Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
21921

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<p>Once you make the decision to stop drinking sugar (“just say no”), it’s really not that hard to stick to. Unsweetened coffee. Unsweetened ice tea. No problem. Plus, it frees up a lot of calories to “spend” on other things, like half n’ half in your coffee, blue cheese on your salad, butter on your veggies, a bigger piece of steak…</p>

<p>Looking back, I’m pretty sure that drinking soda (and equivalents like Snapple, lemonade, cranberry juice) was the number one cause of my gaining weight. Every time I stopped drinking soda in my life, I lost weight. Every time I started drinking soda, I slowly gained weight. Sugar has zero nutritional benefit. We could live just fine with zero sugar intake.</p>

21922

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<p>That is really fast. My knees hurt thinking about it.</p>

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<p>We used to have San Pelligrino Orangeade and Lemonade in the office. Those drinks felt sweet to me even on a regular diet of soda. We still have lots of free sodas in the office. It’s mainly the younger employees that drink soda. Most of the older employees go with water, coffee, tea or diet drinks. There are far fewer old-timers with a lot of weight on them. The older people that are heavy tend to be newer hires. I think that there’s some subtle peer pressure on our floor.</p>

21923

<p>Sugar. No kidding! I started a new job and evidently my predecessor stored candy in one of the file cabinets to fill the candy jars around the office. We’re talking Costco sized bags of candy filling an entire drawer. At one time I would have been eating constantly from it. No more. </p>

<p>Odwalla is my weakness. The illusion that smoothie type drinks are “healthy”. Nope. We have a nice water cooler at work and I have to say I feel much better drinking a lot less diet Mt. Dew (my former vice) and a lot more water.</p>

21924

<p>I just gave a Christmas present of nuts & dried berries to the secretary at the church I play at. She always has candy in her jar and the poor thing is overweight with attendant health problems. She really appreciates the nuts & berries but I don’t think it has occurred to her she could switch over completely…</p>

21925

<p>““There is a tug of war in the American psyche going on—people want to eat healthier but taste is always important,” says John Frank, manager of the food and drink category for Mintel.”</p>

<p>[America</a> runs on bacon and blueberry muffins - MarketWatch](<a href=“America runs on bacon and blueberry muffins - MarketWatch”>America runs on bacon and blueberry muffins - MarketWatch)</p>

<p>“Indeed, the number of restaurant menu items containing turkey bacon, a leaner variation on the original, more than tripled between 2009 and 2012, Mintel found. But real bacon, fat and all, remains the top breakfast choice, with menu dishes featuring the ingredient increasing more than 19% over the same time period. Bacon sales are sizzling at natural supermarkets too, where they rose 62% between 2009 and 2011.”</p>

21926

<p>My mother is a huge fan of turkey bacon but to me there is no substitute for real bacon. I’d rather have 2 pieces of the real stuff in a month than unlimited turkey bacon.</p>

21927

<p>This is a rough week/month for me. I had evening social or business functions every night this week (nothing tonight). I drank wine and ate crappy food every single night. One night it was a legal seminar with wine and a chocolate tasting! While we were in the seminar they wrapped Christmas presents that we had brought to be wrapped! Pretty sweet deal! I actually ran 2 miles when I got home from that- fueled by wine and chocolate- and felt amazingly good! Maybe that’s the trick. (I sound like MiamiDAP…)</p>

<p>Getting up in the morning has been a fail. I get up- but not in time for my whole run. It’s very cold outside and I feel very tired at this time of year. I’ll be lucky to have a 30 mile week this week (with 10 tomorrow and 5 Sunday- which hasn’t happened yet) and I’m SO close to the 2000 miles! Work is really busy with year end things. A couple sick pets who are doing better. Can you say stress? I don’t want any wine tonight. Or cheese and crackers…</p>

21928

<p>Was wonder where you were. My wife went out for a walk this morning. I told her that it was about 24 out but she went out anyways. This is a very tough time of the year - especially if you’re in the corporate function EOY world.</p>

21929

<p>Another sunny day here. I’m going to take a walk OUTSIDE in a little bit. Get some Vitamin D with my exercise. :)</p>

21930

<p>I work for a company that has a lot of retail stores and a LOT of employees. You can imagine the issues I deal with as a lawyer. There’s all the really big stuff, but there’s also stuff like a truck delivering product running over someone’s grass, nutty customers, nutty employees, nutty lawyers…:slight_smile: And a HUGE IT department all of whose contracts with outside vendors need to be renewed/renegotiated by year end!</p>

21931

<p>Idad— any thoughts on diet colas (zero calories) as it relates to sugar and weight gain? I have “heard” that even though they are zero calories the body still treats it as though they are higher calories?</p>

21932

<p>" Sugar has zero nutritional benefit. We could live just fine with zero sugar intake."</p>

<p>Then there is no fruit either. </p>

<p>It’s funny because
I could go years and not drink a soda. Actually, working out, I think brought back cravings of grapefruit sodas, hansen’s drinks, martinelli’s sparkling apple cider. My wife and I used to play racquetball at a Wallbanger’s and I would have one of the above drinks afterwards.</p>

<p>I guess I could give the soda type drinks up.</p>

<p>But now I see that non-fat frozen yogurt is full of sugar, the apple pastry I like to eat twice a week has to be a huge no/no, and the halvah bar has to be poison. </p>

<p>I could deal with eating less fat, less red meat, less pasta, less pizza, less rice, but I guess I won’t have to work out as much as I thought in the future to keep my weight down because there is nothing to eat. :)</p>

<p>I do like salads dressed lightly in olive oil and red wine vinegar, so
I guess I am good there.
I don’t eat pork. I don’t eat more than 2 to 4 eggs a week, and usually two of the eggs, I don’t eat the yolks.</p>

<p>My wife eats very well…she doesn’t snack much and keeps her calories low. Everything in moderation. She doesn’t drink sodas. But, I would starve on her diet. Lol</p>

<p>Interesteddad, BCEagle91, any other poster, what is a full day of meals look like for you?</p>

<p>Interesteddad, I know you like to eat salads for dinner. Me too. What about the rest of the day.</p>

<p>How many calories are you eating a day?</p>

<p>There was a poster in this thread that was occasionally eating 1200 calories a day. That would not keep our bodies running.</p>

21933

<p>My experience with diet sodas has NOT been what keeps getting in the food news. They do not increase my appetite and I don’t think I’ve been eating sugar! I should eliminate diet colas for bone density reasons, but I really like them and I have not been successful so far with that. I don’t drink more than 1 a day unless I am on a trip or something. I try to go to iced tea whenever I can, but that isn’t always as easy as grabbing a Diet Pepsi! I won’t touch a soda with sugar, even though I will eat donuts and other sweets.</p>

<p>I know I would feel a lot better if I ate less sugar. Maybe that is something to work on in the year ahead. I gave up sugar and meat many years ago for a few months and really felt good. I still hardly ever eat meat, but do make some exceptions.</p>

21934

<p>Running 40 miles a week can cover a host of sins. Even a donut or two.</p>

<p>When I’m running 6 miles a day, I’m sometimes too drained at night to eat, even if I’m hungry.</p>

<p>I try for protein in the morning - usually eggs + bacon (turkey) or a Tofurkey. I have been having soup for lunch lately. I’m running in the afternoon these days and need some carbs for my run. Sometimes I don’t get to run until the evening which messes me up because I can be hungry by then.</p>

<p>Dinner is my problem area because my wife cooks and it’s difficult to control my diet when she wants to be creative.</p>

<p>idad gave up smoking which I imagine is a lot harder than giving up sugar. Dropping sugar was relatively easy once my tastes got re-calibrated. You may save a little money on your grocery bill too. Paying $1.29 for two liters of water and a some sugar does seem a little excessive.</p>

21935

<p>So, if I am burning 1,000 calories a day in a gym, I can eat more sugar, right?</p>

<p>I have been eating a frozen yogurt after working out. I like it and it is low in calories, but it is high in sugar.</p>

<p>This 40 grams of sugar is for people that are more sedentary, right? </p>

<p>Right now, today, I have eaten a banana, a mandarin and a third of a cup of beans.
I am going to the gym and burn 600 to 1200 calories. I let my body tell me how much.</p>

<p>Hopefully, I won’t bonk and I can eat a little more sugar than 40 g. I promise I won’t drink much soda. :)</p>

<p>I bought those Lipton cool tea bags. They work in cold water. Saving a buck or two a day adds up like you said.</p>

21936

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<p>Well, if you burn more calories than you take in, you’ll lose weight. So yes, you can eat or drink more sugar. The pros in tennis tournaments use drinks with sugar in them but they’re burning 700+ calories per hour and their matches can go to four or five hours. I can use a Gatorade if I’m playing a three-hour match outside with temperatures in the 80s or 90s. But I typically don’t need sugar if I’m careful in what I eat the night before the day of a match.</p>

<p>The problem with a little sugar here and there is if it turns into a habit. There are times in the release cycle where I don’t work out for a while or work out very much and my diet slips. That can happen with stuff like vacations, kid-related things, and extended-family related things. Or doing home repairs, having multiple car problems, etc.</p>

<p>There are so many foods out there that don’t have a lot of sugar. You may have to put in a little effort to find them but they are out there.</p>

21937

<p>Do not use any sugar substitutes. My indicator is very easy, my own taste butts. Do not consume anything that taste horrific. I rather eat lemon than anything with sugra substitutes, unless I acceidently swallow something without knowing ingredients. Sugar is not my favorite either in regard to taste, but I love honey. I know that calories are huge, but honey is getting consumed by the gallons and I am the only one in the family to work on it. Well, weight continues going down. Going to NYC over the break, definitely get lots of it back, all this sitting around and you can barely walk fast on the streets, the people are slow walkers there. No swimming either, but lots of eating.</p>

21938

<p>Ok. BCEagle91, thanks for your post. It makes me feel a little better.</p>

21939

<p>I’m back on non-impact exercise for a few weeks. I strained an adductor tendon or ligament. I also have tennis elbow, though unfortunately it’s not from fun things like tennis, but seems to be a result of when I whacked my elbow a few weeks ago.</p>

21940

<p>I wonder how many hours in a gym one need to spend to burn 1,000 calories.
My estimate is about 6 - 7 hrs. Wow! Somebody is beating me, I thought that I am the crasiest one, glad to hear, that I am not!</p>