Jersey #9: Kentucky's Journey

It wasn't all that long ago that I would run in horror from the kitchen upon seeing that my mother was serving some disgusting green substance like brussel sprouts or brocolli for dinner. As I child I despised these and just about any other green leafy substance. In fact, the only veggies I would stomach without too much protest were corn, carrots, or a "salad" of iceberg lettuce (nothing too dark green) thoroughly drenched in ranch dressing. As I got older, these tastes didn't change too much. As I became more concious of my body I tried to eat a little healthier, but more often than not that meant skipping the occassional big mac instead of adding the occassional celery stick...

But over the past year or so, I've been rethinking this way of eating. My immune system has always been somewhat lacking, as I catch just about any cold or flu that comes my way. Not to mention I have become increasingly aware of my desire to improve my body and what it would take to add some coveted muscle weight to my frame without slabbing on extra flab. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may recall my initial plan to turn this blog into a nutrition/workout journal. Well, that idea hasn't exactly come to fruition, nor do I plan to revert back to that initial format, but I will say that I have adjusted some of my initial nutrition plans, and that I am currently on a "diet" (I hate this word because it implies that at some point I plan to stop eating this way, which I don't) that is really, really producing some results for me - especially in the way I feel.

First off, I found the meal plan that I had first planned out on this blog was lacking in that it was not customized to ME. When I actually counted out how many calories I would be eating if I followed it exactly, I would only have been injesting about 2000 calories a day. After reading an amazing book on nutrition, I was able to find out that according to my BMR (the number of calories it takes to run all my bodily functions, without adding any physical activity) and the addition of my current activity level (hard exercise 6 days a week) it would take about 2450 calories for me to maintain my weight. Well, if it's my goal to gain some muscle weight, then I would actually need to up that number by about 10-15% putting my calorie goal for each day at about 2700! Of course, I could do that easily by shoving cheeseburgers and pizza down my pie hole...but that would probably not translate into lean muscle mass...more like a nice set of love handles. So I've divided my calories into 6 small meals a day, eating plently of awesome foods like turkey, salmon, brown rice, whole wheat bread, mixed veggies, fruit, tuna, natural peanut butter, etc. In addition, I've wiped out nearly all unhealthy toppings like butter, sour cream....and I also steer clear of anything that lists "hydrogenated oils" or "high fructose corn syrup" anywhere in the ingredients....

And do you know what has happened??? I FEEL GREAT!!! Now...to be sure, I've only been doing the full-fledge program for a couple of weeks - but I haven't had any desires to fall of the track, and I really hope I can keep up this type of healthy eating for the rest of my life. Obviously, there are going to be times when an ice cream cone or a cheeseburger becomes a necessary evil...and that's okay so long as it's not more than once a week. In fact, maybe I could look at it as a sort of reward for getting me to where I want to be........a stronger, faster, more powerful player and person.

So am I a health nut? Well...maybe so. But I still run in horror at the sight of a brussel sprout ;)