Food.

When I started Weight Watchers about 6 weeks ago, I made a trip to the grocery store. I stocked up on Lean Cuisines, low fat cheese, fat-free sweets, all that stuff.

Then I read three books: 1. Master Your Metabolism, 2. Skinny Bitch, and 3. Diet for a New America.

MyM was a really interesting read, and it got me thinking about eating less processed foods and more whole foods, and why these interact better with your body and your hormones. Skinny Bitch was an annoying book – the authors’ tough love attitude was way too much to swallow. Seriously, tough love != calling me a fat moron. If I ever meet those two chicks on the street, I swear I’m gonna wanna punch them in the face. How dare they call me that. However, they did have some good points about eating healthy, whole foods. They advocate a vegan diet, which is cool for a lot of people, but for me, I stick to pescetarianism. Baby steps. Diet for a New America was also promoting a vegan lifestyle, and opened my eyes to a lot of the lies that the beef and dairy industry feed us. Also an interesting read.

After reading these books, I looked at the ingredients on my Lean Cuisine meal (note: this is before I went veg):

“Cooked chicken tenderloins (chicken tenderloins, high fructose corn syrup, water, corn oil, modified cornstarch, lemon juice concentrate, sodium phosphates, salt, caramel color, potassium chloride, garlic, onion, paprika, spice)…”

Ok, that’s just the chicken – not even counting all the rest of the ingredients. But why can’t it just be…. chicken?
Nope, it’s got all this other stuff in it. Why do you have to put HFCS in chicken? Why all the salt? “Caramel color” what the heck is that?

Would your great grandmother have eaten this? Should WE be eating it? Personally, I would rather have less processed foods in my body. All this man made food-stuffs doesn’t feel right, you know?

So now I’m following a more natural, whole foods diet. Instead of a apple flavored snack bar, I’ll have an apple for breakfast. Instead of a Lean Cuisine meal, I’ll chop up my own organic veggies and saute them with potatoes. I stay away from aspartame and other artificial sweeteners as often as possible.

And you know what? I feel fantastic. I feel better than I have in a long time. My body just seems to work better.

I’m really liking it. =)

It's a first post!

So here’s the start of my new blog!

Some things about me:

1. I’m using the Weight Watchers program to help me lose weight.

2. I have about 20 pounds to lose, and have already lost about 10 (weight loss chart will come soon).

3. I don’t belong to a gym, but I do do some sit ups and push ups regularly (ok, maybe not so regularly. It’s something I have to work on), and I go out and run/walk about 4 days a week. I’m doing the C25K program.

4. I’m a vegetarian that still eats fish, so I suppose that makes me a pescetarian.

Why am I writing this blog? Well, there are a number of reasons. I’m interested in keeping myself accountable and following through with this new healthy lifestyle. I also want to explore issues with culture, society, media, and weight loss. I’d also love to share some healthy recipes with you all, and maybe look at various new health studies that come out and figure out how their findings impact us.

I’ve always been interested in really picking apart all those health studies. Everytime you turn around, there’s something new. “Alcohol has little nutritional value! No, red wine is good for you! Wait, but only in moderation! Also, dark chocolate does wonders for your health! But it’s loaded with fat and sugar! But you need certain fats in your diet to be healthy! But – ” etc etc. What’s really true? Who and what can we trust?

I hope that you’ll join me on this journey, and maybe come away with some interesting advice or knowledge yourself!