I spend a large part of my job speaking to people 60+ and I realised if I don't sort my health out now at 28 I will struggle in my older age.
I'm unhealthy and overweight so it's time to pull my socks up!
I wanted to share some ideas in hopes for some motivation from strangers. I have been yo-yo dieting for last couple years, so instead of drastic changes, I was thinking of making little healthy changes to my diet. Small tips are most welcome! I'm not looking to go vegan or cut out a whole food category though as it's not realistic for me.
As for exercise, I can't get to the gym regularly as I am a single Mum, but I will be doing:
- 2 hours of weight training on a Saturday,
-Walking to work (40 minutes a day, 5 days a week)
-Doing yoga videos a couple days a week.
Exercise tips also most welcome however I have 2 slipped discs some not able to do many types of exercise.
Written by
pinkneek
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Welcome to the Healthy eating forum, and it's great that you're enthusiastic about healthy eating and exercise - have a look at our various Topics and posts - hopefully you'll find things that interest you.
Also, the NHS Choices 'Eat Well' pages are helpful, and there is a link here if you'd like to have a look:
Your exercise goals look fantastic, better than most people, and exercise is probably the single most important thing to do regarding general health.
Unfortunately when it comes to weight loss specifically, it doesn't help that much as unless you are doing the tour de France it doesn't use up enough calories.
Perhaps you could try keeping a food diary for a week or so to look at how many calories you are eating, which may guide your changes.
Some little changes might be to have tea and coffee black (ie without milk). use brown rice instead of white, drink plain water instead of sugared drinks.
You say you don't want to go vegan because it cuts out one food category. But going whole food plant based with no oils is not about omitting specific foods (which is what veganism is all about) or another rather it is about making positive decisions about the foods you do eat. If you look at the variety of foods that a person who follows my kind of lifestyle you will find it is incredibly diverse. Every meal can be a new and exciting adventure as you can mix and match foods with ease to suit whatever you have in the cupboard/fridge.
For instance right now courgettes are turning into marrows at a rate of knots. So tonight in water I cooked half of a marrow/courgette, with chopped onion and garlic, a tin of butter beans, chopped mushrooms, onions, back pepper, turmeric and added a pot of tagine sauce and a load of mixed herbs. This was served with cous-cous. It was totally delicious and if I had had that in a restaurant I would have been proud of the chef. The whole thing took around 20-25 minutes to prepare & cook.
This kind of lifestyle will stabalise your BMI naturally & without effort, permanently. That on its own will remove many modern chronic diseases from your life. WIth this kind of lifestyle you have no worries about getting your nutrients, macro or micro. Secondly you will be reducing the harm done to animals (who do not have a choice in whether they are killed or not) by not consuming them. Thirdly, with 51% of global warming is down to farming of animals for human consumption, you will be saving the planet from global warming on a huge scale.
You may not be ready for such a change at this moment. I can respect that. But please remember it for the future. When that change happens, you will look back, as I do, and think why didn't I do this earlier.
Not one single farmer anywhere in the world raises animals for general human consumption without a profit motive.
Humans still need to eat. So farmers will not be put out of work, they will simply find other ways to work that are profitable. Some farmers will farm more plants (as they used to do). Already many farmers are growing soy and corn crops for animal consumption. So farmers will have the fullfilling opportunity to diversify into interesting plant crops for direct human consumption.
Anyway this process could take decades if not centuries. No-one is expecting animal farms to go out of existence instantly.
Interesting factoid: Did you know that the argument that "1000s of jobs would be lost" was used as one of the key arguments to justify the human slave trade to government.
Kind of confused about the essay about Veganism when I said I didn't want to be vegan?? Not that I should have to explain myself but when I limit myself in such ways it ends up in binge eating which is why I said I didn't want to. Also courgette and cous-cous sounds like my idea of hell.
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I feel like a piece of crap
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Positive encouragement and tips gratefully received.
