Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
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<p>Yay, mathmom! </p>

<p>Thanks for the responses to my questions, idad. Your goals of " 1) Stay at lean weight.2) Exercise.3) Keep LDL particle counts in a good range 4) Keep triglycerides ultra-low5) Keep HDL high. That’s after I did the single most important thing: stop smoking." sound very familiar. What’s even better, is that you seem to have found a way to achieve them. It’s always a work in process and I’m so glad you’re sharing the how to’s here! Congrats on the 10 lb party!</p>

<p>MoWC–I think olive oil on ice cream sounds good. Olive oil ice cream tastes good! </p>

<p>abasket, I am so glad you asked about the brand of olive oil and I thank you all for brand suggestions. I recently had been talking to DH about what is best after seeing yet another article blasting certain popular brands for being diluted with other vegetable oils. I’m definitely guilty of being lazy about keeping up to date on which is purest and most delicious but considering how much we use, it’s time to reconsider. We’ve used lots of Pompeiin EVOO for a few years (Colavita before that) but I went out today and bought a bottle of very reasonably priced California Ranch EVOO. Please pardon the ramble here, but understand that changing olive oil is a seismic shift of sorts for our pantry :slight_smile: !</p>

<p>In my opinion: Pompeiin pros are taste, price, availability, consistency (it has a standard taste that doesn’t change much–works fine with my cooking needs), tinted bottle, and former reviews and analysis asserting its purity, monitoring and certification by USDA, approved and monitored by H’s employer. Cons: Plastic bottle (do plasticizers contaminate product?), country of origin (the stuff we have now was made from South American and Spanish olives), lack of ingredient list (is it really 100 percent olive oil, and if so–why not say so?), some questionable testing results about taste–and therefore purity, no GMO free claims (why not? does that allow additions of soybean or corn oil?).</p>

<p>On the other hand, and IMO, California Ranch EVOO. Cons: more expensive (less likely to be on sale?) at our grocery store, alien to DH who’s the grocery shopper of our family. Pros: Tinted glass bottle, made with California olives, GMO free label; pleasant flavor and aroma, price very reasonable, available at local grocery.</p>

<p>I broke the news of a possible switch to H at lunch today after my fact finding mission and taste test with DS2. He’s suspicious, but willing to proceed with the trial…</p>

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<p>I switched to the California Ranch EVOO because I think it just tastes a LOT better than standard grocery store brands. Secondarily, I’m a little concerned about what’s really in the commodity grade olive oils.</p>

<p>The final straw for me was a fancy gift bottle of olive oil (TJMAXX) that I got for Christmas. After several months of using the California Ranch for salads, this stuff was decidedly less tasty.</p>

<p>For the difference between 12 cents per TBS and 16 cents per TBS, why even have the lousy kind in the cupboard to use for sauteeing? When I sautee green beans or something, I use maybe 2 TBS for an upcharge of a whopping 8 cents.</p>

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<p>Happy 5 pound party, Mathmom!</p>

<p>Went to gym this afternoon and did TRX and weight training with my trainer. I finished with 45 minutes on the elliptical. </p>

<p>I’m an olive oil snob and usually stick to extra virgin olive oil from Italy or Greece. From Greece I look for oil from Kalamata and from Tuscany for the Italian oils.</p>

<p>Since my H has been working out in CA. I’ve found a California olive oil that I liked. I got it at the Ferry Terminal in San Francisco–it’s called McEvoy Farm. It’s excellent/-certified organic,really green and fruity oil. I brought home 4 bottled my suitcase the last time I was there. If I need to sautée food at higher temps than EVOO can tolerate, I’ve started to use extra virgin coconut oil–after doing lots of reading I’ve abandoned Canola oil. </p>

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<p>Wow, I’m getting such an education on olive oil! I am going to have to go to a specialty store and do some tasting! I was at Costco this afternoon and did a Very Quick look but not close enough to see if they had a Calofornia Ranch. I’m going to go check my current bottle and see what it says!!</p>

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<p>Oh and Plantmom. Loving the “drama” at your house over the switch!! Haha</p>

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<p>Avocado oil works great for high heat cooking since it has a smoke point of 500
degrees. I just drizzle some olive oil on the food at the very end of cooking for flavor. </p>

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<p>Costco had a very good deal on avocado oil not too long ago. And the California Ranch frequently has coupons available, PlantMom, if you keep your eyes open for them. </p>

<p>iDad, congratulations on your continued weight loss. Nice that you can identify nuts as the culprit. They sneak up on you, that’s for sure. They’ve become a salad add-in at our house rather than a snack item. Sad but true. </p>

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<p>Our local Fairway was having a tasting of Bill Sanders First Fresh Olive Oil - it was pricey, but we both think our salad dressing tastes better. For cooking I just use the Fairway brand of Extra Virgin - usually the organic one. Fairway is fun - they have tastings available of dozens of olive oils standard and then sometimes someone will come in with something extra special as well. </p>

<p>I cook with butter and olive oil for nearly everything. (I might still have some lard from when we were trying to reproduce Scottish meat pastries, but I’m not a big fan.) We usually have some neutral oil around for waffles - I like them with melted butter, but dh thinks it’s too much trouble and he’s the waffle cook.</p>

<p>I’d really like to take a walk now, but it’s looking an awful lot like rain, so maybe I will just jump around inside.</p>

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<p>3.5 miles today. and some planks</p>

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<p>45 minutes of core exercises and stretching, and a two mile walk.</p>

<p>To continue the soap opera of EVOO in my kitchen, I used the new one tonight in a salad dressing for a simple green salad with avocado, on the roasted eggplant, and a as the cooking oil in a sauteed chicken dish with mushrooms, garlic, and red wine. H thought everything tasted very good–a little better than usual. I calculated the cost of the “old” and “new” oils based on what we normally pay for Pompeian and what I paid today for the California Olive Ranch brand: 11 cents vs. 24 cents per TBSP serving. I think my H is on board–but finding coupons, Sabaray, would only sweeten the deal :slight_smile: Is it too much to hope for a BOGO? </p>

<p>mathmom, we don’t have Fairway here. Is it like a Whole Foods?</p>

37011

<p>Idad, I can’t find the post where you enjoined the ratio of one ounce permethrin to ? Arts water to treat your hiking clothes. The bottle like yours I got this year has a zillion different ratios. What ratio did you use?</p>

<p>The hill is lousy with Mosquitos right now. I’ve been wearing a Tilley hat with a face net all week plus Natrapel’s but It’s not cutting it :)</p>

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<p>I want to have dinner at PlantMom’s. </p>

<p>You might also want to look at their website - for recurring orders, they offer a 10% discount. Depending on what you pay, it might be worth it for you. They also have some “specialty” oils and larger quantities than the grocer that I’d love to try! </p>

<p>Hot and humid today…just had a storm roll through. So now it’s cooler and humid. Glad I ran this morning. </p>

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<p>Someone please tell Mr B that peanuts have calories in them. :slight_smile: He keeps bringing up some stupid research that people who ate a bowl of peanuts daily for a gazillion years did not gain any weight. Lol. Of course he is intelligent enough to read through the baloney, but peanuts are soooo yummy and irresistible. :slight_smile: So that is his lame excuse. </p>

<p>Some people at work have nothing better to do than to put crap like chips out in the kitchen… But BB did not touch any! Good girl. :)</p>

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<p>^^ Any time you’re around :slight_smile: My sister’s husband is a chef. She said they (at home) have been using the California Olive Ranch brand for a few years–ever since reading a review in Cook’s Illustrated. She recommended the Arbequina (her favorite) which can be ordered online.</p>

<p>I bought a jar of WF coconut oil about a month ago. It works well for baking and sauteing while imparting just a hint of coconut flavor. </p>

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<p>Good job, BB. We had donuts (my personal weakness) for the staff meeting today. I didn’t have any. </p>

<p>I love Cook’s for their reviews. Of course the Post had a taste test comparison of Nutella and the like this week. At one time I would have wanted to buy all the preferred varieties and sample them. Holds little appeal now, thankfully. </p>

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<p>3 mile run at 10:05 pace which is good for me! #nationalrunningday</p>

<p>People At my workplace have Jimmy Johns on speed dial. Why? Cause JJ delivers! There is a cafeteria at work but that would mean walking to it! I got a few glances when I nicely told them one day that JJ’s is only .55 miles easy walk away - seriously- they would have it as fast if they would walk to get it!!!</p>

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<p>And the JJ guys are getting fit running .55 miles back and forth to your building with armloads of sandwiches. ;)</p>

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<p>Fairway is less organic than Whole Foods. For a long time it was the best grocery store in NYC and then it started opening up places in the suburbs as well. They are a step above average chains, but not as good as they think they are.</p>

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<p>kmcmom:</p>

<p>If it’s this stuff:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ESB74J2”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ESB74J2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It’s 10% permethrin. To make a 0.5% solution like Sawyers, use 1 ounce of the concentrate to make 20 ounces of finished product (i.e. 1 oz permethrin, 19 ounces of water).</p>

<p>If it’s 13% permethrin, 1 oz concentrate plus 23 ounces water to make 24 ounces finished product.</p>

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<p>Our work orders from Jimmy John’s a lot. I don’t really like it. I can drive to WhichWhich without much trouble, and I also have sushi and Korean Bi Bim Bap options, too.</p>

<p>Don’t get me going about chips in the break room! We get boxloads of chips, candy and other junk dumped in our break rooms from vendors trying to get us to sell it in our stores! I saw baby back rib flavored chips the other day. Yuck. </p>