My green diet

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Last September I hurt my back...again. When I say hurt I mean nearly unable to walk hurt. That night I was very angry about the pain I was in...again. Having just read a self help book I decided to consider the issue. I realized I was angry at my body for letting me down. I then realized I had control of my body and I wasn't doing right by it...that was the monkey touch the monolith moment for me.

The next day I took a walk. I thought I was going 1 1/2 miles on the beach. Found out it was 3 miles each way. Long story short it changed my day to day life and my health.

Today I start each morning off with a green smoothie. Big handful of spinach, banana or two, an apple plus whatever I have laying about like strawberries, blueberries, or flax seed oil. I try to walk to work. I am active in the yard and I do fast mini workout. I find if I don't do this regularly my mind slow, my body hurts and everything is more difficult.

I have gone from 265lbs and hating my body to 210 and loving my body. The ladies give me looks (good ones) and my clients don't recognize me.

I would like to hear what routines for health others have.

I tried the whole raw greens and fruit smoothies thing (I was gonna make a post about that experiment, only 4 days of it, though) and my problem was going entirely raw (with about a chicken leg a day worth of cooked meat) was indigestion. I just can't digest it, I get constipated and bloated. I think a lot of reasons people get initial success with such diets is they're so full of crap and never eat fiber, like I was reading other people having similar issues as me after a month. But me, I eat a fair amount of beans and other fibrous things, prunes too, so the "cleanse" didn't last long as there probably just wasn't much to flush out. Raw foodism, I've heard it described as religious, and it got to be too ridiculous for me. People were suggesting "oh take some vinegar to help your digestion" when people presented problems like that, and to me that just seemed ridiculous as I never have digestion problems with normal food.

Anyway, for me, my diet used to be mostly Indian and Asian food. Then I moved, all my spices and ingredients got lost in packing, and I started getting stressed out, so my diet slipped up as a result. Now I'm finally getting back into the swing of things after almost a year. I started ice skating last March, and started at 215lbs and dropped to 180 in like 4 months. Then about fall of last year I started weightlifting, mostly squats and deadlifts, now I do Olympic lifts (snatch and clean and jerk) it's great assistance work for ice skating. My weight got to 200 during the winter, and now it's at 195. I went on vacation and got to 200 from eating a bunch of fast food and not exercising, though, bleh. I'm a mesomorph (with some endo too I guess) body-type, so it's relatively easy for me to gain and lose weight.

Now basically, having tried two extremes for a short time, fast food and raw food, I'm gonna go back to basically my old diet of Indian and Asian food. Basically, just don't eat like an American and I think you'll be good. Right now, I'm trying to include a lot of cooked cabbage, I also LOVE kimchi, but it's too salty for me, and raises my blood pressure up. Cabbage and me seem to agree, it's very low calorie, and has a ton of nutrients and is quite filling. Going low carb like that is an easy way to cut weight for me, but I'll eventually reintroduce carbs, but my favorite carbs as far as "feel" goes is brown rice, and I've learned you can sprout brown rice, so that'd make it even more nutritious. But yeah, I fell into the whole bodybuilding diet kinda trap of "lol eat a ton of meat everyday" and it's not fruitful imo. Vegetables, at least leafy non legume vegetables, per the amount of calories they have, have just as much protein as meat, some things even bordering on whey protein shakes, and if you like eating, they're awesome, as you can eat a lot more food and not get fat. So while I still eat meat, it's not like I need to eat a lot of it anymore. Seems the answer is veggies, both cooked and raw.

For my shakes, what I like doing is, I get frozen strawberries, put them in a blender, and then put a big handful of mung bean sprouts in, and some lemon juice, and it basically comes out like a really fresh tasting strawberry lemonade, it's good. I change it up with various things, but yeah. Bananas are weird for me, as if I eat too many (as I found out in the raw food experiment) I actually get too much potassium to sodium for electrolytes, and feel dehydrated, so don't wanna eat too too many bananas (I'm talking like 5-6 a day.) But yeah, bean sprouts are cheap at my Asian market, if you sprout them yourself they're cheap, too, but at grocery stores they're ungodly expensive.

For my blood pressure, that's interesting, too, when I first started skating, it was high as all hell, 150/90. The doctor who saw me told me "I don't think you can handle this with just exercise and diet alone." So I was like "Oh yeah?" So a couple weeks after skating, it was down to like 130/70, normal range, and then later on with just skating/cardio, it dropped a lot lower, like 125/50s-60s. Interestingly enough, with weightlifting, my blood pressure managed to drop a lot, too. Weightlifting dropped it to like 110s/60. Weightlifting increases the anaerobic capacity of the heart. So yeah, if you're not already, start doing some weightlifting, especially compound movements, they're great for you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUl7UqbL3uc Olympic weightlifting is just so so fun. I like it also in that compared to bodybuilding, it gives what I consider a more natural looking physique, and it makes you strong as hell. To me, strength is a much more fun goal than just looking good. It's a mixed bag weightlifting, to help your back, you could injure yourself, so be careful, but at the same time, building up back muscles generally helps a lot of people with back pain, and almost all the compound movements (squat, deadlift, clean and jerk, snatch, overhead press, even benching to a point) are really dependent upon your back.

For my new plans, for figure skating, obviously you wanna be as light as possible but keep your power high, so I hope to get back into the 180s, or maybe lower, either way, I wanna get to like 10% bodyfat or so. Last bodyfat check was 195lbs (though my home scale said 200) at 20% BF, which isn't great, but it's not horrendous. So I calculated to even hit 25 BMI, I'd have to be like 7% bodyfat or something stupid like that, so yeah.

But uh...that's what I do. Gotta really not let my emotions get the best of me and continue cooking my own food and not binging on crap when I feel bad, that's my main problem, as it's a downward spiral, all the crap food makes you feel worse, and yeah. I was gonna say, too, it seems the severity of my NVLD/ASD/possible other mental things is determined largely by my exercise level and nutrition, if it's bad, everything's bad. I'd say in "treating" my ASD, it's like 60-70% of the battle, just exercise and nutrition alone. Yep.

I was obese (morbidly so) for my whole life no matter what I did until I saw an endocrinologist and was put on medication.

I try to walk two hours a day, sometimes a lot more, ata 15% incline, my latest achievement has been 4 miles an hour.

I stay away from animal products as a matter of ethics,
and also wheat, oil, corn, potatoes, and rice- they make me pack on weight like there's no tomorrow.

95% of my diet is raw or steamed vegetables, the rest being TVP and sunflower seeds.
Love me some spices.

I take a multi and try to get enough sleep, and reduce my stress.

I've been having panic attacks frequently lately-
I even had a nosebleed t'other night (Bf's reasearch found this is common because of the sky-high blood pressure involved in an attack),
and I've been looking into what things might help reduce this-
I believe heartily in food-as-medicine, and medicine-as-food,
and ending the obsession with weight.

For me I needed a lifestyle change after I'd 'let myself go' whilst I went through a few years of depression, It was actually the discovery that I was an Aspie that freed me.
Seriously, finally putting a name to the lifetime of me asking myself "why am I so ******* 'weird'?" was the most liberating thing that had happened to me and I dragged myself through the tunnel and got real.

I started with my diet, limiting my intake was the first step, I would always eat till there was nothing left.
Then I added another element, cut down carbs and increased veggies.

I'd always been strong physically because of the work I do, but I started to feel stronger mentally as the weight shed and while my arms and legs were always well toned the rest of me IMO was dismal.

So I started to exercise, I walked 8km five times a week and started on my core.

The diet was ramped up, cut sugar way down, my tastes were changing and I found it easier to form habits one at a time rather then to try and force the whole new lifestyle thing on myself all at once, I would have never had the will power for that.

So now I'm almost where I want to be, almost every morning I feel so comfortable in my skin I sicken myself at how corny I am with my internal rambling, seriously I stood and took photos the other day of the sunrise we both had pink in the clouds in the East and a bloody rain bow to the West, it was awesome....

See there I go again , anywho my basic routine now (when I don't have bookings for my 'other job' which completely obliterates any routine I normally follow):

0600 Oatmeal with blue berry's and a large mug of tea.

Work (Feed and clean up after 15 horses)

0930 Snack, either a Ryvita with tuna or a handful of wasabi peas (I'm addicted to them ATM)

Work...living on property, it never stops.

1200 some sort of vegie based lunch, either stir fry, or a salad with lean protein, (fish or chicken).

Some time through the afternoon, I exercise and go for a five km run three or four times a week and core work at least five days a week. Just recently to change it up, I incorporate sprints twice a week.

Who knew I could move so fast?

1500 Snack I'll grab some chicken breast that I always have handy, or some other form of protein, could be low fat pea and ham soup, or chilly concarne, just a snack sized portion though that I make and freeze.

Thursdays and Saturdays are my big days where I take a ten minute drive and climb up the side of the scarp (steep hill) and do a ten km trek through the national park, running when I can and I'd do that every day if I had access at my front door because the scenery sure beats flat roads and the treadmill.

Then there's horses again in the evening.

Evening meal is pretty much the same a lunch, but I'll have some fresh fruit in plain yogurt or something.

One thing I don't do though is eat 'diet substitutes' I drink whole milk and have Greek style yogurt, that sort of thing but I limit myself. I won't compromise on taste and I'm big on herbs and spices, and I put lots of chilly or pepper in almost everything.

Once a month or so I allow myself a treat like a huge home made pizza with a whole meal base, topped chock full with vegies, it lasts three or four days.

I also 'eat out' but have armed myself with knowledge on how to make smart choices.

I don't crave any more and never feel guilty for what I eat, though I do get a pang of it if I miss a day of exercise even though I force myself to have one day off from my exercise routine.

I sleep like a log, and all in all, I have my **** together now.

Best time of my life.

Love the responses.

Stopped eating for 36 hours twice. I wanted to know what it would feel like. It was one of the most unique experiences of my life. After 20 hours of not eating I wasn't hungry anymore. I only drank water. It was an odd type of euphoria well after 20 hours of hunger pangs.

I would like to do it again for 48 hours or 72. The family found out and did not approve. I tried to explain each pound of fat has 3000 calories so I will be fine. They didn't go for it.

I have fasted before but no longer do it for extended periods. I tend to fast at night while sleeping and in the morning into the afternoon. I am always really hungry during the evening. That is when I want to eat everything in sight. It's a real challenge not to binge on food at this time.

Scientific American said hypertension is also linked to low potassium. http://www.scientificamerican.com/podca ... r-11-07-12

I'm looking for balance in my food. I wish to eat real food. I have had enought garbage for a lifetime. This morning I didn't get a head ache, I focused all day, I used my head, I was extremely productive. I had a green smoothie that is my fuel. My energy. McDonalds isn't good fuel.

Eating times. If I eat after 6 I have trouble waking. If I skip dinner I wake so easily. My body didn't have to work on digestion. It works on healing, regeneration and rest.