Saturday, January 9, 2010

Introduction/Disclaimer

There are a million health/fitness/get-thin-quick schemes out there and I don't claim to have "the answers." In fact, I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist. To be honest, I'm actually kind of a fat idiot.

So some of these things will need to be taken with a grain of salt (or perhaps a piece of whole grain wheat bread).

That being said, about 6 or so months ago I reached a blubbery level that went from unsightly to downright dangerous. When your body doesn't feel right, you know it and finally I decided to make a change.

In the last 3-4 months, I've lost approx. 15 lbs. and haven't even really done much exercising. It started very unscientifically, with simple decisions like "stop being an asshole who settles for fried food all the time" to eating grilled meat to a burgeoning obsession with semi-accurate calorie counting.

This experience clued me into something: there's a lot people out there who don't give a shit about getting healthier and are totally resigned to scaring hippos with their similar, territory-defining waddles. That being said, my belief is that most Americans (and other fatties) simply don't know what the fuck they're doing.

Do I? No, not really. But I'm going to try my hardest to get there.

What I'm here to provide is an account of my "journey" and (hopefully) a helpful source of practical information. It's easy to say "eat fruits and vegetables; drink more water" but it goes further than that. We, as Americans, are surrounded by deep-fried easy choices and misleading menus with healthy-sque buzz words.

Again, I'm no expert, but I'm here to provide the little tricks I'm learning. At some point, if people enjoy this blog, I'll find a vegetarian and/or vegan and maybe some other writers (perhaps a truly fit person, even?) to round this out and give everyone healthy lunch/breakfast/dinner options. Even from seemingly devious fast food restaurants.

For the time being, I'm going to throw a lot of crap at the wall and see what sticks. Maybe eventually I'll even develop a true "system."

Please correct my health-related ignorance and misconceptions when you see them. Feel free to share your stories, advice and struggles.

The reason this blog is called The Food Evangelist is because better eating is the first thing I've truly felt the need to preach about. Americans (and people in general) need to eat better and the answers (although maybe not ideal) are not as hard to find as you might think.

Welcome to my wacky little food blog, world.

5 comments:

  1. i'm sorta in the same boat. my trick has been simply eating less. stop eating when you've stopped being hungy, don't stop eating when you feel full. it's made a big difference. i've lost 20 lbs just doing that in the last year or so. still have 50 or so to go - not that i look like it.

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  2. I'm trying to eat enough to be satisfied and I wouldn't be shocked if I'm taking in more calories since I read up on healthier foods lately. The reason being that I realize that "good fats"/protein and fiber-heavy foods are good way to stay full during the day.

    When I went on just calories and fat content alone, I always had a crash in the middle of the day.

    Definitely make sure to call me out if I've made any errors on posts and the like, Cassie. Glad you took a look at my puckless blog :)

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  3. And by taking in more calories, I mean than when I started to turn things around. Definitely still consuming less than when I was eating spicy chicken sandwiches from Wendy's like they were going out of style.

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  4. I'm glad you are writing about this James. I'm with Cassie on her view of eating, but I'm interested to see your thoughts on this blog.

    I find it interesting since I live in a city where eating healthy is the 'in' thing to do. There's lot of pressure to be fit here.

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  5. That's the best thing to get peer pressured about, aside from maybe a good old fashioned civil rights movement.

    Thanks for following, both of you.

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