leehljp
Member Liaison
I am into my 5th week of cardio-rehab. The 1 hour of exercising on the machines 3 days a week is not bad at all. The 2nd hour of dietary brainwashing on the Pritikin diet is awful! I KNOW they have my best interest at heart (no pun intended) but it sure takes the quality of life down a few notches. At this age, taste is a major part of the quality of life! 
Last week, we were told that it is OK to eat red meat on occasion - just limit it to no more than 4 ounces to once a month! Me - yelling out in response; "ONCE A MONTH? You are kidding, right? Everyone laughed, but I was serious.
And they were serious!
Pritikin diet - I had never heard of it until cardio rehab started. It is almost vegetarian - skim milk, no fried foods, small portions of chicken, some seafood - but very limited for the ones I like, which are shrimp, crab and lobster. Nuts not salted, lots of natural fruit including those sugar bomb grapes, low/no sugar (but I do not have much of a sweet tooth anyway). I do eat some sweets when presented at a meal, or a candy bar - which will last me a week or two taking one bite at a time/day. No snacks unless a carrot or celery stick between meals, or a single fruit or some unsalted nuts. Very little oil with salads; egg whites but not yokes! WHOLE wheat and whole grain bread, no mayo for sandwiches. Discourage the supposedly healthy nut/grain bars and even cereals. No white rice. ( I asked them why Japanese live longer that most all other people and half of their meals are white rice! They wouldn't answer me!
At church, a fellow who was a couple of years behind me in school came up to me recently and asked outright: "How is the Pritikin diet going for you?" Me:" How do you know about the Pritikin diet? Him: I have been on it for the past 30 years. My dad had heart issues so I knew I had a predisposition for heart trouble and I started on it way back when I heard about it. He likes it.
Other than that I have not heard of anyone else mention it.
BRINWASHING: While it is not real brainwashing - it feels like it. Every one of the PT guys and ladies subscribe to it. Then the Diet class has a 20 - 30 minute video every week, a 30 - 45 minute lecture on it on another day, and one day a week cooking class in which we eat a serving of a Pritikin diet recipe. Everyone is polite and say how good it tastes (I think they are just being polite like Southerners often do - while lying through their teeth) . . . but without a tad of even low sodium salt, it does not satisfy the palate! I lived in Japan for 26+ years and ate more than my share of sushi, raw fish, squid and other items (stuff) dipped in a soy sauce and even those had more flavor! Of course, many of their soy sauces are 1/3th salt! 
This diet is good for you (me) but it certainly doesn't have much flavor. Most of it tastes like eating cardboard - which does have fiber at least! I just wish they understood that FLAVOR is a major part of the QUALITY of life once you pass 70!
Any one else know about the Pritikin diet?
Any comments?
Last week, we were told that it is OK to eat red meat on occasion - just limit it to no more than 4 ounces to once a month! Me - yelling out in response; "ONCE A MONTH? You are kidding, right? Everyone laughed, but I was serious.
And they were serious! Pritikin diet - I had never heard of it until cardio rehab started. It is almost vegetarian - skim milk, no fried foods, small portions of chicken, some seafood - but very limited for the ones I like, which are shrimp, crab and lobster. Nuts not salted, lots of natural fruit including those sugar bomb grapes, low/no sugar (but I do not have much of a sweet tooth anyway). I do eat some sweets when presented at a meal, or a candy bar - which will last me a week or two taking one bite at a time/day. No snacks unless a carrot or celery stick between meals, or a single fruit or some unsalted nuts. Very little oil with salads; egg whites but not yokes! WHOLE wheat and whole grain bread, no mayo for sandwiches. Discourage the supposedly healthy nut/grain bars and even cereals. No white rice. ( I asked them why Japanese live longer that most all other people and half of their meals are white rice! They wouldn't answer me!
At church, a fellow who was a couple of years behind me in school came up to me recently and asked outright: "How is the Pritikin diet going for you?" Me:" How do you know about the Pritikin diet? Him: I have been on it for the past 30 years. My dad had heart issues so I knew I had a predisposition for heart trouble and I started on it way back when I heard about it. He likes it.
Other than that I have not heard of anyone else mention it.
BRINWASHING: While it is not real brainwashing - it feels like it. Every one of the PT guys and ladies subscribe to it. Then the Diet class has a 20 - 30 minute video every week, a 30 - 45 minute lecture on it on another day, and one day a week cooking class in which we eat a serving of a Pritikin diet recipe. Everyone is polite and say how good it tastes (I think they are just being polite like Southerners often do - while lying through their teeth) . . . but without a tad of even low sodium salt, it does not satisfy the palate!
I lived in Japan for 26+ years and ate more than my share of sushi, raw fish, squid and other items (stuff) dipped in a soy sauce and even those had more flavor! Of course, many of their soy sauces are 1/3th salt! This diet is good for you (me) but it certainly doesn't have much flavor. Most of it tastes like eating cardboard - which does have fiber at least! I just wish they understood that FLAVOR is a major part of the QUALITY of life once you pass 70!
Any one else know about the Pritikin diet?
Any comments?
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) That would be a huge problem for me.
