First Big Health Post (Part 1)

Goooood afternoon, everyone!

Whether you're gearing up for final exams, graduation, or, like me, just another week at the office, I hope your week is off to a good start. Up to this point, my posts have primarily been about the foods I've been eating, but today I wanted to change gears slightly and discuss how I've been doing physically (and mentally) with the experiment so far, and examine some recent articles that I read that discuss various eating habits, vegan and vegetarian ones in particular....don't worry, I'll still talk about food as well! This is likely going to be a lengthier post, so I'll break it down into two parts. Let's start with how I'm feeling, the changes I've noticed, and my personal plans for the remainder of the experiment.

As for how I'm feeling, I still feel great! I've not been lacking energy during the day, and I've been sleeping really well at night. Weight-wise, I'm down about 6 pounds from my weight when I started the experiment a couple weeks ago. I've not been going to the gym since starting the experiment, thought that's been more due to a lack of time than anything else. However, I was definitely feeling the workout from the hiking adventure in my legs and back for a few days last week. To ensure I was still receiving the majority of vitamins and minerals that I need, I had been taking the One A Day Men's Health multivitamin each day, however I happened to look on the label one day and found a heartbreaker; the capsules contain gelatin, which is a big time vegan no-no. They also contain a small amount of soybean oil. So, I'm going to be in search of a new multivitamin that has a sufficient ingredient profile AND a vegetarian capsule.

Label disappointment :(

I've still been meeting my friend Sarah for our weekly walks and lunches at Earth Fare. This past Saturday we walked about 3 and 1/4 miles, then later that afternoon I went to the park here in Bristol and ran another 6 miles in the rain, which actually felt really nice. I do plan on stepping up my gym attendance as well as workouts on my own time. This is going to be made more difficult once my rehearsal schedules for my two summer shows start overlapping in May, but I'm just going to have to make gym visits, home workouts, and running part of my schedule like anything else. I've found a 4-week weight and cardio interval workout that I really like that I may try starting the Monday after my birthday weekend, which would actually have it finishing up the week that I open my first show of the summer. I'm going to do a bit more research on it, but I'll be sure to keep you all posted if I decide to incorporate it. If I do, I'll most likely mix it up a bit and use things like my spin class at the gym to substitute for some of the interval days.

There's only so much weight (from fat) that a person can lose by their diet alone. There absolutely MUST be other physical elements incorporated to fight our biggest enemy in that particular battle: our metabolism. Our bodies are incredible works of art, even down to the most basic elements that have been used to keep us alive for the entirety of our existence. Our bodies recognize our fat stores as energy sources, and when we drastically change our eating habits to a lifestyle that encourages the use of these fat stores for energy (like the paleo mindset), our bodies REALLY don't want to let go of the last little bit of fat that most of us see as being the final hurdle toward achieving our goals. It's simply a survival mechanism doing its job. So often, we focus on how many calories we burn during our workouts, but in reality, it's the calories that we're burning throughout the rest of the day that matter most. Performing just one form of exercise, whether it be weight/resistance, cardio, etc. will only get you so far. You must incorporate a variety of activities to really kick up your metabolism and make sure your body is burning a steady number of calories throughout the day, even while you're sleeping! I'll leave the science of this up to the fitness experts, but hopefully over the next couple of months I'll be able to lead by example. Next up, the pros and cons of various lifestyles, and a look at what I've been eating!

First Big Health Post (Part 2)

For the second part of today's health post, I wanted to spend a little bit of time discussing some varying views and opinions of both vegan and paleo lifestyles. An article this week was published by WebMD from a feature in Marie Claire magazine titled "The Vegan Myth". I'll let you read the article yourself, but it essentially calls into question the use of a vegan diet (bear in mind it only looks at the food aspect of veganism, not other lifestyle choices) as a healthy means of weight-reduction and improved health. It describes the stories of a few individuals who initially experienced success with a vegan diet, but who eventually began to languish physically and mentally. In the same email, they also included a link to a slideshow about the benefits of adopting a vegetarian lifestyle, so they are definitely making an effort to show both sides of the issue.

Another article found on WebMD (I'm using them as sources because I happen to receive daily emails from them, but I encourage you to go out and do your own research) gives a Diet Review of the paleo lifestyle. It describes the diet in the strictest of terms, which as you know, I'm not following exactly. While the review does praise some of the benefits that can be gained from this lifestyle, it also states that it is not a very sustainable plan for one of the primary reasons that the other article states that veganism is not sustainable for most:

Lack of variety

This can certainly be a stumbling block for those individuals out there who hate grocery shopping, hate cooking, and see sitting down to a meal as a chore rather than something to enjoy. And yes, cutting out certain food groups can be a challenge, especially when it comes to making sure we receive all of our vital nutrients, and even more so when those ugly cravings pop up for things that we're not supposed to eat. This all just means that you have to be creative in the kitchen, put a little thought into what you're eating, and try to have some fun with it! Nothing will stop a diet short quicker than becoming bored with it.

That's what I did over this past week.

I LOVE Asian foods. One of the hardest things about this experiment has been not going down to my favorite Chinese restaurant and stuffing my face full of rice, tofu, and soup. Another of my favorite Asian-inspired restaurants to eat at is P.F. Chang's. They have a well-known appetizer on their menu that a number of you may have tried; the lettuce wraps. They can be ordered with either a meat or vegetarian filling, and essentially consist of a heap of the filling along with a stack of lettuce leaves for you to build your own wraps with at the table. I decided to try to recreate this setup while mimicking those flavors that I love. I took some diced onion, orange bell pepper, and celery along with some grated carrots and sauteed them in olive oil with some garlic and a healthy handful of red chili flakes. To season, I used a little bit of salt and pepper, a pinch of curry powder, a little dried basil, some sriracha (of course), and a heaping tablespoon of almond butter to replicate that awesome peanut flavor found so often in Thai cooking. Since I couldn't really use soy sauce, I added a few splashes of balsamic vinegar, not only to brighten the flavor profile a bit with some acidity, but also to develop that rich savory flavor that soy would normally provide. Instead of lettuce leaves I used cabbage because I love the natural sweetness of cabbage, plus the thicker leaf isn't as prone to tear when making your wrap. For a side dish, I just made a super quick and refreshing tomato, cucumber, and onion salad that I dressed with some red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Cabbage wrap ecstasy with a bright, fresh salad (click for larger photos)

Next, I took an earlier experiment (remember my eggplant sliders?) and redid it, only this time with a bit more success. I used bigger slices of eggplant, and I tossed them with salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl with a bit of olive oil, then put them into a dry, preheated pan. The eggplant absorbed enough of the oil from tossing them so I didn't need to add any more. I then did a repeat of my sweet potato fries, only this time I spaced them out more evenly, put them in a hotter oven (450 instead of 375), and also used the tossing with oil technique (along with salt and pepper) instead of drizzling them, which leaves pools of oil on the baking sheet. This resulted in MUCH crispier and tastier fries. I even made my own spicy dipping sauce with some sweet and hot mustard, a little bit of ketchup (a very small amount so as to avoid too much added sugar), and some sriracha (once again). I enjoyed all of this with some sliced kiwi and a salad that I made with chunks of cantaloupe, cucumber, and some diced red onion and jalapeño, all drizzled with some fresh lime juice and a tiny bit of agave nectar. I can't even begin to describe how delicious all of it was!

My improved 2nd attempt at my eggplant slider meal. Even the eggplant was happy!

I then had an inspiration for another meal. On my last grocery shopping trip, the cashier, after ringing up all of my produce, made a joking comment to the effect of "did you clean out all of our green racks back there?". My response was something like "Hopefully it'll last me about a week or so". But then I got to thinking, could I make a dinner that was entirely green? This past Sunday night, I decided to give it a try. I had been wanting to make a "pasta" dish for a while now, but since my favorite go-to spaghetti squash is out of season, I had to go with another option. I had heard of people shredding zucchini to make noodles before, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I also had some other green veggies like celery, broccoli, green onions, jalapeños, and asparagus to throw into the mix. I still needed to come up with some sort of sauce though. Then the obvious hit me: pesto! Traditional pestos are made with fresh herbs (usually basil), garlic, olive oil, some type of grated hard cheese like parmesan or romano, and pine nuts, all processed together into a tasty green pesto. Well, I didn't have any fresh herbs or pine nuts, and I can't have cheese, so I had to put my improvisation skills to the test again. I still needed something leafy to give the pest some body, so I tossed in a handful of spinach leaves that I had roughly chopped, and supplemented this with some dried parsley to impart the herbaceous flavor. I proceeded with the garlic and olive oil along with some salt and red chili flakes. I even threw in some diced jalapeños and some green and red onions (my secret hidden non-green food item). Instead of pine nuts, I then added some shelled, roasted pistachios. They gave it a great flavor, and they're even green! I tossed the pesto in with my green veggies and added a few white mushrooms (they picked up the green from the pesto, so they still count), and tossed it all together with my shredded zucchini noodles that I just warmed in the microwave.

For sides, I made some super simple kale chips by slicing the kale leaves away from the thick stem then cutting them into bite-sized pieces. I placed them on a baking sheet with a light drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt, then put them in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes or so. For something sweet, I sliced up another juicy green kiwi. I was pleased with myself at how great everything looked, and I was ecstatic with how it tasted!

Apparently it IS easy being green...and delicious!

Speaking of sweet things, I've been having WAY more cravings of the sweet toothed variety than I'd ever had before, so when I found this idea online for vegan and paleo friendly two-ingredient ICE CREAM, I felt as though I'd stumbled upon some holy artifact. Here's the recipe in it's entirety....are you ready? Take 4 bananas, slice them, put in the freezer for about 2 hours, taken them out, put them in a blender or food processor, puree until smooth, add 2 tablespoons of almond butter and mix until combined....THAT'S IT!! It created the smoothest, creamiest texture you could ever hope to have in an ice cream, and the perfect balance of sweetness and nuttiness was just what I needed to satisfy that craving.

I'm not actually holding it above Manhattan, but its praises should be sung from rooftops!

In summation, yes it is CRUCIAL to add in a variety of foods, especially when embarking on a plan that involves the elimination of certain food groups like paleo and vegan diets, or both in my case. Just listen to your body and stay healthy. Until next time...



Much love to you all,

Jon

Camping Trip

Hello, everyone!

This past weekend, a couple of friends and I went on a little hiking/camping excursion to a place called Graveyard Fields in the mountains of North Carolina. It is located about an hour south of Asheville on the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway. The weekend was, shall we say, an adventure. But before we get to that, let's talk about how the day started!

We got to Asheville around lunch time and met one of my best friends, who lives in the area, for lunch at the Laughing Seed Café downtown. I'd done some investigation into their menu online before I went, and knew exactly what I wanted before we even arrived. First of all, their entire menu is vegetarian to begin with, and a huge number of the items are vegan and/or gluten free, or can be made that way upon request. They are more than willing to accommodate your individual needs. I was faced with a bit of indecision because everything looked so amazing, but I saw two items that particularly jumped out at me and fit perfectly with my current eating plan. First was the Omega Hempnut Burger. It's made with a hempnut patty and served with lettuce, tomato, red onion, clover sprouts, grated carrots, and red cabbage with a red pepper aioli. However, there was also another item that caught my attention called the Dragon Bowl. It's part of a couple of items they have on the raw portion of their menu and contains (are you ready for all this?): cauliflower-nut rice, seasonal vegetables, arugula, avocado, and a sunflower seed-beet paté, all topped with house made kim chee, organic purple kraut, and miso-tahini sauce.

Now, before your overwhelming anxiety sets in wondering how I could ever possibly choose between these two incredible options, let me put your mind at ease...I ordered both! For the burger, I just had them leave off the bun, and normally their sandwiches are served with organic blue corn chips, but I upgraded this to their jalapeño onion fries because...well, why would you not? I figured that I could just take any leftovers that I had with me up to the mountains to either eat as a snack during the day or to accompany our dinner that night (more on that later). This wasn't an issue though, because there was nothing leftover to take. I happily and shamelessly devoured it all. I would have loved to have taken a picture to show you the glory that was placed on the table in front of me, but my primal instincts kicked in before I ever had a chance to grab my phone. If you're ever in downtown Asheville looking for a unique, affordable place to eat that emphasizes quality, healthy, local ingredients, you MUST visit The Laughing Seed Café located above Jack of the Wood pub. Check out their website and menu here and be sure to Like them on Facebook!

Pleasantly full, we headed out to the mountains. The weather during the day was absolutely PERFECT for hiking. When we arrived, we immediately went to the campsite and set up the tent to save our spot.

Me setting up the tent. Photo courtesy of April Gardner.

At Graveyard Fields, there are two sets of water falls, the upper and lower falls. Our campsite was just below the lower falls, so we walked back up to them and spent a bit of time just relaxing in the sun on the rocks in the river, enjoying the spray of the falls.

Vitamin D at its finest. Please pardon my pastiness.

We then decided to start the hike to the upper falls. It had rained the previous day and night, so there was quite a bit of mud and extra water running along parts of the trail, but it was still a very enjoyable hike. When we arrived at the base of the upper falls, there was a dry enough path up the rocks so that we could walk up them to view the upper falls in their entirety.

I'll take views like this any day.

We then hiked back to the parking area to gather the reminder of our supplies for the evening (including all of our firewood and water) and hauled it back down to the campsite. By this time, the sun was beginning to set and the temperature began noticeably dropping. We got the fire started then began to prepare our food. The night before, we had already chopped all of our vegetables and put them into plastic containers. We also took a bottle of olive oil and poured in part of a packet of chimichurri herbs that I had and let it sit over night. We then placed the vegetables in foil packets with some of the oil, then placed them by the fire. We actually had three different packets. One contained potatoes, carrots, onions, and bell peppers. Another contained eggplant, zucchini, and sweet potatoes. The third contained some apples, pears, and bananas (no oil in that one).

Our cooking set-up (no idea why the fire's purple) and one of the packets. (Click for larger image)

By this time, it was getting cold...not just a little chilly out. No, I mean COLD, as in ice-forming-on-all-our-stuff-including-our-sleeping-bags cold. After eating a bit, we made the executive decision around 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. to break camp and head back to the car. What had taken us a total of 3 trips throughout the day to carry down to the campsite we somehow managed to gather up into one single load. The distance back to the parking area was only about 1/3 of a mile, but there's quite an elevation change, so it took a solid 20 minutes to get everything back up, not to mention the added weight of all our gear (my packs alone weighed a total of about 55 lbs). After all of that, I was glad that I had eaten all of my food at Laughing Seed plus one of each of the packets we'd made, otherwise I'd have been struggling. Once we got back to my trusty 4Runner, I drove us back down off the mountains and back to my friends' place in Johnson City with the comforts of heat and cats to keep us warm, where we arrived a little after 3:00 a.m.

My portion of the gear in the back of the 4Runner.

All in all, it was still a fun experience, and we're already planning a redo sometime once the weather gets warmer, though possibly more in the area of Hot Springs, NC. I'm hoping to go grocery shopping again this week and to try some new recipe ideas I've got circling around in my brain. Stay tuned to see how they turn out!

Much love to you all,

Jon

First 3 Days, First Big Food Post

Ok...
I said I would have this post up last night, but I spent a bit of time at my parents' house gathering some gear for my camping trip this weekend, so by the time I got home, all I wanted to do was sleep, and you all deserve much more than a groggy, half-hearted attempt at my writing efforts (not that the wide awake, high energy posts are much better). But I digress...

So, I've made it through my first three full days of the experiment, and so far, things are going great! I've been putting my produce to good (and delicious) use and I've even come up with a few interesting creations along the way. For breakfasts this week I've been doing fresh fruits and smoothies I've made at home, sometimes with the addition of some almond or hazelnut butter. For lunch I've been having veggies and some dinner leftovers. Dinners are where I've been letting the creativity flow as you'll see below...

On Monday I made what I'm calling eggplant sliders (without the bun obviously). I guess if I wanted to be really fancy shmancy I could call it something like a "savory eggplant napoleon"...but let's be real... They were simply some seasoned slices of eggplant that I sauteed on each side in a little bit of olive oil, just until they softened a bit. Then on each one I piled on some spinach, tomato, some garlic sauteed mushrooms, some fresh jalapeño, and a few drops of sriracha (I like my spice!). To accompany it I made some simple baked sweet potato fries, some sauteed broccoli and red peppers, and some of my fresh guacamole. Everything tasted great, and even my family was somewhat surprised that I was able to eat some many different things after their initial skepticism over my plans for the experiment (I decided to help mom out and just gave her a list of the things I can and can't eat).

Sweet potato fries, eggplant sliders, and sauteed broccoli with peppers (click for larger photo)

Since the first night's cooking adventures had gone so well, I decided I'd be brave and try something new. I found a recipe online on another culinary blog, Foodie McBooty (gotta admit, I'm incredibly jealous of that name) for...are you ready?...a vegan and paleo friendly pizza. I'm just going to assume that your jaw is smacking the floor now like mine was. The recipe, which can be found here, actually uses cauliflower as the primary ingredient in the crust! Combine that with some almond flour and a couple of other ingredients I'll discuss in a moment, and you have a surprisingly tasty crust substitute on top of which you can pile your favorite sauce and veggies. The only thing I'd probably do different from the recipe next time has to do with the amount of time in the oven. I'd probably blind bake it (that is, bake it by itself before toppings) a bit longer, perhaps even under the broiler for a few minutes just to get it to set up a little firmer/crispier.

Now, as for those two ingredients I mentioned earlier, my eyes have been opened to a wondrous secret...actually it's not a secret at all to long-time vegans. That is the wonder of ground flax seed and nutritional yeast. A tablespoon of ground flax, when combined with 3 tablespoons of hot or boiling water, whisked well, and allowed to sit in the fridge for about 15 minutes, makes the PERFECT substitute for eggs in many recipes. The consistency is spot on. Also, nutritional yeast gives a great savory flavor to just about anything you could think to put it on.

I used Bragg nutritional yeast, but there are several brands out there.

My cauliflower crust pizza!

Apparently I was still in an Italian mood on Wednesday night, because I came up with my own variation on eggplant parmesan. I took some sliced eggplant, dredged it in some of the same type of flax egg mixture I'd used in the pizza crust, then breaded it in some almond flour seasoned with sea salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I then browned both sides of the slices in some olive oil, then set them aside. In a large baking dish I put down a layer of pasta sauce (tomato, basil, and garlic flavor I believe it was), then my eggplant slices. Then I topped them with red onion, scallions, jalapeño, zucchini, tomato, and mushrooms, followed by another layer of sauce, and finally a healthy sprinkling of nutritional yeast over the top to replicate the parmesan. This all went in the oven to bake. Also in the oven were some chunks of sweet potato, carrots, and mushrooms that I was roasting. Once everything was done in the oven, I also threw together a big spinach salad with tons of veggies, some almonds, and some sunflower seeds, then dressed it with a balsamic vinaigrette that I made myself and tossed on some sliced strawberries. I ate to the point of being miserably full...yet I didn't have to feel guilty about ANYTHING that I'd eaten, and I have plenty of eggplant leftover for at least 2 more meals. Double win!

Eggplant parm before baking, on the plate with my roasted roots, and my strawberry spinach salad (click for larger photo)

At some point I'll try to create a post with actual "recipes" for you all to try at home.

Hope you've enjoyed reading about and looking at these creations as much as I enjoyed eating them (if that's even possible). I'm going to try to post again this weekend with some pictures of my camping trip, the foods we bring along, and the results of possibly my first restaurant visit of the experiment! Until then...

Much love to all of you,

Jon

First Grocery Shopping Trip

A happy Sunday evening to all of you! Now that the weekend is coming to a close and I'm still in the process of digesting all of the foods I made it a point to eat before the experiment started, I thought I'd give you an update including the results of my first grocery store visit in preparation for the weeks (and months) ahead.

I had planned on making a shopping list based around a few recipes that I was going to try this week so that I would avoid just buying a bunch of random things without any idea of what I'd do with them. This did not happen, and I walked into the produce section at Kroger with what I'm sure was a fairly lost, vacant facial expression. Now, most of my grocery cart is typically filled with items from the produce department, but they're usually selected with the idea of preparing them to eat WITH something else, not to be consumed on their own. Fortunately, there were a TON of awesome looking, fresh items that were on sale this week, some of them as low as $0.79-0.99 per pound like eggplant, zucchini, anjou pears, and braeburn apples to name a few. After the couple of coupons I had (don't worry, I'm not one of THOSE people...yet), the total came to $86.31, which I was very happy with. I'm planning on going shopping roughly every week to week and a half just to keep things fresh.

All in all, I walked out with:
Almonds, almond milk, apples, avocados, bananas, bell peppers, blackberries, blueberry pomegranate juice, broccoli, carrots, celery, eggplant, flax seeds, grapes, jalapenos, kiwis, mushrooms, orange juice, pistachios, red onions, scallions, spinach, strawberries, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini.

...I think that's all of it. Or better yet, here's what it all looked like when I brought it home!

You know you're jealous of my awesome retro green kitchen floor.

Also, after my Saturday afternoon lunch with my friend Sarah yesterday, I picked up an item at Earth Fare in Johnson City that I kept finding in nearly every paleo recipe: coconut oil.

Only about $5.00 with my Earth Fare Tomato Bank points!

I was a bit concerned by the saturated fat content of coconut oil, but like so many ingredients, when used in moderation, coconut oil and the compounds found in it (like lauric acid) can be part of a healthy diet...not to mention it provides a HUGE flavor boost to the foods that are cooked in it. I've been told that once I've tried sweet potatoes cooked in coconut oil, I'll never go back to eating them any other way. I suppose we shall see!

I'm still trying to think of some good ways to use the ingredients that I purchased, but I know for a fact I'll be using some of the fruits to make some smoothies for breakfast. I'll also be making some guacamole with the avocado and some baba ganoush with the eggplant. Not only do those taste great on their own, but they're great vehicles to use for dipping some of my other veggies in. I think one of the things I'm most excited about is putting my creativity to use in finding some new, innovative ways to use these ingredients to A.) satisfy my hunger B.) make sure I'm getting all my nutrients, and C.) not get bored with what I'm eating.

Tomorrow's the big day when things get started. I'm excited to get things underway! I'll make sure to post the "recipes" for the items I make this week. I say "recipes" because I don't actually work off of specific recipes, but I'll do my best to write things down as I prepare them so hopefully you and I can recreate them again in the future.

Hope you all have a great week!

Jon

ThePaleoVeg on Twitter

You can now also follow the experiment on Twitter @ThePaleoVeg! Be sure to follow for even more updates!

"So, what's all this about?": An Introduction (Part 1)

Hey y'all!! ....ok, I'm already starting this out poorly. Let's try that again...

Hi, everyone! My name's Jon, a 26 (soon to be 27) year old male residing in Bristol, TN. I, like an ever-growing number of Americans, am continually searching for ways to improve my health, appearance (read as "weight"), and overall physical well-being. This blog is here to catalog and share my experience as I attempt to pursue what I'm calling a paleo-vegan style of eating for the next couple of months. I'll give a bit more background on myself and my reasons/motivation behind this in future entries. I plan on sharing as many aspects of this "experiment" as I can including how I'm feeling, any physical changes I observe in myself, what I'm eating (hopefully including some recipes), the kinds of physical activities I'm doing, and anything else that I feel might be of interest to you as I go on this little journey. I encourage you to share your comments, suggestions, tips, recipes, etc, and I really hope that all of these ramblings of mine may serve some benefit to some of you out there!

In my next post, I'll be sharing a bit about my personal history and what brought me to this point. Until then...

(I need to come up with some sort of tag line to end these posts)

Jon

"So, what's all this about?": An Introduction (Part 2)

I figured I should give you all a bit of background on why I've decided to do this. This post may get a bit long, so bear with me.

I was born and raised here in Tennessee, which, according to a 2012 CDC report, is tied with Virginia as being the 12th most obese state in the country (coincidentally, Bristol sits right on the state line of TN and VA). I've never been what you would call a picture of fitness. As a child, I was generally one of the heavier kids in class. This was mitigated somewhat by a healthy growth spurt as I entered my teens (I'm 6'2" now), but that didn't last long. I didn't play sports in middle school or high school except for a brief stint doing shot put and discus at the end of my senior year. My lifestyle was fairly sedentary.

After graduating high school, I went to college at Clemson University in South Carolina (an even heavier 8th on the CDC list). Fortunately, Clemson has a fairly large campus, so just walking to and from class expanded my physical activity by quite a bit. Whereas many new college students gain the infamous "freshman 15", I actually LOST somewhere around that much after my first year. But, as our bodies tend to do, my metabolism adjusted and I experienced a plateau, then some weight began to slowly creep back on.

For the second half of my junior year at Clemson, I spent a semester studying abroad in Córdoba, Argentina. Although the typical Argentine diet is pretty heavy on meats and breads, this South American diet is still generally a bit leaner and healthier than the typical American South diet. Also, I didn't have a car while I was there, so I had to rely HEAVILY on walking to and from campus, or walking several blocks to the bus stop to get elsewhere, plus we also went on a number of weekend hiking/camping/climbing excursions and vacations throughout the 5 months I lived there. Needless to say, I dropped a significant (to me) amount of weight while I was there. I came back to the States, spent the summer in Tennessee, then got ready to start my senior year at Clemson. So, I went from walking nearly everywhere I went, lots of activity on the weekends, and fairly healthy eating back to having a car, eating my favorite Southern foods that I'd missed so much, and starting my final year of college which wasn't too rough since I'd gotten many of my harder classes out of the way early on. It bears mentioning that I turned 21 while abroad, so I was then able to go out to all of the bars and such in Clemson when I got back home. Over the course of that final year, I ballooned to the heaviest I'd ever been, and ultimately wound up somewhere in the mid 250s.

Because the economy and job market had pretty much hit rock bottom when I graduated in May of 2008, I was unemployed for some time (about 8 months) after graduation. This didn't exactly do wonders for my motivation. I should mention at this point that during most of the summers since high school, I would participate in shows with a local theatre organization here in Bristol. It would give me something to pass the time in the summers, plus many of my friends participated as well. Now that I found myself back in Tennessee, I started helping out with the kids summer camp that the theatre was doing and helped out on stage and off with their summer productions (still unsure if I might be moving back to South Carolina for some job opportunities that ultimately fell through). When it became clear that I'd be in TN for the foreseeable future, I decided to audition for the theatre's Fall production of The Wizard of Oz, in which I was cast as the Tin Man. One of my best friends was also cast in the show as the Cowardly Lion. Neither of us were happy with our weights at the time, so we decided to devote ourselves to losing as much weight as we could and developing a healthier lifestyle before the show opened.

Well, since I was still unemployed, I had nothing but time on my hands during the day, and I lived right beside the park here in Bristol, so I would go out walking nearly every day of the week, sometimes upwards of 7 or 8 miles a day, then go to the theatre for rehearsal at night. I also began meticulously journaling what I was eating and drinking. Rehearsals began in September, and through the run of that show and a small holiday production thereafter in December, I lost over 50 pounds!

**Disclaimer: the final 3 or 4 pounds were the result of a bout of food poisoning that struck in mid-December. Anyone who's ever dealt with that will understand me when I say those are the most agonizing few pounds you could ever lose...**

Here's a before and after image from September 2008-December 2008:

Definitely a bit of a difference. Anyway, in January of 2009 I FINALLY entered the workforce and have been gainfully employed ever since. This, however, as most of you know, made it far more difficult to focus on my health like I had been. The quality of my meals became less of a priority, and exercise shifted to the back burner. I was eventually able to find time to start doing some shows again here and there, some of them more physical than others, and like everyone would occasionally get on a short-lived health kick here and there, and of course life likes to throw us other personal curve balls and hurdles from time to time, so my weight began to rollercoaster up and down over the next few years. I started 2012 wanting to really refocus back on my health, so I increased my exercise frequency, started trying to make healthier choices. I even ran my first EVER road race of any kind, a 10k, on St. Patrick's Day that year. This was a huge personal accomplishment, and one that's encouraged me to run in a few other races since that time. Something wasn't right though...

For several weeks, it didn't seem to matter what I ate, but after almost every meal I would get this intense nauseated feeling as though I were going to be sick, no matter how simple or basic the food choice. I tried adjusting just about everything you could think of, but it didn't seem to matter. Then, on April 21, 2012, I went grocery shopping and made a decision: let's go vegetarian. I figured, if nothing else, it would help give my digestive system a sort of "clean slate" to work out whatever problems were going on, and I had several vegetarian/vegan friends that I could count on for encouragement. I still ate eggs and dairy, just no actual meat.

I've not been 100% faithful to this lifestyle since that time. But, as my friend Sarah discusses on her awesome blog "What I Vegan", I've still been able to evade arrest by the vegetarian/vegan police. (More on the "purity" of my food choices, even with my upcoming experimental endeavor, in my next post)

Long story short: problem solved. I felt GREAT, and still do! I actually began to drop weight again, and never suffered any lack of energy (though I did have one brief episode where I let my iron get low...not something to mess around with, gang). I work, do shows, spend time with friends, and I even joined the YMCA in the fall of 2012 which gives me a great variety of ways to keep active. I'm still not where I want to be though, which brings me to today...

Read my next post for more on where I plan to go from here.

Peace out! (no, definitely don't like that tag line...)

Jon

"So, what's all this about?": An Introduction (Part 3)

Let's get into the real meat of things (pun semi-intended):

I'm at a point now where I want to try something that will give me another firm push in the right direction. There's been a lot of discussion in recent months about "Caveman" and "Paleo" diets that attempt to replicate the eating habits of our earliest ancestors who would have eaten only the foods we were "meant to eat" before the ages of agriculture and processed foods came along. The diets emphasize high protein, generally through a comparatively high level of meat consumption, and relatively low carbs because of the omission of any sorts of grains and things of that nature as well as refined sugars. This does somewhat differ from other high protein diets in that pretty much all other vegetables and fruits (limited with some plans) are fair game. Countless individuals have reported successful, sustainable weight loss, as well as improved mood, energy, and overall feelings of well-being with these plans. It sounded to me like something I'd want to try, but I wasn't necessarily willing to forgo my vegetarian lifestyle that I've adapted to and enjoy so much. That's when the wheels started turning and I began to do a bit of research. There were some folks out there ranging from your everyday vegetarians and vegans all the way up to high endurance athletes (see another favorite blog of mine, No Meat Athlete) who had tried varying versions of these diets, so I knew it wasn't impossible.

That's not to say it's exactly easy. Most vegetarians and vegans rely on things like soy (and its derivatives), wheat gluten, a number of grains, and several varieties of beans and other legumes for their protein. Unfortunately, all of these are off limits with traditional paleo-style diets.

I feel like it's time for another **DISCLAIMER: I am not a certified nutritionist, nor am I any sort of self-proclaimed expert on nutrition, diets, eating plans, or any related fields. I'm not a medical expert, and all of the views expressed throughout the entries on this blog are simply my personal observations and deductions that are based on the research that I have done, however deep and thorough it may or may not have been.**

Just figured I'd throw that out there in case I say something that's not 100% accurate about any of these lifestyles or someone mistakes me for some type of dietary guru. But I digress. Back to the topic at hand.

Sure, I could still eat eggs as a protein source, but anyone who's done one of those diets where you eat a hard-boiled egg for more than one meal a day knows they get old REAL quick, so I though I might try to make the jump from vegetarian to vegan in my approach since my other non-vegan love, dairy, is also a paleo "no no".

Am I going to always adhere to the strictest standards of the paleo and vegan philosophies? Probably not. You see, I LOVE food. I love cooking it, eating it, experiencing new ones, discussing it with friends, and I love to actually taste what I'm eating. There may be some ingredients that I cook with that don't mesh with the paleo ideology, and I'm not going to grill the servers in every restaurant that I eat in to make sure there's not so much as a molecule of animal byproduct that would conflict with the vegan lifestyle. (See previous reference to the "What I Vegan" Vegan Police post). All I can say for sure is that I'm going to try my best to adhere to this plan because I want to provide you all with the clearest picture possible of my results from this experiment.

The planned time frame for the experiment is going to be from Monday, April 15, 2013 through Sunday, June 16, 2013, approximately 9 weeks. Why this time frame? I wanted to choose an adequate amount of time so that I could see if any real results would start to come of this, plus, as previously mentioned, I'm a live theatre performer. I'll actually be in overlapping rehearsals for two shows this summer. The first of which, "Urinetown", closes on...you guessed it, June 16. Then I'll head full steam into a production of "Les Misérables" which will run in late July and early August. (I'll provide more info on these shows and my life as an actor outside of my day job in later posts). One of the main things I'm interested in seeing is how this new lifestyle will be able to provide me with the energy I need to make it through the busy schedule that working a full time job plus rehearsing for demanding roles in two shows will incur.

Well, that about wraps up the introduction to this madness. (About time, right?) I look forward to having you all along for the ride and hopefully having your encouragement as well.

Happy trails to you... (ok, anyone have any suggestions for how to sign off on these posts?)

Jon