The Diet and Food Thread

[Oso]

Diet and Food gets talked about some but how's about a thread just for that?

I don't remember there being one in the past so...


had a long talk w/ the Crossfit coach about food and stuff after the class tonight...

I've been doing several things lately but one of them may have been bad and that is increasing carbs via oatmeal and whole grain breads. He recommended taking a hard look at grains in general.

[WinterPalm]

I love oatmeal and eat it for breakfast every day.

One thing I stand behind is Greens+...never tried a knockoff, but the original product is absolutely wonderful!

That's my contribution to the diet thread.

PS Green tea and Yerba Mate are great drinks to replace coffee or drink in the afternoon if you're working all day and getting the post lunch lag (which is probably insulin related and therefore, diet related!).

[Oso]

yea, I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast for about 3 or 4 months now

one of the things we talked about was insulin and how the body processes grains really worked towards fat storing...potatoes and brown rice he said.

i don't drink that much coffee...used to drink 2 cups in the am but am down to one...though i do make it really strong...and sometimes I'll have a cup between 3-4 if I'm feeling a little sluggish...besides, i don't really think it matters where you get your caffiene...it's still caffeine.

[Oso]

ftr, right now...i want to kill a cow and eat it...all of it...

[Pork Chop]

oatmeal has fiber
fiber is good for your cholesterol & your heart
i really wonder what these diet gurus are thinking if oatmeal's bad...
it might prevent a heart attack some day.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/v...roducts/2770/2
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/b...cereals/1597/2

neither appear to be all that bad.

you'll have to forgive me, I'm a total skeptic when it comes to most dietary advice.
I've tried every diet out there and the only end result was to make me more resistant to weight loss.

I'm down 12 pounds since January from common sense eating; ie no pigging out and only cutting back heavily (ie once a week) on sweets (i have a weakness for cookies), sodas (completely cut out), pizza, fried stuff, and stuff with a lot of cheese. 12 pounds ain't a lot for most, but for me it's a huge difference - the only other time I lost weight like this was when I stopped eating for a month in 06.

If I crave something really bad (except the sodas & beer), I go ahead and eat a bit of it. Those super restrictive diets had the effect of encouraging me to binge on my "cheat day" or when I wasn't on the diet.

I'm never gonna be one of these ripped dudes, but at least I'm not as food-obsessed as a lot of these people.
I think moderation's the key.
Slow and steady wins the race.

yah gotta figure oatmeal's better for you than chorizo & egg breakfast tacos every morning - or a huge country breakfast for you east coast folks.

[Oso]

yea, i basically agree with all of that...but, I would really like to get back down to 215 or so...so, i'm really starting to try to fine tune things...age is a biotch since your body doesn't respond as quickly to change.

so, i'm looking for data to compile and decide for myself how I want to go about this now.

[Oso]

i like chorizo...but dang is it some bad stuff for ya...

i'll put a southern country breakfast up agin a tex mex breakfast almost any day...

except for a breakfast I had in Austin once...a place called 'Georges' somewhere in the western part of the city...north of the river and accross the river from the Bee Caves area...dang it was good...

[Reverend Tap]

Dietary advice is always a bit suspect. The foods that are hailed as the best possible things for you one month are suddenly the ones that will kill you the next.

One of the few things I've not heard of people flip-flopping about, though, is yogurt. Including lots of yogurt with live and active cultures in your diet (talking plain yogurt here, not as much the sugar-filled almost-dessert kinds) is supposed to help just about every aspect of health, particularly aiding digestion and (potentially a big one in training) preventing muscle cramping.

My diet isn't all that great right now; I'm winding up eating a lot of convenience foods. Basically, I need to stop driving a cab; 12-hour shifts of nothing but sitting and occasionally snarfing down food as fast as possible (we don't get scheduled breaks, so time spent eating means less money at the end of the day) are not conducive to healthy eating habits. I at least do better than many of the other drivers, whose "lunch" usually just entails spending literally about five minutes at a fast food place. But, with a cab driver's schedule, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a belly no matter what. I'm starting to have one again; I should go on the detox diet (vegan, no grain, no peanuts, no sugar, no additives or preservatives of any kind, no salt except sea salt, no caffeine) again and get rid of it, but I'm rather disinclined to at the moment. That diet works wonders, but it's extremely unpleasant.

Oh, and regarding coffee; small, infrequent cups of very strong black coffee (think Turkish coffee) can actually be quite good for you, particularly immediately after a meal. Aids digestion and whatnot.

[WinterPalm]

I love coffee and probably won't stop drinking it. I also love espresso and/or extremely strong coffee.
I don't think it's bad...but some people think coffee means an 8 dollar Starbucks drink with 2000+ calories.

[bawang]

has anyone eaten sheep or bull testicles?
they make you temporarily really strong

[WinterPalm]

I once had one of those little Chinese shot-tubes or whatever of ginseng and royal jelly and the one I took had 10% goats pe nis in it. I guess if you drank 10 of them...

[Reverend Tap]

I once had one of those little Chinese shot-tubes or whatever of ginseng and royal jelly and the one I took had 10% goats pe nis in it. I guess if you drank 10 of them...

I've had those, minus the goat bits. Good stuff.

[taai gihk yahn]

bodyforlife.com

8 weeks on it; 18 lbs. down; 'nuff said...

[Lacerto]

I've been a vegetarian since November of last year. I did it for kung fu. I read in some book that vegetarian diets where ideal for kung fu and chi flow, so I gave it a shot. On my first meatless day I was an entirely different beast in class. I didn't get tired as easily, and experienced essentially no muscle fatigue. I didn't hit that point where I just couldn't go any more.

I could write an essay about being vegetarian and how it's taken my kung fu to the next level. The point is, the body and mind are one. If you put nutritious material in the body, everything benefits.

Now I'm at the point where I feel the effects of whatever I eat. A pluot gives me a burst of energy, where a carrot will increase my focus. I always eat an apple before class for the slow release of energy (seems to last for about 2 hours). Before I just shoveled in food and had seemingly unrelated mood swings.

As far as weight and muscle are concerned, with a proper vegetarian diet I've had no problems gaining muscle. I gain weight from time to time by eating sweets and baked goods (my weakness), but that is easily lost.

I always feel arrogant when talking about my diet so please excuse me if I came across as such.

[David Jamieson]

easy rules to follow

1) whole foods only

2) moderation

what are whole foods?

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_foods

eat your breakfast! it kick starts your metabolism for the day.
don't eat anything after your last meal of the day. and your last meal of teh day should be your smallest.

if you skip meals, your body will hoard energy and save it as fat, you can actually gain weight this way!

exercise daily! for at least 1/2 an hour. Yes active work is inclusive to exercise if the whole body is being used.

It really is dead simple.