Wake-up call

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Delta Flyer @ Nov 28 2006, 10:45 AM) [snapback]354809[/snapback]</div>

I thought when I was told I should work on my 6pack before breakfast it was to down a few DC's.... Apparently it was situps I was supposed to be doing.

Has anyone considered the impact on the fast food corp bottom line? People could be laid off at McD's and the like for rash decisions to stop eating there and go for the veggies.

:lol: :lol:

Good luck with the new plan, hope it works and hope you find a groove to stick to it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Delta Flyer @ Nov 28 2006, 11:45 AM) [snapback]354809[/snapback]</div>

Diet Coke=Nectar of the Gods

Without it, I would perish. I don't care what anyone says...it has no corn syrup, no calories, very little sodium, and very little caffeine. I don't have phenylketonuria, so therefore, I will continue to down my several DCs a day (along with my three cups of half-caf coffee and gallon of water) until they tell me that the caramel color is a leading cause of something bad...

 

If I give up Diet Cokes, I'll probably replace it with biting my toenails in public

 

My endocrinologist just started me on the Cardio Cocktail.

 

Here's a health tip: before you eat something, read the ingredients. That way you can curb your appetite without consuming any calories!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Nov 28 2006, 05:41 PM) [snapback]354981[/snapback]</div>

Boy is this ever the truth!!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Animaniacs @ Warner Brothers)</div>

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(marjflowers @ Nov 27 2006, 01:14 PM) [snapback]354546[/snapback]</div>

Good news on the health front! And yeah, raisins count! You might also like some others once you think about it ... like melons (catalope, honeydew). I've found I like raw veggies better than cooked ... carrots and green beans. But my veggie intake is still pretty low.

I had limited success with lowering cholesterol with oatmeal, but what really helped get it below 200 was the fish oil tablets from Costco. Its down around 178 now (from 230), but my triglycerides are still very high, so I'm attacking that by eliminating sugar and taking niacin.

Lots of good advice here, but keep in touch with your doctor on all of it. You won't hurt yourself by eating more fresh food, but IMHO any suggestions like mine above ... about the fish oil ... should be run past your doctor. He or she will know if there's any interaction with any of the meds you are on, etc.

 

Someone here mentioned that your taste buds will get acclimated to healthy food tastes. I can vouch that this is true. I have been eating healthy for many years. My sister is always commenting that the foods I like are not tasty and that I've damaged by sense of taste.

Marj, if you're serious about getting healthy, you'll just have to reconcile that this will become a new way of life for you. The small sacrificies of icky tasting food for 15 minutes 2-3 times daily and 30 minutes of cardio 3-4 times weekly will be greatly offset by the vast improvements to your health and hopefully your increased longevity. Try to eat two healthy meals a day and then allow yourself treats. Try not to punish yourself and refrain from snacking or I think you'll be impeding your end goal of a long term healthy lifestyle. I've been working out three times a week for the past 20+ years and I'm here to tell you that it gets old. If you ever feel like you can't workout on your scheduled day, make yourself go to the gym (or on your walk) and cut yourself a break on the time. You may find as I have, that you'll end up performing your full work out.

My cholesterol is 220 but I'm a vegetarian, so there's not much I can do about it. I started taking ground flaxseed and it cut into this number a tad. I hear that flax seed is not as effective as fish oil because the oil in flax seed has to be converted to Omega 3 and this isn't always performed by the body so easily.

Raisins count significantly. I hear they're high in antioxidants.

On the cooking front, it may be cheating but I purchase organic canned soups, frozen spiced veggie packs, etc., from the store. Every night I amend these with fresh veggies like kale, collards, broccoli, carrots, red peppers and the like. I then usually add tofu or beans and rice for protein. Then I'll add some healthy fats like avacado (these are VERY healthy and loaded with good fats), canola or olive oil. Try to purchase oils that are organic and haven't been pressed with chemicals, like hexane (spelling?). On weekends, I have time to prepare meals that are made from scratch.

So far as organic is concerned, oils and high fat foods are the best investment on the organic front. Pesticides and herbicides adhere more readily to the fatty substances and cannot be rinsed off as easily. When opting for peanuts or peanut butter, make certain to purchase organic as I've heard that this crop is rotated with cotton which requires a gazillion chemicals to grow.

If you eat a lot of nuts, try to find "raw" versions as the dry roasting can destroy (maybe oxidize?) the beneficial oils.

I think if you make adjustments to you diet and if you are consistently active with walking or some other form of exercise, you'll feel better and will sleep better. Your health is bound to improve. Try to incorporate these adjustments for one month. At that point, I'm sure that the improvement in how you are feeling and sleeping will be reinforcement for you to continue in this manner. Good luck!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Nov 29 2006, 03:48 PM) [snapback]355347[/snapback]</div>

If you don't like vegetables, etc. I can give you a sure way of making you change your mind:

For three days, eat nothing at all, but take as much water as you want.

On the 4th day you'll find you really like vegetables and whatever else you try!

An alternative to this is to eat only about 300 calories every day for several months or longer. This is difficult but eventually you'll find any food will taste far better than you could have imagined.

I've been in situations where I've had to experience both these and I can assure you that they work - especially if you're under 40 and healthy.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Nov 29 2006, 05:11 PM) [snapback]355361[/snapback]</div>

Me, not like veggies?!?!?!? I LOVE veggies. It's the main food of my diet. What I don't eat enough of is fruit.

I hate to ask in what circumstances you were only allowed 300 calories a day with only water for the first three. Unless your very dormant, I'm not sure how you could survive under these conditions for months at a time. If you weren't nutritionally deprived, maybe you'll live longer. There's a study out with animals that are fed with restricted caloric intake who have increased longevity. Since I really like food, I'm not going to try this!

 

Marg: Congratulations on your decision to change your lifestyle. Your taste preferences will change if you can stick to a new plan for a while. When I was 19 I had reached the conclusion that killing animals was wrong, but I didn't think I could live without meat. I was a steak-and-potatoes-and-junk-food man. Then there was a city-wide meat-cutters strike, and as a union supporter I could not buy meat for two weeks. During that time I found that I could live without meat. Within a year I no longer craved it, and in two years it began to disgust me. At the same time I enjoyed veggies more and more. (This does not mean you have to give up meat. That was my personal issue. But it does mean that you will come to love whatever you decide to eat.)

There are some good vegetarian cookbooks out there. I never use cookbooks so I cannot recommend any in particular, but there are lots out there.

Please note that raisins, like all dried fruits, are almost pure sugar. True, it's not refined, and it's fructose rather than sucrose, but it's still nearly all sugar by weight, and therefore very high in simple carbohydrates. Nothing wrong with a small portion. But very fattening in excess.

Another anecdote:

When my doctor advised me to cut dairy fats out of my diet (because at that time that was the bad part of my particular eating style) I thought it would be impossible because I loved baked potatoes and sweet corn. How can you eat those without butter? But I decided to give it a try. I had never in my life tasted either food without butter, and to my surprise, they were really good plain. -- It may take you some time to get used to it. But please remember: All taste in food is acquired. ALL! You will come to enjoy whatever food you decide to eat regularly. It will be hard at first. But your tastes will change. Eating less will be much more difficult, but it pays off because you feel so much better when you are at a healthy weight. Life is much more fun when you're healthy.

So stick in there! Losing weight will be the hardest thing you've ever done, but worth every hour of hunger you endure.

 

I'm convinced there is a fountain of youth, but it's called diet and exercise. For best results, we really need both.

(Says he who spends more time sitting in front of a computer than anything else, munching on a bowl of fresh veggies and it's not even lunch time yet.)

 

Besides all the great suggestions to change your eating habits, one supplement that has shown to be very beneficial for cardiovascular system is l-arginine. This is the main ingredient in the Cardio Cocktail that I mentioned earlier. It improves the health of the arteries, can reverse harding of the arteries, and prevents plaque build up. There's a lot of info about about the benefits of l-arginine online... just google it.