Holidays, and the end of week 1!

Whew, Christmas has come and gone and what an intense few days it was! I hope your Christmas was fantastic, spent with family and friends and full of wonderful presents, both given and received! Here is a quick little recap of the last week.

The no/low carb diet is pretty good. I ate a lot more veggies and was a great deal more conscious of what I was taking in. You would be surprised how many foods are loaded with carbs! I cut out all the garbage foods and just at cucumbers, carrots and various other little things here and there. Mostly I focused on eating a nice meal for dinner. It usually ended up being a small piece of meat with mixed veggies, sautéed to perfection. I would also cut the meal in half and eat it part for lunch the next day. It is a fantastic practice to get into and I will continue it in the future. Also, I read online that taking turkey pepperoni and baking it and wiping the grease away makes for a tasty crispy snack. I tried it and wasn’t too impressed. Granted, if you like pepperoni you are better off baking it down anyways, but the texture to me wasn’t enjoyable. Another snack tip, if you take Turkey or Ham from the deli and just roll up 4 pieces, and cut them into 5 pieces each you have a delicious mid day treat.

The biggest benefit I found from not eating bread, pasta, or foods high in carbs; was the overall feeling of being lighter. I didn’t feel bogged down by food. Normally after a meal high in carbs I would become this lethargic mess, as many of us do! We just want to curl up and watch some TV. However, while eating low carb meals I felt very energetic! So, needless to say I love it. I don’t think I will cut out all the pasta and breads from my diet in the future, but for this one week it was an eye opener!

Also, I logged my first 12 hours at the Co-op so I am now officially on the receiving end of a great discount so my food intake will be fantastic come January 1st. I am very much looking forward to see what 2010 brings!

On a side note: If you want a good workout, play a couple rounds of Wii boxing at the Pro level. Or play Wii Tennis with all 4 players being controlled by you! You might look funny in the process but it sure is a good workout!

I will post again soon with a new experiment, and my first 3 product reviews!
Thanks for reading!

Week 1 - No/Low Carb Diet

Ok, so to kick off my first week I figured I would start with a diet that everyone has heard about; the low (or no) carb diet. This seems to have earned its place in our brains as a pretty good amount of people think this is the way to go. I went grocery shopping today and this is what I picked up to start with...

Eggs (1 carton)
Carrots (1 large bag of baby carrots)
Cucumbers
Tofu (2 bricks, extra firm)
Turkey Breast (1 lb, sliced)
Flank Steaks (2)
Green onions
and Mushrooms

...so hopefully I can cook up some tasty low carb meals with this!

For anyone who is curious what foods are low in carbohydrates, check out this website.

I will start today and continue until Friday, giving myself a break over the weekend and time to think of what to do next!

also...

I joined the local co-op and will be working 3-4 hours a week for a good discount. This will allow me to get some much better food into my diet! Woo! And in terms of exercising, I will be doing push ups, sit up, squats and some walking/jogging with the dog. As always, send any questions to stubbornhealth@yahoo.com

Take care! I'm off to the co-op!

Introduction!

Hello Internet! First things first, I am a 23 year old male from Upstate N.Y. For the last 3 years I have had a job in which I sit behind a desk all day and recently I have begun to see just how much of a toll this has taken on me both physically and mentally. Here is a little back-story; as long as I can remember my mother was always extremely healthy, and when I was younger I was very healthy as well. She volunteered at the local co-op, took a jog every morning and ate only whole and organic foods. It must have been sometime after I moved out that my slow decline into laziness and poor food choices started, and having a desk job just moved it along that much faster! Now, at the ripe old age of 23, I am overweight, bored, and just in overall poor health. I need to change my habits before they do anymore damage and I have created this blog to help all others who are just like me! I cannot put into words how excited I am to begin this project, and the many experiments that will go along with it!

Here is a breakdown of things I will be doing for this blog…
1. Maintaining a journal of my food intake, exercise habits and overall physical activity.
2. I will review all packaged foods that I eat in categories of taste, nutrition, availability, and various other factors. If it is something I like and would recommend, I will post links to places where you can buy it with the utmost of ease.
3. I will review all exercise equipment I use for calories burned, ease, experience level, and a few other factors as well.
4. I will post my thoughts on the various diets and natural supplements I will be trying.
5. I will be interviewing various people. I plan on interviewing local organic farmers and finding out why (and if!) organic is always better, what are the fundamentals behind organic and non-organic, etc. I also have plans on finding out some secrets behind weight loss and certain forms of mental health, as well as getting in touch with some celebrities and sports figures to find out their exercise routine and eating habits; if it can work for them maybe it can work for us!

And last but not least!

6. I will be answering any and all questions that I can! If you have a question on an exercise machine, a diet, a supplement or even an old wives tale (an apple a day…) then let me know! Part of the fun of this for me is that I get to act as a human guinea pig! It will make my life much more exciting knowing I am doing something so that I can post it here for anyone to read and use.

So, with all that being said, I hope you enjoy the posts and feel free to email me with any questions you might have: stubbornhealth@yahoo.com