as how you asked and I never talk about this stuff .


Some people may disagree, but fruit is not as healthy as we are led to believe because of its sugar content. Vegetables will give you vitamins and fiber, without the mental triggers that sugar activates.


If weight loss is a goal, cut out the grains. If you still need something, do whole grain rice. Dairy is another big thing to cut out. When I cycle on weight gaining, dairy will make me gain like crazy. Plus, whey protein powder packs on vs. my vegan protein of the same protein count. Sugar is self explanatory.


It may sound crazy, but Minio and I do intermittent fasting and it does more for you than weight loss. It helps with your insulin sensitivity, energy levels and is "reported" to boost natural HGH levels. My biggest takeaway is how steady my energy and mood is now. I am a big pig when it comes to eating, but you will be surprised at how you will not be hungry after a while.



I eat a lot of peanuts and natural pb (no crisco and sugar like JIF and other national brands that I love). My dinners usually involve a vegetable, beans, and a meat if feel like it. The beans are really great. Northerns, pintos, black beans, even make your own refried with some tomato paste.



way past tldr...

My sister tried to get me into counting macros, but that only works for people who can pay somebody else to do it for them . Way too much work for me.

Quoting this in hopes people read it twice. Water and sleep. Very important.

Which is why I don't do it. But if you simply pay attention to ingredients and ratios in the beginning, you'll get a feel for how much of each category (protein, carbs, fat) is about right. It was really becoming second nature when I went into that spiral of road trips that threw me off.

Oh, going back to TUS's original post from nearly seven years ago (!!), I suffered from IBS symptoms too for several years. Tried Plexus products, other probiotics, Activia yogurt, all sorts of things. Got rid of this or that food trigger. Nothing helped. It was ruining my life.

The keto (which also meant taking magnesium supplements) cleared up ALL symptoms. Like, I'm back to being a normal person and can schedule my day normally.

So, TUS, this way of eating has really been quite the answer for me. Might want to look into it. I hadn't expected that benefit, but once it happened, I found a lot of other folks who experienced the same relief with this change.

Thanks. It's SO TRUE. And the more I read about the importance of sleep, the more I'm convinced and the less I feel guilty about getting enough sleep. TOO MANY people wear sleep deprivation like a badge of honor. Like, what? You're a better person because you give yourself only 4-6 hours of sleep? That's ridiculous. I'd say taking proper care of the one body you're given should kinda be a priority.

Plus, they're finding that folks who artificially cut back on their sleep thinking they'll get more work done NEVER actually get more work done in the long run. They end up far less efficient and foggier than folks who are routinely getting enough sleep. And I've seen it in my own case. I NEVER have those midday lulls or desires for a nap that so many folks complain about. Never. I can't remember the last time I took a nap, or even wanted one. When I'm awake, I'm AWAKE and alert. Once in a while you'll see me yawn at weird times of day, but I think that's breathing-related and not sleep related.

I urge everyone who is not losing sleep due to issues beyond their control to make sleep a priority.

On top of this is a related issue: a day of rest. I HIGHLY recommend taking one day of rest per week. It's one of the Ten Commandments for a reason. Seriously, right up there with not murdering and not committing adultery and not stealing is TAKING A DAY OF REST.

It's tough at first if you're used to using that seventh day to get stuff done (probably because you don't get enough sleep during the week, ha ha), but once you "get" it, it's a glorious thing that helps balance your health (mental, emotional, and physical health). And if you ARE short on sleep, that one day can be a nap-time day too.

Okay, off my soapbox. I'm 57 years old and I've had to learn too many things the hard way. Hoping you younger folks get things right a lot sooner than I did.

I wholeheartedly agree on the sleep. I make the time for 7 hours, but it doesn't take.

Water is a big thing, but is hard to do without the benefit of an office job or being retired. A thought on water consumption is you should go to the loo every hour with a clear stream. Hard to do if you stand on a spot or can't get frequent bathroom breaks.

Yeah, the darker your stream, the more dehydrated you are. Should be as close to clear as possible. And yeah, hubby works at a nuke plant and there are days when they don't really have time or the situation to get a lunch break, let alone frequent potty breaks or water breaks. I hate that about his job.