Poor diet

I was thin as a kid and people were always telling me I didn't eat enough. 

I ate as much as I needed... I see food as fuel.

I consume more when I physically excercise, but much less if I am indolent. 

Quality of food works better for me than quantity. 

And excercise.

I'm actually GLAD I lived in an age when a parent could send his 7 year old kid up to the garage with an empty paraffin can to bring it back full along with a pack of 20 senior service! I'm glad they made me do work from the age of 8 onwards (I made a small contribution to the wiring of house my dad was building for us, helping with the cabling and fitting sockets etc.) 

Even if I wasn't so impressed at the time...

Humans have many wonderful automatic control systems in our bodies that just work. My body processes food just fine but it keeps me thin & wiry. I've tried messing with that process twice once when I joined the army (I hoped to "bulk up", because they provided high quality food in unlimited amounts, and I was small and had been bullied a lot

So I ate ravenously, and threw myself into the P.T. aspect as far as I was able, it made very little discernable difference to my physique. I finally got a little bit fat in my thirties, but I was then eating a lot of McDonalds (for economic reasons at the time, we were in a recession and my employer bought my lunches, but I had no time to eat them, so McDonalds fitted the bill perfectly. after a year I fattened up considerably, so I changed to a two meal a day regime, and burnt it back off. 

I'm in my sixties now, have been living with someone who is properly Obese, (By choice, it turns out, if we really get down to it) and initially my weight went up and I grew some abdo fat. Some 3 years ago I finally put my foot down and obtained the right to skip a few meals (Along with a few more basic human rights that I was lacking)

Now I have a lot of loose fitting trousers again.

I figured out that when I am  asleep my digestive transit must slow down, (for obvious reasons) and therefore has more time to absorb what is in it, so when I need to reduce weight, it's best to go to bed not well fed. Plus: no-one likes feeling hungry, so why not sleep though that feeling. 

We humans really DO eat way more than our bodies need, now that we don't have to go and plough some fields whilst the women wash stuff by hand, and the kids simply do NOT get to run about constantly climbing trees etc.

As far as I can determine, fish and meat provide nutrients that your body cannot synthesise and MOST human bodies need. A mixed salad also provides a wide variety of useful chemistry. Apparently my bodies aversion of sweetners is a very good thing, and a golden rule seems to be don't listen to what other people tell you is "good", listen to your own taste. 

I am NOT a strapping physical specimen, but ultimately as my army experience taught me, I'm not made that way but last time my mate lost an rc helicopter in a tree, he was surprised to see that I was happy to climb up and get it in my fifties... I can still move, although smoking and being "sixty something" really has eaten away at my stamina recently.

MAYBE, you kid eats enough for his needs. but do try and get him to try new things, and make sure if like me he likes a fairly monotonous diet that he gets at least one or two salads a week. Some meals are particularly unusually satisfying and I have become convinced that is an indicator that my body was short of something and the joyous feeling is a result of supplying food that was actually needed by my body  presumably to replenish trace elements.

Being healthy seems all about the trace elements as far as I can see,

I've recently discovered that I've needed more vitamin D that my diet supplies and that a daily supplement works wonders, so I clearly have a lot more to learn yet, and haven't got it all right, but I've managed to retain some fitness that others have not, without making any real effort, except to just eat what I want to, and when I eat, mostly. 

I appreciate only some of this rambling screed will be useful, and will be annoying to some, but it's been good for me, and I hope there's some useful takeaways. (pun intended)  

I Sperg said:

I see food as fuel.

Me too........but it can also double as a comfort blanket as well....in times of confusion or upset.

I Sperg said:

I see food as fuel.

Me too........but it can also double as a comfort blanket as well....in times of confusion or upset.