Of course, I am gradually switching to a healthy diet, not buying any poison in the store at the level of all sorts of tasty things or beer, etc. Any advice on what food is worth buying and what is better to avoid? I just want to feel, so to speak, in good shape because I am tired of being a sluggish zombie.
I don’t really trust AI so I wanted to ask you. You can also recommend something else if you want.
Ideally avoid sugar as much as possible. This also includes simple carbohydrates like you would find in bread and other grain. Sugar acts like any drug, once your dependant on it you only feel normal when you have sugar in your system.
Fats are a really good sauce of long lasting energy which lasts throughout the day, pretty much all natural fats are healthy including saturated fats like butter, contrary to popular belief. Processed fats like what’s found in vegetable oils on the other hand are bad.
That is a ton of misinformation
Starting off with stating that bread and other grain are only simple carbohydrates when whole grains are an easy source of complex carbs. And while sugar can be addictive it’s literally a nutrient that our body needs and if we fail to eat it, our body will just break down protein to produce it
Then while fats may by a good source of energy (because they offer 9 calories per gram) they are also an easy way to over consume calories because they are so dense.
Saturated fats are still problematic and try and look for some articles published outside of the U.S.
Then you start talking about vegetable oils being bad when olive oil has been the gold standard for healthy oil. There has been a ton of misinformation going around about seed oils trying to make them into the devil but again look for some RFK free Studies
“Recent research studied the diet and health of over 200,000 people in the US for around 30 years. The researchers found that people who consumed more plant oils (including seed oils) were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease or cancer over the course of the study. On the other hand, those with a higher intake of butter were more likely to die during the same period.”
whole grains are an easy source of complex carbs
This is just my opinion but I wouldn’t consider wholegrain a source of complex carbs. It still spikes your blood sugar levels a lot. Actuall complex carbs lie in vegetables mainly especially leaf vegetables.
Saturated fats are still problematic and try and look for some articles published outside of the U.S.
I’m not going to lie it was difficult to find a non u.s. but here is a comprehensive European review compiling many studies finding that there is no reasonably correlation between saturated fats and cardiovascular disease or heart attack.
Then while fats may by a good source of energy (because they offer 9 calories per gram) they are also an easy way to over consume calories because they are so dense.
This is true when you eat straight butter but when you have it with meat or dairy or other natural sources of fat it’s generally lower volume
Also olive oil is not a vegetable oil you can search it up. I agree olive oil is healthy, that’s because it’s not a vegetable oil.
Did you read the article you linked? It doesn’t talk about saturated fats being good but instead talks about the protective effects of olive oil, nuts, and omega 3s. The best part about it is they talk about how the linoleic acid is one of the protective elements and linoleic acid is the “scary” thing about seed oils as they are our primary source of linoleic acid… as a whole though it wasn’t a study or even a meta review it was just an editorial as in no data was actually analyzed
By definition olive oil is a vegetable oil unless you want to go by taxonomic terms where it would be a fruit oil (since vegetables are not a term in official taxonomy which is why tomatoes are also fruits)
Whole grains are also by definition complex carbs
A pound of bacon (16 strips) is over 2400 calories and can be consumed fairly easily by the average person in a single sitting especially if you contrast that to eating lower fat food like chicken breast which you would need to eat 4.5 pounds of or rice that you would need to eat over 3 cups of (uncooked) to get the same amount of calories. I am not saying fats are evil but the argument that they fill you up faster is just wrong
Sorry I linked the wrong article, i’ve corrected it so you can read one I meant to link.
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i started on a quest like yours about 15ish years ago because of diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, drowsiness, headaches, bloating, etc. and; if it could back and start all over again; i would start with the crockpot.
soups/stews in particular are super easy with almost always delicious results and dirt cheap; you just throw in a bunch of stuff that seems like would go good together into the pot and let time do the rest for you. my creations almost always involve garlic, onions, and some kind of lentil (usually black beans) and even those three by themselves are delicious. (if you add in salt the very beginning you’ll end up using less salt overall).
every few months/years insuppressible cravings for fast food usually make me fall off this wagon and that generally feeling of zombiness; like you’re feeling right now; is usually enough to push me back onto the wagon. this time around i’ve been off the wagon long enough for those health metrics to show a significant decline and that coupled with both the general shitty feeling and the tariffs are pushing me back onto the wagon. i wish someone had advice to share with me on this.
this time around i’ve been off the wagon long enough for those health metrics to show a significant decline and that coupled with both the general shitty feeling and the tariffs are pushing me back onto the wagon. i wish someone had advice to share with me on this.
Doing a ketogenic eating pattern allows for the soups and stews and provides the energy. Without the sugar triggers in the daily diet it is easier to stay on the wagon long term. I also find using a CGM to get back on the wagon super helpful, seeing immediate feedback about blood glucose keeps the diet on track.
i’ve had cgm’s for several years and they were effective at telling me which of the foods i made were good or bad and it lead me to using crock pots like i described.
the cravings overpower any sort of sensibility when it comes to my diet and invariably bump me off the wagon for months to years at a time and that’s the one thing i haven’t yet figured out. i’ve learned that that fast food is addicting and i think that explains the cravings.
Maybe a accountability buddy who can see your CGM data in real time can help?
Strategies I’ve found to get over cravings:
- Stuff my face with a safe food like cheese, eggs, butter (yes, really)
- Having my personal trainer get my CGM data
- Tell myself I can cheat but only if I eat a can of tuna and 100g of cheese first
- Set small multi-day goals, I’m just going to stay clean for 3 days in a row
- Removing all illegal food from my house
- Staying at a friends house where I don’t have the familiar triggers
- Only allowing myself to cheat if my blood glucose is <5.0 and I eat the cheese first.
What do you find helps you?
i was going to ask if you’re me because i’ve tried all of these except the accountability buddy and; given that fast food is addicting; i think it makes the most sense.
the first bullet point is the reason why i’m off the wagon for months at a time. my craving for a double whopper with bacon, onion rings, & extra cheese is VERY STRONG and i sublimate it by letting myself eat chicken breast, pork loin, fish, cheese, etc. for months at a time. these efforts help keep me away from the fast food chains, however it’s not fool proof because i still cave into the cravings, but at SIGNIFICANTLY reduced level compared to before i started wrestling with these demons.
i used to eat fast food at least once every day and the longer i stay off the wagon the more i slowly inch towards going back to this old habit over the ensuing months; until i have some sort of realization that pushes me back onto the wagon, like op. i’m on the wagon for roughly as long as i’m off it, so i stay on the wagon for months at a time as well; but i’ve been repeatedly going on/off this wagon for the last 15ish years. the crock pots let me jump back on very easily.
the cgm’s always let me fool myself into believing that i can go off the wagon responsibly and; before i realize it; i’m stuffing my face with whoppers again a few months later. an accountability buddy would need to have a 20ish month view of my cgm results to know that i’m backsliding.
i learned a few years ago that studies that used accountability buddies to treat drug addictions were effective because they kept track of drug addicts’ gps coordinates and; whenever the addict visited a place where they could obtain their drug of choice; the accountability buddy would pop up to help them. i need something like this that can track my proximity to fast food chains so i don’t have to bother with trying to sublimate my cravings because that’s always my first step to falling off this wagon again.
Is it possible to never go to a fast food chain?
We have the physical addiction to glucose, but you have overcome that before
We have the habitual triggers, something in your life makes you think of your old addiction, those you have to find a way to get past, maybe the snacking
We have the situational triggers, seeing a place, going past a place, triggers old addictive cravings, this is where having a buddy you can call and talk it out can be helpful.
If you are willing to wear a CGM all the time, you can have a buddy monitoring it and get alerts if it goes outside of a predefined range (say 6.5) so your buddy can help you deal with the recovery
When you fall off the wagon before, you mentioned fast food, but what is different the month before falling off and the day you fall off?
i’ve spent so much time trying to mitigate the impact of the fast food cravings that it never occurred to me analyze other triggers and i had a “no duh” moment when i read this because i learned by accident the last time i went on the wagon that tv advertisements were a trigger that made me crave that double whopper. lol
