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!