Healthy Living

When most people look at me, I am sure that they do not think I'm fat. And I'm not. But, I exercise and eat right (most of the time). However, as I've progressed through grad school, my time at the gym has waned, I don't always have time to cook, and the list goes on and on. So although at surface level, I live a healthy and active lifestyle, but what they don't know is that I've got about 5 pounds I want to shed but no matter what I do, I can't seem to loose 'em, and ALL of it, sits on my lower abs... not my butt or legs or arms, so I can hide it fairly easily.

When I got to the point that I thought I could absolutely not take it anymore, I've got to do something about this before 5 pounds snowballs into 10 or 20, I realized one thing. Although I thought I was making healthy choices, I discovered that it isn't entirely true. Things I thought were healthy and OK to eat, turned out they weren't, or at least weren't optimal. So I set off to the bookstore to find a book about basic nutrition. I get to the store and what do I find but an entire shelf devoted to various fad diets. I don't want a diet. I want to learn about nutrition. But I did find one book, looked like it had potential. AND the cover had a picture of a perfectly poised woman holding a plate of food, not a salad (which is something I could live without). Called Skinny Chicks Don't Eat Salads by Christine Avanti.

I read the book cover to cover in about two days, and I learned A LOT. The first was that I realized that most women should be eating about 1500 calories per day. Before I started this, I took note of what I was eating and was consistently at 2000 calories per day. Not bad, but not great. But, I also realized that I really need to up the protein in my diet, which at a calorie cut, will help me feel full longer. (and, did you know, a person who gets 25% of their calories from protein loses 10% more belly fat than the typical person who gets about 12% of their calories from protein?)

The most important thing is that I am eating every 3-4 hours and am focusing on eating a combination of protein with carbohydrates and vegetables. This keeps your blood glucose levels from going crazy and minimizes the spike of insulin after consuming carbohydrates and hopefully preventing diabetes at a later date. As it turns out, your brain needs glucose every 4 hours or so to maintain function. When I waited 6 hours or so to eat a decent meal, I had problems with chronic headaches and I would feel irritable. No more my friends. No more. Although it may seem like I am always eating, trust me, it's within reason.

Right now, I'm 5'5", 130 lbs BMI ~21.7 with just under 17% body fat. I want to be 5'5", 125 pounds with 14% body fat. That is my goal. Not a big deal you say? Why not try to get down to 120 you say? Well, my lifestyle is changing drastically. I'm learning new habits. I'm doing it naturally and without the aid of any crazy supplements. And it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle change. It is something I will be able to maintain. Which is why I'm not trying to get down to 120, it's not a number that I would be able to maintain like 125 is.

And I would like to add just one thing. We are all responsible for our own health. Nobody is going to do it for us. So if we make some minor (or major) changes now, those are habits that we will be able to pass onto our children and grandchildren so that they will be more inclined to make healthy choices themselves. THAT is my main reason for doing this and taking it seriously.