For BG fitness fanatics, a question..

[BerenTebogo]

I'm pretty sure hippies feel the same way about stupid people who are too stubborn to make proper food choices

Difference being that I don't spend inordinate amounts of my life purposefully seeking out hippies to give them a lecture about how the way that they are living their life is harmful to whatever stupid fucking cause I can make up on the spot, whereas the standard I hold a hippie to is someone who is not just okay living their life according to what they feel is right (small carbon footprint, whatever) but doing everything in their power to make it illegal or immoral for anyone to live life in a way that they don't agree with (or just imparting their unsolicited opinion of why my way of life is terrible onto my slowly-dissolving brain matter).

Fuck. Hippies.

no really idk lol. i can tolerate just about anyone, but i wouldnt go out of my way to buy foods unless im saving around 40% or more on my expenses. aka. meat markets and whatnot. i really wouldnt know what to suggest. cant you do online grocery shopping or something? like publix has? i heard they deliver it right to your door

I can do normal food np, just talking about getting into cheap fruits and veggies since they are often more expensive at chain places.

[Atreides]

I mean... it just seems silly to avoid entire food groups because you don't want to deal with an imaginary lecture from an amorphous group of nondescript masses. Is it possible you're just avoiding shopping around for cheap healthy food because it means having to enter unfamiliar social situations?

[BerenTebogo]

I mean... it just seems silly to avoid entire food groups because you don't want to deal with an imaginary lecture from an amorphous group of nondescript masses. Is it possible you're just avoiding shopping around for cheap healthy food because it means having to enter unfamiliar social situations?

You, clearly, have never lived in Boston or been to Haymarket. Also, you seem quite apologetic and defensive towards a very real, very distinct, very familiar part of the populace of the united states and in specific, the east coast and southern California.

I know you're not an idiot, so the option left is you're being dismissive because you don't share my views or you're being defensive because you agree/are surrounded by people who agree with this way of thinking and don't hold a conflicting opinion which thereby makes any other conflicting opinion immediately wrong.

If I posit to you that you can be a healthier person by moving out of New Jersey and to Wyoming and trading your gym for a ranch and you refuse is it just because you're "avoiding entering unfamiliar social situations" with Wyomians? It's a strawman, don't pull that shit, you're better than that.

[Atreides]

I'm just asking if you think you might be wrong, since I still don't quite understand how hating hippies makes finding healthy food impossible and not just uncomfortable. Just trying to help, no need to get snippy.

[BerenTebogo]

I'm just asking if you think you might be wrong, since I still don't quite understand how hating hippies makes finding healthy food impossible and not just uncomfortable. Just trying to help, no need to get snippy.

Well that's what I'm asking! lol. Whole point about hating hippies is that I would love to avoid the Allston/Brighton save-the-hemp brigade and still find good fruit that doesn't cost $300,000 an ounce. Hence the, "got any other suggestions"?

I'm unaware if there are like places on the internet that ship stuff to you, stores that aren't whole foods that carry fruit, etc. Hell, I'd happily go to a farmer's market somewhere in Alabama or something and just pretend that adding up the less than 20 dollar total is a real hard task. At least they're too ass-backwards to be properly pretentious about issues they don't actually understand in any way.

Found out amazon does good deals on dried fruit and got some banana chips en masse the other day but they're bland as fuck and not what I'm used to and it still doesn't match either a real banana or the shit you get in trail mix so my problem persists.

Edit: and I apologize for the snippiness. Even discussing hippies takes a solid week off of my lifespan. Fucking RAGE.

[Ayn]

I'm not sure if you have a Trader Joe's near you. I actually used to think it was another version of Whole Foods, but it's not.

Google it, see if there's one near your area. The food's pretty affordable (I spend a LOT less at Trader Joe's for more/better food than I do at say, Safeway), they have some interesting variety of stuff, and it's much less expensive than whole foods. You can't buy everything at Trader Joe's, but it's decent.

Edit: Oh, you live in Alabama? My apologies. Not sure what part you live in, but I have family in the Jacksonville area. Haven't been there in years, and planning to keep it that way for as long as I can.

[BerenTebogo]

I'm not sure if you have a Trader Joe's near you. I actually used to think it was another version of Whole Foods, but it's not.

Google it, see if there's one near your area. The food's pretty affordable (I spend a LOT less at Trader Joe's for more/better food than I do at say, Safeway), they have some interesting variety of stuff, and it's much less expensive than whole foods. You can't buy everything at Trader Joe's, but it's decent.

Edit: Oh, you live in Alabama? My apologies. Not sure what part you live in, but I have family in the Jacksonville area. Haven't been there in years, and planning to keep it that way for as long as I can.

Sometimes I really hate my own thinly-veiled sarcasm. I live in between Boston and Providence, lol.

[Ayn]

Nah, hate on me for briefly skimming. Checking BG/plus playing 360/plus watching White Collar online.

Whatever I'm on vacation, I can be lazy.

[Atreides]

pretty sure he lives in MA, which has loads of Trader Joes (I think they started there, actually).

And just for the record, you don't normally shop at whole foods for produce if you're looking to save money. There are a few bulk items there that are reasonably priced, such as loose specialty grains like quinoa/amaranth or loose dried beans, but I'd only shop for more than ~5-10% of my groceries at whole foods if I had celiac disease or made oodles of money.

As for healthy stuff, you definitely get used to raw flavors or how vegetables taste very quickly, and you start to crave them after a while as well. I can't even eat regular skippy peanut butter anymore, because it's so sweet. A few weeks (or even days) after you stop eating foods with the fat/sugar turned up to 11, your body gets used to mellower flavors.

Basically you've spent your whole life at a concert, it's gonna be kinda tough to hear whispers until your ears adjust.

edit: Also I tend to think this makes unhealthy/decadent food taste better once you finally have it again too. Cheeseburgers and chocolate cake make my dick go hard now, that kinda stuff definitely tastes 10x better when you only eat it once every 1-2 weeks.

[BerenTebogo]

pretty sure he lives in MA, which has loads of Trader Joes (I think they started there, actually).

And just for the record, you don't normally shop at whole foods for produce if you're looking to save money. There are a few bulk items there that are reasonably priced, such as loose specialty grains like quinoa/amaranth or loose dried beans, but I'd only shop for more than ~5-10% of my groceries at whole foods if I had celiac disease or made oodles of money.

As for healthy stuff, you definitely get used to raw flavors or how vegetables taste very quickly, and you start to crave them after a while as well. I can't even eat regular skippy peanut butter anymore, because it's so sweet. A few weeks (or even days) after you stop eating foods with the fat/sugar turned up to 11, your body gets used to mellower flavors.

Basically you've spent your whole life at a concert, it's gonna be kinda tough to hear whispers until your ears adjust.

So, basically there is no middle ground between delicious and terrible? I guess this is just where I'm most uneducated. To me, watermelon, cantelope, pineapple, any type of berry (auuuugh so good) are fucking delicious. I have no problem with those tastes. I love carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.

These banana chips are just honestly, to me, bland as all fuck. Is there something I'm missing? I'm also not really looking to go all raw-foodage. I don't ever plan to pass up a blue raspberry slushie provided the opportunity to get one, nor 40lbs worth of sour gummy bears for $30 on amazon (ordered last week). Just want to have more options for the good shit, you know? The way it is currently (considering I've never been to a trader joe's), it's cheaper for me to funnel crap in large doses into my body and take supplements than it is to buy the raw constituents.

I got all natural peanut butter once and when I opened it there was like a half-inch of oil just sitting on top of a brown, viscous substance. I tried a tiny bit and immediately went back to the peanut butter that didn't make me question whether or not it was going to kill me. Though, to be honest, I eat peanut butter maybe once a year. If I'm honest, my main source of food is just pasta loaded with butter and salt.

[Caiyuo]

And just for the record, you don't normally shop at whole foods for produce if you're looking to save money. There are a few bulk items there that are reasonably priced, such as loose specialty grains like quinoa/amaranth or loose dried beans, but I'd only shop for more than ~5-10% of my groceries at whole foods if I had celiac disease or made oodles of money.

ugh, my mom has this and she only recently found out a few months ago. So hard for her to find *good* food, much less super over-priced health store stuff. It's all goddamn rice lol.

I got all natural peanut butter once and when I opened it there was like a half-inch of oil just sitting on top of a brown, viscous substance. I tried a tiny bit and immediately went back to the peanut butter that didn't make me question whether or not it was going to kill me. Though, to be honest, I eat peanut butter maybe once a year. If I'm honest, my main source of food is just pasta loaded with butter and salt.

Gotta pour that shit off, it's just peanut oil. Another tip Atreides dropped awhile back is storing it upside-down in the fridge to keep the PB from congealing at the bottom. (I think this is why, never had to experience it) Atreides got me to try some Natural PB a few months ago and I'm pretty sure I had something with PB just about every day until I ran through the jar.

[Weiing]

If you're looking for cheap vegetables, usually any frozen packed vegetables should be good. Not only do they last a long while, but they're usually more fresh than produce as they freeze it immediately after harvesting them.

If you don't really care about that organic crap, then any grocery store should have pretty decently priced fruit/produce anyway. Ralphs, Kroger, Albertsons, etc?

As for peanut butter, yeah, the natural peanut butter you have to stir in the oil at the top can be a hassle. The oil at the top isn't poison or anything. It's natural. Don't pour it out...what a waste! If anything, you can use that peanut oil for cooking. Sometimes I just buy the no-stir "all natural" peanut butter that only has one ingredients: peanut butter.

Not sure if there really is a "middle ground" or not, but people just have different tastes in food. Some tastes are just acquired, if you really wanted to. For instance, I never liked brussels sprouts or thought I'd LOVE beets, but I do now.

[BerenTebogo]

ugh, my mom has this and she only recently found out a few months ago. So hard for her to find *good* food, much less super over-priced health store stuff. It's all goddamn rice lol.

Gotta pour that shit off, that's basically the first thing you do when you get it home. Atreides got me to try some Natural PB a few months ago and I'm pretty sure I had something with PB just about every day until I ran through the jar.

Is it really that good for you? If I'm remembering correctly the side of the jar said it contained 5,000 metric tons of calories per serving.

@Weii: Is there a method to preparing frozen vegetables that doesn't leave them looking like you tried to microwave a cat? Everytime I get frozen green beans / corn etc it all feels a bit...dry. I usually microwave them per the directions.

[Atreides]

Idk I mean things definitely tend to taste better if they're surrounded in fat and sugar and that's certainly partially true, but part of that is because we're used to it.

I'm guessing you had the banana chips expecting them to taste like potato chips, which seems like an exercise in futility to begin with. The bananas are going to have just as many calories as the potato, so they can either serve them as-is and not give people a reason to switch, or they can take out oil/salt to make them healthier and turn off the market they were originally targeting by offering them in a potato chip bag. For me, I'd get some green plantains and grill them instead.

And part of the reason why it's so cheap for you to eat unhealthy stuff is because you already know where to go for all the bargains on unhealthy stuff. One dollar double cheeseburgers, huge soft drinks for less than a dollar at 7-11, etc. If you applied that same level of knowledge to healthy options you'd probably find it a lot less daunting.

Yes, it's very easy to eat unhealthy stuff in the US but for those willing to do the research it's very possible to eat healthy too. I think to some extent you might be overestimating the calories you need in a day as well, you definitely don't need a constant supply of gummi bears to make it through the day unless your name is debbie and you're the office gossip who wants to make the fedex guy spend an extra few seconds at your desk-- 2400 calories a day isn't a lot of food.

But yeah, internet and trader joes should be all you need. Produce is doable if you get the flyers from all the local chain supermarkets and just go where the things you want are cheaper.

edit: and peanut butter is a good way of getting calories (about 100 calories per tablespoon) that are loaded with nutrients, a large amount of protein, an excellent overall macronutrient ratio, and healthy fats. And it tastes amazing. Most of the food they give starving kids is made from peanuts/peanut butter. A lot of people who are dieting eat it too, because of the good nutrition or for low fat diets as a way of ensuring adequate fat intake.

[bigpapi]

Has a shit ton of protein and has fiber in it, makes your muscle big and helps you poop?

[Weiing]

@Sath: Do you microwave the frozen veggies with a bit (tablespoon or so) of water? Also, I usually sautee my frozen veggies. Sometimes I'm just too lazy to cut vegetables when I cook; saves a lot of time.

As for the fat thing. Yeah, I think we enjoy eating fatty (as in, nutritional fat) foods because of how we are physiologically programmed from way back in our "primal" days. Except back then, foods with a lot of fat weren't as readily available as they are now, which can be a problem.

EDIT:
OH THAT REMINDS ME--Just thought of it.
Usually Asian markets have pretty cheap produce, too. I know when I was in Boston, there was a Super 88 on Comm Ave. I don't know how many are around there, as I had only seen one and went to that one. So check out Asian and other ethnic markets.

[BerenTebogo]

Idk I mean things definitely tend to taste better if they're surrounded in fat and sugar and that's certainly partially true, but part of that is because we're used to it.

I'm guessing you had the banana chips expecting them to taste like potato chips, which seems like an exercise in futility to begin with. The bananas are going to have just as many calories as the potato, so they can either serve them as-is and not give people a reason to switch, or they can take out oil/salt to make them healthier and turn off the market they were originally targeting by offering them in a potato chip bag. For me, I'd get some green plantains and grill them instead.

And part of the reason why it's so cheap for you to eat unhealthy stuff is because you already know where to go for all the bargains on unhealthy stuff. One dollar double cheeseburgers, huge soft drinks for less than a dollar at 7-11, etc. If you applied that same level of knowledge to healthy options you'd probably find it a lot less daunting.

Yes, it's very easy to eat unhealthy stuff in the US but for those willing to do the research it's very possible to eat healthy too. I think to some extent you might be overestimating the calories you need in a day as well, you definitely don't need a constant supply of gummi bears to make it through the day unless your name is debbie and you're the office gossip who wants to make the fedex guy spend an extra few seconds at your desk-- 2400 calories a day isn't a lot of food.

But yeah, internet and trader joes should be all you need. Produce is doable if you get the flyers from all the local chain supermarkets and just go where the things you want are cheaper.

I'm mainly basing it off the banana chips I've eaten in trail mix. They taste very sweet and awesome, but it's probably artificial flavoring added, huh?

My daily calorie intake fluctuates between around 500 and 5000 probably. This week, thinking of it, Tuesday and Wednesday, over a span of 48 hours (honest, not rounding up) I had 2 eggos with butter and syrup and a grilled chicken teriyaki, white rice, egg noodles, and miso soup dinner. When I have lots of homework or studying I double up on my ADD meds which take away 110% of my appetite and speed up my metabolism (and on nights before tests I generally pull all nighters meaning I can easily go 18+ hours without any food). Other days I just sit around eating bags of candy. Honestly, it's a crap shoot.

It's a horrible, horrible predicament to be in. Don't even get started, I know how terrible it is. It'll probably kill me by age 40. Not being a good cook and not having cheap stuff to cook has made it so that on an average day, more often than not, the lunch, dinner, and breakfast next morning will be 2 large cheese pizzas and some buffalo chicken. Caiti and I are both naturally skinny people so we don't see the direct consequences of our actions like most people. Caiti, who shares my diet, has never weighed more than 100lbs in her entire life. So the push to go out of our way to be healthier isn't really there.

If you've got some good sites to order off of, or get recipes, info on how to cook that doesn't involve a half-stick of butter, etc, I'll happily take them. The best thing I ever did was buy a rice cooker, but the only rice I like (short grain) about 5-10x as much per ounce as every other kind of rice. It's like I can't catch a break, lol.

@Sath: Do you microwave the frozen veggies with a bit (tablespoon or so) of water? Also, I usually sautee my frozen veggies. Sometimes I'm just too lazy to cut vegetables when I cook; saves a lot of time.

As for the fat thing. Yeah, I think we enjoy eating fatty (as in, nutritional fat) foods because of how we are physiologically programmed from way back in our "primal" days. Except back then, foods with a lot of fat weren't as readily available as they are now, which can be a problem.

EDIT:
OH THAT REMINDS ME--Just thought of it.
Usually Asian markets have pretty cheap produce, too. I know when I was in Boston, there was a Super 88 on Comm Ave. I don't know how many are around there, as I had only seen one and went to that one. So check out Asian and other ethnic markets.

There's an asian market in Quincy I used to catch the bus to when I was a kid. Had a place that sold those boba/bobo(idk) drinks and they were fucking awesome. I'll make a point to check it out.

[Atreides]

Pretty sure fat tastes good to us for the same reason we get fat- it gives us the most calories per gram so it's the most efficient food for getting calories in, useful back in the days when we didn't know where our next meal was coming from, or when we were working in jobs that burned 1000 calories a day.

There's even evidence that cheese is physically addictive, casein has a similar effect on the brain as opiates (an extremely mild effect, you can't get high off cheese).

A) Trader Joes sells freeze dried bananas that are extremely sweet. You might be better off just finding some cheap regular bananas, which get really sweet when they start to get brown spots on the outside. You could dip them in dark chocolate and freeze them too, which would only add about 50 calories (150 total) if the chocolate shell was thin enough.

B) You can find a whole bunch of cheap brown rice in various kinds at trader joes. I highly recommend their brown jasmine rice, or if they have brown basmati get that. Otherwise find a cheap regular basmati and give that a shot.

C) Buy some cheap spices or marinades (you can use salad dressing as a chicken marinade) and just rub it on raw chicken, then grill. Trader Joes should have these as well. You don't need to spend shitloads of money on pre-cut breasts, just buy quarter/half chickens and throw out what you don't like. http://www.penzeys.com has some good spice blends too but I'm not sure how the prices stack up.

I can't cook either but I can give you some general tips on grilling meat or vegetables, you can roast or steam veggies really easily as well.

[Weiing]

Pretty sure fat tastes good to us for the same reason we get fat- it gives us the most calories per gram so it's the most efficient food for getting calories in, useful back in the days when we didn't know where our next meal was coming from, or when we were working in jobs that burned 1000 calories a day.

There's even evidence that cheese is physically addictive, casein has a similar effect on the brain as opiates (an extremely mild effect, you can't get high off cheese).

Yeah sorry--that was the point about fat I was trying to make, though probably did a terrible job as I'm quite tired at the moment. But was also alluding to the physiological reasons why fat tastes good--though I didn't go into detail much as I'm lazy and tired at the moment.

And yeah, there is evidence in regards the casein in cheese that's addictive. But cheese is just too delicious.

[Atreides]

mmm cheese

sleepy too, gonna turn in