On Health, Weight Loss, and Personal Responsibility

[photodad2001]

The most effective way to lose weight without losing muscle is to have 2 different work-outs you use throughout the week and to eat healthy foods, multiple times throughout the day.

1. Work-outs should be at the minimum everyother day, if you go more than 48 hours inbetween workouts you lose anything you gained from your previous work-out.

2. Combine a mixture of aerobic and weight lifting. Aerobic will burn calories the fastest WHILE doing the exercise and weight lifting will build muscle which will allow you to burn more calories at rest. The more lean tissue you have, the greater your basal metabolic rate.

3. Work-outs should also increase in intensity and if possible time and/or frequency. Doing the same weights, reps, laps, miles, etc. each time will cause platues.

4. Eat when you are hungry. The body tries to preserve energy (storing calories, fat) when certain triggers occur such as hunger. Starving yourself will only lower your metabolism. Eat several small meals throughout the day. Your body also has a "set point" (a weight that your body wants to return to), in order to fool your body you need to lose the weight slowly otherwise you will lose some weight, but many people end up going right back to their old weight. Eating frequently helps increase your metabolic rate. (I have a tough time with this one with my schedule)

5. Eat smart. You're going to need the proper fuel if you're going to exercise. Junk food is high in calories but low in the nutrients you need to build muscle so you're not getting the most out of your work-out. Veggies, lean meats and beans for protein, grains, fruits, low-fat dairy, and lots of water. You need carbs for those aerobic work-outs so skip the fad diets, they are only temporary, quick fixes, and not healthy in the long run.

[Steve Prokopiw]

Steve have you considered just racing bicycles? IIRC from meeting you at OES ever so briefly last year you are a pretty skinny dude (i.e. climber's physique), so if you are putting out mad watts in a tri, methinks you could be a pretty good masters bicycle racer. Lots of stategery involved too, which can make it fun (in comparison to the purer test of mettle that is the tt/tri/marathon).

Actually I have road raced for 25 years.About half of that was spent specializing in velodrome racing(very much like the feel of carving!)I generally enter pro1-2 races up here as masters fields are not as competitive as they were in Colorado.Even at 45 I'm considered a sandbagger up here if I enter masters races unless it's a race that draws from a larger pool.

Triathlon is more family friendly which better suits my current time constraints as I can get my energetic boys into something fun and friendly along with me instead of it only being about me.It has also been very interesting ,enlightening,and humbling, to learn to swim and even how to run properly,as well as all the other things that add up to good (or not so good) performance in triathlons.

Relative to the point of the thread;aside from actually eating the right amounts of healthy foods,getting into something physically fun is possibly the best way to affect long lasting,positive health changes.

[KingCrimson]

It's a great light beer. Really awesome at lunch during a day of hard carving.

Our race coach calls that "No Livers After Lunch"

[Alaskan Rover]

4. Eat when you are hungry. Eating frequently helps increase your metabolic rate. (I have a tough time with this one with my schedule)

5. Eat smart. Junk food is high in calories but low in the nutrients you need to build muscle so you're not getting the most out of your work-out. Veggies, lean meats and beans for protein, grains, fruits, low-fat dairy, and lots of water. You need carbs for those aerobic work-outs so skip the fad diets, they are only temporary, quick fixes, and not healthy in the long run.

Excellent points, photodad!!!

For the most part, I try to eat very healthily. Fresh veggies when possible; lots of fruit; things like long-grained wild rice instead of white rice; Red River Cereal, oatmeal and bran flakes instead of Sugar Snaps and Fruit Loops (although I LOVE Fruit Loops and Capn' Crunch!!!!! :) ). We make our own bread usually; and our own beans and soups....etc etc.

My problem is that as far as sweets and junkfood go, I have absolutely NO intake limiter. I try to stay away from "junk food"...but when I do buy junk food...I automatically eat the whole box or bag in one sitting. Doesn't matter at all what size the bag or box was....it'll soon be TOTALLY gone. No such thing as a box of cookies or bag of potato chips in the pantry when I am in the mood for junk food...so those big "junk food bag "clothespins" see very little use here!!! Total prohibition of said offending items doesn't help either, as eventually it WILL be bought.

To combat this "junkfood extravagence" I've taken to buying the absolutely smallest bag or box of junkfood that I can. Whatever I open is automatically going to be gone in 20 minutes....doesn't matter if it's a 1 pound bag of Corn Chips, or a 3 oz bag of Corn Chips, so I get the 3oz bag instead. I am thus slowly weaning myself off.

And when I have a hankering for cookies or whatever, I'll have an apple instead, but it's hard...damn hard!!! I don't smoke, and drink only socially and very seldom at that, but I now know what smokers and drinkers feel like when they try to stay ON the wagon!!! I'm just glad I have a naturally athletic body and a high metabolism, otherwise I would be IMMENSE!!!!

[boarderboy]

I'm just glad I have a naturally athletic body and a high metabolism, otherwise I would be IMMENSE!!!!

and try to climb St. Elias. If you survive the avalanches and actually summit the beast, that should be good for at least 20 lbs' weight loss.

Then, whenever you get the munchies, think, "10 lb weight gain = another Elias attempt..."

Being the savvy athlete you undoubtably are, the negative feedback loop will kick in - "multiple Elias attempts = really long odds!*!#"

Somehow, I think that apple will look much better to you ...

As for me, I'm wondering where my son could have hidden those Oreo Double Stuff's...?

BB :biggthump

[photodad2001]

To combat this "junkfood extravagence" I've taken to buying the absolutely smallest bag or box of junkfood that I can. Whatever I open is automatically going to be gone in 20 minutes....doesn't matter if it's a 1 pound bag of Corn Chips, or a 3 oz bag of Corn Chips, so I get the 3oz bag instead. I am thus slowly weaning myself off.

My problem is I eat whatever is in the house, so I had to stop buying it. I was still buying "junk" for my daughter. It took my daughter a while to come around to some of the things I was buying, but today we had whole grain pasta with "garden blend" sauce (basically your standard spagetti sauce with diced onion, mushroom, tomato, carrots, and peppers) with a glass of skim milk. Had been drinking the 1%, but figured I may as well go all the way. For desert I had a banana and she had an apple. A friend of mine has gone the "organic" route, mostly due to his wife. Now THAT takes some getting used to. Ever had a chocolate birthday cake made with organic whole grain flour? It's a bit gritty and I don't think you could put enough icing or ice cream on it to make it taste like it's supposed to.

I'm just glad I have a naturally athletic body and a high metabolism, otherwise I would be IMMENSE!!!!

You must not be over 30. In my early 30's I hit a point where I could no longer go to McDonalds and have 2 Big Macs, large fry, and a 10 piece McNugget and not gain a pound. Now I put on weight just smelling it.

[two_ravens]

Ever had a chocolate birthday cake made with organic whole grain flour? It's a bit gritty and I don't think you could put enough icing or ice cream on it to make it taste like it's supposed to.

Ha! Good thing you don't have celiac disease (aka gluten intolerance = no wheat at all, ever) - try making a cake worth eating out of rice flour! :eek::eek: It is so not worth it.

Regarding actual health, a few months ago I quit eating all grains entirely (and anything derived from grains, such as HFCS) and I have to say my body is A LOT happier for it. Huge improvement in strength/stamina while carving, and much quicker recovery. :p YMMV :rolleyes:

[BobD]

Ha! Good thing you don't have celiac disease (aka gluten intolerance = no wheat at all, ever) - try making a cake worth eating out of rice flour! :eek::eek: It is so not worth it.

Regarding actual health, a few months ago I quit eating all grains entirely (and anything derived from grains, such as HFCS) and I have to say my body is A LOT happier for it. Huge improvement in strength/stamina while carving, and much quicker recovery. :p YMMV :rolleyes:

I'm not Celiac, but my wife and daughter are. If you can cook, it's not such a big deal. If you depend on ready made meals, it would be a major life change. Corn should not affect you though. Most Celiacs can tolerate oats (labeled gf).

You are so lucky today, compared with ten years ago. Udis (out of Colorado) makes gf bread that actually taste like bread, most food companies now know what gluten free means, and most companies now list gluten free products on their web site. Ten years ago you would have to make a phone call to find out what the modified starch on the ingredients list, actually was, and it would often take several days for them to call back with an answer. The only place you could eat out then was McDs (GF french fries). Now we even have Italian restaurants that have gf pasta dishes. Noodles restaurant chain have good gf meals. There are gf beers now, which is good because there are some good gf pizza bases.

Good luck with it

[two_ravens]

I'm not Celiac, but my wife and daughter are. If you can cook, it's not such a big deal. If you depend on ready made meals, it would be a major life change. Corn should not affect you though. Most Celiacs can tolerate oats (labeled gf).

Good luck with it

BobD, I've been gluten free for just short of 10 years - yes. it was MUCH harder a decade ago. And I know there is no medical reason, but for over 9 years, even though I was very diligent about being gluten free, I continued to have a lot of muscle pain and joint swelling. Started noticing it was worse after eating rice or any other grains, so went entirely grain free early this winter. All better now! :biggthump That would be a huge change for someone on a regular diet, but not so much for me. I just cook all my own food - works fine! :)

Good luck to your wife and daughter too! Hope they are enjoying the new opportunities for GF eating!

[Sultan Guy]

My strategy for a healthy diet follows some simple rules.

No white flour, no white rice, no white sugar, and no white potatoes.

I buy no processed foods with high sodium. Red meat once per week (grilled small lean steak) otherwise just chicken and fish. Lots of veggies, fruit, beans, whole grains, and nuts.

Shop the edges of most grocery stores only.

And for those sugar cravings we buy the really good dark chocolate.

At age 47 I still wear the same size jeans that I did at age 27. :)

[BobD]

BobD, I've been gluten free for just short of 10 years - yes. it was MUCH harder a decade ago. And I know there is no medical reason, but for over 9 years, even though I was very diligent about being gluten free, I continued to have a lot of muscle pain and joint swelling. Started noticing it was worse after eating rice or any other grains, so went entirely grain free early this winter. All better now! :biggthump That would be a huge change for someone on a regular diet, but not so much for me. I just cook all my own food - works fine! :)

Thanks for bringing that up. My wife still suffers those symptoms. We'll look into it.

[photodad2001]

No white flour, no white rice, no white sugar, and no white potatoes.

Why not come out and say it. "If it's WHITE it's NOT RIGHT". Is this topic picking up racial vibes?

[photodad2001]

Ha! Good thing you don't have celiac disease (aka gluten intolerance = no wheat at all, ever) - try making a cake worth eating out of rice flour! :eek::eek: It is so not worth it.

Gives new meaning to "Rice cakes". I think I will pass, and try not to tell my friends wife, she may actually think that sounds good.

[Alaskan Rover]

My problem is I eat whatever is in the house, so I had to stop buying it. I was still buying "junk" for my daughter. It took my daughter a while to come around to some of the things I was buying, but today we had whole grain pasta with "garden blend" sauce (basically your standard spagetti sauce with diced onion, mushroom, tomato, carrots, and peppers) with a glass of skim milk. Had been drinking the 1%, but figured I may as well go all the way. For desert I had a banana and she had an apple. A friend of mine has gone the "organic" route, mostly due to his wife. Now THAT takes some getting used to. Ever had a chocolate birthday cake made with organic whole grain flour? It's a bit gritty and I don't think you could put enough icing or ice cream on it to make it taste like it's supposed to.

You must not be over 30. In my early 30's I hit a point where I could no longer go to McDonalds and have 2 Big Macs, large fry, and a 10 piece McNugget and not gain a pound. Now I put on weight just smelling it.

Yep...I am pretty much the same way. If it is present, I WILL eat it...usually within minutes of buying it. I am like a wolf that way...I literally breath in food (well, maybe not literally).

No...I am well past my twenties. I just inherited my dad's high metabolism, I guess. good thing, too...as I can be like a crack-head when it comes to certain junk foods. Not all the time, but I can and do fall off the "No junkfood Resolution Wagon".

I DEFINITELY do feel better when I do replace junk food with fruits or sometimes dried fruits.

Actually IU feel best when I really eat almost NOTHING. But I realize THAT causes problems too. I think you are correct that it is best to eat small meals but more often.

We bake our own bread, and I HAVE noticed that the 100% whole wheat flower does not rise as well, so we mix in a little white flower and that helps. Weird. My favorite breads are very heavy anyway, so i don't mind the less-rising.

Nothing better than fruit that comes in natures own wrapper!!!

[Erik J]

We bake our own bread, and I HAVE noticed that the 100% whole wheat flower does not rise as well, so we mix in a little white flower and that helps. Weird. My favorite breads are very heavy anyway, so i don't mind the less-rising.

Whole Grain flour can be tricky if you're not used to using it. Whole grains tend to absorb more water and they do it more slowly than white flour. The higher the protein content of the grain, the more water it will absorb. It tends to be stickier as it proofs because of the slow absorption. Adding a little shot of flour during the final mix or during shaping helps.

The bran interferes with the gluten strands developing which can lead to less oven spring when baking. Use a sourdough starter - the acidity strenghtens the gluten bonds and allows the bread to keep a more stable structure. It also tastes really good.

Sift the flour really well and it will rise better. Bake it in smaller pans to help keep it from receeding. Mix it on a slower speed and for a longer time.

Different climates affect the finished bread also. Flour absorbs humidity. Use a little more flour in summer if it's humid, a little less in winter when it's drier. Today was really humid, I needed about 1/2# less flour than usual out of the 10# average needed for the bread I made. And store your whole grains in the freezer. The unsaturated oils will keep from going rancid for a waaay longer time. Bakers ratio are good but baking is not as precise as some would believe - there is a certain amount of finesse that you can't spell out in a cookbook. It takes practice, just like anything else worth doing.

So there's more info on bread than most people care about

A friend of mine has gone the "organic" route, mostly due to his wife. Now THAT takes some getting used to. Ever had a chocolate birthday cake made with organic whole grain flour? It's a bit gritty and I don't think you could put enough icing or ice cream on it to make it taste like it's supposed to.

The flour being organic is not the issue, not knowing how to bake is the issue. You can't just throw in whole grain flour as a 1:1 substitution, it just doesn't work. There is whole grain pastry flour that would be much better suited to this. Give some of this http://www.shoporganic.com/product/arrowhead-mills-organic-whole-wheat-pastry-flour/flours_and_meals to your friend so neither of you have to eat sh!tty birthday cake again.

[Erik J]

To stick with the thread topic, I believe that diet is the most important factor for weight loss, with exercise second. (putting aside genetics)

"A six pack is made in the kitchen" I read that somewhere, it's a good saying.

[Alaskan Rover]

Whole Grain flour can be tricky if you're not used to using it. Whole grains tend to absorb more water and they do it more slowly than white flour. The higher the protein content of the grain, the more water it will absorb. It tends to be stickier as it proofs because of the slow absorption. Adding a little shot of flour during the final mix or during shaping helps. ....//....

Thanks, Eric J for your intricate knowledge of bread and whole grains! we'll put some of your ideas to use for the next batch of loaves. The whole grains absorbing more water might very well be the largest part of the problem.

Homemade bread NEVER gets old for me! I love making it, kneading it and most of all, eating it fresh out of the oven!! I do have to admit, though. that we do take short-cuts and often skip sifting.

We add a LOT of additional ingredients to the bread in sort of haphazard fashion, like oatmeal; sprouts; seeds like sunflower,etc; flax; bran, molasses; honey and maple syrup sometimes replacing the sucrose. It's crunchy and a definite antidote to WonderBread.

Great suggestion about the sourdough starter. Used to always have a starter going up in Alaska...one batch of starter was puportedly 50 or more years old that I got in Delta Junction. Haven't used sourdough lately, but would be great to start again!

I agree that good nutrition is of primary importance to good health...and know that we ARE what we eat....sometimes I am a bag of corn Chips.

But I think exercise plays a huge part to health, too!! I'd say 55% nutrition and 45% exercise...but knowing that one can't really quantify health. I think much of it is trying to just keep a good, clear outlook in any way one can.

[BobD]

You bread guys might like this interview on NPR. Culturing your own yeast from the mold on apples is extreme bread making.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126453433

[Alaskan Rover]

I heard about this guy on NPR yesterday. Sounds like damn good bread (oops, I fogot, this fellow did most of his bread making during that year in a monastery...so I'll say 'heavenly' good bread!

He wrote a book called: " 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning and the Perfect Crust".

I LOVE peasant bread...it's the "richest" bread of all!!

I came across the following written on a coffee cup in a Homer, Ak cafe. It was written in Chinese and then translated into English. I liked it so much, I copied it onto a napkin. It seems to impart a simple wisdom.

TEN WAYS TO GOOD HEALTH

1. Less alcohol.......More Tea

2. Less meat..........More vegetables

3. Less salt............More vinegar

4. Less sugar.........More Fruit

5. Less eating........More chewing

6. Less words........ More action

7. Less greed.........More giving

8. Less worry.........More sleep

9. Less driving........More walking

10. Less anger........More laughter.

[Sultan Guy]

TEN WAYS TO GOOD HEALTH

1. Less alcohol.......More Tea

2. Less meat..........More vegetables

3. Less salt............More vinegar

4. Less sugar.........More Fruit

5. Less eating........More chewing

6. Less words........ More action

7. Less greed.........More giving

8. Less worry.........More sleep

9. Less driving........More walking

10. Less anger........More laughter.

11. Less TV......More sex.

[photodad2001]

The flour being organic is not the issue, not knowing how to bake is the issue. You can't just throw in whole grain flour as a 1:1 substitution, it just doesn't work. There is whole grain pastry flour that would be much better suited to this. Give some of this http://www.shoporganic.com/product/arrowhead-mills-organic-whole-wheat-pastry-flour/flours_and_meals to your friend so neither of you have to eat sh!tty birthday cake again.

Thanks! Unfortunately the B-day cake was for my friends son. My daughter got all excited about chocolate cake, then after trying it only ate the icing.

[photodad2001]

9. Less driving........More walking

I've been using my bike to make short errands. I can do a lot within 10 miles of my house (bank, UDF, Pet store, Wal-mart, auto parts store...), and I've saved a lot on gas.

[photodad2001]

11. Less TV......More sex.

12. Less posting on-line.....More riding.

[Alaskan Rover]

I know in this thread there has been much talk about food and how much of it we eat. I, for one, think that in this country and perhaps much of the first world, we have MUCH too high of a food/caloric intake.

That is partly psychological, I guess, as eating makes most of us happy. And so sometimes we eat simply as a habit, or our MIND is telling us we should eat...not when our BODY is telling us to eat.

I think the key then, is deriving where our "hunger" comes from. Is it from our body, telling us that we MUST eat now or we are going to fall over? Or is it coming from our minds, telling us that "boy, I would sure love a burger right now"?

I think there is a distinct difference between actual physical hunger of food (your body giving you warning signs that you should now intake nutrients for reasons of metabolism) and emotional or mind-derived hunger of food. We must know which hunger pangs to obey and which pangs to ignore.

In that regard, I just completed an interesting hunger test...whereby I've eaten really almost nothing except for 1 orange and 1 apple and one bowl of bran-flakes (at separate times) in the last 36 hours....and NOTHING in the last 10 hours. DID drink water, though...but not even much of that.

I don't really have the least of any hunger pangs at all throughout this test, and yet have had PLENTY of energy, to boot. Weird.

Anywhere between 36 and 48 hours is my limit...after that and I am just FAMISHED.

I am basically skinny and through lots of kayaking, rowing and rock climbing, I keep a 'gymnast" body and find you can generally do that through lots of "playing", doing the things you LOVE, no gym needed...but I have always been interested in the ability to control one's hunger for long periods just as an extended mind/body exercise.

I have found that you definitely CAN control your emotional/mind-derived pangs of hunger for DECIDELY longish periods of time.

Ignore your MIND'S food hungers....and obey your BODY'S food hungers.

[BobD]

I know in this thread there has been much talk about food and how much of it we eat. I, for one, think that in this country and perhaps much of the first world, we have MUCH too high of a food/caloric intake.

That is partly psychological, I guess, as eating makes most of us happy. And so sometimes we eat simply as a habit, or our MIND is telling us we should eat...not when our BODY is telling us to eat.

I think the key then, is deriving where our "hunger" comes from. Is it from our body, telling us that we MUST eat now or we are going to fall over? Or is it coming from our minds, telling us that "boy, I would sure love a burger right now"?

I think there is a distinct difference between actual physical hunger of food (your body giving you warning signs that you should now intake nutrients for reasons of metabolism) and emotional or mind-derived hunger of food. We must know which hunger pangs to obey and which pangs to ignore.

In that regard, I just completed an interesting hunger test...whereby I've eaten really almost nothing except for 1 orange and 1 apple and one bowl of bran-flakes (at separate times) in the last 36 hours....and NOTHING in the last 10 hours. DID drink water, though...but not even much of that.

I don't really have the least of any hunger pangs at all throughout this test, and yet have had PLENTY of energy, to boot. Weird.

Anywhere between 36 and 48 hours is my limit...after that and I am just FAMISHED.

I am basically skinny and through lots of kayaking, rowing and rock climbing, I keep a 'gymnast" body and find you can generally do that through lots of "playing", doing the things you LOVE, no gym needed...but I have always been interested in the ability to control one's hunger for long periods just as an extended mind/body exercise.

I have found that you definitely CAN control your emotional/mind-derived pangs of hunger for DECIDELY longish periods of time.

Ignore your MIND'S food hungers....and obey your BODY'S food hungers.

Going long periods with no food is not a good way for most people to lose weight. The body's reaction to hunger is to produce fat for the impending famine that might be coming. it maybe stood humans in good stead through much of human history, but it's why old fashioned diets never worked. The best way to lose weight is to eat when you are hungry. Never let the body believe there might be a shortage of food. The problem then is limiting the quantity, and ensuring the quality of the food that is eaten.