Welcome to my Diet and Exercise Journal! I'm the owner of Micronutrient Gourmet and I created this so that you can see how I eat to maintain optimal health and an optimal weight.
Just so you know where I'm coming from: when I was in high school, I topped out at just over 200 bs (which is clinically obese for my height!) I had numerous health problems, from chronic constipation (I had one bowel movement every 2 weeks, even with fiber supplementation), to immune impairment (I was sick about once every two months), to an overall lack of well-being (I was always tired and needed at least 10-12 hours of sleep a day to function!) My cholesterol, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, and other disease markers were so bad that at the age of 18 I was warned that if I didn't turn things around soon, I could be facing diabetes or a heart attack within the next 5 years of my life. 23 and dead or disabled from heart disease or diabetes--could you imagine? I couldn't. So I decided to change. I'm 23 now, and I believe my stats speak for themselves:
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 120-125 lbs
Cholesterol (total): 120
Cholesterol (HDL/good cholesterol): 57
Triglycerides: 55
Glucose: 89
Blood Pressure: 98/60
I've turned my health around, lost weight, and maintained it for the past four years. It's been an incredibly difficult yet vrey rewarding journey. And now I've created Micronutrient Gourmet.com so that I can share what I've learned over the past four years will all of you and, hopefully, help others turn their health around. I thought it would be helpful for some of you to see how healthy eating works in a real-world setting. After all, I'm just like the rest of you--I have bad days where all I want to do is eat cake, I experience monthly cravings, I get lazy and stop exercising, I have social obligations that force me to eat out or influence me to eat unhealthily, sometimes I "fall off the wagon", etc. So believe me when I say that if I can make this work, so can you!
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reply in this thread or e-mail me at kayla@micronutrientgourmet.com.
------------------------------------------
Measurements (done weekly, on Sunday):
Height: 5'8" Weight: 124 lbs
B: 33" W: 25" H: 36"
Estimated bodyfat: 21%
This week's goals: keep on chuggin'! Make sure to exercise
everyday, as that's where my main difficulty lies. I can diet and count calories all I want, no problem, but exercise...ha! I'm currently averaging about 2-3 days a week. I want to get my waist down to 24", at least, and I know from past experience that it won't go any lower than 25" without regular exercise. Also, maybe working out will boost my chest measurement a bit...my upper body is emaciated looking right now. I'd like to reduce my bodyfat to 13-15% eventually (it was 16-18% nine months ago, but laziness, moving, and lack of gym access has caused me to lose
a lot of muscle), but I know that will take time. I have access to a gym now, so I have no more excuses!
---------------------------------
Food:
Sunday brunch: peanut-butter banana pancakes (recipe pending, will post on micronutrient gourmet when I've perfected it), sugar-free gingerbread capucinno (made w/torani syrup, it's the best!), multivitamin
Snack: apple
Lunch: huge salad w/mixed organic greens, tomatoes, chickpea and lentil sprouts, honey mustard dressing
Snack: peach, small iced sugar-free vanilla latte
Dinner: grilled vegetable skewers courtesy of Bossa Nova Brazilian Cuisine
Dessert: strawberries w/chocolate sauce
