promoting a healthier geek and nerd

[catsclaw227]

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.

Yum.

With my group, by the time everyone shows up, and we get through the first 30mins of catching up on the past two weeks (or more) as friends, we only have 4-5 hours to get our gaming on. Mostly, our rule is to eat before you come over, or bring your meal along if you want and eat during pregame chat.

Fortunately, one is a vegetarian, three of the others of us have dramatically changed our diets in the past 6-12mos, and the other two go with the flow with what we have. And so we mostly snack on veggies, hummus and sprouted grain pitas, and drink water, minimal soda (for the go-with-the-flow dudes), and an occasional beer.

EDIT: And pickled stuff. We like pickled green beans, mushrooms, cucumbers, and of course pickled pickles.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

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.

Torturer!

Salty, fatty, and sweet snacks are a fundamental right of gamers everywhere!

 

[catsclaw227]

I've found it easy to buy the right food without busting the bank (unless you are trying to eat organic or something).

Interestingly, in my experience (and I can only speak for myself), I found the whole "organic is too expensive" thing a fallacy.

I started changing my diet, gradually over a couple of months about a year ago. I was pre-diabetic, grossly obese (though I would never admit it before), my blood pressure was 165/110, I had a fatbelly, fatface, multi-chin, my cholesterol was horrible and my triglycerides were like 700. I was a dead-man walking, and only 8 years earlier I was in the best shape of my life, even better than when I wrestled in high-school. I found that I leaned on things, I would get winded going for walks with my wife and daughter, and I couldn't even comfortably reach around and wipe my own damn ass (sad, I know).

I had to have a moment of clarity. I saw myself dead before I could play with my daughter, I hated going to the pool or beach so I would miss these opportunities. I had always dreamed of coaching my daughters softball/swim/whatever team and there's no way I could have participated in that. I loathed what I had done to myself.

So first step. Change my diet. It was something I could do, and I coupled it initially with progressively longer walks.

I found that when I bought organic free range eggs, organic or grass-fed beef and chicken, wild caught fish, fresh organic fruits and veggies (though maybe a bit less so with fruit and veggies if I buy from the local farmers market to support local businesses), organic cottage cheese, butter, milk, yogurt and other dairy, blah, blah, blah..... And eating these things in appropriate portions at the right time of day, I realized that I stopped spending money on chips, sodas, boxed foods, cookies, cakes, sugary popsicles. etc.

After doing a grocery bill analysis after 6-months (thank god for personal finance software that lets you categorize expenditures), I found that I spent between $50-$100 less each month! And the refrigerator was always full!

I didn't totally do away with tasty treats either, there are a LOT of yummy things you can make with fruit, yogurt, organic skim milk and an ice cream maker, as well as a few popsicle molds. And you can get some organic cookies that aren't unhealthy.

My life is dramatically different after a year (60 lbs lighter), and I have begun a recent exercise program that I hope will take me that last 30-35 lbs to my old fit self. I have a naturally muscular frame, though I am short, and I can retain muscle mass well, but I always had difficulty with lean abs look. So I now have a Nov-Dec goal to get there.

At my last doctor's appt two weeks ago, my cholesterol is under 200 with my triglycerides under control, my blood pressure is 130/75, my fasting blood sugar is 75 and I am officially no longer prediabetic. I have work to do still, and has been including more rigorous exercise, but my wife finds me sexier (sex life is 1000x better), I can run around with my 3yr old daughter all weekend, my back pain has gone away, and I sleep deeper and more consistently at night. I stopped popping antacids like candy, taking prilosec every night and I have been taken off my cholesterol and blood pressure medication.

(Bullgrit, I am working up to P90x, I am halfway through their easier Power90, though for a guy like me it still kicks my butt every day and I am already doing the advanced group of exercises - Phase 3-4. P90x will be started sometime this summer.)

I know that was a bit of a tangent, but I wanted to point out that the costs of NOT going organic or healthy are way higher if you are out of shape like I was or even just chubby. Don't let the cost deter you, you will SAVE money over the long term.

 

[Umbran]

With my group, by the time everyone shows up, and we get through the first 30mins of catching up on the past two weeks (or more) as friends, we only have 4-5 hours to get our gaming on. Mostly, our rule is to eat before you come over, or bring your meal along if you want and eat during pregame chat.

My game runs on Tuesday evenings, after work, and the next day is also a workday. So, at the absolute best, everyone is together for 5 hours. We do the meals anyway. Yes, my sessions are short. That's life.

Torturer!
Salty, fatty, and sweet snacks are a fundamental right of gamers everywhere!

I don't ban them from the table. If anyone wants to bring them, he's welcome to. But I'm already providing the venue, and a meal, at no cost to my players. I don't think I'm obligated to provide those snacks as well.

Interestingly, in my experience (and I can only speak for myself), I found the whole "organic is too expensive" thing a fallacy.

If you are replacing large amounts of crappy, prepared foods with a smaller amount of organic stuff, yes, you can see a savings. But if you're already avoiding the crappy food, and replacing non-organic products with the organic stuff, you will generally be paying more for the organics.

There are a few exceptions. I have a Whole Foods within a mile of my home, and a standard supermarket slightly farther away, so I shop at both regularly. For a small number of items, the Whole Foods "365" house brand meets or beats what I'd be paying at the supermarket - for butter and jarred roasted red peppers, for example. But for the most part, the organics are simply more expensive, item by item.

And, in produce specifically, if you set aside the desired properties of organicness, I find that the fresh produce in the Whole Foods is usually not superior to the conventional market's offerings. This is because the quality of fresh produce is strongly tied to throughput. The Whole Foods has fewer customers, so they take longer to go through any given shipment of, say, green bell peppers. The peppers at Whole Foods has been sitting in the market longer than at the standard market, on average, so they aren't as nice.

 

[Rhun]

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.

Interestingly, a recent study might show that high sodium could be good for healthy individuals.

This kind of goes back to my opinion of everything in moderation. What one person says is bad isn't necessarily bad, and vise versa.

 

[Bedrockgames]

If you are replacing large amounts of crappy, prepared foods with a smaller amount of organic stuff, yes, you can see a savings. But if you're already avoiding the crappy food, and replacing non-organic products with the organic stuff, you will generally be paying more for the organics.

This has basically been my experience.

There are a few exceptions. I have a Whole Foods within a mile of my home, and a standard supermarket slightly farther away, so I shop at both regularly. For a small number of items, the Whole Foods "365" house brand meets or beats what I'd be paying at the supermarket - for butter and jarred roasted red peppers, for example. But for the most part, the organics are simply more expensive, item by item.

The wife and I go to wholefoods once a month, but do the rest of our shopping at MarketBasket. This way we get some organic and interesting foods but don't break the bank. One thing to watch out for at wholefoods is you pay a higher price often for food that isn't neccessarily organic, so check the labels if organic is what you are shooting for (this may have changed, but several years ago I worked in a wholefoods and at the time this was the case).

And, in produce specifically, if you set aside the desired properties of organicness, I find that the fresh produce in the Whole Foods is usually not superior to the conventional market's offerings. This is because the quality of fresh produce is strongly tied to throughput. The Whole Foods has fewer customers, so they take longer to go through any given shipment of, say, green bell peppers. The peppers at Whole Foods has been sitting in the market longer than at the standard market, on average, so they aren't as nice.

I've found this. Also found it to be the case with meat and fish. We've bought tons of bad meat at Shaws. Marketbasket (at least the one I go to) has so many customers, the meat is always moving. So we've never had an issue there.

 

[catsclaw227]

If you are replacing large amounts of crappy, prepared foods with a smaller amount of organic stuff, yes, you can see a savings. But if you're already avoiding the crappy food, and replacing non-organic products with the organic stuff, you will generally be paying more for the organics.

If you are already eating healthy and are in shape, then organic will cost you a bit more, yes. I was referring to my experience in making a lifestyle change. Though you would be surprised at the chemicals that are used in and on non-natural or organic foods. I mean, they can't be all that good for you, can they?

There are a few exceptions. I have a Whole Foods within a mile of my home, and a standard supermarket slightly farther away, so I shop at both regularly. For a small number of items, the Whole Foods "365" house brand meets or beats what I'd be paying at the supermarket - for butter and jarred roasted red peppers, for example. But for the most part, the organics are simply more expensive, item by item.

I find the same thing at our Whole Foods, and even at my Trader Joe's. The house brand is comparable to anything at the conventional grocery store. And even my Harris Teeter (local conventional grocery, though slightly higher quality) has a naturals brand (and organic) that are less expensive than other organic brands.

And, in produce specifically, if you set aside the desired properties of organicness, I find that the fresh produce in the Whole Foods is usually not superior to the conventional market's offerings. This is because the quality of fresh produce is strongly tied to throughput. The Whole Foods has fewer customers, so they take longer to go through any given shipment of, say, green bell peppers. The peppers at Whole Foods has been sitting in the market longer than at the standard market, on average, so they aren't as nice.

Interestingly, our Whole Foods is packed during the same times our regular grocers are also busy. They have a good manager, so they do a good job of Just-In-Time inventory control of their produce, so it's almost always very fresh. It's also likely busy because it's the only one in our town and people flock there for their health foods. (There or Trader Joe's)

I wish we had a couple of nice healthy, family, independent markets like my sister has in Tucson, but we don't.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

as has been mentioned many times here: portion control.

I read it each time, I thought I would share a high profile article on the subject matter.

 

[Umbran]

One thing to watch out for at wholefoods is you pay a higher price often for food that isn't neccessarily organic, so check the labels if organic is what you are shooting for

My Whole Foods does sell some conventional products, so there is that possibility, yes. It isn't an issue for me, as I'm not shopping for organic - I shop there for convenience (it is a quicker trip), and for higher-end or more obscure products I cannot find at standard markets as easily.

Though you would be surprised at the chemicals that are used in and on non-natural or organic foods.

No, I wouldn't be surprised, but I'm perhaps somewhat more educated than most on the subject.

I mean, they can't be all that good for you, can they?

As we've noted several times already in this thread: whether or not a thing is bad for a human body depends very much on how much of the stuff you take in. Just plain sugar is horrible for you if you take in too much.

Sure, if I suck directly on the nozzle of the crop duster, I'm apt to not feel too well afterwards. But by the time it gets to me, and into my system, the chemicals are not present in doses I feel a need to worry about.

Interestingly, our Whole Foods is packed during the same times our regular grocers are also busy.

Location matters. We have a second Whole Foods not too far away that seems to have better produce than the nearby one - that store is larger, has been there longer, is farther from the nearest conventional supermarket. Overall, it has greater traffic than my local WF, so more throughput. My point is "organic" does not imply "better quality" for produce.

 

[greatamericanfolkher]

Here are more easy ones to remember....

1. 4 words. "Eat Less, Move more."

If you are overweight and need to lose? It is simple, and can work. Though, truth be told, eat less doesn't mean "eat only one box of cookies instead of two". You have to be honest about what you are eating, so it works better if you follow the next rule too.
...

This is how I've lost 20 pounds (so far) this year.