Coconut oil=GOOD!!! Has to be used sparingly... But DAMN it worked out... Thanks to those that suggested that! :thumbsup

This sounds really good, I'll try it. I love broccoli and rice noodles and so does she. They are very hard to find where I am though - starting to catch on, but by the time we know they are on the shelves, so does everyone else. lol

It's funny because I live in a SERIOUSLY redneck town, but I honestly think a great many of them are really TRYING to eat healthy, but the stores just can't seem to catch on!

Carbs are my enemy, for sure - and she eats very good, as well - but the one area this family has really always had hell is the pasta - that's going to be her hardest task in this... but I think her recent time spent in the hospital has really taught her what matters - she is a very disciplined kid, but it takes a bit to get some shit into her head.

Tam you can order stuff on amazon to eat too dont forget...amazon prime ftw! For whatever health issues your daughter may have I suggest getting a food scale and portioning out your food. Yea I understand people dont want to get all "crazy and obsessed" because this isn't the "norm" but would you rather live a healthier life with people questioning why you weigh your food and diet a specific way. Or would you rather live like everyone else with all sorts of ailments who were too lazy to portion their food out and end up hurting themselves in the long run? Our food is our fuel and our blood is our oil...I know I put the best in my own body and car because I want it to last. :thumbsup

Yes I know - My thing with my Diabetes is, do I want that candybar right now, or can I wait and is it worth my leg? That's what gets me thru everything - I am just so grateful I never developed a sweet tooth and I have never been so food driven - and I try and raise my kids the same way - but there are some things, and we all have them, that are going to test us beyond belief.

Believe it or not, they are STILL running tests on her - she is on her 2nd Dr now, the first can't figure out what is going on - this one is a specialist (Upper GI) and he's being extremely thorough - he's running a LOT of tests to help us get to the bottom of it... cheeses, anything with a lot of fat, dairy, things like that - if she eats very much at all, she is in what she calls "insta pain" - so until we find out for 100% sure, it's safer for me to get her on as little whole and fatty and fried things as I can, she seems to tolerate that better... but it's scaring the hell out of me because this is not me, this is my baby!!

We are hoping the tests he has planned for Tuesday will show us whatever it is we need to know to move forward. She's been on clear liquids more than not the past month - poked, prodded, thrown in the hospital, x-rays, cat scans - you name it and she's had it done - up to this, she's been pretty damn healthy!

Im so sorry for all of this. Both of you will get through all of this. Once you figure out your issues I would be more than happy to help put a very easy and managable diet for you and your family. I love doing it and helping people be healthy or lose weight. Whatever the goal may be :) Best of luck to you Tam

chicken, lots of oven cooked chicken, no butter or spices, just chicken.. mmmmmmm

Thank you so much - I just may well take you up on it. Like I said, for the most part we don't do as bad as we could, but we do have a little ways to go to do everything that will make her ok. seems almost everything that goes in her mouth hurts on some level - some worse than others - so it frustrating, at least for now.

Thank god, I am so glad you posted that, I was looking for it and wasn't finding it anywhere. :thumbsup

one of my favourite 'perfect balance' meals is a greek salad with chicken. making your own with good stuff is ideal, but if you need to grab a lunch you really can't go wrong with that.

It has lots of fats, it has some dairy but our body need fats, and feta is pretty good for calcium. It's almost impossible to get enough calcium getting it from vegetables. A lot of guys in the gym who give advice forget this part because they intake a decent amount of whey protein anyway but worth mentioning.

I do something similar that ha been amazing. Obviously the rest of your diet needs to be healthy to get the most out of it, but what I do is Juice every 3-4 days. So 2-3 days normal diet...one day ALL juice.

Cleans you out. You feel energized and amazing

I mix it up a bit and it does take a bit of getting used to, but the CORE of all my juices is....

Kale
Celery (lots of water and makes good filler)
Spinach

and the to make it palatable....

Carrot
Apple (not to much, just enough to take the edge off of the Kale)


Oh, and this is important. You MUST get a cold press juicer...NOT a centrifuge. Invest in a good one. They can be pricey, but the difference in what you get is amazing. Here is the one I use....

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/omeg...iRfgo dkjUAEw

At least once a week I make a soup. Just start it simmering about an hour before dinner time and you're gold. It'll be even better in leftovers. Cheap n' cheerful!

Broccoli and cheese - sautee onion in butter, add chicken or veg broth and a bunch of broccoli. Boil until broccoli is tender. Add cream. Boil. Stir in grated cheese (parmesan, cream cheese, monterey jack, whatever you have) until creamy. Make it super smooth with a stick mixer in the pot.

Curried sweet potato and carrot - sautee onion, carrot, celery in butter/oil. Add cumin, curry powder, smoky paprika. Add veg broth. Boil. Add chopped up sweet potato and boil until potato is soft. Add cream if you want a cream base. Otherwise just take your stick mixer to it.

Lamb lentil stew - hearty! sautee your mire poix (garlic, onion, celery, carrot) in butter. Add beef or chicken broth. Boil. Add 1 or 2 lamb neck sections. Add can of diced tomatoes. Simmer for a long while, until the meat falls off the bone when prodded. Add dried lentils, black beans, whatever legume you like. Add carrot chunks, potato chunks if you like. Simmer for another 45 mins until legumes are done.

Good luck and I really hope your daughter improves soon! So many of my friends in their 30s are taking ill with gall bladder issues and IBS. Makes me wonder what the heck is going on.

I make a lot of soups - most of the time I don't even know what is going to be in them until it's in our bowls and we are eating it - we love soups, especially this time of the year, and they are so cheap to make. I typically will start it the night before and boil the crap out of it, let it sit overnight to get back to room temp or cold and start it back the next morning - so when we eat it the first time, it is left over - who wants fresh soup? lol

I swear it's in the shit they put in our food - I was told to watch the High Fructose Corn Syrup, for me and her - and do you have ANY idea how hard THAT is to get around?

I am with baddog, if you need to read the label, don't eat it - but sometimes you just have to because you can't find things you need here where I am in the fresh or even frozen isles. :Oh crap

Yes, soups are wonderful! Especially on stormy winter nights :)

My husband and I have been going lazy keto since May, and love it. We found it wasn't hard at all to avoid the High Fructose Corn Syrup. It wasn't really in anything that we ate already except some coffee flavouring syrups that we now avoid. What are you having trouble avoiding the corn syrup with? There might be an easy substitute.

Not so much anything now - we've been finding alternatives - she liked her coffee syrups too, and several of the juices we were getting had it, tomato sauces - things like that - that one would think you wouldn't see it in - but we avoid it now - hell, it was even in our bread - my husband is changing us over to wraps and potato bread now - which seems to be working very well with him and her - I am not a huge fan of bread as an everyday thing - random weird breads yes, but not much in just everyday eating. I love English Muffins and those types of bread. lol

If you really must have bread in the house, nothing beats a bread machine. You just pop in your recipe and go and voila! Fresh bread. I was using mine a few times a week before we went low-carb. That way you have control over the ingredients, and it's always fresh!

Yeah, I know what you mean - I think I still have my bread machine somewhere - but since they found this potato bread, they seem pretty happy with it and it hasn't hurt her to eat it - so for now, I am going to leave well enough alone - for everything that doesn't hurt her to eat, that's a plus and something I am not going to mess with a lot. But I have to admit, there isn't a thing in the world like fresh warm bread popping out - but I'd probably get into trouble. lol

Oh good grief - I made popcorn with this tonight and it went over so well - the last time, I guess I had too much coconut oil in it - I found a thing that said use a tablespoon and a half in a 1/2 cup of popcorn and it was the best popcorn I've ever made at home - didn't taste like movie popcorn which is my favorite, but I bet it was healthier - and my daughter even loved it - THANK YOU - for forcing my hand to try it again - wow, it was just amazing!! :thumbsup

what do you guys think is better health-wise? butter or non-hydrogenated margarine?

I'm gonna go with butter for the Daily Double on this one, Alex.

Refined coconut oil is bleached, and deodorized. sometimes partially hydrogenate too. doesn't taste like anything. It's a very unhealthy oil compared to its virgin pressed cousin.

What is the ratio of salads to whiskey drinks that is recommended.

i've stuck with margarine for years due to the fact it contains no cholesterol but am thinking of switching to organic butter.

oh
 

nice post to read while eating :1orglaugh

http://s5.postimg.org/ttdbneh9z/mek.jpg

Water has no cholesterol in it - margarine has a great deal of water in it - try and fry potatoes in it, you get mush because of the water margarine adds to your food - and obviously it's going to have less of some things because water doesn't have all that in it. lol

We switched to real butter a year or two ago and we use way way less and our food tastes a 1000 times better..

We let a bowl of margarine sit out and a good 1/3 of the top of it was water when it melted.

Instead of canned try frozen vegetables. They are the better choice as they don't contain the amounts of preservatives and salts needed in the canning process.

Oh yeah, we've been doing a LOT of this the past little while now - we don't buy near the canned food we did at one time - it just tastes better too and isn't as nasty gel stuffs like canned is... but even at that, there are some things we just cannot get -

Just to show you, I was making stuffed chicken breasts tonight with spinach, mushrooms, and so on - I needed twine - SIMPLY THING CALLED TWINE - and we had to go to 4 stores before we found it and found it in a freaking hardware store - this area is terrible about having anything out of the box - lol

The unfortunate thing, as others has mentioned, is that there is no consensus on what exactly constitutes "healthy," beyond "don't eat cheetos for dinner".

(For loosing weight)

I didn't read through everything but didn't notice anyone mentioning portion size. that is probably more important than what you are eating. Everywhere you go portions are way way bigger than what you should be eating. lower the portion size and eat more often 6-7 times a day. Drink a lot of water. and most important be active!

I like broccoli mixed with peppers and onions topped with mozzarella cheese.

Have you tried ordering online?
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss...+n%2Caps%2C316

Oranges........ as much as possible.

Portion size really has nothing to do with it nor do small meals "speed up metabolism". Look up intermittent fasting.

Tam my best suggestion to you is teach yourself nutrition and learn the healthy protein/carb/fat ratios that work best with your body type. While there are some healthy suggestions in this thread I think you'd have much better luck speaking with a nutritionist about you and your daughters dietary needs directly. Thats how I learned most if not all my nutrition and it was the best money ive ever spent.

It's for her and her kids though, don't think intermittent fasting is ideal for young kids who are growing up, going to school, etc.

:1orglaugh ok... :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

I wasnt suggesting it to her, my apologies if thats what i implied. What i meant was that eating 2500 calories in one sitting vs 2500 via 6 meals throughout the day will have no impact whatsoever on weight or body composition. If working out then yes. For the average person....certainly not.

Before you laugh, post some proof of this. its a very very very common misconception. Heres a small study of 1000's online http://www.plosone.org/article/info%...l.pone.0038632

An appointment with a nutritionist should be covered by health insurance. At least that was the case for me earlier this year. The appointment was pretty much a waste of time as I already knew everything she covered. That being said, it's definitely worth a shot.

I really don't think people can even buy the stuff with transfats in them anymore.. I'm pretty sure that has zero to do with whether it is virgin pressed or not.

He's right, he's leaner than anyone here and he eats more than all of us. You really think he's doing 6 hours in the gym to maintain that?

I actually have a standing desk and run on a treadmill all day :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

They keep making her fast - 3 days and then eating normal for 4 days is part of what put her in the hospital - am not sure at all why, but she put her on a 3 day clear liquid diet and then said eat normal for 4 days and back into the Dr to see her and they ran labs again and her labs, whatever that is that says she had Pancreatitis shot from 310 to over 1500 and put her right into the hospital that day - and it's been one stupid thing after another - each time she put her on that fasting thing, she seemed to only get more sick.

This Dr she is seeing now is an Upper G.I. Specialist and he is even questioning that method and said it wasn't making sense - and so FAR, he isn't finding the shit the other chick was finding - she has more tests tomorrow, x-rays of her upper G.I. area -

We SHOULD know what is going on this week, with any luck, it's been 4 solid weeks of this and she is getting better NOT having to deal with that first Fr, so far there has been nothing causing the specialist to see what she seen and no signs of alarm - not to say nothing is wrong, but whatever it is, it's not what she was saying at all!!

I am not above a Nutritionist at all - we had to see one for my oldest daughter when she was little because she had some digestive issues as well, but seemed to grow out of it -

Regardless - we are on low fats, not NO fats, low fats and she seems to do better - without much dairy - that we've been cutting or going lower fat on and she's improving... this is just plain deductive reasoning based n what's making her hurt and what isn't here at home.

It is looking like her Gallbladder - we will know in the next day or two - more tests today are pointing there - which is a HUGE plus compared to what we were expecting or being told before - but if that's all, it can be removed easy and quickly while she is young. ;)

I was going to say if its fats related it sounded like gallbladder since its responsible for bile storage and production... had assumed that would have been one of the first things the dr checked out to be honest, thats why I didnt mention it -__- . This is very similar to an issue I had when i was excessively eating natural peanut butter. Hope you have much better luck with your new doctor

She was going batshit crazy on ice cream - dairy - wheat cereal (but wasn't doing much good when the dairy was what messed with her).

I am just really pissed at that first Dr - she jumped right to worst case and she actually did more damage than good - her putting he ron the yo-yo diet thing - that just made matters escalate much faster than they should have - so in other words, she jumped right to worst case instead of going the obvious route as well - and I TOLD her there was a gallbladder thing in her paternal side of the family right up front at the very first so to check that first. Damn stupid woman!

Kerrygold unsalted grass fed butter(Most other butters are shit.). I've been using it to get good fats in my diet, along with coconut/mct oil.

I've basically cut way down on carbs and replaced with good fats and protein to keep my system in a state of ketosis (fat burning mode). I carb load once a week.

nevermind...

In a nutshell... this. :2 cents::thumbsup

Yup, never seen a pussy with a lebel ...

I am really starting to think the same damn thing - it's extremely rare t see a label that has less than 2000000 things you can't say - lol

yeah, we can't get that kerrygold in canada...some stupid import laws and since its so cold here its impossible to get 100% grass-fed but there are a few companies that say they are mostly grass-fed. i have only switched to butter for the past week or so but one thing i notice is how much less butter i use in comparison to margarine. i guess like tam said, butter actually tastes like something so you use less of it.

Healthy eating is a tricky thing because everybody is so different. I'd recommend really digging into healthy eating and trying to learn as much as possible about it all. Different strokes for different folks. Have a look at Healthful Pursuit (www.healthfulpursuit.com), she really knows the science behind healthy eating with lots of resources and stuff.