Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
17861

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<p>Nuts! That’s kinda what happened to me. I had a calf strain, laid off that for a while, and then my Achilles started hurting. I just declared a moratorium (one month, if I recall) and let it all rest.</p>

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<p>Sounds like you are really seeing the progress with the core exercises. Let me know if the stabilty ball mountain climbers ever get easier. I’ve been doing them for over a year and a half and they still kick my butt. I’ve got them pencilled in as one of the dynamic core exercises in NROL4LIFE. They are so demanding – upper body, core, hips, balance.</p>

17862

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<p>I might have to enter my ribs! I had a Father’s Day combo platter tonight: half baby back ribs and half pulled pork, with a side of my brussel sprouts! Dayum, that’s some good eatin’…</p>

<p>The combo platter is the way to go. I should have frozen it that way, but I guess I can always pull out a half rack of ribs and a serving of pulled pork and have half of each, two nights in row. Yeah, that’s the ticket!</p>

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<p>idad, I had been having a great deal of difficulty with those mountain climbers. I started leaning on the Bosu instead of the stability ball, because it didn’t roll so much. But that was too low to the ground. Lately, I’ve been using the stability ball but “cheating” by having it pushed up against the wall. Apparently, though, it’s not really cheating – Look at this Youtube video!!</p>

<p>[Stability</a> Ball Mountain Climber - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>

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<p>I Dad and everyone!</p>

<p>Have you ever tried eating grass-fed meat/eggs/butter/milk? I know it is very expensive, but this is what I try to do. There is a lot of research out there showing the benefits of eating naturally raised meat - health benefits, ration of omega 6 to omega 3, CLA, not to say that animals from feedlots - confined animal feeding operations -CAFO’s (most of American animals are slaughtered that way) are raised in horrible conditions.</p>

<p>By buying grassfed meats, eggs, etc (as much as I can, I am not a fanatic) I actually eat more green vegetables, improve my health, and help small farmers who are trying to run sustainable farming operations, as opposed to big-agriculture. </p>

<p>well, if anyone is curious, here is a great website:</p>

<p>[Eat</a> Wild - Basics](<a href=“http://www.eatwild.com/basics.html]Eat”>EatWild - Basics)</p>

<p>I also use coconut oil for its health benefits.</p>

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<p>oh…a great documentary that is not too preachy on this subject is called Fresh. you can watch it on amazon for a few dollars.</p>

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<p>VeryHappy, that’s what I had to do when I first started doing the mountain climbers. I still can only manage 5 reps, but at least I can now do them without the wall!</p>

<p>I was cooking last night and had to jump out of the way of a hot pot lid. Said jumping has messed up my leg. Not only does my calf hurt, but now the arch of my foot feels like I strained something. I am falling apart, piece by piece.</p>

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<p>When I get center cut pork loin roast I usually poke a hole down the middle and stuff it with prunes. Very German, though I often punch it up with a rub of ginger and cayenne. Not so German. </p>

<p>We just joined a CSA, so I’ve been enjoying cooking with vegetables I don’t normally buy. Bittman had a great recipe for Kale. Basically cook lots of garlic (4-5 cloves) in some olive oil add some crushed red pepper then a pound of chopped kale. When it’s done to your liking add a couple of tablespoons of capers and drizzle with wine vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste.</p>

<p>I’ve been bad on the exercise front, but did get a good workout yesterday.</p>

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<p>Didn’t do much over the weekend. Saturday was a rest day with lots of sleep. Walked about four miles in Boston yesterday which was nice (a bit cold and windy though). I also got to sleep early last night. I’ve been having a few more lower leg/feet issues lately which probably means that I should change my shoes - the ones that I normally wear during the day. Unfortunately I don’t have any used shoes to swap into regular daily shoes - I might take my current trail runners and use those for daily wear and break open another pair of trail runners or cross-trainers. The trail runners have 300 miles on them so they’re really not ready to dump from running but I need something. I think that I have three pairs of quasi-running shoes in the closet and two or three pairs of tennis shoes.</p>

<p>The little injuries that I’ve had are from daily walking - they are usually of the jarring type that last for ten minutes.</p>

17869

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<p>That’s a great idea! Just that little bit of extra stability would help a lot. Even one step before that one would be to just do them with the hands on a bench or sofa arm or the floor.</p>

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<p>Good health news on two fronts!</p>

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<p>So, in moving to New Hampshire, I’ve had to shop for new health insurance because the HMO I’ve had for ten years covers NH doctors and hospitals, but doesn’t sell policies in NH. So I applied for a Blue Cross/Blue Shield policy, which meant the full evaluation of my health records with three possible outcomes:</p>

<p>a) won’t cover me, period (I wasn’t too worried about that)</p>

<p>b) will cover me at higher “standard” rates</p>

<p>c) will cover me at preferred rates for low-risk, healthy folk (a significant difference!)</p>

<p>I was concerned because, even though I’m pretty low risk what with my exercise and so forth, my total cholesterol number is above the “preferred rate” guidelines. Some insurance companies use the better of that number or the Total Chol/HDL ratio (which I pass with flying colors), but it wasn’t clear what Blue Cross would do. But, I got the answer today as they accepted me at the preferred low-risk rates! That’s a big relief, because I can now set in motion all sorts of stuff to make me an official NH resident (license, registration, voting, etc.). I’ve had to be in “limbo” for a few weeks until I had NH health insurance.</p>

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<p>I also had my annual physical (old doctor). I didn’t even have the white coat syndrome. They measured me with a pulse of 61 – not bad for the doctor’s office, considering I had just walked in and hopped up on the table! My blood pressure was a nice 130/70, right at my usual average at home. </p>

<p>I got the results of blood work from last week and my cholesterol numbers dropped like a rock. A year ago in May 2011, they were:</p>

<p>313 Total Cholesterol
217 LDL
88 HDL
41 Triglycerides</p>

<p>Fantastic HDL and triglycerides, bad LDL and total cholesterol. They had dropped by September out of the range were the guidelines called for a statin prescription (which I would have thrown in the trash anyway). But, now everything is squeaky clean:</p>

<p>198 Total Cholesterol
100 LDL
92 HDL
31 Triglycerides</p>

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<p>Yippeee! I think I’m going to just keep doing what I’m doing, starting with more baby back ribs and pulled pork bar-b-q for dinner tonight! :)</p>

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^ Wow, those are some crazy high HDL numbers.

I can’t get mine over 40-ish. :frowning:

By dropping 18 pounds this year I have lowered my blood sugar from 116 to 92, so my doctor was very happy. Triglycerides were well under 100, which also made my doc happy.

Nowhere close to 31 though, I’ve never heard of anyone with triglycerides that low.

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<p>Excellent, iDad! Incredible numbers and shows what you can do with the right eating and exercise!</p>

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<p>Anybody have a favorite healthy heart recipe, cookbook, or website you’d like to recommend? Poultry, beef, fish, or vegetarian. Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>idad, nice numbers. Very nice.</p>

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<p>Ain’t a competition. I’m serious. I could really use some help with this.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

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<p>Any opinions on my numbers?
193 Total Cholesterol
115 LDL
62 HDL
82 Triglycerides</p>

<p>Four years ago I had total 169 and Triglyceride 99 but they didn’t break down HDL/LDL.</p>

<p>My blood pressure for years and years was 125/75, but now it’s usually around 105/60 - pretty sure that’s all due to exercise.</p>

<p>DeborahT, I don’t really have a favorite cookbook geared to heart healthy eating. My favorite cookbooks currently are How to Cook Everything and *The Best Recipes in the World *by Mark Bittman. For fancy food I love The Elements of Taste by Gray Kunz and Peter Kaminsky, which does not depend on a lot of cream or butter. I eat fresh vegetables, some meat at lunch and dinner, no rice, noodles or potatoes except on special occasions. Salad with every dinner and sometimes for lunch. I get my bread fix at breakfast: one egg with half a small bagel or half an English muffin. I often eat a granola bar or yogurt with fruit for afternoon snack. I’ve never eaten a midwestern/southern style diet. No casseroles with canned soup, no grits swimming in cream and butter (though they are yummy!), nothing fried.</p>

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<p>@ Deborah
I have transitioned from a low fat, whole grain, almost vegetarian diet to really cutting out carbs and trying to increase my protein intake, but I still love my veggies and use Madhur Jaffrey’s “World Vegetarian” a lot. </p>

<p>I am absolutely not a big kitchen gadget person, but I adore my sous vide machine.</p>

<p>[Sous</a> Vide Cooking, Sous-vide appliance for home, restaurants - SousVide Supreme](<a href=“SousVide Supreme | Official Site”>SousVide Supreme | Official Site)</p>

<p>I’ve never been a big meat eater, but since the low carb switch, I have been trying to increase my meat intake and this machine really helps. I can cook my steaks, burgers, pork, etc. to the exact temperature I want and hold it for hours.</p>

<p>I have been grinding my own burger meat lately, including lamb, and pre-cook those sous vide, then just throw them on the grill briefly to finish. (I eat mine w/out bun, but serve them with a variety of buns, including the very thin ones, so there are some choices for all)
Another benefit is that with this method, inexpensive cuts of meat can be made very tender.</p>

<p>When I pick up my CSA veggies, I vacuum pack them and pre-cook them sous vide right away, then just heat and toss with a quick sauce right before serving.</p>

<p>/commercial</p>

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<p>Deborah:</p>

<p>I hesitate to recommend anything because I’m not really sure what “heart healthy” means. I don’t believe that the typical recommendations for “heart healthy” diet are necessarily very good recommendations. I don’t personally follow those recommendations, but I also don’t feel qualified to tell someone else what to do!</p>

<p>Here’s what I think is important and what I try to do with my own diet:</p>

<p>a) Relatively low carbohydrate, especially low consumption of sugar. This is the number one thing you can do to drop the triglyceride number. Never drink any sweetened beverage (soda, juice, etc.)</p>

<p>b) Eat lots of good fats. This will raise the HDL number. I take four fish oil capsules per day (4.8 grams). I eat a ton of olive oil and a lot of saturated fat from meat and dairy (cheese, half 'n half in my coffee). Here’s where I get in trouble with the definition of “heart healthy”, because I think the whole low-fat edict may be misguided.</p>

<p>c) For the same reason, I try to eat a reasonable amount of fish, especially salmon, at least once a week.</p>

<p>d) There is widespread recommendation to increase fiber. I’m not completely sold, but I figure there is very little harm, so I take a powder psyllium husk fiber supplement twice a day.</p>

<p>e) I don’t buy all the caveman evolutionary stuff, but I do think that what is commonly referred to as a “paleo” diet is a pretty good starting point. Low carb, moderate fat, moderately high protein – basically meat and fresh veggie diet with little or no grains. Someone who is naturally thin like yourself may need more carbs than those of us who tend to put on weight.</p>

<p>I think that Mark Sisson at Mark’s Daily Apple blog has pretty sensible advice on nutrition and fitness over all. Probably a little bit too “paleo” for my taste, but fundamentally along the lines of what works for me. Coronary artery disease appears to be related to “inflammation” and the whole anti-grain train of thought in the paleo world may well have some merit. It’s hard to separate the effects of low-grain from low-carb… </p>

<p>At least for men, the ability to lower the heart rate significantly in 60 seconds after peak exersion seems to be the best single predictor of surviving the next five years without keeling over dead of a heart attack. I think that high intensity interval conditioning, where you are cycling your heart rate up and down, seems to be a good way to improve that.</p>

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<p>more info for Deborah</p>

<p>If your try the site [Yummly</a> | The best site for recipes, recommendations, food and cooking](<a href=“http://www.yummly.com/]Yummly”>http://www.yummly.com/)
you can access recipes from all the top food sites, Martha Stewart, epicurious, food network, etc. and you can specify the sorting to include low carb, low fat etc. that way you can see how highly a recipe is rated in general and decide on your own nutritional criteria.</p>

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<p>Those are really good numbers across the board! I’d say, keep doing whatever you are doing, because it’s working pretty darn well!</p>