The 2016 Healthy Habits Thread

[Norrsken]

I mean, lactose intolerance is fairly easy to figure out.. Just have an empty stomach, eat a serving of milk, see if it reacts poorly to you within the hour. If not, have another serving in 30 minute intervals, and if you realize 2-3 servings in you have stomach cramps and awfulness going on you're likely intolerant. My bf can eat some milk and cheese, but a dinner designed based on those things hurts him terribly.. pizza, enchiladas, etc. they're all coated in cheese which hurts his stomach. But small amounts are tolerable for him.

An easy solution if it turns out you are intolerant is A2 milk or Mootopia (which is an HEB brand if you happen to have one near) which is the only lactose free milk I've tried that tastes genuinely like milk vs that weird sweet after taste. The Trader Joe's lactose free milks aren't so bad either for the price.

The elimination diet is one of the standards used for diagnosing IBS. Just keep a strict food log, and eat really awful bland food forever. I tried to be raw vegan for a while because I was swept up in the craze of "omg internet says be healthy this ways!" and I got super sick off of it... ended up eating normally and recovered, but still had bowel issues, and then went on the BRAT diet, and tried adding foods in one at a time, seeing if I reacted to them that day or not, etc. It was pretty annoying, and I didn't write about it much at the time because I hated it, but it did help the diagnosis tremendously.

I am making a doctor's appointment as I am typing.
IBS definitely sounds like a likely diagnosis for me too. Sorry about your boyfriend but good to hear he's gets to at least eat some form of dairy!
And I'm also happy that you too got to the bottom of your own diagnosis. You inspire me to keep up this gluten/dairy free diet for a few more weeks. ;p

I really do miss milk, I won't lie, but I'll stick to this diet for the next couple of weeks and see if I am lactose intolerant or a gluten allergy. I do know that I bloat and swell uncomfortably so after eating some type of bread, what do you think about that?

 

[kyuuei]

HEMA today! Whoo! That class will kick my butt each time. :3 maybe I'll gain some upper body strength finally.

 

[kyuuei]

I am making a doctor's appointment as I am typing.
IBS definitely sounds like a likely diagnosis for me too. Sorry about your boyfriend but good to hear he's gets to at least eat some form of dairy!
And I'm also happy that you too got to the bottom of your own diagnosis. You inspire me to keep up this gluten/dairy free diet for a few more weeks. ;p

I really do miss milk, I won't lie, but I'll stick to this diet for the next couple of weeks and see if I am lactose intolerant or a gluten allergy. I do know that I bloat and swell uncomfortably so after eating some type of bread, what do you think about that?

The problem with quitting two foods at once is you're not sure which is the source. But I understand, because I was desperate enough to go raw vegan (cant stand it now that ive tried it) because of my stomach issues.

Is it that even on an empty stomach with plain bread eaten you get very bloated and uncomfortable stomach pains?

 

[Norrsken]

The problem with quitting two foods at once is you're not sure which is the source. But I understand, because I was desperate enough to go raw vegan (cant stand it now that ive tried it) because of my stomach issues.

Is it that even on an empty stomach with plain bread eaten you get very bloated and uncomfortable stomach pains?

Oh no, that's why I'll just introduce dairy first and see what happens, and then if a few days (or a week) later I feel fine, then I'll introduce gluten food and see if something happens. One by one, you know?

Yes, on an empty stomach. When I eat breakfast without bready things like toast, bagel, scone, and so on, I feel and look normal.

 

[kyuuei]

Oh no, that's why I'll just introduce dairy first and see what happens, and then if a few days (or a week) later I feel fine, then I'll introduce gluten food and see if something happens. One by one, you know?

Yes, on an empty stomach. When I eat breakfast without bready things like toast, bagel, scone, and so on, I feel and look normal.

Well I hope you find out the source of it all anyways. Stomach issues aren't any fun.

 

[Kierva]

 

[boomslang]

HNNNNNGGGGGGG

 

[kyuuei]

Super great results everyone!!

As for me... we had a huge 4th of July party and I celebrated it this weekend with some health and fitness!
- I ran about 2-3 miles of hilly, mountainous streams and wilderness
- BBQed a 40 lb pig luau style and had a small amount of that meat with some grilled veggie skewers
- Filled up on water and mint tea
- Trained for about 4 hours the next day with HEMA

Today I'll be dancing a bit before work and working out to a quick tabata style work out each day before work as well.

Also, I already prepped my food for the week:
- Cereal for breakfast (simple!) with a slice of tofu chocolate pie (better than it sounds)
- Chicken thighs marinated in honey dijon sauce with mushrooms and onions baked in the oven forever
- Sauteed veggies and fake-meat-sausage leftover from the vegetarian skewers at the party to go with it
- More of the same with rice, bacon-wrapped enoki, and homemade pickles for my lunches at work.

And poof! A bunch of party food suddenly becomes healthy food to eat for the week.

Happy to report that so far, the rice and cutting back on my spicy food intake has decreased my stomach ailments as well. This week I've also set a goal to stop by human resources and talk about getting a blue ridge fitness membership, which could give me access to the Y's swimming pool.

 

[Norrsken]

My husband commented today on how fit and toned my body is looking these days.
I'm feeling like a million bucks.

 

[EJCC]

The struggle for the past month or so has been to keep moving forward, with healthier eating and more exercise, even when I don't eat well or exercise enough.

The Fourth of July, plus a conference I stage-managed and the general exhaustion therein, plus baking a lot of sweets (trying to get rid of all these marshmallows left over from a wedding in May), have led to not-great eating on my part. Certainly not mindful eating, which is what I've been striving for.

As for exercise, the conference didn't help that either, and it's hard to do a 30-day challenge when you're so sore after one day that you have to delay days 2 and 3 to allow for recuperation time. Needless to say I'm halfway through the challenge (Betty Rocker, btw) after over a month.

I have to keep telling myself that even though this 30-day challenge is kicking my ass, and even though I seem to have fallen back into sugar addiction, I am still healthier and fitter/stronger than I have ever been. Plus -- bonus! -- my shoulders, upper arms, and legs, are all noticeably more muscular than they were even in January. Regardless of where I am relative to my goals, I am progressing, a lot, relative to my starting point.

 

[Lark]

I'm not even sure if this is the proper place for this or if I should post a seperate thread, two seperate threads maybe, my main issue is about feeling time pressured, this feeling leads to me trying to do too many things at once then not getting any of them finished and also I compromise my plans for physical training when I'm like this.

The second is the amount of stuff that I see in the book stands at the minute which I think is really disappointing, mindfulness is a big one, these are concepts which I've read about in older books, when they were fresh, new terms for the most part, and then I felt they had value, though what I read about now when I read about those things are these strange sorts of popular publishing, like a computer produced a book to order when someone punched in four or five key terms with instructions to get this many words to the page and this many of which should be these key terms.

Which then leads me to thinking on just how many other things are just a matter of key terms and people following them, getting triggered by them etc. etc. I dont consider this a partisan thing, I dont even consider it primarily a political or cultural or normative thing.

I see the same thing in small groups of friends or work groups or whatever, sometimes popularity or success is dictated by discovering the proper jargon, which has currency at that moment and adopting it slightly more quickly than the next person. It bothers me because if I can discern this and be bothered by it I wonder why others dont notice it too. Especially the media, intellectuals or people who're meant to be sort of half critical about things or aware of things.

 

[kyuuei]

The struggle for the past month or so has been to keep moving forward, with healthier eating and more exercise, even when I don't eat well or exercise enough.

The Fourth of July, plus a conference I stage-managed and the general exhaustion therein, plus baking a lot of sweets (trying to get rid of all these marshmallows left over from a wedding in May), have led to not-great eating on my part. Certainly not mindful eating, which is what I've been striving for.

As for exercise, the conference didn't help that either, and it's hard to do a 30-day challenge when you're so sore after one day that you have to delay days 2 and 3 to allow for recuperation time. Needless to say I'm halfway through the challenge (Betty Rocker, btw) after over a month.

I have to keep telling myself that even though this 30-day challenge is kicking my ass, and even though I seem to have fallen back into sugar addiction, I am still healthier and fitter/stronger than I have ever been. Plus -- bonus! -- my shoulders, upper arms, and legs, are all noticeably more muscular than they were even in January. Regardless of where I am relative to my goals, I am progressing, a lot, relative to my starting point.

Sounds like you need to give yourself a break here. You're still moving forward and not scrapping your goals, and life has hiccups.. you can't be healthy 100% of the time unless you're getting paid to do so.

I've been consuming leftover 4th of July food stuffs too, and not 100% of it was healthy, including a chocolate tofu pie and an entire icebox cake complete with an entire package of girl scout cookies being on the roster.

Sounds like you're doing a totally stellar job being a bad ass healthy habits person.

I'm not even sure if this is the proper place for this or if I should post a seperate thread, two seperate threads maybe, my main issue is about feeling time pressured, this feeling leads to me trying to do too many things at once then not getting any of them finished and also I compromise my plans for physical training when I'm like this.

A common problem in health really... suddenly so many things are piled on, how can you possibly make time to do a thing you can do tomorrow?

I see the same thing in small groups of friends or work groups or whatever, sometimes popularity or success is dictated by discovering the proper jargon, which has currency at that moment and adopting it slightly more quickly than the next person. It bothers me because if I can discern this and be bothered by it I wonder why others dont notice it too. Especially the media, intellectuals or people who're meant to be sort of half critical about things or aware of things.

In relations to health and fitness... a lot of the concepts out are not new at all.. but, maybe being sold in new packaging for a new generation. Mindful eating certainly is not new, no one here certainly developed it, and you can see it all over older areas of Japan that this concept is a very big part of the culture itself vs being a novelty to aspire to here. I don't think the concept loses value if people use buzzwords and jargon on a buzzfeed article littered with garbage all around it. A block of pure gold covered in shit will still be worth cleaning off and using. Some Goldschlager flecks of gold in a pile of poop some frat boy created on your front door step? probably not. Which is why no matter how cutesy and fancy the website of a diet is presented, it won't last because a diet is meant to be a temporary band-aid on something deeper. No matter what the diet is, diets can't last. They aren't the gold standard, they're just shiny sometimes until you reach for it.

But, the cool thing is, you can pick and choose things objectively if you use critical thinking. There may be better source materials for this information... but you can still hear good messages in bad things and vise versa. "Health is a journey" is a good concept usually used to package garbage supplements. "Be ashamed of your body" is a bad concept that gets shaped into seemingly good innocent things all the time.

Will others use critical thinking all the time? Surely not. It is a very uncomfortable practice that takes a lot of humiliation and.. being flat wrong and acknowledging that. But, I wouldn't let that stop you from using critical thinking to pull good information from anywhere, and leave bad information dead in the water in the process.


As far as your time crunching... I have a theory that this resides in the procrastination 101 gimmick that many of us love to use from the time we are kids. "i don't want to do this thing, so I prioritize something above it." Suddenly our rooms are clean when homework is due the next day. We remember this thing that's been collecting dust and finish it when faced with a tough decision that may not have a clear answer right now. It doesn't take very long to work up a sweat and move around, but frequently I'll find I put something ahead of my own body because it felt better to do so. The reality was I didn't do any introspection to look and see if I was simply avoiding the exercise session that day. And... I like exercise! We do this to ourselves a lot. Maybe if I instead thought about it, and realized maybe I am not mentally ready to do a big work out session and compromised with myself for a smaller one, I would have felt better about the whole issue and been able to break the procrastination cycle.

 

[EJCC]

Sounds like you need to give yourself a break here.

#e1problems

You're still moving forward and not scrapping your goals, and life has hiccups.. you can't be healthy 100% of the time unless you're getting paid to do so.

I've been consuming leftover 4th of July food stuffs too, and not 100% of it was healthy, including a chocolate tofu pie and an entire icebox cake complete with an entire package of girl scout cookies being on the roster.

I'm usually really good about telling myself that one or two slip-ups don't matter... but it's when you get into multiple weeks of it that I have a hard time letting it slide.

It's difficult for me to tell the difference between reasonable flexibility and lack of discipline.

Sounds like you're doing a totally stellar job being a bad ass healthy habits person.

Thanks

Slow and steady wins the race, right?

 

[kyuuei]

#e1problems


I'm usually really good about telling myself that one or two slip-ups don't matter... but it's when you get into multiple weeks of it that I have a hard time letting it slide.

It's difficult for me to tell the difference between reasonable flexibility and lack of discipline.


Thanks

Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Yup!

Also, I think that's because it is genuinely hard to draw that line.. where does discipline end and flexibility begin? It's a hard question to answer.. a few weeks in the span of a year isn't a big deal.. but it can certainly feel that way after a long streak of "doing well".

 

[Hitoshi-San]

more hygeine related than anything, but be sure to clean your ears, especially after a shower. you'd be SO surprised at how greasy and frankly nasty as fuck your ears are. get a dry washcloth and clean your entire outer ear, maybe even use those anti-oil pads that you can use on your face in your outer ear if you want. just be careful not to be diggin for gold or anything because you will probably hurt yourself that way. also, if you notice you have zits in your ears you should get rid of them because I have had blackheads turned into cysts that will make you beg for forgiveness for the sins of humanity combined because they hurt so much. don't try to mess with them yourself, have someone who knows what they're doing do it for you.

 

[Udog]

Wow, neat thread. And kudos to kyuuei for the extra effort and support she's putting in, as well.

Last year was a bad year for me... and I ended up putting on a lot of weight. Everything I had lost, plus like 25 pounds extra. I actually went above 300 pounds - which really sucked since last time I did this, NOT breaking 300 pounds was a personal point of pride. I also was in the worse shape of my life.

Anyways, we can't change where we currently stand, but we can determine what step forward we take next. And I've been using the lessons of past failures to help mold my actions this year. Mainly, and not in exact chronological order, but close enough to it:

1. I started off slowly, doing activities I liked. Namely, and pretty much limited to: walking. I moved close to a lovely walking area and started walking in January. Initially I'd just force myself to go for 15 minutes, and slowly worked my way up to 20-30. And honestly, I had to really force myself to do that, because this walking stuff was annoyingly inconvenient.

2. 2-3 weeks later, I now loved walking. If I missed more than 3 days in a row, this NOT walking stuff was annoyingly inconvenient.

3. My weight goes from 310 to around 300-305 during the course of the first 4 weeks.

4. Realizing that anxiety was a huge factor in my eating, I started facing my anxieties using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

4.5. I try to resume my P90 workout at home. It lasts for about 2 weeks before I get bored of it and quit.

5. I decide to buy a bike. It was good practice for my social anxiety since I had to do a bit of research and shopping, and I figured the bike would be great. I can explore farther! I can ride to new areas to walk! I can ride my bike to the store! The possibilities are endless!

6. I bring my bike home... and proceed to neglect it as I continue to walk. However, since my wallet is now significantly lighter, I am slowly able to increase the duration of my walks! They are now reaching 45-60 minutes.

7. Two birds with one stone: I attend a hiking group meetup and begin doing very long walks once or twice a week... 8+ miles a pop.

8. Around March, my weight is now 290ish. Family tragedy strikes and slows me down, but my walks are now my stress relief, so I continue to walk to help clear my head.

9. May - my walking game is strong. My calves are finely tuned machines, and greasing them would probably now be illegal in Georgia. I decide to walk up the steps to my apartment, and very possibly passed out. Or pulled a lung muscle. My recollection game is weak. I decide it's time to step up my game.

10. I dust off my bike, and begin using it! But only once in a rare while.

11. I begin the "Need to Buy a New Car Diet". It turns out to be a great diet! It involves your car dying, requiring you to buy a new one. That's the hard part. Then, once you are saddled with a car payment, you must now transfer your Eat-Out-Everyday budget to your Car Payment Budget. That's the hard part. On the plus side, now you get to cook much healthier food. Which, as you can imagine, is the hard part. Still, I bet you didn't know that buying a new car is GOOD for your health!

12. I'm down to maybe 280-285. Getting back to familiar territory. I decide to join an exercise class to continue working on cardiovascular.

And that's where I am now. I've had intermittent family medical emergencies, causing my diet and exercise routine to be occasionally sporadic, but overall I'm making progress. I actually don't have time to go back and clean up my list, so hopefully it makes some sense.

 

[kyuuei]

[MENTION=4722]Udog[/MENTION] puppy!! What a great and crazy story!! I'm sorry last year was a bad one... but you know what? You didn't let it hold you down and stay down. I'm glad to see you're looking forward and pressing on. Maybe 3 years ago you couldn't imagine hitting past 300.. but current you has been there, done that, and gained more experience and technique than just the vague assumption that a number like 300 will be a life-screeching event.

Also, love your new car diet! I'm currently on a new-house diet myself, my sushi consumption has plummeted from every 2 weeks to every no weeks. And the bike is STILL a great idea, even every once in a while. I treat exercise equipment like I treat kitchen gadgets.. it's worth the money if it means you have the space and ... even a few times you get something positive out of it. I may not always make donuts, but whenever I feel like buying donuts, I instead make them at home and everyone wins. .. i.e. me. I definitely don't always use an exercise ball, but it is way cooler having one than not for those rare exercises.

Keep us updated on how your newfound things are going! And if you explore new walking territory! I really miss my old stomping grounds with running.. I haven't found a place I like quite as much here.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


As for me, I prepped up a watermelon today, so watermelon for daaayyssss... but it was free! Yippee! Rice, leftover onion/mushroom mixture (I'm just adding more mushrooms and onion pieces and re-heating it in the oven for a vegetarian style dish now that the chicken is all consumed) for the next day or so, and I finished off all the enoki and bacon (It's never enough! 5 packages later it was all gone so soon!) and plan on starting on those lovely soups and steamed buns we got from the asian grocery after this. My simple formula of cereal, green smoothie, bento boxes, and a good dinner are doing very well for me, and while I haven't noticed much change in my body, I suspect I'll hopefully start seeing it soon now that exercising has picked up again for me.

HEMA once a week is going really well! Serious training for 3+ hours a day. I'm slowly building myself up to start moving my feet faster, and crouching during some of my arm drills to build up my leg strength.

Tonight is a fitness blender night, and I may even go bike riding (Thanks for the inspiration puppy!) downtown this evening just because it's a nice day/evening. I really hope I can get this $20 gym membership because it'd be really really nice to stop in once a week and go swimming and use equipment I normally don't get access to.. I do love to swim. Just an hour of horsing around would be great.

Also, if nothing else, Pokemon Go is going to motivate me to wander around some if their servers ever shape up.

And my poison ivy is starting to finally subside a liiitttle bit... I suspect I'll be a 3 weeker with that stuff.

 

[kyuuei]

Rollerblading for Pokemon! Whoo!

Going to cook up some homemade tangerine chicken tomorrow because I am sorely missing my hometown's best chinese restaurant ever. Good ole orange chicken, stir fry veggies, rice and a generous amount of green onion on the whole thing.

One watermelon officially killed today. Tomorrow, I prep the other one, or juice it if it turns out to be mealy. I hope not though! I could stand for eating another.. 5-6 days worth of watermelon honestly. The peaches are amazing too. Definitely getting enough calories just snacking on those two

 

[kyuuei]

Someone in my HEMA group today called me a warrior. It felt pretty awesome. And worth spreading dried mud all over the unit from practicing just prior to going to work.

 

[EJCC]

Made this yesterday and liked it a LOT: Thai Quinoa Meatballs (V + GF) | B. Britnell *

Tastes like soy sauce-y peanutty falafel! Would not recommend if you do not like peanuts, or are even apathetic about peanuts.

Used a different sauce than what was recommended, because I wanted slightly less peanut and more curry, and it turned out VERY good: Red Curry Peanut Sauce recipe | Epicurious.com

Also, making this soon, with peaches and plums and blueberries, and really excited about it: Fruit Salad with Thai Herbs Recipe - 101 Cookbooks Won't be using lemongrass, sadly, but lemon zest and more lemon juice.

Some not-so-healthy things I made recently and loved:

S'mores Cookie Bars - Something Swanky

Chive, Cheddar and Zucchini Bread — coffee & crayons

[MENTION=19948]Showbread[/MENTION]

*note: I'm not vegan, I'm not even close to being vegan, but I like spending 75 cents on chickpeas instead of $5-ish on ground beef.