Healthy Living 101

[glassman]

Nice^^^^^

[Vegas69]

Thanks for bringing this thread back to life Sieg. One of my goals for this year was to weigh 170 with 10% body fat. I changed my work outs and diet and I'm liking the results. I've packed on some pretty serious muscle. I've gained strength, naturally. Five years ago I was bench pressing 100 lb dumbbells 10 times. In just over a month with my new work out routine, I'm already back to pressing them twice.

I've had the brute strength and a poor diet and decent physique for a majority of my young adult life. Nearly two years ago I started my serious study of nutrition and health. That led me to lose 35 lbs and get down to 159 lbs and by far the best aerobic fitness and lean muscle mass of my life. In the process, I lost a little to much strength and mass for my liking. Now, I've found a reasonable balance of strength, muscle/body fat, and aerobic fitness. It comes down to great nutrition, a round work out routine, and experience.

I'm lifting weights 3 times per week for 40 minutes with 45-60 seconds between sets. I usually perform 10 reps the first set and 3-5 on the 3rd set of that exercise. I'm running for 30 minutes a week. I have to admit I miss the additional running from my previous work out.

The biggest lesson I've learned throughout the years is nutrition is the biggest factor. The closer you get to your own personal ideal diet, the quicker you see results, recover, and feel great.

I've really grown to like the Tony Gonzalez philosophy on nutrition. His breakfast power smoothie is a home run and I like his whole food, plant based diet with lean meats in moderation.

[Sieg]

Originally Posted by glassman

Nice^^^^^

Homegrown beef chuck and arm roast from the uncle's ranch in Eastern Oregon, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, organic vegetable broth, a few mics. spices, and new baby potatoes. Simmered for 10 hours...............the beef falls apart and it was exceptionally tasty!!!

[SSLance]

So a local hospital had a "Free health checkup" at a local mall Saturday. The wife and I went mainly to get our labs done without the whole doctor's appointment blah blah blah...

Curious if anyone else has been to one of these free checkup deals before and what you thought of the results if you have?

It seems pretty amazing to me that they can prick a little bit of blood out of the tip of your finger, put it in a little machine the size of a thermal label printer and spit out your blood work results 6 minutes later...when it takes the doctor's office a week or so to get lab results back...

I'll share my results a bit later, they were interesting to say the least...

[SSLance]

Originally Posted by SSLance

Wow, very interesting thread. It is pretty cool to see a bunch of "car guys" talking about eating and living healthy.

My deal started a little over 2 years ago now. I was 45 years old, 6'0" and weighed about 180 pounds, pretty healthy I thought, just a little bit of a spare tire forming. Went for my annual physical, nailed the EKG, Stress test, everything looked good...until the blood work came back.

July 2011
Cholesterol 179
HDL Direct 32
Triglyceride 191
LDL Calculated 109

The Doc was mainly concerned about my Triglyceride levels, wanted to put me on a Statin. I refused and started a workout regimen, 30 minutes on treadmill 5 days a week, started drinking 8 oz of Grape juice a day (to raise good cholesterol) and taking an Omega supplement once a day.


Went back for more blood work in Oct 2011
Cholesterol 218
HDL Direct 29
Non-HDL Cholesterol 199
Triglyceride 195
LDL Calculated 150

This pissed me off enough that I stopped working out (aggravating knee trouble contributed as well), but continued with grape juice and omega supplement.


In Jan 2013 went back for more blood work
Cholesterol 243
HDL Direct 34
Non-HDL Cholesterol 209
Triglyceride 291
LDL Calculated 151

Again, the doc stressed that I need to be on a Statin, diagnosed me as "pre-diabetic". Well, just about everyone in my family has been diagnosed as "pre-diabetic" at one time or another due to Triglyceride levels, yet none of them have developed actual heart disease.

The wife and I sat down and decided to change the way we live, drastically. First although we thought that we ate pretty healthy, we reevaluated everything we consume and took out anything that would be considered "processed food". We committed to a fresh fruit, fresh vegetable and sensible protein diet, morning noon and night. We learned about better fish to eat, not just any fish, we learned about adding almonds to the mix, we learned ways of cooking food in a healthier manner. And the wife quit her high stress job and took some time off to just chill and spend a lot of time running to the grocery store for fresh food and making my lunches for me. I've always packed a lunch, but now my lunches have bags of carrots, cut fresh green peppers, nuts, and a light sammich in them instead of jello pudding, applesauce, and cookies along with a big ol honking sammich in there.

We also researched omegas...and learned a TON. I'm convinced the Omega supplement I was taking was wreaking havoc with my system. We found a supplement that was better fit and I started taking it once a day and I quit the grape juice

It's a life change for sure, but one for the better. I lost close to 10 pounds pretty quickly, lost about an inch off my waist and my spare tire went away...and I was eating MORE than I was before portion size, meaning I wasn't starving myself to do this. After 3 months I went back in for more blood work.

May 2013
Cholesterol 211
HDL Direct 29
Triglyceride 184 (the big one)
LDL Calculated 145

Ir was unbelievable to me that just a strict dietary change could lower my Triglyceride level over 100 points in a 3 month period.

You'll never guess what the doc said... "you still need to start taking a statin..." I just glared at her and she understood.

Anyway, it's 5 or 6 months later now, we are still on the "healthy eating kick", weight has stayed right at 170#s or so, feel great and I haven't been back for any more blood work. I wear a fitbit to track my footsteps per day, and try to keep as active as I can, but I don't see me becoming any sort of a workout warrior. My schedule and sore knees just don't fit into that plan. But I like the healthy living and seriously...it is becoming more and more regular all of the time and hopefully society as a whole will head further down this road which will just give us more and more good choices of food instead of more of the crap that is in the center sections of the grocery stores.

Saturday's numbers...

Cholesterol 213
HDL Direct 26
Triglyceride 300 (the big one once again)
LDL Calculated 127


I fail to believe the Triglyceride number...in just about any of the test results above. Throughout all of this the past couple of years, I have felt basically the same and my body shape and everything else has remained basically the same.

Our diet has not deviated from the regime that we followed to get my Triglycerides down to 184 from 291 in a 4 month period...Jan to May 2013. We eat pretty good, lots of wild fish, very little red meat, almost zero processed ANYTHING, tons of fresh fruits and veggies...and almost no eating out in restaurants.

I just don't get the big swings in the Triglycerides numbers I'm seeing. And I'm less convinced than ever that it is anything I should really be concerned about.

[Vegas69]

Lance, it seems to me that your body naturally over produces cholesterol. I know some people have that tendency due to genetics. With the diet you describe, you shouldn't have high cholesterol. How consistent are you with your diet and exercise? List a typical days nutrition and what you eat when you cheat.

[Vegas69]

How much water are you consuming daily?

Don't discount the importance of water intake and health. Many Americans spend most of there life in a mild state of dehydration. It can cause low energy, constipation, depression, poor athletic performance and on down the line. Remember, our bodies are predominantly made up of water.

The old rule of eight, eight ounce glasses of water a day may be OK for some, but not for you. For instance, the research I've done for myself lead to between 100-120 ounces per day. I'm moderately active, 5'9" and 170 lbs. That's over eight, twelve ounce bottles of water per day for optimal health.

Food can account for up to 20% of your water intake if you eat a healthy diet. What Jack Lalanne said has always stuck with me. You must offset every caffeinated or alcoholic beverage with a glass of water as they are diuretics.

Calculator:http://waterintakecalculator.com/

[SSLance]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

Lance, it seems to me that your body naturally over produces cholesterol. I know some people have that tendency due to genetics. With the diet you describe, you shouldn't have high cholesterol. How consistent are you with your diet and exercise? List a typical days nutrition and what you eat when you cheat.

Breakfast (usually about 6-7 am) = Bowl of oatmeal with a banana or blueberries mixed in and just a touch of 2% milk. Also have two cups of coffee w\teaspoon of sugar in each. Maybe once every other weekend we'll have an omelet or some other egg with a bit of bacon or sausage, but that is the exception.

Lunch (usually between noon and 1 pm)= Ham or turkey sammich on whole wheat bread, small ziplock bag of cut up veggies (celery, green peppers, red peppers, snow peas etc), an apple or a banana, sometimes a small serving of trail mix, baked chips, or almonds for variety and a bottle of water. I'll also occasionally eat leftovers from a dinner the night before for lunch to mix things up.

Dinner (typically about 6:30 pm) = Home cooked, baked mostly, protein of Pork, Wild Fish, or Chicken, a vegetable, and either rice or a baked potato with salsa. The wife will mix in a different item every now and then but almost always a health conscience alternative, she's a good cook and follows healthy eating cooking steadily. I have a 30 ounce insulated cup that I fill up with ice and either water or tea that I drink off of in the evening. Every now and then we'll grill up and split a nice steak, but that is rare, we'll also have a pizza (homemade crust with healthy type toppings) the wife will make cookies for treats, oatmeal mostly.


This diet pretty much stays in place 7 days a week. Sometimes we will go out for a nice dinner out, but usually choose a healthy meal over a fat laden type, sometimes we'll share a bottle of red wine but not often, maybe once every two weeks. I drink almost zero carbonated beverages,

I am not an "exerciser" so to speak. In nice weather we'll take the dogs on a 30-45 minute walk 2-3 nights a week and we have a 5 acre lawn that takes a certain amount of physical work to maintain curing the growing months. I consider myself "in shape" and can push a 50# spreader back and forth across the lawn spreading 750 pounds of fertilizer in a couple of hours with little trouble but I am not the type that enjoys 30-45 minutes of workouts 4-5 days a week. I'm 5'11" and weigh between 172 and 176 pounds each morning depending on how much water I've consumed and how much physical activity I've had in the previous 24 hours.

My wife is constantly on me about drinking more water, during the week before my blood test that netted the 184 on triglycerides I drank 4-5 bottles of water every day. My problem with that is...it also makes me have to piss about every half hour. It is hard for me to justify forcing all of that water down my gullet just to have to piss it all back out a half hour later. I haven't felt any different through all of the "healthy alternatives" I've tried to get my blood work better over the past 3 years. All of my other vitals have been normal or strong throughout all of this, blood pressure, EKGs, etc etc have all been fine.

BTW, for meds I take 3 a day, a 10 mg loratadine (claritan) a fish oil and a Men's multivitamin.

At this point it seems to me like it comes down to drinking a ton of water every day to cheat on the blood work test to try to get more normal results. Just about everyone in my family have been diagnosed as "pre-diabetic" yet nobody has ever become diabetic. Half of them take the statin to try to get the better number on paper, the other half don't, some exercise regularly, most do not, but almost all of us are basically in the same type of health...we get by and for the most part do not have any issues other than the number on the paper once a year or so.

I really question just how important the number on the paper is...

[Vegas69]

Your diet sounds very healthy. There is little doubt it's hereditary.

I wouldn't say you cheated the results. Water may be having that great of an effect on your system. Even when you drank 4-5 bottles a day, you were barely consuming the old measure of 64 ounces a day. Add some coffee and tea into the mix and you are below your daily intake.

Everybody's requirements are different depending on composition, environment, and activity. Your body should adjust to the additional water with greater amounts when you go vs. more often.

One of the interesting things I read is that our bodies will actually store water more aggressively when you drink to little water. That also means you are more likely to store waste in your body and put a greater load on your organs.

[GregWeld]

Happy Valentines Day Sweetheart!

Originally Posted by Vegas69