Healthy food!

[district12ravenclaw]

So I was just reading an article in Time magazine about blood pressure, and I realized that I don't want to die early, so I need to start taking better care of myself. Though I am thin, at 5'10 and 135-140 pounds, and my blood pressure is a stellar 110/70, I could stand to make some life changes.

First of all, I need to change my diet. Because I go from home to work to school to home, I have no time to make anything relatively healthy, so I subsist on fast food and TV dinners during the week. On the weekends, I'm too lazy or tired to cook, so we end up eating more fast food. It's seriously bad.

Secondly, I need to exercise. My co-worker and I used to go for two 15-minute walks every day during the work week, but with absences and colder weather settling in, we've completely fallen off the wagon with it. I hinted that I wanted an elliptical machine for Christmas, but those things are so expensive, and I don't have the time to go to the gym.

Luckily, I don't smoke or drink, so I have that working for me at least. I need help! I don't like fish, milk, and most vegetables that are really good for you, so I find it difficult to find healthy foods that I enjoy.

Suggestions anyone?

Comments

[leticia2u.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you have a similar problem that I had/have. I'm always busy and by the time I get home from work, I hate cooking dinner, let alone planning breakfast or lunch for the next day. So, here was my solution:

Not sure if you like eggs but on Sunday nights, I boil 3 eggs (one for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). On Wednesday night, I made 2 eggs (one for Thursday & Friday). I put them in the fridge and grab one of those, plus a veggie sausage patty for breakfast. You can get those in the freezer section of the grocery store. They are made by Morningstar and are usually with the breakfast stuff. They taste exactly like real sausage. So anyway, I have the egg whites from the hard-boiled egg and 1 veggie patty for breakfast. About 10:30am I have a non-fat yogurt (preferably vanilla! :) ). For lunch, I have left-overs from the night before...I'll get to that in a minute. For afternoon snack, I have some grapes, an apple, or some other kind of fruit. Believe me, this is painful because I don't like fruit at all. I can handle grapes so I usually stick with that. For dinner, I usually do a Trader Joe's dinner. They are pre-prepped meals that you can buy that are pretty healthy. For example, try making some whole-wheat pasta, some pad thai (comes frozen), chicken fajitas, stuff like that. You can buy it frozen and it doesn't take too long. Then refrigerate the left overs and eat it for lunch the next day. :) TJ's have great frozen bowls too.

Hope that helps a little bit. I know its hard...sometimes I'm still too lazy to care!

Oh, and try sautee'ing asparagus with a little bit of margerine and salt & pepper. It tastes a lot better than steaming them. I hate veggies too! :)

Now if only you could help me with the drinking part...

[stevesbabygirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice Kelley, that sounds great! Except for the asparagus part ;).

I do like fruit and I do like yogurt (Yoplait makes these smoothies, they are so good!), and I could definitely do eggs and fake sausage.

[leticia2u.livejournal.com]

Which veggies do you like? You should try the asparagus...at least once. I HATE asparagus but I had it cooked sautee'd this weekend and they were really good, and super easy to make. Just break off the ends of the asparagus before you cook them (they break at their natural "breaking point" so thats easy), then heat up a pan and put a little bit of butter or margarine. Put the asparagus in and season w/ salt & pepper. Keep turning them while they are cooking. They are ready when you put your fork in and it slides right off.

TRY IT! Trust me, you'll like it!

[stevesbabygirl.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I tried asparagus once, and yuck! Plus, it makes your pee smell really bad :).

As far as veggies, I like corn (I know it's a grain), green beans, raw carrots, raw spinach, raw celery, potatoes, and not much else. I hate broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, blech.