Help with Cardio and diet

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BVickery

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Ok, I am in a strange situation. I am kind of limited to what I can do as far as cardio workouts given I have a new hip, and arthritis in the ankles w/ recurring bouts with tendinitis/bursitis.

I am looking to try and drop some weight while improving my cardio and only thing I can really think of is swimming. Given that I'm 6'7 stationary bikes are kind of uncomfortable, and I haven't ridden a real bike in almost 20 yrs, and given the new hip, fall = bad news.

The other thing is, since I'm disabled I am kind of stretched thin for a budget. When I was on a diet it was about 1 lb of protein a day, unlimited fruits and veggies and rigorous portions for everything else.

My question is for you food/nuitrition guru's is this: I want to start eating a lot healthier, but my budget is limited and I live in an apartment. I was thinking of growing cherry tomatoes on my patio and use those to snack on instead of chips etc. (I love them as is, don't need salt or anything). Good, bad, neutral?

And any other veggie type that I can grow on a patio that could be used as snack food would be great.

Thanks,
Brian
 
Bean Sprouts?
 
My housemate grows delicious sprouts in the kitchen. I'm a... err... bad hunter... which I find actually saves me a fair bit of money. I get my protein from a couple eggs and a handful of nuts a day. I think an egg has about 5g protein.

My father had some back problems after an auto accident so he had some trouble with bicycles, and swimming didn't really fit in with his work schedule, so he started walking. I'd be bored out of my gourd, but he walks for over an hour a day, just around the neighborhood. I'm not sure if your ankle prohibits that.

Also, while this isn't cardio, I found it a crazy morale booster: one hundred push ups
There's an equivalent for situps, pullups, squats, and probably more if pushups aren't your thing. I started at a max of 15 pushups and less than a month later I was doing three sets of 60 a night. Made me feel amazing about myself.
 
My housemate grows delicious sprouts in the kitchen. I'm a... err... bad hunter... which I find actually saves me a fair bit of money. I get my protein from a couple eggs and a handful of nuts a day. I think an egg has about 5g protein.

My father had some back problems after an auto accident so he had some trouble with bicycles, and swimming didn't really fit in with his work schedule, so he started walking. I'd be bored out of my gourd, but he walks for over an hour a day, just around the neighborhood. I'm not sure if your ankle prohibits that.

Also, while this isn't cardio, I found it a crazy morale booster: one hundred push ups
There's an equivalent for situps, pullups, squats, and probably more if pushups aren't your thing. I started at a max of 15 pushups and less than a month later I was doing three sets of 60 a night. Made me feel amazing about myself.

Thanks for the quick feedback.

I wont go full vegetarian (its not my thing) and again, price weighs in. As far as hunting, it can be pretty economical if you take a good sized deer or such, and then have it butchered. I had about 50lbs of meat and it cost me $5 for the hunting tag and about $80 to have it butchered, so it averaged about $1.70/lb for venison (steaks, tenderloin, sausages, burger etc).

I actually don't mind bean sprouts, your housemate do something special to grow them indoors?

And thanks for the whole pushup thing. The push ups are bad for me now, impingement syndrome (muscle/tendon slips under the scapula and pinches in between the bone VERY painful), but going to do the situps and maybe squats.
 
Ok, I am in a strange situation. I am kind of limited to what I can do as far as cardio workouts given I have a new hip, and arthritis in the ankles w/ recurring bouts with tendinitis/bursitis.

Hi Brian, Have you found out WHY you keep having those issues? The conditions you described are fitting with overuse. I am not referring to heavy exertion or too much exercise but rather, uneven distribution of forces in your body causing some structures to work more than the others. I would advice a visit to the St. John-Clark Pain Treatment Clinic in Clearwater FL. You will be amazed what those therapists can do for you and guide you into solving your issues.

My question is for you food/nuitrition guru's is this: I want to start eating a lot healthier, but my budget is limited and I live in an apartment. I was thinking of growing cherry tomatoes on my patio and use those to snack on instead of chips etc. (I love them as is, don't need salt or anything). Good, bad, neutral?

And any other veggie type that I can grow on a patio that could be used as snack food would be great.
The best step is to eat food as close to its natural state as possible, that is, with the least amount of processing. I am not saying eat raw since many food items are better assimilated and digested when cooked, but rather, focus on the innate quality of your food rather than the claims. One of the ironies of many who claim to eat healthy is that the gran majority of their "food" comes in the forms of bars, powders, or pills and very little is actual, real food.

Your idea of growing food items in your space is a good one. You control the quality and have access to fresh food. Hunting? Go for it! I trust you'll have good company to help you with your game.

Again, I cannot think of anyone more highly to help you than the St. John-Clark clinic. It is a great investment and you'll get a great deal out of it.

Best wishes and much success to you.
 
Look for a book called "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew its a good resource for small area gardeners.

Another option, I bought a couple of Earthboxes from EarthBox and had great success with it. My cherry tomato was 15 feet tall! I planted sweet peppers in it as well as in a couple upside down planters, the ones in the earthbox were bearing fruit a month earlier than the others. You can even grow corn in them as well as lettuce and anything else you can think of. I recommend getting the optional casters to make moving them easy.
Ber :lilbunny:
 
Hi,

Have you thought of an upper body ergometer for cardio? It is a seated version of a bike with pedals for your hands. Perhaps you can find one at a local fitness or physical therapy facility that doesn't charge too much. Or, purchase a used one.

Gretchen
 
A little late coming into this one. Have you considered the YMCA and their water aerobics? The Y allows adjustments based on income. Also, the water aerobics classes will have both deep and shallow water classes. I used to do them all the time years ago and loved them. I have recently started back up and still love them. It sounds like the deep water might work better for you. With these classes nobody can see how bad you are off or even if you are on the wrong foot. I know this from experience. You go at your own pace. In deep water there is a lot of noodle work.
 
I'm with coach_izzy and TDDFleming (I hope I got those names correct) and will add a couple thoughts. There is a very simple formula to losing weight - - - If Calories In < Calories Out, then weight goes down. Take careful note that nothing in that formula has to do with fruits, vegies, carbs, proteins, or even (GASP!) fats.

I am on the way to divesting my mass of a third bowling ball equivalent in weight. If I want to eat a Snickers, I will. I just try hard to balance that out be giving up something else. I use butter to fry and egg and I smear butter on toast before I put on home made pineapple/mango jam. Once or twice a week, I'll have a double Scotch or Bourbon and an occassional glass of wine with dinner.

My BMI (Body Mass Index) tells me I need 1900 calories per day to maintain my weight if all I do during the day is sit in front of the tv and breathe. So last year I bought me a spiral notebook and started writing down a log of what I was eating. I measured everything by weight or volume, looked it up for the calories and entered it in the log--even a glass of water. Anything that went in the mouth was logged.

That caused me to see where I was going wrong. Those extra couple "healthy" granola bars. At 140-160 calories each, it was easy to quit one of them. I decided I didn't need that extra glass of milk in the mid-morning. An eight ounce prime rib went down to five. Etc, etc....... Above all, make sure your daily food intake is balanced.

My next ploy was to pick up my fork, put something in my mouth, put the damned fork DOWN!, and thoroughly chew what was in my mouth before swallowing and picking the fork up again.

I still eat the same foods, just less of them.

As for exercise, I'm 75 and diagnosed with severe osteo-arthritis in spine, hip, and knee. I'm not sedentary, but struggle to get in two miles of walking three or four times a week. I'm signing up for the aquarobics class at the gym pool.

One more paragraph and I'll quit babbling. Four months (about the first bowling ball) after I started my regimen (?sp?) my doctor took me off my blood pressure medication. I am an active private pilot with a current flight physical (3rd class cert to block the syntax quibblers), and just last March earned my PADI OW cert.

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The man who says he can, and the man who says he can't, are both right.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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