The Healthy Thread

Ooh love this idea!

Actually at the moment I have really slipped up with diet and exercise over the last few weeks. The problem is that I go to work and then take an online class to complete my degree so I don’t have a lot of time or energy to devote to exercise. Luckily the class ends next week and I get a 7-week break until the next one. But yeah it makes exercising difficult when I don’t have much time. I don’t like working out in the morning. Sometimes on my lunch break if the weather is nice I’ll go for a walk but I usually only have 10 minutes by the time I’m done eating.

When I DO have time to work out I do it at home and I do YouTube videos from Fitness Blender. I also have a few DVDs as well. I like cardio because I feel like I get the most out of that, but I also try to vary it up with strength training or workouts that target other areas of the body. Sometimes I’ll do a yoga video too, I like Yoga by Candace.

My diet lately has been so awful. I think it’s becahse I’ve been stressed out, I’ve actually gotten so stressed to the point of having chest pains, and I’m sure the lack of exercise and eating junk food doesn’t help. Anyway, when my diet is more normal, I have lots of digestive issues like acid reflux and IBS so it’s actually better for me not to have greasy food or soda, etc.

In the morning I don’t eat much, usually toast or cereal. For lunch I usually have a chicken wrap with melted cheese, for whatever reason this is just what I like and it’s easy to prepare but I realize eating the same thing every day is not the best idea. But I’ll have that or sometimes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Hot Pocket, frozen meal, or leftovers from the night before, and usually some kind of chips or pretzels. For dinner, my mom cooks. Usually she’ll make some kind of protein with a starch and vegetable. Pretty standard stuff. Sometimes I like to have dessert in the evening. For drinks, I drink a lot of fruit juice during the day and try to drink water. Unfortunately I really hate the taste of water so sometimes I will add lemon to it. I need to do better with the water though. In general I think I need to go to the store and load up on some stuff because I ran out of a lot of things. I sometimes eat yogurt too, I like Activia to regulate my digestive system.

That's pretty unusual for someone your age. And scary as hell. The only medical advice I'm qualified to give is, go see a doctor, please.

After reading your post, I realize I said nothing about what I drink. I do like water. I prefer water purified by the reverse osmosis process. I buy it by the gallon for 79 cents. Other than that I like flavored sparkling water, most any kind of fruit juice and beer. I have very strict rules about alcohol. There was a time in my life I drank way too much.

I've been ill for about the past year so my diet has gotten a lot healthier (because I can barely eat anything lol). I've had acid reflux for years and had h pylori at the same time but was never tested to see if it had gone...and now I have the symptoms all over again. I feel sick every single day and struggle to sleep every single night. It's a pain. I take silicol gel which helps and I take PPIs every day for the reflux. I'm just fed up of feeling sick and being sick. (I've been to the doctors many times and I'm waiting for hospital tests)

Ok whine over. I used to exercise at home for 30 minutes about 4 times a week but I'm very anaemic ATM so I just can't. Getting out of bed is hard enough never mind working full time and studying/revising for my professional qualifications (and also having my boyfriend live 2 hours away, there's barely any time for myself ATM!)

I have porridge and honey on a morning, a banana as a snack and then a ham wrap with salad (and by salad I mean boiled eggs and lettuce haha). Then I'll have something like risotto just in chicken stock with chicken and veg or chicken with salad etc. Sometimes I'll treat myself to a toastie but I'm struggling with dairy ATM.

So I feel I'm pretty healthy despite eating the same thing every day. I drink water by the bucket load too, it's my absolute favourite drink. And I'll have a fruit tea most days. I used to have a bottle or two of wine at the weekends but I can't for the moment. But when I'm better I think I'll mostly keep this diet, just have a lot more variety and flavour in it!

Honestly the less you have junk food, the less you miss it. The more you eat junk food, the more you crave it. I personally find that when I exercise my body craves fruits and vegetables and lean proteins which makes sense, my body naturally wants to nourish itself after physical activity. Once you get into a routine of eating less junk food, you really don’t crave it that much.

What helps me the most is that I enjoy my own cooking so much. I remember we had a baking thread that seems to have died. Did we ever have a general cooking thread or a recipe thread? Should we? Would anyone participate? I mean, we all eat.

I believe we had a cooking thread but that died faster than the baking thread... but I think it’s a nice idea, I sometimes go looking what pther people eat just as an inspiration