I love Pizza

I love pizza and I've been craving it all week long. It is my weakness. I have been very good and I have not indulged, but I found this interesting post about MSG and pizza. It was very informative and learning more about why I have this pizza addiction can help me stop.
~Em

http://foodbabe.com/2014/03/23/if-youve-ever-eaten-pizza-before-this-will-blow-your-mind/

I Hate Lettuce

     Lettuce just might be the worst food of all time. It's barely even a food, really. I mean, who was the guy who looked at a head of lettuce and said, "You know what? I think that looks pretty tasty." And I know exactly what happened: the bonehead ate it and realized it was disgusting. But rather than seeking out foods that were simply delicious on their own, the guy said, "Well, since this doesn't really taste good, I'll cover it in this liquid that I have to shake up every time I use it to make it taste good!" I mean, what is the point? There are other, delicious vegetables that are completely fine on their own. Carrots, for instance, are the best orange food ever. (And if they had been discovered first, I think we all know that the color would be called "carrot," instead of "orange," because it's a better food.) Or what about onions? Animals will never truly live up to their potential unless they one day are slaughtered, cut into appropriate serving sizes, and sauteed with onions. Onions make the meats they're cooked with. Or spinach. Spinach just might be the greatest health food of all time because it has almost no distinguishable taste and you can add it almost anything without even noticing it. My mother adds it to smoothies; unnoticeable. I have it cooked into my food at work; was it really there? I had it on pizza the other night; I thought it was nice, but if it wasn't there, the pizza would've still tasted like pizza. Spinach, I think we can agree, is a far superior leafy vegetable to lettuce.
     So why do people still eat lettuce and more specifically, why do people eat salads with lettuce in them? Many people eat lettuce-filled salads because they think that lettuce is super healthy. Not to say that it isn't, but spinach is a much healthier vegetable. A serving (100g) of spinach contains 59% of the average person's daily value of Vitamin A, 49% for Folate, 34% for Vitamin C, and 460% for Vitamin K, compared to Lettuce's 21% for Vitamin A, 18% fro folate, 4% for Vitamin C, and 97% for Vitamin K. Lettuce is also more dangerous: Lettuce is a prime carrier for E. Coli and Shigella bacteria, often due to the way it is packaged. Spinach, on the other hand, is not plagued by this problem. But when was the last time you saw a person eating raw lettuce? Dressings are what get people because they are loaded with fats and really, they just are there to cover the awful entity that is lettuce. Most people, then, are idiots. The fact that most people are idiots nicely explains why most people eat salad and why most people like lettuce for it's health benefits.
     So what can be done? Is it possible as a society to rid our culture of lettuce? Unfortunately, no. Although I hate lettuce, some people genuinely do like it. If you read my first post, you saw that I wanted to increase my fruit and vegetable intake, and as you might have guessed, I've started to eat salad, much to my dismay. I just hate it, really. My favorite part of any salad is the stuff that isn't lettuce, like tomatoes or carrots and that just makes the lettuce taste worse, so you probably see my point. The main reason I wrote this post was to justify my hatred of lettuce to any potential readers and to let you know of my progress. I am eating much healthier, and it is getting really hard. I never really took into account how many times a day I would just eat something really bad for, like cheese bread or basically anything really salty. I hope that I can start to develop better habits with eating healthy and a better taste for healthy things. My dislike and my distrust for lettuce, however, will probably never change, and I will always ask for spinach when I can.
     Thanks for reading.
          ~M.

Day One

Today is the day I start my healthier life! I have been pinning healthy recipes and workouts on Pinterest all week. I also started a grocery list for myself and a meal plan for every week. Week one starts January 5th. I am very excited to see how it goes. These are some of the recipes I'm going to try for lunch and dinner next week:

Skinny Pasta Salad: This recipe comes from Skinny Mom: http://www.skinnymom.com/2013/05/14/skinny-pasta-salad/

Mexican Rice and Bean Burrito: This recipe is from http://skinnyms.com/spinach-bean-burrito-wrap/#5ghUxh8JExYVx3VA.99

My plan is to prepare everything on Sunday after church and then store it in the fridge until I need it. I also want to make a snack drawer in my fridge with pre-cut fruits and vegetables so I can make healthy snacks more accessible. Its better than just opening up a bag of chips which is what I'm used to doing. I'm hoping that by planning ahead and preparing early in the week, that I will be able to better achieve this goal. 

My Meal Plan for Week One:

Jan 5.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with Toast

Lunch: Turkey Roll Up

Dinner: Chicken Breast with Greens

Jan 6.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with berries

Lunch: Pasta Salad

Dinner: Mexican Rice and Beans in a Tortilla

Jan 7.

Breakfast: Eggs and Whole Wheat Toast

Lunch: Turkey Roll Up

Dinner: Pesto and Pasta with grilled chicken

Jan 8.

Breakfast: Oatmeal and fruit

Lunch: Pasta Salad

Dinner: Mexican Chicken on Rice

Jan 9.

Breakfast: Eggs on Toast

Lunch: Turkey Roll Up

Dinner: Chicken Breast Salad

Jan 10. Left Overs

Jan 11. Left Overs
~Em

Goals

This year I would like to lose a significant amount of weight and feel better about my body. I will accomplish this by:

• cutting Fast Food entirely 
• cutting unnecessary sugar
• cutting my gluten intake in half
• drinking more water
• going to the gym 4 times a week
• using portion control

~Em

This year, I'd like like to get rid of any unnecessary body fat and increase muscle mass and maybe get a little bit taller. I will accomplish this by:

• cutting fast food entirely
• eating 2-3 servings of fruits and veggies every day
• drinking more water
• cutting any unnecessary salts
• going to the gym 4 days a week
• riding my bike every day, excluding Sundays

~M