@sushiritto - just don’t make a fuss about it and simply say, “no thanks.” You know, in physics… that law about an equal and opposing reaction for every action… 
folks will pick on you if you start a lecture about the reasons you don’t drink. 
That’s what I do when offered junk food. A polite “no thanks,” and if the giver insists, a firmer yet polite “no thanks.” Works like a charm.
@BunsenBurner I always give them a polite “no thank you,” but some people have persisted over the years. And when they do persist, I’ll politely tell them why.
If it’s just my buddies in the gym, kicking around things, then for humor, I’m not as polite. :lol:
Some people here probably remember dietary recommendations based on the “four food groups”. But it seems that the four food groups that people actually eat are sugar, fat, salt, and alcohol.
But then people seem to think that you are weird if you put vegetables on your plate or walk to some place more than 0.1 mile away.
I have a 1 or 2 glasses of red wine every Saturday but that’s about it at this point. I like alcohol but I felt like I was liking it too much.
Joined a winter mileage club through the running store to earn gift certificates - well, and stay accountable and on track. Hope everyone is staying sane during the craziness that is the holidays.
We are a few days away from the 10th anniversary of this thread. Many thanks to @sabaray for starting this at the end of 2009 and for keeping us going over the years. A number of us have been here since the beginning (or close to it). We have formed friendships outside of CC and have supported each other in our fitness and health goals as well as in other aspects of our lives. We have lost some important contributors, most notably interesteddad (RIP) and remember the humor and advice given by all. Internet forums aren’t always the easiest to sustain, and feelings get hurt and advice can be taken the wrong way. It is a testament to this group that 10 years later there is still participation and support. Thank you @sabaray .
As someone who always ate healthy food But just too much of it I had to change portions more than anything. I left weight watchers after one of my first meetings where the leader said something g like “ no one ever got fat eating too many bananas or too much salmon’ and “ you have to eat breakfast to make your metabolism work “ ( I had just started reading about IF)
I left WW taking a few tidbits that worked for me and worked a combo of IF and calorie tracking. 70 pounds down later I can say that WHAT I eat has not significantly changed. How much and when definitely has.
This is a great thread though I still wish we could separate out the food/ diet portion from the exercise discussion that dominates it all too often for me.
@maya54, I think early on more of the focus was on food and diet - and then the original participants who were looking to lose weight lost it. I lost over 100 pounds and have maintained that loss for several years now. The focus then shifted, for better or for worse. It looks like the IF threads have gotten a lot of traction, and I suspect there are Cafe posters who wouldn’t post on this thread who would participate in a separate IF thread. The DEHW thread has gone on for a long time and has a distinctive identity at this point.
I appreciate @sushiritto and @Midwest67 for hanging out here with me lately. While the posting has dwindled, the interest we all have in our health hasn’t. I’d say we’re doing better than the average geezer out there.
Cheers to 2020.
A number of us have moved our discussion to another platform which allows for pictures and the use of bad words! Also allows for various levels of being “hard core.”
I’ll second @MomofWildChild sentiment and post. Being truthful, I think this thread has been the catalyst of life change for many of us, myself included.
I have vowed once the holidays settle down to go back and re-read some of the thread starting at the beginning - I know myself I started to participate and then backed off a bit cause I wasn’t sure I was in a place that I could be “worthy” of the activity here but with slow confidence I dived in and received SO much encouragement and ideas and motivation. Really, life changing. Because of this thread I started running at age 53 and continue to run 3x a week at age 60.
CC has had many diet/exercise threads over the years. This is the one that has survived, now 10 years. That I think is a testament to not a “hard core” group as we have often been accused of. Many participants truly wanted to make a change. We were not interested in jumping on and off the wagon. That said, we by no means were all marathoners/athletes! Some yes, but many just really wanted to make a consistent, forever, life style change.
We’ve always said this thread will be defined by those who participate. If only exercisers participate that will become the basis of the thread. I for one am VERY interested in health and wellness and good eating. So I would welcome comments with food recommendations, recipes and general health and wellness. But it takes a poster to post it!!! Please do!
Some of us did back away from this thread when there was backlash that we were too “serious”. (in fact, I think we were just DEDICATED).
With that as a new decade of this thread starts, posters make it what it is!
With that, I ran three miles this morning and am about to eat a beautiful blueberry/egg casserole I just made!
I’m not spending as much time on CC these days, can someone PM me the link?
I have found this thread very useful over the years. Some of you may remember (probably not) 8 years ago I had back surgery. I just recently had a second one, after a couple years of it getting progressively worse, to the point where I couldn’t exercise at all or even walk more than short distances.
So I am looking forward to getting back in the gym!
Yo yo diet/exerciser here. I need to lose 20# and get back in a fitness routine. I know I can start now though really plan to get serious after I retire on 1/31. My retirement gift to myself is going to be a kayak and air in the tires of my bike.
Thank you @sabaray for 10 years of inspiration.
Thanks to @sabaray for this thread. I don’t really discuss my exercising anywhere else. Seems reddit has a forum, but I’m not a member. I do read the postings there though.
Back to the diet part of this thread. I typically will eat a big breakfast every morning. And I found this “hot cereal” product recently. It’s paleo, keto, grain free, vegan, etc. I like it, but not may appeal to everyone. YMMV.
Christmas Eve I did a version of 12-day of Xmas WOD, which is classic or tradition in CF. There are 12 different movements/exercises and you perform it like the song where you repeat movements as you progress up to 12 days. Twelve rounds with the final round being 12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Each # is the amounts of reps per movement.
I’m on the road vacationing a little with family. So, I went to the local CF gym this AM and was very disappointed with the programming. What I call “busy work.” It’s fine for vacation. Get the heart rate up a little, but not much more than that. Certainly not a surprise, but that’s why I’ve been doing online programming for years.
I finished first in class today. So what. ?♂️
Happy New Year everyone.
I have not followed this thread in detail. But over the years seeing the title scroll by in Parent Cafe and doing occasional skim certainly did inspire me! THANK YOU ALL
My Story: About 3 years ago I started with a local couch-2-5k class, working up to a 5k race. Since then I’ve been running 5k a few times a week and working to improve my diet ( logging with MyNetDiary,; after weight loss done mostly to track protein and calcium). That enabled me to loose about 20 pounds and get back into my size 8 pants. The weight loss took about 15(?) months… I was not in a hurry, being more interested in changing life habits. My current concern is A1C (Sept test - 5.7, low end of prediabetic - first time ever tested), so I’ll work on adjusting carb/sugar intake etc.
This article on the benefits of intermittent fasting recently came across my news feed:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/25/health/intermittent-fasting-live-longer-wellness-trnd/index.html
I am finding myself feeling the impact of too much holiday food and no amount of exercise will burn that off! I need to get back on the healthy track so thanks for the cereal recommendation, @sushiritto. Mr. Sabaray often states I only serve him twigs and sticks, perhaps this product would fit in with the diet he’s on. Yesterday I ran 5.7 miles, today is a day off and tomorrow is a Pilates mat class. The studio I’ve attended for years was recently sold but will continue operating under new ownership. It’s hard for me to believe I’ve stuck with Pilates for so long but I love seeing what I can do.
I’m always up for hearing what works for others re: diet & maintaining a healthy weight.
I know that for me, using MyFitnessPal was eye-opening for getting a handle on types of food & calories & portion size.
I was flying blind before. Perhaps willfully so! Hmmmm…baked goods.
What works for me: I eat many of the same things day after day. Injecting a little more boredom & routine into eating helped me a lot! I think about food less, and that’s been good for me re: curtailing over-eating.
I try to steer clear of foods that will produce cravings or foods that do not seem to deliver satiety.
This has meant giving up many of my “favorite foods“, except on rare occasions, like yesterday, when I was happily digging into a basket of tortilla chips at a restaurant with one of my kids.
I discovered that I’m much more content during the holidays without cookies & baked goods in the house. This would have been unthinkable, several years ago. What?! No one is baking cookies?!
It was weird the first couple years and now it’s the new normal. It’s so nice to be weight stable, even during the holidays. And, to not feel a sugar hangover.
If there are baked goods in the house, I will eat them. I have observed I do much better with zero vs. “just one or two”.
With my strength training, since about June of this year, I aim to eat 125-150 grams of protein per day. In order to do this, I have to “put protein first” when meal planning.
I’ve found that the higher protein intake equates with greater satiety. But by the end of the day, I don’t feel deprived or still hungry when shooting for 1800-2000 calories.
The biggest change for me this year has been the additional muscle mass. It feels so good to be stronger. I feel more resilient & less depressed.
When I take a peek at my training log and review my starting weights to what I’m lifting now, I am filled with a sense of accomplishment.
My job? Not so rewarding. My marriage? Not so rewarding. My kids? Eh, mixed bag. I didn’t realize there was a need for something else. The strength training has done a lot for me mentally in ways I did not anticipate!
I’m already eyeing some hiking vacations for 2020, and it’s so nice to know my body will be able to handle it.
In the basement, I hung this quote on the wall — “If you don’t take care of your body, where are you going to live?!”
It reminds me that I want to be physically capable in my last decades. There is so much I still want to do and see! It’s much much less about how I look (maybe cause I’m getting older???) and much more about what I can do.
Wishing everyone good health in the new year & thank you for the virtual support!
The mental benefits of being physically active and making it a “must” of my weekly routine cannot be overstated. It is MY time, it is for ME and every time I finish a sweat producing workout I have such a great feeling of accomplishment. It doesn’t have to be a 5 mile run, it might only be 2 miles but I moved and mentally grooved!
Baked goods are definitely my weakness. This is the first year in many years I did not do a lot of baking. I made two desserts - one for Christmas Eve and one for Christmas Day and remarkably there are leftovers still.
I too eat a lot of the same foods day in and day out. Just takes a lot of temptation out of the way. I should probably use MFP for a while, just to get my mind right.
I like the “Run Fast, Eat Slow” cookbooks and one of my Christmas gifts was the planner recently released - even autographed! I think it will be a useful tool for the coming year. Allows you to correlate training runs with food intake easily.
I’m excited for 2020.
I’m excited for 2020 as well @sabaray and truly, that state of mind is something in & of itself to be grateful for!
I wanted to add that I found it much easier to make lifestyle changes after my kids moved out. Although we still have one in college, she has lived there year round since sophomore year.
It’s just so much easier to make time for me. Plus, having control over what foods are in the house helps so much. H works unconventional hours and we are like two ships passing in the night. I only have to feed myself, and I’m able to make better choices without so much exertion of will power.
One of my kids struggles with her weight and it is hard to watch. I say NOTHING, as I remember how painful it was for certain members of my family to comment on my physical appearance once I was post-puberty. She will have to find her own way.
The other kid has just started to exercise. All those hours at a desk working full-time is getting to her. She says a friend of hers has been dragging her to the gym and she has gotten up to jogging a mile and has started to dabble in barbells. She says she notices a mental boost already. I was very happy to hear this report.
We have many relatives on both sides of the family who are carrying extra weight, some obese, and some already facing a diabetes dx. I hope they can find some way to fight their way back to health or they are really going to suffer and miss out in their later years.
I eat the same thing few things most days but it’s not about temptation it’s about having found the things that for me are the most satisfying : Trader Joe’s Potstickers or Laura’s Lean Burger with 100 calorie pack of popcorn are my go to lunches 6-7 days a week with a snack pack of m&m’s. For dinner HUGE salad (2 bags of lettuce) with salmon, cottage cheese, or very lean steak, OR boneless skinless chicken thigh with vegetables. And more chocolate. Lol. I eat that 5-6 days a week.
" 100 calorie pack of popcorn" - @maya54 … is that microwave popcorn or prepackage/popped?