Topic: Help Each Other Stay Healthy

[Caterkiller]

The health advice thread.


So for years I have suffered chronic injuries in my glutes and hamstrings. Since this past October I discovered trigger point therapy which has done more for me than 2 years of acupuncture and a crappy chiropractor combined.


So in these last few months I have been training again, almost full force, I lost a lot of right leg flexibility and splits but that can be gained back. Still though i'm not 100% and despite eating pretty well I had a feeling my healing was being held back by my diet.


When I actually sat down for all of 3 seconds and googled foods that cause inflammation man it blew my mind! I mean I know what food is generally good, but never thought about bad food that would counteract my good. White rice, artificial sugar, food additives(like everyone's favorite red dye #9), high protein diets with meats that are broiled or fried(something about the charred proteins that are damaged), overly processed cereal(which means all of them but the nastiest/healthiest), and too much alcohol.


So by now you've probably stopped reading, but if you're still here I think we should have this thread just to discuss things like this from time to time. Not that any of us are doctors or anything, but just having a place to stop and ask things that concern you is always nice. Even if we all say "go see a doctor" regardless.


Though at the same time I don't trust every doctor I go to anymore. Through my connections with the places that i've been, I found out some things and that made it clear why I wasn't recovering as fast as I thought I should have been. I don't want this to be a diet thread either. Maybe someone knows a killer exercise that helps tendinitis in the wrists? Or maybe someone wants to get more flexible for some reason? I don't know anything! 


And i'm married to a Chinese lady, so we have all kinds of Ancient Chinese secrets! Let's help each other stay healthy! If not that, then at least healthier!

[Oblivion]

I need to get more motivation for doing exercise. Any advice? I also just need to eat better. Any food advice?


Shame about your chronic injuries.

[S-U-P-E-R]

I need to get more motivation for doing exercise. Any advice?

Try fitocracy, it's a neat site that tracks your progress and has achievements and levels and all that fun skinner-box stuff to keep you going.

I also just need to eat better. Any food advice?

Don't drink soda, just don't

[Caterkiller]

I need to get more motivation for doing exercise. Any advice? I also just need to eat better. Any food advice?


Shame about your chronic injuries.

Anything you ever see in video games or movies that you think "god I want to do that!" hm? If it's a physical activity chances are you can find a class on it. I generally don't like weights and running, but knowing it helps my wushu makes it easier. What do you like to do, or what do you wish you could do? Strut around the beach half naked?

As for food, what Super said. Just abandon it right now. I remember at my fatest, I was in 5th or 6th grade. We had so much soda in the house, I would wake up in the morning and first drink of the day was a can of soda. I remember a friend of mine hurting himself badly and I associated his frail body with eating junk food. Since then I quit soda completely. I'll try some on occasion, but after all these years I can't handle the intensity of the citric acid.

No juice or Soda after 6pm. Just water and lots of it!

Don't get me wrong I like food. I love ribs cooked over a charcoal grill with lots of bbq sauce. I try to eat it no more than 3 or 4 times a year but I just gotta have it. I love waffles to man. I don't know if it's just the shape of them or convenience of it, but they are certainly no good so I started to experiment.

No batter, no waffle mix. A cup of oat meal, a half brick of tofu, mash it up, mix in some milk(soy, cow, almond etc) and maybe an egg and good gravy you've got breakfast! Honey or pure maple syrup is better than most things you'll want to put on it. But dude, I feel so good after I eat em! Don't feel like crap. I even fed them to blackNMild. Though eventually they started to get dry and tasteless when I ran out of tofu, butter and soy milk and they were pretty much plain oatmeal in the shape of squares.

Staying away from processed food helps a lot too. It's hard I know, but at some point you find something super healthy and delicious and can't stop eating it.

[Caliban]

White rice? Awww. Ok, seems like I will have to start buying dark rice. No biggie.

In terms of exercise I could never stand for the idea of going to the gym. It just has no appeal to me. I would rather practice a sport, or any other physical activity with a group of people almost as though we are a small community. Kind of like the Kendo club I go to. The people are great, and we socialize quite a bit.

[TJ Spyke]

Actually, there is nothing unhealthy about eating white rice according to fitness experts and doctors.

[Adrock]

There's no downside to exercising unless, of course, you're already injured. I had issues with motivation, but really, that's a mental block. Instead of thinking about what you want to do, just go do it. I don't particularly enjoy going to the gym, but I like how I feel afterwards. I feel better than I ever have; exercising is just part of my day now. And I don't have cable so for 1 glorious hour a day, I get to watch anything I want.

Also, it's going to hurt, especially when you start from square one. Just expect it. Your body will hate you for at least a week or 2 depending on how diligent you are about exercising. And you only move forward if you remember that it's going to keep hurting. When it doesn't you're maintaining, not advancing which is okay if that's what you're going for. I see this dude occasionally on the treadmill who holds himself up. It's been months and he's still doing it. Sure, it's easier, but that's the reason he's not getting used to it. I'd recommend looking up whatever you plan to do so you don't injure yourself. There's a whole science behind just running.

And this isn't really advice, but if you start going to the gym regularly, please don't become a douchebag who thinks he's better than everyone because he performs repetitious actions for a set amount of time. That's silliness.

[Caterkiller]

Oh yeah just to be clear white rice isn't bad in general. It can apparently spike blood sugar witch is not good for healing soft tissue injuries. For me personally it makes sense cause in my home that's all we ate with everything for a very long time.

[lolmonade]

I need to get more motivation for doing exercise. Any advice? I also just need to eat better. Any food advice?


Shame about your chronic injuries.

I would suggest starting small, and building up from there.  My biggest failures come from when I try to go straight from eating unhealthy and doing nothing right to running 2 miles a day and eating nothing but celery.

Long-term success is going to happen when you make it routine.  Then once it's routine, you'll feel off when you didn't go running after work, or when you eat a whole pizza by yourself.  If you try to cut it all out at once, you're going to relapse, and it'll turn into an unsuccessful binge/purge routine.

Some suggestions I can make from personal experience:

If possible, have someone be your exercise and diet partner.  They add a layer of accountability if motivation is your problem.  Also, it gives time for my wife and I to have good conversation time, as we sometimes get absorbed in our own daily routines, phones, and video games

If the weather's decent where you're at, try exercising outdoors.  My wife and I have found some paths where we live that have nice scenery, and make it less tedious to take walks.

if you have a smartphone, try a calorie tracking app like my fitness pal.  you can also input the exercise you do and it'll approximate calories burned against the calories you've eaten.  It also lets you put in a weight loss goal and a due date to complete the goal, and it'll approximate how many calories you can allow yourself on a daily basis to achieve that goal.

[Oblivion]

Wow, I didn't expect all this input. I actually don't drink soda at all, I've only had water for the last 6 months. I guess that's a good start, right? I'll have to use that fitrocity since I don't have a smartphone, and yeah, I always went too hard right away and ended up quitting. I just don't have the motivation to do it. He'll, I barely have the motivation for doing my college ****.

[Adrock]

I would recommend not counting calories, eaten and burned. If you eat the right things and you exercise regularly (you don't need to be a gym rat), that will take care of itself. People get too caught up in the numbers, but being healthy is about how you feel and that can't be quantified. Be mindful of your limits even if you want faster results. It's important just to keep going and do so gradually.

[Caterkiller]

We don't have any dancers here at NWR do we? Always interested in hearing about someone's stretching exercises.

[lolmonade]

I would recommend not counting calories, eaten and burned. If you eat the right things and you exercise regularly (you don't need to be a gym rat), that will take care of itself. People get too caught up in the numbers, but being healthy is about how you feel and that can't be quantified. Be mindful of your limits even if you want faster results. It's important just to keep going and do so gradually.

Counting calories are like using performance metrics from work: They aren't a silver bullet, but it doesn't hurt to track them.

It's in my personal nature to like tracking things (calories, my personal finances, my work's performance metrics) to give me an idea of where my areas of improvement are.  If all watching calories do is stress you out, then by all means don't use that as an indicator. 

I agree that the primary goal is about feeling healthy.  Hell, it amazes me how much energy I have after exercise, and how little energy I feel I have if I sit on my rear end all day.

[Stogi]

Sex, and lots of it.

Also beer. Lots and lots of beer.

Sushi or seared fish. Mmmm....delicious. Sauteed salad over rice. And hot peppers. Spicier the better. Oh and fruits. Lots and lots of fruits. **** yeah.

Walk everywhere unless it's cold or too far or need to get there quick.

Keep a big smile on your face and laugh often.

[S-U-P-E-R]

Use a computer? f.lux will help you maintain proper sleeping patterns!

http://stereopsis.com/flux/

[EasyCure]

I agree that having a work-out partner will be a big help. When I started going to the gym a year ago, it was a mutual agreement between myself and a cousin to keep each other motivated. In the last few months he's bailed on so many occasions that I don't bother going with him anymore, at this point my motivation comes strictly from how far I've come already. Admittedly, the holiday season was a little rough but I'm getting back on track (in fact I'm leaving for the gym as soon as I finish this post).

Speaking of partners, vigorous sex is the funnest work-out you'll ever have. If its an option for you, go for it. A few years ago my then gf and I were having some problems and there was a dry spell, once things worked out and we got back into bed, I was surprised how fucking sore I was the next day, some muscles were sore that I had never even felt before, it was great

Oblivion, how's your health? Overweight, obese? You don't have to answer to any of us, but you definitely want to ask yourself and really think about what the answer is and then what you wish the answer was. Working in a hospital the last few years really opened my eyes to how bad being overweight can affect your health. Like you always hear about things but think "oh that'll never happen to me," at least that's how I was - until I worked with patients close to my age with some  pretty bad problems. One of them even died, it sucked. I became motivated to really watch my diet, be very portion conscious especially if I was eating something not too healthy, and eventually I got into routine work-outs. Yes it's hard at first but the results are worth it.

So yeah, ask yourself what your goals are. If you're frail but don't have the motivation to excessive to build yourself up, that's one thing. But if you're huge and don't have the motivation to exercise and get down to a healthy weight - think of all that could happen if you don't change your habits. I was 25 when I met a patient who was 27 when he had his first heart attack, and I didn't even think the guy was THAT much bigger than I was at the time. I'm only 26 now and making sure I never put my friends and family through that sort of scare. I don't think you'd want to put your loved ones through something like that either, so let that be your motivation.

[Caliban]

If you guys are building up muscle make sure to replenish your body within half an hour after one of your intense workout/exercise sessions. Within an hour is acceptable, but not preferred.

Perseverance is key.

[Caterkiller]

If you guys are building up muscle make sure to replenish your body within half an hour after one of your intense workout/exercise sessions. Within an hour is acceptable, but not preferred.

Perseverance is key.

I swear it doesn't matter what I do my chest does not grow with the rest of my body. My legs are like tree trunks, arms back and shoulders are decent, but for the life of me my chest is as flat as ever. I don't need to get big just a little bigger.

[Caliban]

Even if you're not building muscle it's good to replenish body so it doesn't go into autophagy (body eating itself).

As for chest building I can't really suggest anything. I can say that my chest muscles aren't BIG, but they are somewhat developed from the narrow and forward movements from swinging the 2-handed blade up and down. Also I have observed from the videos you've posted in the past of you doing Kata (demonstration of your style) that the majority of time your arms always move in wide motions. Perhaps push-ups with the arms closer to the body might work...

[ShyGuy]

As a renal patient, my registered-dietician prescribed diet is unfathomable to most nutrition savvy people.

Nuts? bad
Whole Grains? bad
Oranges? bad
Sweet Potato? bad
Yogurt? bad
Lean Meat? In moderation
Water? In moderation

Butter? good!
Donuts? good!

[Ceric]

Almonds are excellent for Acid.  If you have an acid problem eat a couple of almonds and it will help.  Just make sure to thoroughly chew them.  Not for the acid but for the after trip.

Caterkiller, I had a women joke for you but I respect you to much.

[Caterkiller]

Let me have it! I learned how to enjoy jokes at my expense and use that to climb the corporate ladder. It worked every time.

[Ceric]

Let me have it!
...

...
I swear it doesn't matter what I do my chest does not grow with the rest of my body. My legs are like tree trunks, arms back and shoulders are decent, but for the life of me my chest is as flat as ever. I don't need to get big just a little bigger.

Well, I hear that having a baby will help with that.

[Lithium]

a book i want to share (i'm actually a bit of a health nut):

-Mindlesss eating by Brian wansink <-- food psychology (and how to use it for your benefit)


Long story short:

I would recommend not counting calories, eaten and burned. If you eat the right things and you exercise regularly (you don't need to be a gym rat), that will take care of itself. People get too caught up in the numbers, but being healthy is about how you feel and that can't be quantified. Be mindful of your limits even if you want faster results. It's important just to keep going and do so gradually.

just eat fruits and vegetables and don't listen to any other health advice that isn't super obvious. As long as you're eating healthy and exercising everything else sorts itself out. However knowing a thing or two about food psychology is a definite help so you can use it to your advantage without even actually thinking about it ,which is why i mentioned that book.

[shingi_70]

Any advice on keeping a workout routine. I'm a reasonably slim/fit dude and I usually start for a couple of days but then fall off the wagon. Usually I blame it on lack of proper equipment but I'm tired of a scrap boating.