The Diet/Fitness Thread

[Darcy88]

Lately I've been practicing a martial art called savate alongside my boxing routine, which is similar to tae kwondo sort of, as well as doing a lot of lying down bodyweight movements, a bit of yoga as well as movements mimicking swimming and rowing, in addition to honing my soccer skills, though I'm unable to workout with the intensity or the duration I prefer to. I might start training other people as I am expertly knowledgeable in the field of exercise science.

Swimming and soccer are my main exercise focuses right now. Real martial arts training is too intense for me at moment.

[Sancho]

Did your wife make those? They sound achingly delicious.

Did manage to walk three times this week. Hurray for me.

Qimi! Me amiga!

El Sancho himself was the panqueques-de-buckwheat chef.

It's easy. Here's my recipe: (and methodology)

- get a bowl

- put some buckwheat flour in it
- also put some regular flour in it
- then add a pinch of baking soda and a pinch of salt
- splash some buttermilk in there
- squirt in some molasses (or bee's honey, depending on your taste)
- drop in a chicken's egg (remove the shell first)

- mix it all up
- add water to adjust the consistency of your slurry (more for skinny-minnys less for chubby-tubbys)

- get a cast-iron skillet (wards off anemia)
- smear some olive oil in it
- put it on the stove and fire that mother up

- pour in your panqueques-de-buckwheat batter
- before they start to bubble up, add your blueberries and pecans
(I like to make a smiley face with the berries and then give pancake-man some eyebrows and a Charlie Chaplin mustache with the pecans, but you can really do anything you want - helmets of the NFL for instance.)

- once the middle of the cake starts to bubble, flip it. (it's all in the wrist, not enough and it'll fold over on you, too much and it's on the ceiling)

- get a plate
- when pancake man's blueberry eyes start to bleed, slide him onto your plate

- repeat as necessary

- put a mellon baller-size scoop of Irish butter on your stack
- let it melt some
- pour some bona fide Canadian Maple Syrup over the entire contraption

- get a fork


***alternate method***

- get in a car and drive over to the IHOP
(Or better yet, walk)

[qimissung]

Sancho! Good and faithful companion! To all and sundry! I'm kind of hungry right now and IHOP is having a special this month, I do believe. But, omg, Sancho, these look so good! One day soon...thank you, kind friend of the sugar deprived.

[Sancho]

Don't go tilting at windmills on me, Qimi.

On second thought, tilt away. ATTACK them thar dragons. Life is short, you know.

Speaking of attacking one's inner demons and dragons, I may have had a setback in my attempt to go after the sugar monster. Following my buckwheat pancake experiment, I switched up to skinny pancakes, better known as crepes. The first couple were much enjoyed by my slightly overweight Springer Spaniel. The next couple came out looking more like omelets.

And then, Voila! Success! First we tried ham, spinach, and Swiss - C'est bon! Then things got a little crazy and the whole 90 day training plan went down in a blaze of glory. We went with strawberries, bananas, and Nutella on the inside and about a half a can of whipped cream on top - C'est si bon!

So, tomorrow it's back to the gym.

[qimissung]

At the mere mention of crepes my mouth is watering.

[Calidore]

U.S. News & World Report has updated their diet evaluations and ratings for 2014. They do an incredibly thorough job, and there's lots of good info here.

http://health.usnews.com/best-diet

[Calidore]

Possibly of interest to those on Atkins/paleo/related high-protein diets:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health...,5392380.story

[qimissung]

I've been taking yoga for a month now. I think I've found the right workout for me. Namaste.

[Calidore]

I've been taking yoga for a month now. I think I've found the right workout for me. Namaste.

Yoga was a good starter for me; hopefully it works for you also. Are you using DVDs or going to live classes?

[qimissung]

I'm going to live classes! I tried a DVD several years ago. I hurt my rotator cuff and found it difficult to do on my own. I get a feeling of having worked out, a sense of community, and I feel calm, peaceful and energized by the end.

[kev67]

Has anyone read The First 20 Minutes by Gretchen Reynolds? It is very motivating. (There are two books: I am referring to the one about the science).

[Calidore]

Two recent food articles of interest, one on how even five servings of fruits and vegetables may not be enough, and the other on the value of whole grains:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health...,1370607.story

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health...,2777202.story

[qimissung]

Thanks for the book recommendation, Kev. I'm not much for non-fiction, but I did read a lengthy review at Amazon (). I'm not unfamiliar with the fact that inactivity is really bad for you-hence my commitment to improving my fitness, but I am a little concerned about the whole 150 minutes a week thing. My current goal is three yoga workouts a week and walking a couple of times a week. So far I'm at two workouts a week and a walk whenever my schedule permits. Baby steps!

Read the first article, Calidore. I just don't think I can do seven servings, though. I eat a raw carrot each day and another vegetable in the evening. I'll try to add another at lunch and I'm trying to add a fruit. The sugar in it might be bad for you, but people should just cut out juices. I know juicing is popular, but when you eat a fruit your body has to break down the cells in the skin and membranes and fiber and it just handles the sugar in it so much better than when it's simply dumped whole into your system.

[Iain Sparrow]

Read the first article, Calidore. I just don't think I can do seven servings, though. I eat a raw carrot each day and another vegetable in the evening. I'll try to add another at lunch and I'm trying to add a fruit. The sugar in it might be bad for you, but people should just cut out juices. I know juicing is popular, but when you eat a fruit your body has to break down the cells in the skin and membranes and fiber and it just handles the sugar in it so much better than when it's simply dumped whole into your system.

Seven servings of veggies and fruit a day!.. I'm beginning to think the people who write articles on nutrition don't have very busy lives. Also, commonsense tells me that how much you eat, including the foods that are good for you, depends on how active you are. I've drank two full glasses of low sodium V8 for years, and I'll eat a banana or pear every day, than some veggies with lunch and dinner, but that's it! Juicing is fine, I mix a batch up every week and add it to water. Sugar is sugar, your body hardly knows the difference between a glazed donut and an apple. The important thing is not consuming too many empty calories (donuts).

[Calidore]

My current goal is three yoga workouts a week and walking a couple of times a week. So far I'm at two workouts a week and a walk whenever my schedule permits. Baby steps!

That's how I did it also--just do what you can, and you'll gradually be able to do more.

Read the first article, Calidore. I just don't think I can do seven servings, though. I eat a raw carrot each day and another vegetable in the evening. I'll try to add another at lunch and I'm trying to add a fruit. The sugar in it might be bad for you, but people should just cut out juices. I know juicing is popular, but when you eat a fruit your body has to break down the cells in the skin and membranes and fiber and it just handles the sugar in it so much better than when it's simply dumped whole into your system.

Yeah, seven servings is a lot, but nature really doesn't care about convenience; happily, it doesn't require perfection either.

Plus, what constitutes a serving of fruit/veg must vary between people anyway. For example, I'm sure a serving for 6-foot-3, 240-pound me is larger than a serving for my 5-foot, 100-pound neighbor.

I just assume that if I'm still alive and in good health, I'm probably doing it well enough. Stressing out about healthy eating would seem to defeat the purpose, kind of like yoga boot camp.