The first day of the rest of my life

Ok. So my lovely friend Nicole gave me the advice to write down what I eat in a day..... HOLY CRAP! I didn't realize how much snacking I do. I felt kind of bad every time I wrote something down. Now I know one of the things I need to work on... I am very grateful that the the restaurant that I work at has AMAZING food and very healthy/YUMMY options.

I remember something that a lovely friend of mine told me about, and I have decided to implement it into my new routine! She said that what time of day you eat certain foods makes a big difference on how it reacts in your body. Only have starch and carbs in the morning and at noon and none after noon at all. At dinner have protein and lots of veggies. Snack on whole foods, like veggies, nuts, grains and fruit. So last night I had ribs and corn. It was so good! I found too just the first day doing this I didn't feel as tired after and I felt full and very satisfied. I think this is going to work very well! The only thing i really need to work on figuring out now is timing. Working at night I usually only get time to sit and eat at 10:30 or even 12:30 at night. Maybe I just need to set up some veggies and stuff on my station and just snack all night and not eat a meal that late. Any suggestions?

I didn't have pop last night! Water with lemon all night. The thing is working in a kitchen all night you get really hot and drink alot of water, which is a very good thing. I didn't drink pop at all for a long time. Well when I was a vegetarian I didn't drink pop very much at all. Then I found, for some reason, once I started eating meat again, I started eating really bad. drinking pop and getting into the processed shit again. There is some sort of link for me there. It's very interesting. I was considering of becoming a vegetarian again. But I really do like meat now and enjoy doing new things with it.

I think I just have to be more conscience of what I'm eating. Not a Diet... You say diet to yourself over and over again and I think that you are just doomed to fail. That word to me means depriving your self of all the so called "good tasty" food that everyone seems to be addicted to these days. I am making a life style change. something that is going to stick with me for the rest of my life. So diet is the wrong word to describe it anyway. I'm excited this means that I could have many more years ahead of me then I might have had before if I kept on the path that I was heading on. Well this is exciting! I think the exciting part about this is too that Sean is behind me all the way. He wants the same things and he and my lovely friends support me and listen to my babbling about food all the time. Thanks guys for putting up with me.. I appreciate it!

The new commitment

Ok, I have made this commitment to being healthy and getting into good shape. I know that I have heard this statement from many of people many of times, and about 20% actually follow through with it.

I am determined. My first real step was to realize the food I was eating and cut out preservative full food. Now my new step is alcohol free! I am officially committing myself to no alcohol or soda pop. I know I can do this. I will have to exempt any food I cook at the restaurant that contains alcohol... I think that is fair though.

Being a person that works 100 hours a week this is a very reasonable and exciting step in the right direction. I have heard alot of people on my facebook who made very important commitments to themselves as people and to take care of their bodies. You guys inspired me. I'm going to do it! I have full faith and and positive thought to get to where I want to be as a healthy person. I would really like to thank you guys; Jess Z., Heather Y., Cara F... You all really do inspire me. I love reading about how your training is going. It makes me feel like I, ME, I can do it too!! Thanks again ladies. And if you have any advice for my next step or how to help on this one.

"If we live good times, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times." - Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

Preservatives

I have recently decided to change my diet and watch the preservatives that I ingest. So I started researching. Well first of all there is different kinds of preservatives, antimicrobial (promotes bacteria growth), and antioxidants(doesn't promote bacteria growth). Now there is lots of different natural food preservatives, like salt, vinegar and sugar. What about these 'modern synthetic preservatives'?

Wikipedia states this about Health Concerns of Synthetic; 'Some modern synthetic preservatives have become controversial because they have been shown to cause respiratory or other health problems. Some studies point to synthetic preservatives and artificial coloring agents aggravating ADD & ADHD symptoms in those affected.[1][2] Older studies were inconclusive, quite possibly due to inadequate clinical methods of measuring offending behavior. Parental reports were more accurate indicators of the presence of additives than clinical tests. [3] Several major studies show academic performance increased and disciplinary problems decreased in large non-ADD student populations when artificial ingredients, including preservatives were eliminated from school food programs. [4][5] Allergenic preservatives in food or medicine can cause anaphylactic shock in susceptible individuals, a condition which is often fatal within minutes without emergency treatment.'

One thing to consider is that just because something was FDA approved does not make it completely safe to be consumed on a daily basis for many lengths of time. Alot of these products haven't had the luxury of being around long enough to know the actual long term effects on our bodies. Like it has been mentioned before alot of things are fine in moderation. But in reality when it comes to things like preservatives, and artificial sweeteners, how much moderation is actually possible? Alot of the synthetic preservatives are in many different products that you may eat daily. For example if you are trying to watch what you eat and limit your sugar consumption, then the artificial sweeteners will be in many products that you eat like; yogurt, diet pop, crystal light drink etc. This is the problem. In a perfect world these would be introduced to us in only one product and it would be well advertised that it is there and there possible effects. This way we could make a conscience choice of using the product or not, knowing exactly what was in it and it's possible long term and short term on effects our bodies.

So when considering moderation of food, be aware of the difference between whole foods, and processed foods which have many preservatives in them. It's amazing what you may notice about the foods that you are used to eating. It's no wonder that there are more and more people who are dedicating themselves to whole food diets, and raw food diets.

The effects of the food we eat!

Not too long ago I read the book, 100 mile diet. This really opened my eyes to Canada's sustainable food market. While reading this book I became very aware of my surroundings when it came to the food I ate and what and where it was produced with. The lack of communication between us and our food suppliers have became very apparent to me. When I realized that 90% of the ingredients on the list on most of the foods I would eat on a regular basis were words that I couldn't pronounce I was shocked. Then I thought it would be interesting to google some of these fantastically long and medical like terms. Try it! take something that you eat regularly or love to eat, "out of the box, can or bag." What do you find?



I also found that alot of foods that you would think contain sugar actually contain every modified sugar substances then actual pure sugar. There are so many types of sweeteners out there. Some of which are killing us slowly that some people are in jesting on a daily basis. We have grown up learning that too much sugar is bad for us. What about too much preservatives? What about these products that have been proven to be shortening our life spans in this generation? Aspartame is a perfect example. Do you know what foods that you eat have this so called "great diet product"? I see many people who will only drink diet pop. Well in reality (my opinion) it is way better for you to be drinking a little less regular pop then it is to drink diet pop more often. I stopped in jesting anything that contained aspartame and I know that myself I feel alot better. I didn't even realize that I felt bad in the first place. I believe that alot of us has grown up and such products as this and don't realize what they may be doing to our bodies. Try it see how you feel different. here are a couple of links that you may find interesting: http://www.buildingbodies.ca/Nutrition/Aspartame_In_Your_Diet.shtml , http://www.natural-health-information-centre.com/aspartame.html