The 2016 Healthy Habits Thread

[kyuuei]

There's a list of things that I want to do, but to varying success.

1. Portion control. This is the killer. The food in camp is so laughably bad and unhealthy that I refuse to eat it unless I'm starving. Because of that, I don't eat much in the day but I binge at night. When I go to the gym, I hardly have any energy for a proper workout because I'm so lethargic and light-headed.

Food quality can be such a killer. Maybe you could arm yourself with some table spices and hot sauces you like? Eating a year straight in the chow halls of the armpits of Military America, I can empathize with bad food day in and day out. I keep fruit seasoning, hot sauce, and table spices on me at all times to help get stuff down.

Or.. It might just come down to will power and sucking it up and eating the food. You gotta eat man. Maybe bring something yummy with you during the day, and eat it as a reward for after you've eaten a pretty piss-poor meal?

2. Speaking of gym, or exercise in general, I want to up the frequency of my exercise routine. Unlike most people, I do not find exercise remotely enjoyable. To me, it's a bunch of simple movements with no nuance or any brainpower required to do them. It is mindlessly boring. But I do it so that I can wake up more easily in the morning, and maybe if I'm skinny enough, I can get the guy of my dreams. Anyway, I have trouble sticking to doing it often enough. Any ideas on what kinds of workouts would be suitable for me? I like them in short bursts, with a lot of variety in the workouts. However, I much prefer learning dance routines because there is a learning curve to it.

There are tons of hobbies that can help with this Parkour, HEMA or fighting in general, dancing.. they all are things where you advance in the art as you're working yourself out. And, it can give your weight-lifting some purpose--you're building up your pull ups so you can do this move better.. you're squatting these weights so you can pull off that crazy dance-stunt. Ya know?

I like HEMA because it gives a cardio work out without very high-impact. Lot of iso exercising (holding a muscle still) so it's great for people with injuries... not a ton of running/jumping, but still a tremendous work out. And it's getting more popular. Only downside is it can be expensive (not where I'm at particularly, but ya know) depending on which group you're joining up with.. but a really great community of people.

Dancing is actually something you can do for free there's lots of youtube tutorials that teach you how to move along to songs and how to get your groove on in any style of dance. Even if you don't learn it perfectly from youtube.. you can get out and do all sorts of things. If you've never heard of Contra dancing, it's liek bluegrass style line dancing that's very flashy-looking and lots of fun with a tutorial to teach you what to do.. and bonus: experienced people will just push you into the fray and guide you through it vs being scared and pulling away.

3. Snacking. Related to point 1. I get hungry in the day that I resort to snacking on crap food that doesn't fill me.

I think this may adjust itself more if you eat during the mealtimes... but if not, consider the fact you may not be that hungry but also thirsty. The body has trouble differentiating thirst from hunger, it feels the same.. so maybe drink a tall glass of water and see if the pangs still exist 20-30 minutes after?

 

[Kierva]

[MENTION=11928]Woaden[/MENTION] Rock climbing is a good one. Very intellectually stimulating.

I tried it briefly when I was in a leadership camp when I was 14. I did like it -- I felt like a ninja until I reached the first third of the wall where the steps where becoming further and further. My weedy arms couldn't lift my overweight butt up.

Food quality can be such a killer. Maybe you could arm yourself with some table spices and hot sauces you like? Eating a year straight in the chow halls of the armpits of Military America, I can empathize with bad food day in and day out. I keep fruit seasoning, hot sauce, and table spices on me at all times to help get stuff down.

Or.. It might just come down to will power and sucking it up and eating the food. You gotta eat man. Maybe bring something yummy with you during the day, and eat it as a reward for after you've eaten a pretty piss-poor meal?

Finally someone that gets me! This is how you Fi, folks -- you empathize with Fi and then give a solution with Te.

Anyway, since I'm a stay out personnel, I will bring my mother's cooking to work. She cooks nearly everyday and it's so much easier to stomach her authentic cooking than to chow down that crap. If she doesn't cook, I'll whip something up real quick in the morning (like scrambled eggs and bread) or I'll bring some real veggies to eat with the camp food.

I don't know why camp food veggies are so soggy. I usually refuse because I feel that the nutritional value is lost that I might as well be eating wet tissue paper. Unless someone can prove me wrong on that.

There are tons of hobbies that can help with this Parkour, HEMA or fighting in general, dancing.. they all are things where you advance in the art as you're working yourself out. And, it can give your weight-lifting some purpose--you're building up your pull ups so you can do this move better.. you're squatting these weights so you can pull off that crazy dance-stunt. Ya know?

Yeah. I liken it to leveling up a skill in an RPG, where instead you are playing a Real Player Game. I've always seen myself as a mage of sorts -- weak constitution but tons of mental stamina. I aspire to be a mage/assassin hybrid, where I can navigate the world with my magey wits and fight people off with guile and agility instead of brute strength.

I've never found brute strength that interesting. ME SMASH U is so boring and straightforward. Where's the fun in that? It's super fun to see your cumbersome opponent being frustrated because he can't catch you.

Basically, I want to be smart and slippery. I already got the smart part down, now the problem is being slippery. I want to know how to be slippery and evasive.

I like HEMA because it gives a cardio work out without very high-impact. Lot of iso exercising (holding a muscle still) so it's great for people with injuries... not a ton of running/jumping, but still a tremendous work out. And it's getting more popular. Only downside is it can be expensive (not where I'm at particularly, but ya know) depending on which group you're joining up with.. but a really great community of people.

From a brief Google search, it seems really similar to HIIT? Is it? Maybe NerdFitness.com has some routine like that, but since you know more about it, could you give me some examples of routines?

Dancing is actually something you can do for free there's lots of youtube tutorials that teach you how to move along to songs and how to get your groove on in any style of dance. Even if you don't learn it perfectly from youtube.. you can get out and do all sorts of things. If you've never heard of Contra dancing, it's liek bluegrass style line dancing that's very flashy-looking and lots of fun with a tutorial to teach you what to do.. and bonus: experienced people will just push you into the fray and guide you through it vs being scared and pulling away.

I used to HATE dancing because I couldn't pick it up within a few tries. I usually pick things up quickly, but dancing wasn't one of them. Then I saw Lady Gaga's epic dance moves in her music videos, and I thought it was pretty cool to dance to her songs while listening to them. I now know how to dance to Judas, Bad Romance and can somewhat remember Poker Face. I'm thinking of picking up Poker Face again, and then dance to Alejandro (super cool) and Applause.

I think this may adjust itself more if you eat during the mealtimes... but if not, consider the fact you may not be that hungry but also thirsty. The body has trouble differentiating thirst from hunger, it feels the same.. so maybe drink a tall glass of water and see if the pangs still exist 20-30 minutes after?

Oh honey you don't even know how many gallons of water I chug in a day. The camel would lose to me, and I don't even live in a desert.

 

[Beorn]

I'm taking a short break from it due to my recent move, but the group is pretty damn active otherwise!

how do i join said group?

 

[EJCC]

how do i join said group?

I believe [MENTION=2]Ivy[/MENTION] is the group master -- you would ask her.

 

[kyuuei]

I tried it briefly when I was in a leadership camp when I was 14. I did like it -- I felt like a ninja until I reached the first third of the wall where the steps where becoming further and further. My weedy arms couldn't lift my overweight butt up.

Yeah, I've got wussy girly arms now-a-days.. but if you start out in indoor gyms you can build up endurance.

I don't know why camp food veggies are so soggy. I usually refuse because I feel that the nutritional value is lost that I might as well be eating wet tissue paper. Unless someone can prove me wrong on that.

Nah, that stuff's gross. Better off bringing some food. Seriously, even if it has nutrients, don't turn yourself off to veggies which are actually delicious by eating that stuff. I always just ate a salad plain in the chow halls... always better than those soggy green beans stewing in a can all year.

I've never found brute strength that interesting. ME SMASH U is so boring and straightforward. Where's the fun in that?

<3 all of that. different strokes and all.

From a brief Google search, it seems really similar to HIIT? Is it? Maybe NerdFitness.com has some routine like that, but since you know more about it, could you give me some examples of routines?

HIIT is high intensity interval training... it's a style of exercise. It's a good one! But I think you'd like Tabata-styles.. short, high intensity, gone in a flash.

HEMA is a martial art of medieval swordsmanship. It seems right up your ally.. it isn't brute strength and swing-em like they show in movies. There's technique, and you can be fast and light on your feet and overcome people with long, heavy swords with a small buckler and a short sword. It's learning to fight the way they probably actually taught knights back in the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS9zEdMbh-A

This guy has some solo training videos up, but the community is really quite sweet and very enthusiastic. Particularly because it's still so small in comparison to other things like crossfit, you don't find the same culty intensity that those guys tend to have. It's more... Learning. It's about learning the art, less emphasis on strength.

.. But, cheap options that have lots of videos for free available include tai chi, karate, and kung fu. They are all arts that involve building the mind and practice, with the body following.

Oh honey you don't even know how many gallons of water I chug in a day. The camel would lose to me, and I don't even live in a desert.

Oh sounds good!
Then.. I would think that there's something going on in the snack-times that you're desiring. Obviously the most obvious is you aren't eating enough during the day when you're burning energy.
Some people get bored during certain times of the day.. Some people have things that trigger eating (stress from studying, or being tired from after school events, etc.).. Usually if you're eating and you're not hungry, there is something going on in your brain and your life that food is trying to soothe or compensate for. That kind of soul searching is a quest in and of itself... it's harder to figure out what's going on within one's self than it is to figure out things outside of ourselves.

 

[1487610420]

Kelly Starrett: "Deskbound" | Talks at Google

 

[kyuuei]

Irish oats with apples, fruit, carrots, and pumpkin seeds for breakfasts? Check.

Chicken egg salad sandwiches with pickled daikon and papaya for lunch? Check.

Spaghetti with veggie noodles and regular noodles for dinners? Check.

Three days of work here I come.

 

[Lark]

Do we have a thread for personal bests? Do you all believe in personal bests?

Is it a good idea to have personal bests? How do you define them and how do you improve beyond them or whatever?

Is it something which applies only in some ways, ie cardio, resistance or weight training or do you apply it to food journals or other attempts to form healthy habits?

- - - Updated - - -

Also does anyone think that CBT or mindfulness workbooks are useful to trying to form healthier habits?

 

[EJCC]

Ugh. Reminding myself that I like how I feel after I exercise is a near-constant battle.

 

[EJCC]

Made this a few days ago and have been enjoying it immensely:

Recipe: Braised Coconut Spinach & Chickpeas with Lemon — Recipes from The Kitchn | The Kitchn

Who would have thought that sundried tomato curry would be so amazing? and that it would be so good served on top of a baked sweet potato instead of rice/quinoa/etc?

Nutritious, delicious, relatively quick/easy/cheap, and HIGHLY recommended.

(Considered posting this in [MENTION=4939]kyuuei[/MENTION]'s recipe blog, but wanted to recommend it to others as well, so here ya go. I swear it's on-topic.)

 

[entropie]

Ouh yeah Captress America ! Save me from the monsters please !

Great avatar !

 

[EJCC]

Ouh yeah Captress America ! Save me from the monsters please !

Great avatar !

Thanks!!

 

[Lark]

I'm going to start updating on this weekly, I've got three goals which I'm going to focus on:-

- Gym three times a week, 30 - 45mins strenuous cardio, legs, abs and arms resistance/weight training for 15mins

- 30-60 mins activity/walk, daily recommended steps as per microsoft fit bit thing/mobile fitness app

- 30 woodchippers kettlebells, morning and night when I'm at home, ten sets of ten reps dumb bell curls, again when I'm at home

- Talk less/listen/notice more goals

 

[kyuuei]

I went on a 6 mile walk the other day. I ran very short distances of it, but it was mostly walking (I didn't have the right shoes on to run, I feel the shin splints today from trying too). I completed 15 days of P90X, and sort of hit a wall because of schedule conflicts and also the fact my boyfriend cannot somehow stand the sight of a piece of metal in a doorway for me to do pull ups on. "Why can't you just go in the shed 100 feet away for 10 pull ups and run back for the rest of the video neveryoumind you'd have to do that 15 times?" Because No. That's why. So.. I super want to push forward with it, but at the same time I got pretty frowny-faced seeing the pull ups sections and just started fast forwarding. I made some real progress with the P90X yoga video, my stretching is great. I'm going to stick with it though... see what I can do. I'll do another week of the Leans cycle, and see if I cannot reconvince my bf to let me put up a pull up bar.

I ate like a bunch of crazy good food.. Couple birthdays all at the same time, so we ate all kinds of stuff. I tried wagyu beef. It was delicious. I think there was a time where I'd feel really bad eating so much bad food.. but I don't. I feel fine, and I got up today and bought some vegetables.. made some rice.. Cauliflower rice stir fry + pork sausage and coleslaw for the next 3 days, sandwiches, and apple cinnamon scottish oats + adzuki beans and coconut creme is currently cooking overnight on low for breakfast with bananas and apples for snacks and green smoothies as well. Cookie dunkers from TJ's for dessert. <3 those things.

 

[EJCC]

This man is my hero.

The Healthiest Old Person on the Planet Explains How to Stay in Shape | VICE | United States

VICE: So you've literally reversed the process of aging.
Charles Eugster: Yes! You see, the stupid thing is that people don't realize that you can have a beach body at 90 and turn the heads of the sexy 70-year-old girls on the beach.

 

[Cloudpatrol]

@kyyeui So many of my fave threads about offline living are started by you Have you made any progress with stretching? I was reading the posts re: your hips and wondered if you have ever tried Pilates or any related exercises? I had a back injury from surfing last year and Pilates was a life-saver with getting my core back. If you don't stay with it, it's still helpful to incorporate the stretching into other physical endeavours.

I use instagram for motivation too.

Captainstefano - I have worked with this guy and he is phenomenal! Not only for his outlook but for his lateral thinking when it comes to working out and using the body as the primary tool.
Natalieuhling- Fun workouts that combine dance, kickboxing, and all over toning.
Curtiswilliams17 - Exercises outside the box
Adamrosante - He says he has no guilty pleasures, just pleasures Shows HOW to live that way.
Tracyandersonmethod - Addicted to her ab exercises - high dividends.

 

[kyuuei]

It's hard for me to remember that even if I cannot work out for an hour, I can still work out something somehow even if it's only 10 minutes worth. Good ole Betty Rocker reminding me in my inbox to stfu and do something. <3 <3 15 minute work out and some quick hip/leg strengthening and stretching it is!

Adzuki bean oats and stir-fry has been treating me right. <3 and TJ's coleslaw mix + the dry cruciferous blend makes for an amazing instant salad that lasts all week. Green smoothie today too. Mixing up some tuna salad for my sandwiches right now. I have had an uncontrollable craving for chocolate lately... I don't get why that is. I really could not have given less fucks about chocolate or sweets in general before the age of 27. Now I get actual cravings. I don't get it. today I craved, of all things, chocolate protein powder.. Now THAT I really don't get. I don't even do protein shakes really. And I do eat a ton of protein.

@kyyeui So many of my fave threads about offline living are started by you Have you made any progress with stretching? I was reading the posts re: your hips and wondered if you have ever tried Pilates or any related exercises? I had a back injury from surfing last year and Pilates was a life-saver with getting my core back. If you don't stay with it, it's still helpful to incorporate the stretching into other physical endeavours.

Omg yes! My stretching has drastically improved! And my IT band and trochanteric bursitis has been improving. EJCC's link for gluteus medius exercises is something I've recently integrated into my routine and I have to say while I'm not sure if it's helping or not (too early to tell) I definitely do feel that muscle more now. I have sections of my hips and butt that are suuuuper weaksauce in comparison to my monstrous thighs and abs. The funny thing is, I notice the days I have to skip stretching. My job's 13 hour shifts + 1 hr drive time mean I don't get much time on the mat before it's time to get back to work. I do some light stretching during my lunch break, but usually spend that entire time eating enough food to push me forward.

Also, the C&P Doc at the VA mentioned piriformis syndrome to load up on top of my other issues. Which is cool actually. I cannot do anything about my sciatica really except keep moving and tell it to fuck off, but anything muscle related I can work with and improve on. It's pretty good to know that even though I've been doing PT for years now, piriformis syndrome can literally take years to balance and perfect.

I do really like Pilates, nothing really cinches on your core muscles the way pilates does. P90X's Ab Ripper X incorporates pilates movements into like 15 minutes of insanity that you definitely feel. FitnessBlender also has some awesome Pilates moves.. I don't do it on the daily... or even weekly.. but I feel like I ought to start putting more and more abs into my life again. I used to have stupid-strong abs. 80 sits up in less than a minute and then I'd be all "Alright, that's max count guys, whatev's." and chill while people are struggling to get 42 in in 2 minutes.


Also, I have pretty much never heard of any of these guys you linked!

Captainstefano - I have worked with this guy and he is phenomenal! Not only for his outlook but for his lateral thinking when it comes to working out and using the body as the primary tool.
Natalieuhling- Fun workouts that combine dance, kickboxing, and all over toning.
Curtiswilliams17 - Exercises outside the box
Adamrosante - He says he has no guilty pleasures, just pleasures Shows HOW to live that way.
Tracyandersonmethod - Addicted to her ab exercises - high dividends.

I kind of liked that 60 second work out from Adam Rosante

 

[Cloudpatrol]

I kind of liked that 60 second work out from Adam Rosante

IKR :new wink:

New cravings ARE strange. I have been mirroring your chocolate experience with peanut butter. Was ambivalent for years and now can't get enough. I use raw peanuts, coconut agave syrup, coconut oil and make my own mix. Mmmmm... When it is first made: creamy, soft and warm, I like to dip a banana in it :wobble:

Yay! So happy that you have improved in stretching. Good on you for being mindful even though your daily routine sounds intensely occupying.

Yes, exactly! I love pilates for what it does for the core. It not only has helped me physically but also to develop more balance for surfing... Oh my (shocked and amazed expression) a bit jealous at your abdominal abilities! Something to strive for

 

[EJCC]

A few things:

1) I LOVE running in my new neighborhood. It's green and beautiful and there's a big park nearby with riverside trails. Not to mention, lots and lots of hills, but not unreasonably steep ones. Every time I've gone for a run since I've moved, I've felt amazing afterwards -- like a badass, and also like I've used significantly more muscles than if I'd run on flat ground. Not to mention, it's way better for my knees, and I use my glutes more (I think the same glute muscles activated in that exercise that [MENTION=4939]kyuuei[/MENTION] and I have been trying).

2) Having a shorter commute means having more time in my day, which means having more time to exercise. And that feels great.

3) This intrigues and delights me: Bullet Journal: The Analog system for the digital age

 

[kyuuei]

Betty Rocker today reminded me of the "Do it if it's too easy" mentality trick. Just because I'm physically at a level where I can work out for an hour and get a good sweat doesn't mean I have the time or energy to do that. What I've been doing lately? Just giving up when I run out of time... which quickly turned into me making excuses to run out of time subconsciously on purpose. I haven't stretched in a week, and I'm a little sad at how much progress I lost in such a short time. Nothing feels more discouraging than trying to improve your stretching.

But today I woke up, and I got an email for a 15 minute work out.. and I just said fuck it I'll do that. And omg it felt great, I worked out my hips, fired up some muscles I forgot existed in the last week, and generally had a good time doing it because I didn't feel rushed before or after.

Baby steps all the way. <3

Zucchini meatballs, hot dogs, and cereal for lunch.. I know that's really gross but not all at once . I have no clue yet what I'm going to eat for dinner. I didn't plan this week's meals very well. I'm just going to end up heating up leftovers from the freezer and eat a hodge podge of things. Probably a stew or soup. That whole rice-vegetable-pork-sausage bowl might be an invention I continue to use...