I don’t know if this form of eating as morality really works for me. But it was kind of fun to be like everyone else and be “on a diet”, I can definitely see what the anorexics get out of it and why this site is so attractive to them. 5 years ago

There are about 9 days left in Health Month and as predicted I can feel my will faltering. When Todd asked me what the hardest part of Health Month has been, I said coffee… because I don’t really fully understand why it’s part of the rules. And now, I’m starting to feel that the purpose of Health Month has been satisfied and therefore each of the rules is becoming more difficult to adhere to. And I guess I’m just a little grumpy. I plan on sticking it out to the end, at which point I have no idea what I’ll do other than to commence February’s Extremely Moderate Health Month theme. 5 years ago

Green Rooibos kind of tastes like green tea… 5 years ago

It is 6 days into the health month; sugar does create a big problem for me. I usually have instant breakfast and a piece of toast with peanut butter. They both have sugar in them. I can’t eat any backed goods such as muffins. I can’t eat energy bars, which is my lunch when I am busy. However, I had a wonderful crab meat stuffed salmon for lunch today at the Capital Grille. 5 years ago

I realized that this could be an excuse to eat whatever I want. There’s nothing on the prohibited list that I normally have more than a few times a week (except the tea) so it’s easy to give up. But I could tell myself I’m being “healthy” by following all the rules and pig out on fruit, nuts, vegetables, salmon, yogurt, brown rice, beans, eat half of the PCC deli case, etc. Needless to say I don’t think I’m going to lose any weight on this. 5 years ago

OK, I’m doing it from January 2nd to February 2nd, but same difference.

So far so good, but it’s kind of boring, and I’m hungry a lot of the time. Made a huge batch of brown rice so I can have rice and beans for lunch tomorrow, yum yum. My standards for deliciousness have dropped considerably!

I went to the vending machines at school today and realized there is not a single thing in any of them that I can eat. Which makes me realize how much crap everyone usually eats. 5 years ago

Injured runners had significantly lower intakes of total fat (63 + 20 vs. 80 + 50 g/d) and percentage of kilocalories from fat (27 + 5 vs. 30 + 8 ) compared with non-injured runners. A logistic regression analysis found that fat intake was the best dietary predictor, correctly identifying 64 of future injuries.

http://www.jissn.com/content/5/1/1/abstract 5 years ago

Venessa is doing this and since she does the lion’s share of the cooking, I figured ‘what the heck’. So count me in, but know that I hate dieting and/or eating healthy. 5 years ago

I am a tea drinker and I had no idea how difficult it will be to stop drinking my tea. Now when I think about it I had one tea before work, one on the way to work, one when I arrived to work, one during lunch, one after lunch, two more before the end of work, one on the way home. Mostly all were 16 oz cups. Man, I am going through serious withdraw just writing about it.. 5 years ago

Not too hard for me, except No Sugar. Does it mean no sweets at all? 5 years ago

I thought it might be easy since I don’t consume any of those things on a regular basis (except for caffeine, oh and maybe cheese) but I’ve already violated most of the rules by going to Piecora’s for lunch and then getting coffee and an olive oil chocolate at Vita this afternoon.

The rules seem pretty arbitrary so I’ll come up with my own modifications too.

salt—I cook almost all of my food so it doesn’t really mean anything to be able to cook with salt but not add it when it’s on the plate.

fried—I’ll assume that fried food only includes deep fried and battered stuff. About half of what I eat is pan-fried/sauteed/stir-fried.

And I’ll do it Jan 1 to Jan 31 since I might be going to NYC the first week of February.

Since I’ve made it easier on myself I’m also going to make it more challenging:

no random eating—no grabbing a handful of nuts at home, randomly eating fruit at work, etc. 5 years ago

Here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7538394538

That is, if you use such silly social networks.

Imagine a Health Month where we had to give up social networking! Now that would hurt. 5 years ago

Health Month takes place from midnight of January 5th to midnight of February 5th. It’s been going on for many years for some people, but this is my first year participating. Todd has already bet me $100 that I won’t last a month on the alcohol portion. So if I take an amnesty day, I’m going to still skip on the alcohol.

The version of Health Month I’m participating in was created and championed by Rick Webb and Keith, who I don’t think I’ve ever met. They’ve been doing it since 1976 or something. The rules are documented here, but I’ll keep a version of the rules here too that includes all of the clarifications and updates from people in the comments and subsequent years.

Part A. The banned list.

• No alcohol
• No smoking
• No caffeine
• No drugs – doctor-prescribed stuff is ok, as is Advil or whatever for those ‘week 2 headaches,’ but nothing else.
• No “big bread” – this basically means no bread/bagels/muffins/etc. But, whole grain pitas or tortillas are okay
• No red meat or non-lean pork – giving up bacon really sucks.
• No pasta
• No cheese
• No sugar
• No chips / crackers
• No cream / cream sauces
• No artificial sweeteners (aspartame, saccharin, etc.)
• No fried foods
• No butter / margarine
• No fast food
• No added salt – you can cook with salt, but no dumping table salt on you food after it hits the plate.

Part B. The allowances.

• Light salad dressing is allowed on salad – hey, if I’m going to eat a freaking salad…
• Brown rice and small portions of white rice are allowed – for things like sushi, or a wrap can be “light on the rice”
• Only enough oil to cook with is allowed. About 1/2 tbsp per serving (less if possible)

Part C. Amnesty Day.

We are human, and sometimes we mess up. With health month, this is built in. You get one ‘Amnesty Day’ for the month. This means that for one day, you can have One of the things on the banned list. So, if there’s a party you want to go to during HM, you can use your amnesty day then and have a drink. Or if you have a crazy sweet tooth, you can have a piece of cake at the end of week 2, as a halfway point reward.

• Document everything
• Exercise at least twice a week
• Find more people to do it. Are you in? 5 years ago