Is my diet unhealthy?

[megankxthleen]

Someone told me that my diet is "too" healthy, and that it is therefore unhealthy and that I should really go get checked out for anorexia..

My everyday diet consists of:
B: Half a bottle of water, a cup of coffee with almond creamer and 1 packet of sweetener - and usually make a juice with 1 cup of spinach, 1 kale leaf, 1 cup of strawberries and chia seeds, and 1 banana; if I don't feel like that, I like to have avocado on half a piece of Nature's Harvest whole grain bread with almond butter or an egg, rarely.
L: Consists of a salad with lettuce, cucumber, avocado (if I don't have that for breakfast), some raspberries, and a "light" dressing.
Veggies. Either a cup of cooked spinach or broccoli, sweet potato on occasion, sometimes half a sandwich. I pair this with a glass of water with lemon and two shots of apple cider vinegar. This is the same for dinner.
Snack: Tomato slices with some pepper, lots of cucumber, a slice of watermelon if I have any, a handful of almonds/raisins, avocado with about a tbls of dressing, half a cup of Yoplait Greek yogurt, a bowl of fruit, celery with almond butter.
I also go for a walk/run twice a day and do between 20-40 squats/pilates a day.

[AriadneSky]

there's no such thing as 'too healthy'. thats a nonsensical statement. they mean your discipline makes them feel uncomfortable. if your eating is interring with your life thats another matter. still doesn't mean anorexia. if anything they are referring to ocd.

are you experiencing health or work problems due to your regimen? if not then there's no problem.

[AriadneSky]

yo need about 50 grams of protein a day. add cottage cheese ricotta cheese more eggs brewers yeast spirulina. you'll be fine. get at least 50 grams.

not getting enough protein also does not mean anorexia. if anything its called Kwashiorkor.

your diet as in the foods you eat are healthy. you need to add protein or you'll be protein deficient.

[ak666]

Seems a bit lacking on the protein department. Maybe throwing in some tuna or chicken breast or something or having the egg daily would help round it out and also help you get more from those workouts.

[megankxthleen]

That's the problem, I don't eat meat! Haha but I ty to eat lots of nuts and quinoa, but thank you for the tip! I'll have to research some protein-rich recipes

[ak666]

I think that sounds like quite a nice diet. It might be boring for some people but they might not realize that if you get used to this kind of diet, you can be happy with it. Some people balance very healthy diets with like a treat for themselves on the weekends to avoid being miserable, but some people actually have the discipline and taste for it to just stick to it all the time without any cheat days. It sounds like you're on a pretty good track, and I imagine this kind of diet will help you age very gracefully and beautifully.

[AriadneSky]

yeah i does not sound boring at all. it sounds very colorful. anyhow a diet is not a life, its what you eat to live. i can't see getting bored bc of food. the odd to me.

[AriadneSky]

that is*

[ak666]

@AriadneSky I think society's general idea of what "healthy" in its peak form is supposed to be is generally kind of messed up. Okinawa, for example, has some of the longest-living people on the planet and so many centenarians living to be over 100 years old. Their diet consists of a lot of fresh vegetables and some small degree of meat and fish intake. The older generation was generally poor and they practiced a tradition called hara hachi bu (eating to 80% satisfaction, not 100%). That kind of reduced caloric intake combined with that type of diet is generally believed to have been the key to their extremely long life span which was achieved, quite amazingly, without seniors being on any medication. To me societies seem to keep lowering the bar on what "healthy" means while starting to shame all skinny people into believing they're anorexic (not that anorexia doesn't exist, but thinking every skinny person has an eating disorder is just as crazy).

[AriadneSky]

mhm i agree. i actually recall a study done where people ate 30% less than the 'head;thy nor' were of course thinner than the norm and were very healthy energetic and felt better than they ever haf.

i think the thing with anorexia that goes exploited is the potentially harmful obsessiveness that lays beneath it.. because if you're so focused on one thing you're not aware of so many other things. you get into trouble. also when people are desperate to lose weight they are not going to necessarily be eating healthy. i dont think being thin itself means unhealthy it really defends on the context. also as I've sorted here before well on another posts. when they talk about low weight and correlated poor health. they dont account for the cause of low weight and just toss i in the pile. many people lose weight bc they have cancer or aids or wasting diseases.. the low weight did not make them sick. the sickness made them lose weight.

anyhow i guess its a subject im familiar with me bc

[AriadneSky]

my weight is low. im head;thy im a marathon runner. im a vegan. my nutrition is totally in tact. but numbers have such power over people. also i think in other countries especially tropic its not even anything exceptional. i just love in north america where well.. there i an average that is far above anything i think i could move at.

not saying people should lose weight if they are functioning well, but point is weight on its own doesn't men anything. anorexia organizations get a lot of funding to treat 'anorexics' bc its a pretty disease. parents imagine their daughter is ophelia waiting away. (though 30% are boys) so its incredibly hard to be thin and be left alone. in my opinion they should send some food to people who WANT it. plenty of those in the world. incidentally most people who are considered anode are not that thin. not life threateningly so. the marked feature is obsession with thinness not actually being thin. and most of amerce is obsessed with thinness so its a joke.

[AriadneSky]

i mean what do yo expect.

i love it when people are like 'oh you're too thin' as if im weak and they can't even keep up for a mile with me.

i also think food is so proceed now its lost flavor. when you get used to eating real food. all the colors favors spices. it really tastes colorful. people add so much stuff to take the food out pf food to me it just all tastes like salty papery grease. anyhow i think her diet is cool. it sounds like a pretty painting. :)

[ak666]

@AriadneSky I'm somewhat familiar too. I was born with a small frame and slim build. I bulked up a little bit over my teenage years (more in legs than upper body) but everyone was always trying to get me to eat more even though I was eating a lot. I imagine the pressure is a lot stronger on women but I also got some of that kind of "skinny shaming" in my youth.

That and I've lived in both the U. S. and Japan for about equal periods of time overall throughout my life, as well as having lived in Singapore for a couple of years. The contrast between what is considered a "healthy" diet between the U. S. and these two other countries is quite huge. I also found that when I got my blood tested in Japan after being in the states for a few years, things like my salicylic acid levels were considered totally fine by U. S. standards but dangerously high and unhealthy by Japanese standards.

In particular I think the U. S. has lowered the bar too much on health [...]

[ak666]

@AriadneSky [...] but health should really be the emphasis in my opinion. "Beauty" and "health" should be one and the same thing in my opinion. It would dissuade the anorexics but not get to an extent where we pretend like someone who is a hundred pounds overweight is "normal".

[ak666]

@AriadneSky I found it most annoying when someone who sits on a couch all day eating popcorn and watching television (my mother in particular) is trying to tell me I'm not "normal", not "healthy", when I was outside, sprinting, leaping, climbing. I often had this gut instinct like, "Oh yeah? Let's race on that" -- a tad egotistical but I hated this idea of being told I was unhealthy by those who clearly had lifestyles that could use massive improvement in terms of the health department.

[AriadneSky]

I agree :)

when i save up im moving somewhere where this is considered normal and healthy lol not a sign that im rich and diet. or want to look like a movie star. or need to see a therapist. or hell have low self esteem lol that last one is just the stupidest thing. 'no. actually i LIKE myself so i have a healthy lifestyle.'

What's Singapore like?

[AriadneSky]

@ a tad egotistical but I hated this idea of being told I was unhealthy by those who clearly had lifestyles that could use massive improvement in terms of the health department.

#Word

:-)

[ak666]

@AriadneSky Singapore is a wonderful place to visit but not so wonderful to live. It's such a tiny country (you could drive from one side of the ocean to the other in half an hour) packed with people of all sorts of nationalities, with English and Mandarin being the national language. It's absolutely amazing to visit because you see such a diverse range of cultures working in harmony and unity in such a small area, and get to do things like sample foods from all over the world. It's also probably one of the cleanest urban areas in the world. Downside to living there is that it's so small -- within a year or two you'll have visited every square inch of the country and run out of new things to see and do without going across the border to places like Malaysia.

[AriadneSky]

Noted. Thanks.

:)

[ak666]

@AriadneSky For a vegan Singapore might also be really exciting because there's such a diverse range of exotic fruits and vegetables there: papaya, fresh mango (better tasting than anything you can import in the U. S.), durian (smells horrible, tastes great), starfruit, guava juice, sugar cane, coconut. They also tend to use less salt to season food there -- more like chili and tropical flavors to spice things up, and there are fresh markets everywhere with fruits and vegetables on display. It was kind of "fruit heaven" for me. I'm not a vegan myself but trying to adopt a diet lately with reduced meat intake.

[ak666]

@AriadneSky Lychee, rambutan, fresh cocoa fruit (the pods are actually delicious):

previews.123rf.com/.../...ocoa-cacao-chocolate.jpg

... list goes on and on. It's mostly a tropical kind of paradise there but you get such a diverse range of flavors from the fruits and veggies there. I could actually probably have an easier time being a vegan there than anywhere else.

[AriadneSky]

that sounds amazing!

im not quite vegan but i eat like one. meaning i get a lot of my high preteen sources from stuff id have to eat if i was vegan- bc i like it and its healthy and often has vitamins found in mwah not found in any other vegetarian food -but i also eat yogurt. bc i love it ;) I used to drink tons of milk before i knew more about food but im quite sick of it bc i basically had like a 10 cups every day for years. dairy anyhow. im good with other milks. but my favorite is exotic salads with every vegetarian protein source imaginable. i get pretty inventive but im limited by my surroundings. it is scary or immersive the quantity of vegetables and fruit i can eat. recommended serving size means nothing to me. its like a few bites :)

[AriadneSky]

oh! i LOVEEEE lychee nuts. wait is the nut the fruit in the skin or jus the nit after the fruit is gone. i mean the ball of fruit. i love popping them out. I was visiting a city where they sold them at an ethnic store. i walked through the center of down town from one end to the other- about 10 miles and i think i ate like 50 on the walk. it was so hot that day ;p

never had rambutan or cocoa pods. i didn't even know cocoa pods existed. i want one lol

[ak666]

@AriadneSky In Singapore and Malaysia you can get like a whole basket full of lychee for like $1. The fruits and veggies there are ridiculously cheap. It's not the cheapest place to live (housing costs a lot), but the food is so cheap that it sometimes seems almost free. Rambutan is similar to lychee but has a firmer texture and a slightly more sour taste. It's also a little bit less messy than lychee. Cocoa plant is kind of in a similar vein texture-wise, but doesn't taste like chocolate, maybe something like a banana or coconut -- that kind of sweeter flavor. I think you'd be pretty happy if you ever decide to visit. I don't recommend living there so much since it does get tiring, but for a vacation it's a fantastic place.

i2.cdn.turner.com/.../...e-skyline-exlarge-169.jpg

3.bp.blogspot.com/.../Fruit.jpg

[AriadneSky]

Thanks for the tips :)

[ak666]

@AriadneSky Freshly-made sugarcane juice: mayepmiatanphat.com/.../Sugarcane-comb.jpg

Coconut milk: img.21food.com/20110609/product/1305738261156.jpg

Rambutan: feastingintheknow.files.wordpress.com/.../...e.jpg

Actually now I wanna go back to Singapore again. :-D

[AriadneSky]

I want a rambutan thats for sure :) even just the name. but it looks wild to.

[AriadneSky]

Whats the average temp in Singapore?

[ak666]

@AriadneSky Hot as hell. It's right on the equator so if you are uncomfortable in hot climates, not a good place. That said, there are air-conditioned buildings all over the place. It's the only place I've ever been to in the world where I heard my friends say that it's too hot to go swimming. I never minded it much though, but some people are more sensitive to extreme temperatures.

[ak666]

@AriadneSky I'd say around 90 degrees+ Fahrenheit and it's not uncommon for it to reach over 100. I personally liked it, the tropical kind of look with the hot sun made me feel nice, made me appreciate a cool breeze here and there, and also made all the fruits and so on very refreshing.

[AriadneSky]

i love summing in hot weather its the only weather i can swim in. but i doubt i could run in 100 degrees ;p

[ak666]

@AriadneSky It's also consistent all year long. There are no real "seasons" there.

[ak666]

@AriadneSky It sounds horrible but something about that climate brought out some energy in me personally. I was on the rugby and track team in my school there and I kind of felt in peak condition in spite of the weather. Might have had something to do with the diet.

[AriadneSky]

id prefer it to winter though. and i guess id acclimate. i hate having cold seasons. all that i love happens when its warm. cold just interrupts life for me.

[ak666]

@AriadneSky I think what appealed to me about the Singapore climate was its consistency. Maybe that helped me feel in peak condition as well. I find in places where the climate changes wildly throughout the year (ultra cold summers, ultra hot summers) tend to kind of leave me fatigued at times depending on the season. There's nothing to get "used to" for long before it all changes.

[ak666]

@AriadneSky Hawaii is also nice that way with a milder climate. Singapore has a little bit in common with Hawaii (I tend to think like New York with a tropical Hawaiian twist and some dash of Thailand combined with people of all sorts of ethnicities jammed into a very small place).

[Anonymous]

Sounds boring and not a life id like to live...