Have you ever wanted to be more healthy and just never been able to stick to it? Or get the feeling like you can make healthy choices but then find that you want the original version you usually enjoy because you try to hard to make things healthy? That is exactly how I feel, I study nutrition and nutraceutical sciences which (despite) how it sounds doesn’t really teach me to much about nutritional eating, it is a lot more about how food can be used to help with prevention and how foods come to be, health claims and nutritional disorders that are caused by, treated by or can be prevented by foods, but I don’t really learn how to tell someone how to eat, I’m not a dietitian or anything like that!
It gets frustrating to constantly hear about how foods can help, and its all well and good to know that parts of the plants or foods that makes it healthy but if you don’t know what foods it comes from or how to use that food in your every day, it isn’t really that practical of information. I think that it is important to make sure that you are getting as much of the nutrients that you can get from foods every day and maintain health through the foods you eat, and if that is not possible, then supplementation can or should be considered.
I genuinely like healthy foods, I used to (for some reason) have an aversion to salad and now it is officially my best friend. I constantly find myself in the state of mind where I think, yes, I will eat healthy when I live alone, or when I have more space, or when I don’t have to cook just for myself, but today, for some reason I realized that today is just as good as tomorrow, and probably better because it is now, even though I did finish my pizza from last night and a bag of M&Ms, I think I truly did start my healthy life, I feel like total garbage from eating those things, and now there are no longer around for me to eat tomorrow or at a later date. My fridge is always full of healthy foods; I mostly eat fruits and vegetables, with oatmeal or whole grain cereal for breakfast. I sometimes have a protein shake when I am low on protein or when I plan on participating in a fitness class, so I think that I am generally healthy but it is the little things, or the things which I think are little that are the biggest problem. I tend to eat granola bars which are so high in sugar and so processed simply because they are quick and easy, and they taste different than the rest of the fruits, vegetables and yogurt that I eat.
My new things is going to be trying to make things from scratch and try to have all my foods something that I actually made, and go out of my way to purchase ingredients and make the foods knowing exactly what is in them, and trying to not cheat or lose weight or get a certain body, but feel awesome, and stay fit at the same time. My boyfriend always tells me he thinks that I am sexy and hot and that my body is good looking and that he wouldn’t change a thing, but of course that is too hard for a girl to really believe, so I think he deserves for me to feel the way he sees me.
I love to do Zumba classes, and I have made a mental promise to myself, and my boyfriend, that I am going to participate in four classes each week, because I ultimately plan on becoming an instructor and maintaining it as part of my life for the rest of my life!
Why did I suddenly get inspired now? I always want to try new things and eat better and be healthier but some how things get in the way, I don’t even have excuses because I could spend all day just sitting and looking out a window so I truly have no reason to not start. I had a revelation (of sorts) this weekend, here is my story…
My boyfriend was over because we had our reading week and had to come back early so we could both work. He was complaining about digestive problems and how he was just feeling overall crumby. He loves to learn new things and could get totally distracted by simply clicking link after link on the internet learning new thing, I love that about him. He always asks any question he has to me first, for a couple reasons I think, often they are science based and I am a biological science student and study nutrition so if it falls into that category, I tell him what I know and we go from there, and second we are best friends so he likes to hear my opinion as much as I think to hear his. So, back to the story, he wanted to know what kinds of foods we could eat to feel a bit better, so after talking about fiber and stuff of that nature, he reminded me that he wanted to do a cleanse sometime, mostly for interests sake to see how it felt and if it did anything. Lucky for him (or not) I had some saved on my computer from a previous curiosity about cleanses. We tried it out and didn’t really follow so great (which means that cleanse wouldn’t really work) but found that we were horribly grumpy, sleepy and had no energy, so we finished our two day cleanse by ordering pizza and bingeing, and as yummy and happy I felt after that I still wasn’t feeling myself. This is when I realized crazy fads don’t really work, and even though the cleanse we did wasn’t too intense, it would have been more effective to just eat healthy; you can’t change your life in two days.
Part two goes something like this, I have this addiction to M&Ms and I had a bag in my room from a friend as a gift and I cannot resist eating them, and I told my boyfriend to not let me eat them, he agreed by when he was trying to stop me one time he made me feel bad about my self image, which was not his intention, he was simple doing as I asked, but this made me realize that he had such strength and I didn’t, so I am making a change. I am going to not eat M&Ms and start actually making healthy choices and be healthier. I am hoping this blog will help me stay on track and focused, at least for the next 6 weeks as I work super hard at school, and try to change my eating habits.
Here are some of my goals:
- Make my own foods more often, including snacks
- Not to be afraid of eating real foods, instead of highly processed “diet” foods
- Try a new recipe each week
- Work with the recommendations of food intake
- Set goals for trying new kinds of foods
- Getting my fitness on 4 times a week
- Blog at least once a week with a new focus to talk about!
Wish me luck!
xoxo Amanda
