Healthy eating.

[Trevor]

Hi, I just wanted to share a link with everyone. I just started this diet; diet in the sense of lifestyle change. From eating canned, processed foods, red meat, and junk food.
It's only been four days now, but I am more regular :lol: and I have a lot more energy.
I thought someone else might find an interest in it as well. I love greek salad, and they have a pita wrap that uses it. Yummm.
http://www.mediterrasian.com/index.htm

[MelissaTaylor]

I'm sort of changing my lifestyle also.
Since it's summer and school is out for me, I have more time to focus on becomming more healthy.
I've been a vegetarian for almost 4 weeks now, which not only does good for the animals and the environment, but I found out that vegetarianism does a lot of good for your health. They say that vegetarians tend to live longer, weigh less, and are less likely to get heart disease and high blood pressure and such. So I've cut out all meat, and have added more fruits and veggies to my diet. :)
And over the past year I've completely stopped drinking soda. Soda is absolutely terrible for you. It's loaded with sugar, and tt's basically acid. The only reason why your mouth and teeth and esophogus aren't dissolved and burned away because of it is because when you drink soda, your body forms an invisible calcinated lining in your mouth and esophogus for protection, and your body has to take that calcium from your bones. Then if you drink a LOT of soda, that calcium can get into your bloodstream and into your kidneys, where calcinated kidney stones can form.
So basically when you drink soda, all you get is extra calories, loads of sugar, a calcium deficiency, and kidney stones.
[At least that's what my biology teacher told me.]
I don't think the taste of soda is worth the harm that it could do to my body. :/

I'm not only changing what I eat though, I've started to go to the gym more often. My goal is to go for at least an hour a day, 5 days a week.
I'm about 15 pounds overweight right now, and my goal is to lose at least 10 pounds this summer, by excercising and eating healthier. :D

All we think about is "sweets! sweets! sweets!" but when you crave sweets, your body is really telling you "give me more vitamins and minerals! I've already got all of these calories, now where's the vitamins and minerals?"
It's crazy that even though we're all overweight, we still have so many deficiancies because none of the food we eat has anything that we really need.

[Thomas Knierim]

Congratulations, good for you.

I rarely drink sodas or alcohol, almost no processed food or junk food, and I am eating vegetarian for a couple of years now. My experience is that this has a very noticeable positive effect on my body and my overall state of well-being.

But perhaps even more important than the physical diet is the mental diet. Basically, the same principle applies here: getting rid of the junk and poisons. Primary targets are TV consumption, or media consumption in general, clearing negative emotions, raising awareness, and avoiding energy-draining unimportant activities.

Good luck.

Cheers, Thomas

[MelissaTaylor]

You make a good point about the mental dieting.
I used to rarely watch tv, but now that school is out and there's not much to do, I usually watch for one or two hours a day.
But I don't watch 'junk' tv like reality shows. The kind of reality shows that they play on MTV and that new show "I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of here" are just pure stupidity. When I flip channels and come across those kinds of shows, I just think to myself, "People actually watch this stuff? And like it?"
Occasionally I'll be immature and watch Spongebob [I'm only 15, you know] and sometimes I stay up late and watch Conan O'Brien [He's so hilarious] and every once in a while I'll watch doctor shows that I find interesting, but that's pretty much it.
I think I'm going to try to spend less time on the internet and watching tv and I'm going to try to read and paint more. I have several paintings that I'm procrastinating on. And I'm in the middle of this great book called "Life of Pi" and I love it. Anyone else heard of it?
I think that spending less time in front of monitors and tv screens can really clear your head.

Sorry, I've strayed off of the main topic of healthy eating. :/

[Trevor]

You make a good point about the mental dieting :/

I like the angle. I agree that garbage in = garbage out whether it is nutritionally, emotionally, or spiritually. No apology is required. I think that like the medicine wheel in North American native tradition that all are influential and balance, or imbalance, the others. When I make a positive change in one area the others seem to follow to some degree.