promoting a healthier geek and nerd

[Rhun]

Yup. And put the fork down when you feel satisfied, not when you are full. Being full, especially that uncomfortable full, is not our regular state. You will also notice over time that you won't have as many false hunger cravings.

That whole parental thing of telling kids "you have to finish everything on your plate" - very counterproductive!

 

[El Mahdi]

Oh, and another, possibly important point: activity may be more important than diet. Watch what you eat all you want, if you're a couch potato, you're going to have issues.

When the human body is inactive for too much of the day, it slips into a state with a lower metabolic rate. Raise your activity level for part of the day, and the rest of the day you can be in a higher metabolic state - even when you're at rest, you'll burn more calories and have other things go "right" in your body (in terms of hormone levels, and the like).

This does not necessarily mean, "go to the gym". It can mean "walk the three miles to work rather than drive" or "walk up to the next floor to use the bathroom", "walk over to your coworker's cube and talk to them rather than write an e-mail", and so on. Just get up and move.

On a similar note: eat breakfast, for largely the same reason. If you don't eat breakfast, your body tends to slip to a lower metabolic rate - it doesn't know when food's coming, so it saves energy. Eating breakfast, even something small (say, a banana), tells your body that it isn't in any danger of running out of energy, and can burn what is available.

And I'll add Sleep.

Start the day with a sleep deficit, and you're starting at a metabolic deficit also. Start the day with too much sleep, and same thing.

6 to 8 hours every night!

 

[Scott DeWar]

on the buying the right food thing, remember the USA is in a financial crisis. I am now finished with all the electrical projects and am basically out of work-and a tooth just broke yesterday morning(ugh).

 

[IronWolf]

Oh, and another, possibly important point: activity may be more important than diet. Watch what you eat all you want, if you're a couch potato, you're going to have issues.

Agreed. So many people go on diets but don't change their activity level. For me I need the activity which always has better results - not just weight - than trying to stringently watch what I eat.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Side note on ground meats (of all kinds): READ YOUR LABELS!!!!

Some are OK, but as my wondering eyes soon perceived, even this simple product may have additives. I went shopping for ground pork one day to make home-made sausage patties and my Spidey Sense triggered, making me read the label. The meat had been pre-salted, and was over 500mg sodium/serving. Pork is NOT that salty: unprocessed pork is about 1/10th that amount. I bought some pork loin and ground it myself.

 

[catsclaw227]

I bought some pork loin and ground it myself.

Good decision.

On another side note, if you crave beef, and you can afford it, try to get grass-fed beef. Much better for you and it has much higher levels of CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) which is a fat that is good for you and can actually help burn that horrible visceral fat that is so dangerous. (And if you can't, a quality CLA gelcap is great.)

And Bison is good and lean too.

Personally, I only get Natural beef/chicken/turkey, even better Organic, and evenest betterest grass-fed. Try your local farmers market.

EDIT: Full disclosure... I am the VP of Content and Technology for the NHI OnDemand website with the linked CLA dietary supplement monograph above. It's very good, informational website, but I might have a slight bias. If you like really good health study science reporting on the use of dietary supplements, herbs, minerals, etc and their effect on health conditions and disease states, our Dietary Supplement and Health Condition libraries may be of interest. And three of our newsletters (Health Studies Journal, Ingredient Science Journal, and Organic Marketplace Journal) are quite informational as well. You can sign up for them here. The Experts' Perspectives and Trading Zone are more for the Health & Wellness trade.

 

[Bedrockgames]

on the buying the right food thing, remember the USA is in a financial crisis. I am now finished with all the electrical projects and am basically out of work-and a tooth just broke yesterday morning(ugh).

I do a lot of my shopping at Market Basket which is one of the cheaper supermarkets where I live. I've found it easy to buy the right food without busting the bank (unless you are trying to eat organic or something). Beans are healthy and very cheap. Veggies and fruits at MB are reasonably priced. Same with rice and brown rice. I've found it is easier to save if you go in knowing what you plan to make for breakfasts, lunches and dinners during the weak.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Interesting article from the NYTimes recently

Back in April, the NYTimes had a multipage article on the possibility that it isn't high-fructose sugar that is bad, sucrose (beet, cane, white, brow,) could be too. Rather, ALL sugar in the doses modern westerners consume could be toxic.

This article made waves then, and I can honestly say, nothing this about diets made me change my eating habits.

The amount of scientists skeptical of the person at the heart of the Times' article is high, but the author presents a convincing argument enough that I've change my eating habits, far far less sugar than I've been consuming before.

 

[Scott DeWar]

Back in April, the NYTimes had a multipage article .. .. .. ..*snip* .. .. .. ...

as has been mentioned many times here: portion control. An FNP at the VA hospital gave a diabeties counsuling a coupleof months back.
Her specialty is diabetic nutrition. She could not stress portion control enough.

some one back a few posts mentioned eating breakfast and a reasonable lunch before gaming. That really helps to reduce the carb/fat snack cravings. I believe it does a lot; that in turn prevents the empty calories that induce the unrequitable hungries'

 

[Umbran]

some one back a few posts mentioned eating breakfast and a reasonable lunch before gaming. That really helps to reduce the carb/fat snack cravings. I believe it does a lot; that in turn prevents the empty calories that induce the unrequitable hungries'

We go one step further, in that whenever our schedule allows, we serve a home-cooked meal for games. Not much call for munching the salty, fatty, or sweet snacks when you've had a healthy dinner before play begins.