Iscariot
macrumors 68030
Couldn't you also use a properly treated cast-iron pan? I can't say for sure since I don't actually eat eggs. It's a much more expensive option I grant you, but it does add a little bit of iron to your diet.
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Feeling kind of bad about my diet.
- Thread starter ZiggyPastorius
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Couldn't you also use a properly treated cast-iron pan? I can't say for sure since I don't actually eat eggs. It's a much more expensive option I grant you, but it does add a little bit of iron to your diet.
Silencio
macrumors 68040
Cast iron skillets really aren't that expensive. I think I bought ours for $20-25. Prepping it and seasoning it properly is a bit of a challenge to the newcomer, but once you've got that down they are wonderful cooking implements.
Others have made some excellent suggestions about diet. More fruits and nuts, less sugar and simple carbs.
Aside from the biking which is undoubtedly good for the overall cardio situation, start doing some upper body exercises. Just doing pushups is a good start, maybe get some 5 pound dumbells and start doing some curls.
Iscariot
macrumors 68030
(The OP is working at a Subway, so I'm assuming he's a student and does not have much money for new cookware)
GfPQqmcRKUvP
macrumors 68040
Substitute:
Potato chips for Pita chips (sooo good)
Some of your cookies for Nature's Valley Granola Bars
Soda for Apple juice (if you still want sugar)
Add an apple to a mid day snack
Banana in the morning
Potato chips for Pita chips (sooo good)
Some of your cookies for Nature's Valley Granola Bars
Soda for Apple juice (if you still want sugar)
Add an apple to a mid day snack
Banana in the morning
Mechcozmo
macrumors 603
Good God! That's nearly 5g a day-- 2g over the danger limit (3g acetaminophen in 24 hours) That's really dangerous...
To the OP: you're doing more things right than most people in industrialized nations do. Don't worry too much about making drastic changes, but small, incremental, changes to your diet will see you off ever better.
Do a metabolic type test
http://www.naturalhealthyellowpages.com/metabolic/self_test.html
If you eat the right foods for your type, you won't have the cravings.
http://www.naturalhealthyellowpages.com/metabolic/self_test.html
If you eat the right foods for your type, you won't have the cravings.
All right, well, my mom's going shopping later, so I asked for her to pick up a bunch of the stuff you guys recommended. I will plan on making some soups and pastas for dinner here soon.
marbles
macrumors 68000
Hello.
First of you are 17 , you haven't finished growing .
Right , the food thing ...
Drink water ...lots of it approx 2.5 - 3.5 litres a day ( bit more or less depending on climate)
Eat little and often.
Eat stuff that has grown from the earth .
A bit of what you like now & then isnt bad ...in fact its good
If you feel thirsty ...you dehydrated man ...sip water all day every day .
If you feel hungry have a SMall glass of water first ,then 20 mins later IF you still feel hungry eat .
Try & stay away from stuff made in factory's
Oh , If you can't help eating factory made things then don't eat anything that is not natural ( at some point in its life)
Eat raw veg .
get your fats / protein from nuts
And remember , milk is for babies !! there's more calcium in spinach 😉
First of you are 17 , you haven't finished growing .
Right , the food thing ...
Drink water ...lots of it approx 2.5 - 3.5 litres a day ( bit more or less depending on climate)
Eat little and often.
Eat stuff that has grown from the earth .
A bit of what you like now & then isnt bad ...in fact its good
If you feel thirsty ...you dehydrated man ...sip water all day every day .
If you feel hungry have a SMall glass of water first ,then 20 mins later IF you still feel hungry eat .
Try & stay away from stuff made in factory's
Oh , If you can't help eating factory made things then don't eat anything that is not natural ( at some point in its life)
Eat raw veg .
get your fats / protein from nuts
And remember , milk is for babies !! there's more calcium in spinach 😉
leekohler
macrumors G5
****! 🙂 Zig- you can take off as much as you want as far as I'm concerned. 😀
Now OT- seriously knock off the energy drinks and cookies/sweets. You might be skinny now, but that stuff is gonna kill your metabolism eventually. It has almost no value whatsoever. It sounds like you're active enough, so I really have nothing to say there. Just drink a smoothie once in a while to satisfy that sweet tooth and try to get more vegetables and fresh meats. You'll feel a lot better, trust me.
EDIT- oh! I just saw you work at a Subway! That stuff is usually pretty good. Eat that- just not the cookies. 😉
themadchemist
macrumors 68030
The water thing's a little overblown. The bolded part above is the most important. It turns out that the human body is exquisitely sensitive to its water needs. Between the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone system, Arginine Vasopressin regulation, hypothalamic thirst control, baroreceptors, chemoreceptors, etc., your body will manage to regulate water intake pretty well, and let you know very clearly when you need to drink some.
The old axiom to drink tons of water is a bit outmoded. From what I've heard from some docs, most normal healthy people should drink as much as they like. If you're thirsty, that means you should drink water. If you're not, you're probably OK.
marbles said:
Milk is good! No need not to drink milk. But if you want to pass on the calories, go with skim milk. At first, I thought it tasted like water, but now I really prefer it. I used to drink 2%, then we switched to 1%, and I finally just said, forget it, I'm going with skim.
marbles
macrumors 68000
The water thing is easy ( when you get used to it ) just grab some half litre bottles of the shelf at the store and take one with you wherever you go .
Nuts , I'm not right keen myself so I chuck em crushed up into curries & stews etc but yeah nut butter is good BUT make sure the ingredients are all natural and as high a concentration of nuts in % as possible ,99% is good 1% oil with maybe a touch of salt .
Get some tahini ( roasted nuts that have been roasted and puréed) throw that onto wraps and such .
Almonds are good in curry , makes the curry real creamy hell chuck a banana in as well ( the ladies love a creamy curry)
Get into grilling stuff mate , fish especially , top nosh every time guaranteed , lob on some fresh herbs ( any you like) with a bit of tahini or nut sauce etc and a chopped small salad leaves stay away from the mayo tho' !.
**** man no one like spinach 🙂 , just chop it up and throw it in something your cooking , it melts down and you can't taste it .
Man I was so like you when I was 17 its untrue ....I'm 36 now and can cook some seriously nice munch ( healthy too)
I always had an interest in food but since I got the internet I've been a demon learning loads about food etc , I even went to uni to study it.
I
I think the main thing is that your tastes will have gotten used to processed food I imagine so changing over the taste buds IS hard work BUT well worth it .....plus learning to cook has added bonuses ....all the ladies love a guy wh can cook.
here to help .
Nuts , I'm not right keen myself so I chuck em crushed up into curries & stews etc but yeah nut butter is good BUT make sure the ingredients are all natural and as high a concentration of nuts in % as possible ,99% is good 1% oil with maybe a touch of salt .
Get some tahini ( roasted nuts that have been roasted and puréed) throw that onto wraps and such .
Almonds are good in curry , makes the curry real creamy hell chuck a banana in as well ( the ladies love a creamy curry)
Get into grilling stuff mate , fish especially , top nosh every time guaranteed , lob on some fresh herbs ( any you like) with a bit of tahini or nut sauce etc and a chopped small salad leaves stay away from the mayo tho' !.
**** man no one like spinach 🙂 , just chop it up and throw it in something your cooking , it melts down and you can't taste it .
Man I was so like you when I was 17 its untrue ....I'm 36 now and can cook some seriously nice munch ( healthy too)
I always had an interest in food but since I got the internet I've been a demon learning loads about food etc , I even went to uni to study it.
I
I think the main thing is that your tastes will have gotten used to processed food I imagine so changing over the taste buds IS hard work BUT well worth it .....plus learning to cook has added bonuses ....all the ladies love a guy wh can cook.
here to help .
Haha! Well, thank you for the (I assume) compliment, Lee. 😀
Yeah, I know...My energy drink consumption over my life has been pretty weird. Last summer, my friend Joe and I drank quite a bit of them in a very short period of time (see the original van picture). It cost a lot of money, and definitely isn't very good for you. It's not the ideal, but I've found I really like teas (ones not sweetened with HFCS, I try to stay away from HFCS whenever possible), and I have some Organic Peppermint tea that I was drinking every day when I last stopped drinking energy drinks, as a replacement. I've stopped since then, but my energy drink consumption is still pretty low in comparison with before. I'm going to take the initiative (I have been trying for a while, and in some ways, it's working, in others, it isn't...it's really a matter of willpower, which I have lots of most of the time) to cut the stuff out of our house, and hopefully eventually, completely out of my life. The food thing is going to take some work, but I think I can do it.
As for my skinniness...yeah, I know. I mentioned earlier in the thread something about my dad. My dad was built like me until he got out of the Navy around the age of 24-26ish, and then his weight went downhill (or uphill, I guess 😛). He went from my weight area to like 300something nowadays. That's my biggest worry, because I really don't want to end up like that. It's not so much I have a problem with fat, it's that I have a problem with being unhealthy.
Yeah, one thing about Subway is that I usually work at night, which means I miss whatever we're eating at our house. I get a 50% discount, so it makes sense to me to grab a sub for dinner, as I assume eating is better than not eating, and a veggie sub for $1.40 is better than McDonald's or whatever else I could eat.
FredAkbar
macrumors 6502a
Looks like most everyone has given pretty solid advice. I just want to throw in a +1 for the stuff about sodas and energy drinks. There's tons of sugar and they aren't very good for your teeth either, or any part of your body really, as far as I can tell. I stopped drinking soda a few years back, and I'm completely off it, it's been really easy. I don't even have cravings, and if I have the chance to have some, the negative effects and the carbonation are just a turn-off. If you cut out sodas and energy drinks, you'll be way better off (diet-wise) already than most people.
Having regular desserts sometimes is probably okay as long as you're eating other things, since you get plenty of exercise. In general I try to stick with more natural/traditional things like cookies and juice, rather than Oreos or candy or Fries or soda, you know what I mean? That way you can still get some sweets in your diet (as long as you work them off, which you seem to be doing) without a bunch of unhealthy crap that can't just be worked off.
edit: also, Subway sandwiches are probably good but try getting them without so much sauce/cheese. The pepper jack is okay (yum!) but the parmesian might be overkill, and ranch + vinegar might be kind of a lot, depending on how healthy your ranch is.
Having regular desserts sometimes is probably okay as long as you're eating other things, since you get plenty of exercise. In general I try to stick with more natural/traditional things like cookies and juice, rather than Oreos or candy or Fries or soda, you know what I mean? That way you can still get some sweets in your diet (as long as you work them off, which you seem to be doing) without a bunch of unhealthy crap that can't just be worked off.
edit: also, Subway sandwiches are probably good but try getting them without so much sauce/cheese. The pepper jack is okay (yum!) but the parmesian might be overkill, and ranch + vinegar might be kind of a lot, depending on how healthy your ranch is.
marbles
macrumors 68000
Yes as you say the body is very sensitive to water and lack of it but when
one experiences the sensation of thirst it is a sign of dehydration
Quite often , simple every day feelings that a lot of people have such as headache , tiredness , grumpiness etc can be attributed to lack of water ,
Milk is for babies ,I'm sorry but it is , apart from the digestion issues after weaning what about the fact that milk prevents the body's absorption of key vitamins .
That said I do enjoy a glass of milk occasionally , it's nice , but I will tend to drink goat or sheep milk as it is more easily digested than that of the cow.
marbles
macrumors 68000
yeah , good stuff that peppermint tea ,it's real good for the gut that ( has been know to alleviate the symptoms of IBS aswell) & being organic is certainly a bonus .. ( eat that way too if ya can ) and try more teas ...some herbs can be a stimulant better than the energy drinks of the factory made variety 😉
McD's , Subway all the same tbh bro .... BUT just load up on the salad and clear away from the factory made meat & sauce if ya can .
I'm off now as I feel like I might be preachin a bit ...I can go on a bit too much sometimes when it comes to food.
best
~marbles
Yeah, I understand it's all worse for you than healthy alternatives. Subway's pretty good, though. Definitely better than McDonald's, and they're better than Quiznos and the like as well. Subway uses Grade B meat, whereas Quiznos uses Grade C. I'm not sure about McDonald's.
themadchemist
macrumors 68030
No need to apologize to me, I don't care. But it's not terribly good reasoning.
marbles said:
Who told you this?
themadchemist
macrumors 68030
Absolutely. However (and I'm speaking here without being informed on the matter, so feel free to correct me), I doubt that goat's milk can replace the maternal antibodies provided to babies via mother's milk. Those are an important source of passive immunity until the baby's immune system becomes more robust.
leekohler
macrumors G5
Well, I feel like I gotta jump to Subway's defense here. I worked at one in college and the food was pretty darn fresh and good. I was surprised, believe me. It's definitely not the same as McDonald's, not even close. Whole wheat bread, fresh vegetables and decent meat. You won't find that at McDonald's. I don't know what it is McD's sells, but they shouldn't be allowed to call it food. 😉
Haha, perhaps it was true what my co-worker was saying to me today about being rare, a straight man working at Subway. 😛
Edit: By the way, today was my first successful day! I know that's not a big accomplishment, but it feels kind of good. (I feel kind of empty, though...) I made myself an over-medium egg and some oatmeal for breakfast, had a small turkey sandwich for lunch, a veggie sub with no dressing or parmesan cheese for dinner, and a banana for a snack. Not the best, but it was a good step 🙂 No cookies, and all I drank was peppermint tea and lots of water.
CanadaRAM
macrumors G5
EXcellent 🙂 Good first steps
Once you have some more good alternative foods in stock, you can start taking better quality snacks too. On the sub for dinner -- you're shy on proteins on that dinner - would be good to add some (un-dressed) chicken or tuna to the veggie sub. You don't have to worry about the extra calories of the meat -- not at your weight and age and given today's menu, which is lowish calorie and nicely balanced other than the dinner.
The trick is to make sure that the calories you are getting come along with lots of nutrients (meat, veg, whole grain, whole fruit) and are not 'empty' (sweetened drinks, clear juices, sugary and bakery goods)
Reply to a post some ways back -- from a calorie point of view, there's not a lot of difference between apple juice and coca cola. The apple (or grape) juice is mostly sugars and very little other nutrients. The whole apple and a glass of water is a much better choice.