Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Skyrunner]

Dduk, something like rice cakes is filling! But it's also hard to make on your own, so no luck there. O_o

* Skyrunner watches in interest

[DWC]

I also started eating healthier a few years ago.

Sodium is really terrible for people. You should almost be aiming for a 'no sodium' diet rather then a 'low sodium' diet. You need very little salt to stay healthy, something like 25 to 50mg a day or ~2% of what the US government suggests. This is basically impossible to do anyways, because there is so much hidden sources of sodium in any kind of food. I just avoid it whenever humanly possible.

Dairy is generally bad for people too. It's full of hormones and opiate-like analogues and all sorts of garbage. It's meant for baby cows. I ended up cutting out of my diet a while and I ended up lactose intolerant afterwards anyways.

Gluten I'm not really convinced with, I'm pretty sure I'm not allergic to it, but I don't eat much bread anyways because of the sodium thing.

Another thing I discovered is the evils of phytoestrogens. Soy beans, legumes, hops in beer, all have phytoestrogens that function chemically much like estrogen in the human body. I avoid the worst offenders and go for lightly hopped beer. I don't know why beer snobs like those nasty heavily hopped concoctions anyhow.

So, no sodium (especially not sodium nitrate!), no legumes, no bread, no fatty meat obviously, no dairy. Rice is basically pure processed carbohydrates, like eating sugar. So there isn't much left on earth that's healthy for you. I eat a lot of chicken breast and vegetables, fruits and nuts, oatmeal, potatoes, like most serious athletes are suggested to do. If I knew how to work an oven I'd probably eat a lot of cornbread too. It gets repetitive, but that's kind of how I like it anyways, makes trips to the grocery store really quick and efficient.

One thing I noticed is my tastes have changed. Fast food, junk at restaurants is unpalatably salty to me and just the smell of people cooking greasy food smells pretty terrible as well.

[Vector]

Blorrr... I'm a vegetarian.  No way I could cut out beans and my brown rice, I'd be fucked.

[Sappho]

Akura: the bread can be mostly potato, but not completely potato. For the purposes of this week I am not eating any gluten whatsoever, since that's the only way to discover if I have an intolerance or not, so no potato bread, sadly.

Skyrunner: Even rice cakes are not filling enough for me. They are too light. Yes, I can fill my belly with them until I can't eat anymore, but that gnawing feeling that I'm still hungry never goes away. Last night after my soup, which was very little liquid and almost entirely vegetables and rice noodles, my belly was so full I couldn't eat anymore, but it felt like I was full from drinking several liters of water or something. Yes, I couldn't fit anything else in there, but I was still really hungry. This was never the case when I used wheat noodles for this soup. And yes, rice cakes have salt and preservatives in them, so I'm trying not to rely on that.

DWC: I can't eat the same food every day, and I eat mostly vegetarian food. I do not cook meat at all, most I might have is a tiny bit on a sandwich or can of tuna on a salad, but even that is rare. I'm not going to start cooking chicken (which is also full of horrible chemicals, antibiotics, and hormones, by the way), and if I had to eat the same food all the time I would go completely insane. I can eat the same stuff for about two days and then I never want to see it again. I hate wasting food, but if there's leftovers after that, I just can't bring myself to eat it. Also, if I do anything too repetitive, I end up getting myself stuck in a horrible rut that always leads to depression. (I'm sure there will be plenty of chances to explain some of my neurological/psychological issues during other "experiments.") If I don't have variety, the results will be far less healthy than eating some beans or tofu or yogurt. I'm not at all convinced that legumes are bad for you anyway. My body is already full of estrogen, being a girl and all. Entire cultures live on little more than rice and beans and they seem to do just fine. East Asians are some of the healthiest people in the world, and their diet is based on these things and little else.

Yes, you can survive on very little salt, and my eventual goal is to cut it down even further, but I'm cutting myself a little slack on this one for now. I was raised on a dangerously sodium-high diet (quite literally, McDonald's, hot pockets, and instant ramen for most meals). My mother almost never cooked anything. When I moved out, I cut back on a lot of this stuff, and when I moved to Europe I discovered that it's far cheaper to eat healthier food, but I still kept a package of potato chips or pretzels on hand all the time for late-night snacks. Now I've finally cut these snacks out and stopped grabbing pizza slices on my way home from work, and it's extremely difficult. These foods are highly addictive, and I'm still trying to break that. When I cook food with very low salt, it tastes like paper. I know this will change with time, but I'm allowing a little bit of "flavor" for each meal now, especially while I'm cutting the gluten, which is the hardest thing I've ever done.

I'm sure gluten is not bad for you unless you are allergic/intolerant to it. I've heard that if you have a weight problem, cutting gluten helps a lot, but I am at the lower extreme of the healthy weight range for my height. (I'm 170 cm / 5'7" and weigh about 53 kg/117 lbs.) In fact I'm slightly worried that all these new dietary restrictions might cause me to lose more weight, due to my fast metabolism, and put me in the unhealthy category.

I also have extremely low blood pressure and poor circulation. When I get out of the shower each morning my hands turn purple or blue until I get my clothes on. I'm trying to take shorter showers with cooler water to help my skin (will have to do this more seriously as a later experiment), but whenever I get in the shower with water that is less than hot, my hands turn blue immediately and it gets difficult to move them, not to mention getting shivers all down my body - and that's just from lukewarm water, nevermind cold! I have to find a way to help this as well. I keep hearing about cutting sodium to help lower blood pressure, but I hope mine doesn't drop anymore...

I could write more but I'm going to be late for work! Starting today's notes:

Spoiler: Thursday notes (click to show/hide)

Breakfast: A glass of apple juice cut with water and a banana. Plan to eat a bit more when I get to work, will update as I am able.

Feelings:
Woke up feeling awful. No energy, somewhat depressed. Not sure what I'm going to have for lunch today as I was too lethargic last night to cook anything. Didn't even get the banana bread done. Might have to rely on rice cakes and tahini spread for most of today. Will see what food I can get from the school.

[Vector]

Try peanut butter on rice cakes?  It's worked for me.

[DJ]

Since you're already getting cornmeal for bread, you should try making grits as well, they're fairly filling.

[DWC]

Yeah the phytoestrogen thing probably isn't going to kill anybody. Healthy people produce their own hormones anyhow and will balance themselves out, it doesn't limit testosterone production in men, and the health benefits of things like soy and beer are generally attributed to phytoestrogens. However, it's still estrogen and so I limit consumption.

So this vegan hippie professor guy gave this lecture on the virtues of a vegan diet and as much as I'm stubborn minded and would typically balk at such a thing, he really made an very compelling case against dairy and red meat in particular. What really stuck with me is the revelation that milk/ dairy contains casomorphin, an opium analogue. This, he said explains why babies are hard to ween off milk, why they are really interested in milk dispite not really having hard-driven instincts. They are utterly addicted and are going through actual withdraw symptoms. (mother nature doesn't leave anything to chance) It's why dairy is so difficult to eliminate from one's diet. It is literally addictive!

 It's why cheese causes constipation, milk makes you drowsy, the same reason heroin does these things. So when his test subjects switched to vegan diets the food they reported to crave the most was always cheeseburgers, pizzas, never just steak or fried chicken.

Also, sugar is hard to quit too, because people are hard-wired to enjoy it. If you want a 'magnetize a baby' you dip their pacifier in some sugar water and give it back to them. They will endlessly stare at you in wonder and amazement, like you are a wizard.

Sodium is the main contributor to hypertension. Hypertension is virtually non-existant in cultures that consume little salt. When I was younger I'd get lightheaded and dizzy if I stood up too quickly and the ramen-noodle diet cured me of that. Now I get it a little bit, but my run times have improved with the same amount of exertion, so I say it's a fair trade off. Low blood pressure is an advantage unless it goes under 100 systolic.

Since you're already getting cornmeal for bread, you should try making grits as well, they're fairly filling.

Yeah grits are good. It's terribly bland stuff though, it needs a lot of help to not be a miserable chore to eat the stuff and most things that taste good with grits are not healthy. I can't bring myself to toss in fruit like I do with oatmeal.

[Skyrunner]

That sounds rather shaky, though. O_o
It's radical enough that it almost seems like pseudo-science. In fact, I don't like cheeseburgers(extra calories that are tasteless) and never had craving for them, though hamburgers themselves are another story.

[DJ]

I normally eat grits with sour cream or liver, and neither of those two are an option for Sappho

[Neonivek]

Liver doesn't have any gluten to my knowledge

Mind you I have no idea how to cook liver if you don't coat it in flour.

[DJ]

She's a pesceterian, though. Which really makes this whole thing a challenge. Filling up without using either bread or meat is kinda tricky.

[Neonivek]

She's a pesceterian, though. Which really makes this whole thing a challenge. Filling up without using either bread or meat is kinda tricky.

A Pelican? Well that certainly does limit her diet choices.

Though I guess Halibut could work.

[Sappho]

I'm not really a pescetarian - if someone wants to buy me a steak and cook it perfectly, I won't hesitate to scarf it down. But meat is expensive (far more so here than in the USA) and I don't know how to cook it well. I just prefer the taste of beans, tofu, soya, lentils, etc. anyway. Vegetarian food (especailly Asian or Indian) just tastes awesome, and it's SO cheap to make.

Anyway, I don't like liver, so that's out simply because of taste. And I don't like most fish, just tuna and occasionally battered and fried haddock, or a bit of salmon if it's cooked exactly how I like. : )

Tahini on rice cakes is the most filling thing I've found so far (it turns out the rice cakes I'm buying have no preservatives and almost no salt - 5 mg per 100 g of cakes). It gets old fast though.

I'm also not sold on the "dairy is bad for you" thing. I get that most of the world is lactose intolerant after childhood. That's perfectly reasonable - unless our ancestors ate it, we have no reason to digest it as adults. But if your ancestry evolved to digest dairy as an adult, I don't see why it would be bad for you. Sure, if it's full of hormones or something, that's no good, but the dairy itself seems fine to me. I keep hearing the "cow's milk is meant for baby cows" line, but that's meaningless. The only thing on this entire planet that is "meant" for human consumption is human milk. Everything else we eat has been stolen from another purpose. Grains and beans and fruits and vegetables are mostly seeds or seed support, designed to grow new plants. Meat is designed to be alive and control the body - after it dies it's just decomposing carbon matter like everything else. Herbivores have evolved to digest this plant matter and use it for fuel. Carnivores have evolved to do the same with meat. But none of these things are designed by nature to be food. Some plants evolved the ability to steal energy from the sun, herbivores evolved to steal that, and carnivores evolved to steal that. Humans have evolved the ability to obtain nutrition from a very wide variety of substances. We take that meat and we cook it to kill the bacteria and change the flavor and we eat it. We take the plants and do all manner of strange things to them and eat them too. And we take the milk and we pasteurize and process it into a drink for humans, or cheese, or ice cream, or yogurt, etc. We don't need it to survive, but I really don't think it's hurting us.

If someone is lactose intolerant and can't process the lactose, then this can cause a problem, but saying dairy contains an opium analogue is a non-issue from where I stand. Poppy seeds contain opium and people here eat them by the kilo in all manner of different foods. Chocolate is addictive by virtue its calories being exactly 50% each fat and sugar, which makes our brains throw a little happy party. Coffee and tea have both been proven to be beneficial to our health and both contain high amounts of caffeine. Wine and beer are both poisonous in large quantities but both are healthy when consumed moderately. I'm not bothered in the slightest by some opium analogue in my dairy. Who says opiates are bad anyway? They have plenty of positive benefits. Hell, I have severe anxiety issues - it would probably do me good to have opiates in my diet. And being addicted to something is not unhealthy per se. It's only a problem if the addiction is to something harmful. If I'm addicted to practicing Tai Chi (and I am), it's only going to do me good.

Okay, updated notes before my break ends:

Spoiler: Thursday notes (click to show/hide)

Breakfast: a banana, a glass of apple juice cut with lots of water, a small pot of yogurt with homemade strawberry/rhubarb jam, a cup of green tea.
Snack: A handful of almonds (unsalted) and raisins, cut fresh carrot and cucumber, and a few rice cakes with soy in them.
Lunch: Leftover rice noodle soup from last night, a small bowl of corn and vegetable soup (provided by school), a large cup of oolong/green tea mixed.

Feelings:
-Woke up feeling awful. No energy, somewhat depressed. Not sure what I'm going to have for lunch today as I was too lethargic last night to cook anything. Didn't even get the banana bread done. Might have to rely on rice cakes and tahini spread for most of today. Will see what food I can get from the school.
-Sleepy and grouchy all morning on a field trip with the kids. Was desperate to nod off and take a nap and hungry all morning. Just finished my lunch and I'm still SO  hungry. I was dreading eating more of this soup though, and I didn't enjoy it at all. I am a person who thoroughly enjoys food, cooking and eating, and this is just torture. The kids got spaghetti today, my favorite school lunch. I wanted to cry. I'm so sleepy... I will probably fall asleep while the kids are in their aikido class later, even though I should be using that time to write reports.
-If it turns out I am glucose intolerant, I will have to very seriously weigh the health risks of continuing to eat grain over the psychological dangers of cutting it out my diet long-term.

[DJ]

You can make a lot of different stuff out of chicken, and it's significantly cheaper than red meat. Diced chicken breast in sauce goes perfect with grits, but all the good sauce recipes I know contain dairy

But anyway, you should really buy yourself some chicken breast and just fry it in a pan if nothing else, preparing meat doesn't get easier than this. Looking at your notes you seem to be taking in too few calories, so of course you won't feel well if you're starving. Meat of any kind is a great way to cram in some more calories if you can't eat anything with gluten.

[Sappho]

You are missing the part where meat is REALLY expensive though. Maybe tonight I'll make something with beans for dinner. I definitely need something heavier.

Actually today I've been so miserable about not getting to eat, I'm considering canceling this experiment a little early. My allergies are much worse today than they've been lately, leading me to believe that this problem is in no way related to gluten. I suppose I could do a quick test by eating loads of cheese and ice cream and seeing if I get gassy (if not, it would mean the lactose intolerance really is caused by a gluten intolerance, and cutting gluten fixed the lactose problem), but I'm not sure if I've been doing this long enough for the lactose intolerance to have been fixed anyway.

I'm tired, I'm cranky, I'm miserable, and I'm hungry. Again, much of this could be attributed to hormones (hooray for being female), but I don't know how much. It might be a better idea to put this one on hold until my hormones are at a more stable level (not that they are ever really stable), but then I'd have wasted these five days of misery. Maybe I will stick it out just two more days... But then again, tomorrow I have to get up at 6.30 am, race to work, and then immediately after I have to (literally) run to a Taiji workshop which doesn't end until 8.30. That's 14 hours without any proper break (and definitely without any time to get food I haven't pre-made), and I have to have high energy for the workshop. Then Saturday I have Taiji training in the morning followed by a demonstration at a big local sports event for the afternoon. No time for cooking in any of that, and any food that will be available will most definitely include gluten and insane amounts of refined salt. Unless I can prepare food tonight to last the next two days (not likely given my current energy and stress levels), I might have no choice but to bail on the gluten-free test prematurely.

I suppose tonight I will make rice and beans (or maybe potatoes and beans instead), I have a good recipe and that, at least, should be filling. Maybe I'll have some chocolate or something for dessert... How is it that people are always worried about eating too *many* calories when I'm having such a hard time eating enough?

EDIT: Rather than double-post I'll add my updated notes here. Please note, by the way, that I'm not keeping tally of how much water I drink - I drink loads and loads of it, always thirsty it seems, so don't worry that I'm dehydrating myself by drinking only tea, etc.

Spoiler: Thursday Notes (click to show/hide)

Breakfast: a banana, a glass of apple juice cut with lots of water, a small pot of yogurt with homemade strawberry/rhubarb jam, a cup of green tea.
Snack: A handful of almonds (unsalted) and raisins, cut fresh carrot and cucumber, and a few rice cakes with soy in them.
Lunch: Leftover rice noodle soup from last night, a small bowl of corn and vegetable soup (provided by school), a large cup of oolong/green tea mixed.
Snack: A small plate of leftover boiled potatoes with stewed red cabbage from the kids' lunch (tasted awfully salty, but maybe I'm just getting used to the taste of low-salt food), a handful of chopped veggies (mostly carrots) and fruit (mostly apple). More tea.
Dinner: A generous plate of boiled potatoes (low salt, flavored with chopped spring onion greens) and stewed red kidney beans with onion, garlic, and mushrooms, fresh basil, and soy sauce. Several glasses of water with a bit of homemade strawberry-rhubarb syrup for nice flavor. A cup of herbal tea designed to combat allergies.*
Evening: A cup of tea from medunka (Czech word), which Wikipedia is translating as lemon balm, but this is a type without the lemon flavor (has anti-anxiety and sleep-inducing properties, many times stronger than chamomile - I highly recommend it to anyone with anxiety/sleep issues). Small bowl of vanilla ice cream (Carte d'Or brand) with a touch of the strawberry-rhubarb syrup.

Feelings:
-Woke up feeling awful. No energy, somewhat depressed. Not sure what I'm going to have for lunch today as I was too lethargic last night to cook anything. Didn't even get the cornbread done. Might have to rely on rice cakes and tahini spread for most of today. Will see what food I can get from the school.
-Sleepy and grouchy all morning on a field trip with the kids. Was desperate to nod off and take a nap and hungry all morning. Just finished my lunch and I'm still SO  hungry. I was dreading eating more of this soup though, and I didn't enjoy it at all. I am a person who thoroughly enjoys food, cooking and eating, and this is just torture. The kids got spaghetti today, my favorite school lunch. I wanted to cry. I'm so sleepy... I will probably fall asleep while the kids are in their aikido class later, even though I should be using that time to write reports.
-If it turns out I am glucose intolerant, I will have to very seriously weigh the health risks of continuing to eat grain over the psychological dangers of cutting it out my diet long-term.
-After dinner I do actually feel full for a change. Hooray for beans and potatoes! I have leftovers to bring to work for lunch tomorrow, though I ate all the potatoes so I had to cook some rice for tomorrow. I am going to try to motivate myself to make that cornbread now, to get me through the day without the stress of hunting for more snacks during work.

*A friend of mine is studying herbal medicine. For the most part I don't think it has any advantage over traditional medicine (and at times it's pure nonsense), but there are cases where using pills result in a lot of side effects and herbal analogues can work better. Note that this is NOT homeopathic medicine, which is snake oil bullshit. The quantities of herbs used in this field are carefully measured and far higher than what you'd get from the herbal placebo nonsense you can buy at the supermarket. There are actually useful chemicals in these plants that can make a big difference. For this tea, my friend gave me a list of six different herbs which she said would help my allergies. I thought it was bullshit, but was desperate after years of suffering, so I figured I'd give it a chance. To my great surprise, after a few weeks I found my eczema rashes improving (though not disappearing) and after a year and a half of regular consumption, I was amazed this spring to find my allergies are greatly reduced from last year (and the 15 years before that). I don't know for sure if it's really just the tea (these herbs must contain some kind of antihistamines, I think), if other dietary changes are contributing as well, or what, but after a week of not drinking the tea (I had run out and figured I'd be fine for a few weeks without it, just to take a break), today I feel much worse than before. So I restocked on the herbs and tonight I'm starting my tea regimen again. This should appear twice a day from now on. Hopefully the allergies will get better as a result. More experiments!!!