Still trying to lose the freshman 15 page

[tippy25]

So I'm 25, still in college (long and irrelevant story), and I'm still trying to get in shape, with limited success. Part of the problem is that I still live at home and am not in control of the food supply in the house. Nearly everything is grain-based. Gratuitous amounts of bread, pasta (delicious delicious pasta), and frozen prepackaged & microwaveable foods galore. Mom argues that buying fresh ingredients every day or two and cooking meals from scratch is too hard/time consuming. She's retired and all she does is vacuum the carpets and knit all day. My dad does have a vegetable garden, but that gets less bountiful each year. He doesn't seem to understand the principle of crop rotation, either, and no matter how many time I tell him to move the tomatoes to the other side and put the lettuce over there, and to plant at least one thing different each year, he puts everything in the same spot.

The worst part is that the only "organic" anything the supermarkets around here carry are eggs and milk. Everything else has either been treated w/ pesticides or is highly processed. The only grass-fed butter available is Kerrygold, which I can't even be sure is actually available as i've never seen it, and it's twice as expensive as the grain-fed variety judging by their online product listing. I feel like I'm being priced out of a healthy diet.

As a result, I do about half of my daily eating on campus. The lunch trucks cook everything right in front of me. I usually get sausage, egg, & cheese on a long roll with a bottle of orange juice (100% juice, from concentrate). Lately, though, I've been getting it without the roll and with a side of bacon, to help limit my grains. I occasionally get a lamb gyro, though, as they're delicious and quite filling. Not sure about the pita bread, though. My tastes are quite picky, too. I'm not a fan of most vegetables, and solid fruit is weird to me. I don't like how it explodes with juice in my mouth. The taste is fine, it's the texture that I don't like. I will, however, throw a bunch of fruit in the blender and make a smoothie from time to time.

So now that I've made probably the longest intro post in history, I suppose I should ask some questions. I'm 6' tall 180ish pounds, and I have a gut that looks like I could be 4 months pregnant. I've gotten pretty good at sucking it in when standing up and can look ok while wearing a shirt, but I'd like to get rid of my stomach fat. I have a 6-pack, you just can't see it. Is there anyone in the Philly (University City) area that can help a guy go primal? Being a student at Drexel would really make things a good bit easier, too. General advice and suggestions are also welcome.

[Hedonist]

Not the longest intro by any means. Anyway, no problem. We want to get to know you. Welcome.

Rough situation. There are ways to make vegetables enjoyable for nearly anyone. As for fruit, you need to go easy on it.

Organic is wonderful, but not necessary for primal.

Can you find some quick primal recipes you could offer to make?

You gotta ditch the grains to lose that gut. No way around it.

[SoccerGrok]

Welcome..Just a couple of thoughts

1. Have you read the book?

2. Ditch the grains, or none of it will work.

[jfreaksho]

Ditch the grains.
Offer to help with the shopping and the cooking for the family. Or, instead of offering, just start stopping at the grocery store on your way home and picking up some fresh vegetables every day or two.

An intermediate step would be to start following a Weston A. Price way of eating, or abiding by Michael Pollan's Food Rules. These focus on whole foods, but still include grains for the rest of your family.

[tippy25]

Quick question about pasta. Are egg noodles ok? I saw them at the super market and am hoping against hope that I found a suitable pasta alternative. See, my family is Italian, and pasta is a family staple. If I tell them I'm not going to be eating pasta anymore, I'd be laughed out of every family dinner. I'm trying to cut back on cereal, too. I made eggs for breakfast in a pinch even though I was a couple minutes behind, so I couldn't make them the way I usually do. And while it didn't fill me up like 2 bowls of cereal would, I found myself much less hungry by the end of my first class. I'm usually hungry again by the time I get to my first class. My commute involves a 3.25 mile bike ride to the train, a 30 minute train ride, and another 1.25 mile bike ride to class. Sometimes I'm even hungry by the time I get there, so I think eggs (maybe some bacon, too) is going to be my staple breakfast. I love eggs. Had them for lunch, too.

Today's meals consisted of:
3 eggs for breakfast
2 eggs, 2 slices American cheese, 3 strips of bacon, and one sausage patty for lunch
a couple handfuls of pretzels while watching TV w/ my dad for "dinner"

I think I was going great until "dinner". I was barely even hungry when I got home at almost 10pm, and I had lunch at about noon. Now that I've had the pretzels, though, I'm starting to get a tad hungry. My mom drove past me on our way home, and I decided to race her home. It was about a half a mile, and I kept up pretty good. I was spent by the time I got home, though. I would have beat her if I realized it was her sooner.

Edit: Also, no, I haven't read the book yet. I have the e-book, but my vibrations and aircraft design classes are currently monopolizing my time.

[yodiewan]

Sorry, egg noodles are made with wheat. There are some gluten-free pastas, mostly made with rice flour. Also, there are more tradtional varieties like rice vermicelli and cellophane noodles. A lot of people like to use spaghetti squash as a pasta substitute also. These could be used to cut down on the pasta consumption while you're still at home. Ideally though, you just need to start eating real whole foods, meat and veggies, but I understand that there's reality to deal with. Sounds like you're doing alright for the most part. And don't worry about being "laughed out" at dinner. If you're serious about getting healthy, you're probably going to have to do some things that make you seem strange to others. You'll get over it. And your family will too when they see you lose weight and become healthier.

[tippy25]

I already seem strange to others. My family has sort of resigned themselves to the fact that I'm a little weird, but take consolation in the fact that I'm going to school for mechanical engineering. Brb, making my morning breakfast fire.

3 eggs
a pinch of salt
a bit of pepper
a sprinkling of crushed red pepper
a quick squirt of Sriracha sauce
a dash of 2% milk (optional)
scramble and cook. Serve w/ bacon. (all we have is turkey bacon, and that stuff is so weak. There's nothing to it. I want real bacon dammit.)

[jfreaksho]

Today's meals consisted of:
3 eggs for breakfast
2 eggs, 2 slices American cheese, 3 strips of bacon, and one sausage patty for lunch
a couple handfuls of pretzels while watching TV w/ my dad for "dinner"

You already noticed how the pretzels made you more hungry, so I won't get into that.

Be aware that American cheese is not actual cheese- it's usually a processed frankenfood, full of nasty things like soy and rapeseed oils. Even the Kraft ones are sold as a "pasteurized prepared cheese product", though it doesn't have the soy or canola. Wikipedia has more info on processed cheese.

[tippy25]

Today was pretty damn good. Pork roll and eggs for breakfast around 8:30, had a midterm at 10, finished early for the first time in about a year, then went to the lunch truck even though I wasn't that hungry because I knew I'd need my time later in the day for things that weren't eating. Had my usual sausage, bacon, egg, & cheese, no roll. That was at noon. It's currently quarter after 1 in the morning, 13 hours later and I'm just now starting to feel like I could put something in my stomach. What a great feeling not being excruciatingly hungry after 3 hours and having energy to actually do things all day.

[tippy25]

My mom noticed that I was having eggs for breakfast every day this week. Said that you shouldn't eat more than 4 egg whites a week. I doubt there's any actual validity to that, especially since she still seems to subscribe to the "grains are healthy and fat is bad" hypothesis. Is there any shred of truth to that?