Lose Weight (and get fit) Before Roo Thread

Blanch 'em. Partially cook them by boiling and then throw them in an ice bath. Cook the rest of your meal, then finish your veggies in a sauté pan with whatever seasonings you want. Blanching helps maintain color, flavor and nutrients. And they'll be nice an crisp.

Also, kosher salt makes everything taste better.

celestiaequestria thanks for the tips! I've got the Mexican foods down - fajitas/burritos/etc and chili are just about the only two healthy meals that I regularly cook. I'm having burritos for lunch today, actually (and I've got my peppers and onions )

The reason I don't do raw veggies is because they WILL sit and go bad. I've tried before, thinking that it would force me to cook them and eat healthier so that I wouldn't waste my money. It didn't work lol. Buying the bags of frozen steamable veggies is the baby step I'm on now (not the sodium-laden "meal in a bag" type though). The fact that I'm only cooking for myself makes it difficult too. I do leftovers, but making leftover veggies seem appealing to me is even harder than fresh veggies lol. I'm trying though!

And I'll have to try artichokes. I don't know if I've ever actually had an artichoke before.

When you do go out to eat, try to hit up salad bars or places with good ones like Ruby Tuesday. Get your main dish (chicken, beef, fish) and a cooked veggie side then for your other side get salad bar or add one on and take it to go. You can fill that box up with TONS of single portions of veggies. Broccoli, snap peas, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower, spinach. That way you have single person servings for 5-6 meals and it only costs a few bucks.

Is there any studies or something to show the effects of eating too many bananas? Not just some doctors saying its bad, but somebody who has actually felt the effects? I know people that consume a ridiculous amount of bananas and they have a ton of bloodwork and testing done every year which they share the results on their YouTube channels and websites. One guy goes by the name Durian Rider and his girlfriend Freelee. They are both very healthy and very athletic. Durian is a beast when it comes to running and cycling. Like a year ago he challenged any cyclist to log more miles in one month and nobody could beat him, including pros. He also wins pretty much every 5k or 10k race he enters. Freelee who is also a very good athlete has written several books on the frugivore lifestyle. They both have a ton of videos about all of this. They're both currently trying to get on Dr Oz in some competition. I also live by this guy Mike Vlasity who eats a ton of bananas and is stronger than anybody I've known for his size. He also has a YouTube channel where he shares some personal info. He weighs under 150 lbs and benches twice his body weight and dead lifts three times his body weight. 

I agree about the skinny thing, the same goes for muscular individuals. Just because you look like the Arnold doesn't mean you're healthy. Body builders in general are very unhealthy. I think skinny has a crazy stigma attached to it. A couple summers ago I was down to 140 lbs and I heard a lot of "you're too skinny", coming from clearly overweight individuals. It's crazy. I felt the best I've ever felt in my life but for some reason people think skinny is unhealthy. I'm 5'10" and according to the BMI scale I was at a perfect weight. I'm not saying that the BMI is something to live by but I think it can be used as a basic guideline. 

By no means am I trying to be perfect or do I think anybody should be. But from my experience with nutrition the raw vegans who consume mostly fruit are by far the healthiest. I know I felt my best on this diet. I went to the doctor and my heart rate and blood pressure was really good, I think my BP was 110/70.

Exactly, I believe potatoes have more potassium than bananas and I'd go out on a limb and say more potatoes are consumed than bananas. 

Top athletes such as Phelps who eat a ton of calories because they burn a ton and are obviously in great shape, I wonder how their organs are functioning and the overall effects besides just physical appearance. Eating 10,000+ calories of basically garbage foods have to be causing some damage regardless of burning off those calories. 

I definitely agree, there are healthy and unhealthy individuals for any diet. I mean, Oreo cookies are vegan, lol. As for junk food frugivore, I think that might actually be impossible. The diet consists of raw fruit and veggies. When I was strict(raw vegan) it seemed I could eat myself sick and not gain weight. No calorie restrictions whatsoever. I know Dr Doug Graham's 80/10/10 diet is only unprocessed plants with no oils or even seasoning, just ripe, organic, raw, fruits and veggies. I don't know of there could be a way to make that unhealthy. 

I think my current diet is fairly healthy. I have seafood and dairy occasionally and have some drinks on the weekend. Other than that I stick to smoothies, salads, juicing, and steamed veggies. The hard part for me is I love food so whenever I go on vacation I eat and drink at a very unhealthy rate, lol. In 5 days in Mexico I gained at least 10 lbs. 

Well no wonder, we ordered room service for 8. Should have gone up to the top of the Ixmoja pyramid with us. I lost 3 lbs that trip. Despite the coladas and the bottle of wine the waiter left me when Whore told them I was a drunk.

There's a book called "the China Study" which discusses the connection between diet and heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. This was the largest study conducted in modern history. There's a watered down documentary version pertaining to this called "forks over knives". The basic sum is that acidic foods help cancer cells grow and when they're not being consumed the cancer cells stop growing and will eventually shrink. Genetics, although may make an individual more prone to certain illnesses or diseases, do not determine ones outcome. An example, if my grandmother had breast cancer, my mother had breast cancer, that doesn't mean my sister will have breast cancer. The link in most cases are diet. Although my sister might be more prone than others, if she avoids acidic foods such as meat, dairy, alcohol, etc., her odds of getting breast cancer are little to none. An easier way to put it, if a family has a history of obesity, that doesn't mean a healthy diet can't prevent or change that for the individual. Most diseases in fact can't be prevented or reversed when acidic foods are avoided. 

I don't knock people for eating whatever they want because I eat what I want and we all have our preferences. From a scientific stand point, humans having nothing in common with carnivores or even omnivores. Humans do not digest meat properly. Physiologically every thing about us is different from our teeth, to our digestive tract, even to the way we walk. Meat eaters teeth are spaced out so meat doesn't get caught in between and they are pointy. We have flat broad teeth in common with herbivores. If we tried to bight into a an animals hide our teeth would fall out, not to mention the fact that it would be very hard to chase down any pray. Our jaws have the ability to move up, down, and side to side so we can chew our food properly, same as herbivores. Meat eaters do not chew their food, they simply tear and swallow. Most people that die from choking die choking on meat. Meat eaters in the wild do not. Meat eaters have acidic saliva so as soon as meat enters their mouth it starts being digested. We have alkaline saliva, same as herbivores. If humans were naturally supposed to eat meat we would enjoy bloody animals, although some get used to the sight of blood and guts, it's not natural. We wouldn't need to cook and season our meat if it was out natural food. When a meat eater kills an animal they lap up the blood. A meat eaters stomach has a PH level of 1 which is equivalent to battery acid, it's very strong to properly digest meat. Our stomach, although is also acidic, is much weaker at around a PH of 4, not efficient at digesting meat. Meat eaters intestines are much shorter than ours and they have a very basic colon. This is so the meat can move quickly through the body. When we eat meat it actually rots and decays in our digestive tract creating a very toxic environment. It also gets caught up in our very complex colon which is actually used for getting the nutrients from plants. In turn the decaying meat in our body creates diseases such as colon cancer, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, etc. Think about this, take some meat, cooked or uncooked, and enclose it in a bag and put it in 98.6 tempature for a day or two then open it up. Do the same with plants. There will be a huge difference. 

There are a lot of things that will change once meat and dairy are given up. No more morning breath. When the meat is decaying in our bodies it creates ammonia which is what causes morning breath. When my wife and I stopped eating meat we definitely noticed the difference. Your poop will change. When I was strict with my diet my poop was very clean and did not stink. I didn't even have to wipe because there was no reason. Of course I did anyway to make sure, lol, but the paper was always clean. People that have tried this diet know what I mean by no smell. It's gross but when you go into a bathroom after a meat eater has used it you know right away. These are only a few examples, there are a lot more. 

When it comes to dairy there is no reason to consume it past being an infant. There is also no reason to consume milk from another animal because milk is different from species to species. The dairy industry chose cows because they're large, easy to breed, and easy to control. Eating cheese is just a very concentrated form of milk. Dairy is also the number cancer causing food that is consumed on a regular basis by humans, especially Americans. It also leads to osteoporosis, which is why America who drinks the most milk also lead the world in osteoporosis. Calcium, which is what we need for strong bones, comes from the cows diet of greens. When we get it from a cow it's acidic. If we cut out the middle man and just eat leafy greens we're getting The calcium from the natural source. The same goes with fish oil. People are tricked into thinking it's a good source of Omegas when actually the fish are getting it from seaweed. Same principal, cut out the middle man for healthy Omegas. The crazy thing is most cows are fed grain now so the calcium is fortified into the milk. Same with the fish. Farm raised fish are fed grains so the omegas are fortified into the oil. 

Again, to each there own. I don't have qualms with anybody's diet. Do whatever makes you happy. Even though I know cheese is terrible for me I still eat it occasionally. Although I gave up most meat I still consume some seafood too. I also drink alcohol so by no means am I trying to be perfect, but if I ever get really sick I'll definitely make some changes in my lifestyle. 

If you want some more info or testimonies on reversing cancer or other diseases, there's plenty of info on the web. The Gerson Miracle is a free documentary about it. I've personally lost friends and family to cancer and other diseases. I've also met 3 people who were told that their cancer wasn't curable and they are still alive because they changed their diets and decided against chemo, radiation, and/or surgery. It's sad because these practices are more well known outside of our country because the drug industry made these treatments illegal for obvious reasons.

Yeah. The reason I always consider reducing animal products is the China Study. But, as stated, I always find the opposite argument compelling as well

We did Gerson for a bit. I'm on my iPhone, so can't link, but look at Ketogenic diets and cancer. Interesting stuff there as well. This high fat/mod protein/super low carb diet void of virtually all fruits, starches etc, is currently being studied by the medical community as a legitate cancer fighting diet. Cancer thrives on glucose, unlike healthy cells, which can survive effectively on ketones (even most brain cells, and our bodies can turn protein into glucose for the remaining). So there is strong evidence of cancer tumor shrinkage in those who drastically reduce their carbs and increase fat intake. It is also a diet recommended for epileptic children who continue to seize despite meds.

Our bodies are fascinating. Especially how adaptable they are. We wrecked ourselves when we introduced processed foods into our diets. The common thread of all of these diets, which all show promise in disease control and health, is that they are pretty much void, or drastically reduce processed foods--the devils of the western diet. Paleo, vegan, Ketogenic, whole foods based, Gerson. From the nearly exclusively carnivorous traditional Inuit diet, to those studies in the China Study, there is a significantly lower incidence of chronic illness and cancer than they is in the Western diet.

Figured some of you might be interested in this.

Also, Patrick, thank you for all the work and info you put into those well thought out responses regarding cancer fighting diets.

So I haven't ventured to smoothies yet but I'd like to start trying. Do you make the smoothies every morning? Or are they something that could be made the night before and kept in the fridge til morning? I'm a lazy butt in the morning, and the idea of having to create something that early is not appealing.

Check out this video. This guy has ton of different videos that are very educational and free on his YouTube channel.

in other news, i've made it through cake, cookie, brownie, and candy-filled events at the library without breaking!

i'm hosting our last event of the week tonight and since i've been so good...and also since i neglected to pack a solid dinner...i'm going to have a treat yo self moment and enjoy a (1) slice of free pizza.

Although I respect you're opinion, I strongly disagree. I've learned a lot from just watching his videos and this guy definitely knows what he's talking about. He's been healing people for 40 plus years and there are a lot of testimonies to back it up. To judge his knowledge based on one 30+ minute video is silly. He never said "maybe if you drink a glass of juice things will get better". He's a licensed physician and has his own clinic. He just chooses to heal people naturally, which has a much higher success rate. Facts are facts, he's not the one who's killing millions a year with chemicals. I think he hits the nail right on the head, people are too caught up in the bs that is shoved down our throats by modern medicine, and people are only getting sicker. It would be one thing if cancer rates and other illnesses were dropping, but they are sadly multiplying. Look at how many hospitals are out there, and clinics, and medical schools, yet more and more people are sick and dying at a rapid pace. When I was a kid cancer seemed kind of rare, now it's everywhere. The problem is that doctors are being taught the same basic methods, even though they have a high failure rate. Of course I'm referring to the medicine side of it. 

Dr Robert Morse also preaches love and to enjoy life, he's not a fear mongerer. He's just trying to wake people up to realize that there is a solution and not to be fooled by what's being force fed by modern medicine. You don't have to watch many of his videos to realize that this guy has our best interests at heart and he has the knowledge to help.