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General Discussion / Re: Chapter 14 - Fuel for the Journey. The Importance of Good Nutrition in Our Lives
« Last post by Jday1106 on July 23, 2018, 09:12:50 am »So I would say that I'm a pretty healthy eater, I go in and out of phases like anyone else where I get extreme in staying healthy, but overall I eat pretty healthy. I would say it started a few years ago in college when I took my (I think pharmacy class???), whichever class it was my teacher was really big on discussing nutritional stuff and how we can eat a certain way to avoid having to take certain meds. This really opened my eyes to eating healthier and looking at more natural ways to go about our health then just popping pills. I think diet and exercise are huge in a person's well being, and although I am not always exercising like I should I definitely try to have a proper diet.
What does a healthy diet look like to me? Well basically I try to only eat natural things, I try to limit as much artificial/processed stuff as possible. I NEVER eat anything in a can, I am definitely a canned food SNOB. The only time I will eat anything out of a can is if I need some beans, but because I don't like canned food I limit how often I use beans in recipes. I actually have been thinking of getting one of those bean cookers (I don't know what you call them) but then I can start making beans fresh. Now just incase no one is aware, the reason I do not eat canned food is because they are SATURATED with salt. And yes you can get the reduced sodium cans, but they still have so much salt in them, and although some people feel like if they rinse the canned food under water they are removing a lot of the salt that is not true (unfortunately the canned food is saturated with salt and a lot of the salt is on the inside of the food, not just the outside). Alright so moving on, no canned food, so that means I buy all natural fruits and vegetables. I actually love cooking so I love buying fresh produce and chopping it all up. I try to always have fresh fruit in my fridge. AND the fruit has to immediately be cleaned, cut up, and stored. If I don't do this day one the fruit will go bad and I won't end up eating it. I try to food prep for each week and have healthy snacks available so that when I get hungry I have stuff on the spot ready to eat. This is the biggest thing with eating healthy, you have to make sure you have stuff available to eat. It's hard work eating healthy. For breakfast I have the same thing every morning, two pieces of wheat toast with grape jam. If it's an off day I may add some eggs and fruit to that. Mom just showed me how to make some green smoothies, and after watching Heather's video on green smoothies I think I will start adding this to my breakfast routine. A green smoothie (which just means a smoothie with some sort of greens in it, spinach, kale, etc. plus some fruit or whatever else you prefer) has excellent health benefits and will add so much energy to your day. I definitely felt a difference on the days I drank the green smoothies mom made me. Usually on my off days I more so just snack rather then have a big lunch. I may have some fruit and peanut butter crackers, or I may make a sandwich if I'm hungrier. At work I eat lunch and then an afternoon snack which usually consists of strawberries and peanut butter crackers. I try to make sure I have fruit once a day and vegetables once a day. Dinner time is usually when I get my veggies in. My favorite thing for dinner is chicken and veggies. I love so many different veggies, I go in and out of phases of which ones are my favorite. Right now my go to side items are sweet potatoes or butternut squash with green beans or zucchini with red potatoes. I use to eat broccoli multiple times a week but I had to limit it **** (oh wow I am previewing my post and it isn't putting my descriptive word up, weird! Where the stars are it's the word hard plus the word core) and make it a here and there type of side item because the gas it lets out was messing my belly up.
I've become a lot cleaner with my food choices also due to GI issues that have occurred over the last few years. I was getting a lot of upset stomach episodes and finally just had to cut out so much stuff and get on a bland diet and slowly bring different stuff back and see what all my stomach could handle. I've since that learned that I am lactose intolerant, which is outrageous to me because I grew up eating cereal on a daily basis and eating ice cream. I did research though and a lot of people become lactose intolerant as adults, apparently our bodies just stop making the enzymes we need to break down lactose and hence why you get GI symptoms. Luckily for me they make lactose free milk (and for any critics out there, yes it does taste the exact same as regular milk), they also make lactose free ice cream, I'm not big on sweets but every once in a while I may entice myself with a little lactose free ice cream. I've also since my stomach issues learned not to overeat. I try to eat my food slowly and the minute I feel full, I stop eating. I don't care who gives me a hard time about how much food got left over on my plate, I no longer over indulge, too many times I over ate and the feeling of an over full belly kept making me so sick. I definitely think taking a probiotic can be extremely helpful in maintaining a healthy gut. I haven't started taking one yet because I haven't found a brand I like, but it's something I would like to add to my daily regimen. Having an unhealthy gut can be detrimental to your overall quality of life, so it's important to feed it only the best, and cut stuff out that is pissing it off.
My weaknesses, of course I have them, who doesn't. I love coca cola. Hello I live in Atlanta, the home of coca cola. I've recently just cut these out, this is my second week. I'm doing good. I use to drink one a day, but very rarely would I actually finish the can. I think soda in moderation like anything else is fine, but I decided I didn't want it to be something I keep in my house and tempt myself with having on a daily basis, I'd rather just get one when I go out to eat so that's what I've decided to do. I also usually go in and out of cookie phases. My most recent favorite was double stuffed oreos. Mm they are delicious. But I would set a limit of three ( to six on some days
). Luckily I moved on from that and haven't craved them in a few weeks and they are no longer sitting in my pantry. I try to satisfy any sweet cravings I have with fruit, strawberries are my favorite and they are so sweet. But like I said earlier, overall I don't have a big sweet tooth so I don't typically struggle with having too many sweets.
What does a healthy diet look like to me? Well basically I try to only eat natural things, I try to limit as much artificial/processed stuff as possible. I NEVER eat anything in a can, I am definitely a canned food SNOB. The only time I will eat anything out of a can is if I need some beans, but because I don't like canned food I limit how often I use beans in recipes. I actually have been thinking of getting one of those bean cookers (I don't know what you call them) but then I can start making beans fresh. Now just incase no one is aware, the reason I do not eat canned food is because they are SATURATED with salt. And yes you can get the reduced sodium cans, but they still have so much salt in them, and although some people feel like if they rinse the canned food under water they are removing a lot of the salt that is not true (unfortunately the canned food is saturated with salt and a lot of the salt is on the inside of the food, not just the outside). Alright so moving on, no canned food, so that means I buy all natural fruits and vegetables. I actually love cooking so I love buying fresh produce and chopping it all up. I try to always have fresh fruit in my fridge. AND the fruit has to immediately be cleaned, cut up, and stored. If I don't do this day one the fruit will go bad and I won't end up eating it. I try to food prep for each week and have healthy snacks available so that when I get hungry I have stuff on the spot ready to eat. This is the biggest thing with eating healthy, you have to make sure you have stuff available to eat. It's hard work eating healthy. For breakfast I have the same thing every morning, two pieces of wheat toast with grape jam. If it's an off day I may add some eggs and fruit to that. Mom just showed me how to make some green smoothies, and after watching Heather's video on green smoothies I think I will start adding this to my breakfast routine. A green smoothie (which just means a smoothie with some sort of greens in it, spinach, kale, etc. plus some fruit or whatever else you prefer) has excellent health benefits and will add so much energy to your day. I definitely felt a difference on the days I drank the green smoothies mom made me. Usually on my off days I more so just snack rather then have a big lunch. I may have some fruit and peanut butter crackers, or I may make a sandwich if I'm hungrier. At work I eat lunch and then an afternoon snack which usually consists of strawberries and peanut butter crackers. I try to make sure I have fruit once a day and vegetables once a day. Dinner time is usually when I get my veggies in. My favorite thing for dinner is chicken and veggies. I love so many different veggies, I go in and out of phases of which ones are my favorite. Right now my go to side items are sweet potatoes or butternut squash with green beans or zucchini with red potatoes. I use to eat broccoli multiple times a week but I had to limit it **** (oh wow I am previewing my post and it isn't putting my descriptive word up, weird! Where the stars are it's the word hard plus the word core) and make it a here and there type of side item because the gas it lets out was messing my belly up.
I've become a lot cleaner with my food choices also due to GI issues that have occurred over the last few years. I was getting a lot of upset stomach episodes and finally just had to cut out so much stuff and get on a bland diet and slowly bring different stuff back and see what all my stomach could handle. I've since that learned that I am lactose intolerant, which is outrageous to me because I grew up eating cereal on a daily basis and eating ice cream. I did research though and a lot of people become lactose intolerant as adults, apparently our bodies just stop making the enzymes we need to break down lactose and hence why you get GI symptoms. Luckily for me they make lactose free milk (and for any critics out there, yes it does taste the exact same as regular milk), they also make lactose free ice cream, I'm not big on sweets but every once in a while I may entice myself with a little lactose free ice cream. I've also since my stomach issues learned not to overeat. I try to eat my food slowly and the minute I feel full, I stop eating. I don't care who gives me a hard time about how much food got left over on my plate, I no longer over indulge, too many times I over ate and the feeling of an over full belly kept making me so sick. I definitely think taking a probiotic can be extremely helpful in maintaining a healthy gut. I haven't started taking one yet because I haven't found a brand I like, but it's something I would like to add to my daily regimen. Having an unhealthy gut can be detrimental to your overall quality of life, so it's important to feed it only the best, and cut stuff out that is pissing it off.
My weaknesses, of course I have them, who doesn't. I love coca cola. Hello I live in Atlanta, the home of coca cola. I've recently just cut these out, this is my second week. I'm doing good. I use to drink one a day, but very rarely would I actually finish the can. I think soda in moderation like anything else is fine, but I decided I didn't want it to be something I keep in my house and tempt myself with having on a daily basis, I'd rather just get one when I go out to eat so that's what I've decided to do. I also usually go in and out of cookie phases. My most recent favorite was double stuffed oreos. Mm they are delicious. But I would set a limit of three ( to six on some days
). Luckily I moved on from that and haven't craved them in a few weeks and they are no longer sitting in my pantry. I try to satisfy any sweet cravings I have with fruit, strawberries are my favorite and they are so sweet. But like I said earlier, overall I don't have a big sweet tooth so I don't typically struggle with having too many sweets. 
! I wish I could say I did, it's definitely something I've been wanting to start doing and that I've been thinking about for a while now. I guess my excuse has been that I don't have a cardio machine to use and my neighborhood isn't huge so if I wanted to get in a good cardio session I would have to take multiple walks. I could join a gym but I would honestly probably never go, it's an extra expense a month, and I hate thinking people are staring at me. These are all my excuses. I think the biggest thing that is starting to get me motivated to exercise is that I'm getting older and my body is starting to not be as tight and lifted as it use to be lol. I'm also getting pains and pulling stuff easier then I use to, and I don't have as much energy as I use to. I'm extremely critical of myself and sadly I can say that I don't even like getting into a bikini anymore because I don't feel like I look cute anymore. My nice abs and cute lifted butt isn't what it use to be. I also feel like my upper arms are getting flabby. Now to others who see me they may think I've lost my mind, but it doesn't matter what other people think, it matters how I see myself and what I think about myself. And only you can motivate yourself to exercise and get healthy. 
! This is really getting me motivated to want to get healthy, and by this I mean not only exercising but just making sure I'm eating healthier also. Your thirties are usually when people start to find health issues, and I want to try to prevent any issues from arising. So although I can not share any exercise regimens with you that I have I can let you know the plan that I have to start exercising lol. I work three days a week, so my goal is to start exercising four days a week. We just finished getting a little gym set up in our basement and now have a treadmill as our cardio machine. Now I am NOT a runner, when I run I feel like dying. Plus now working in PACU we do knee replacements on a daily basis and running is HORRIBLE on your knees, so that makes me even more hesitant to run. So instead of running I plan to use the treadmill to walk at the highest incline and walk at the fastest pace possible. I may decide to add some weights to this if I feel like I need more intensity. Now walking at a fast pace gives you just as much exercise as running, the only difference is you have to walk longer then you would if you were running. So don't get discouraged if you aren't a runner but feel like walking is a waste of time because it isn't. Alright so that's my plan for my cardio. Now for the rest of my workout, usually when I work out I will pick two muscle groups to work on each day (legs, butt, abs, arms). I usually do butt and legs one day and arms and abs the next. I don't have any amazing work outs that work wonders so if anyone does let me know. I typically just google new stuff to incorporate so I'm not doing the same things every time. 
I haven't had my sewing machine for awhile since the move and all, but I can't wait to settle in and get back to sewing. Poor little Mason's quilt had to be put on hold!! His is the first thing I will finish 
