Get healthy, stay healthy

I recently read my friend Emily's blog detailing her plans to make healthy choices with respect to dieting and preparing food. Last year I virtually eliminated junk food from my diet and all snacks that I did eat were either fresh fruits and vegetables or low sodium/fat snacks like yogurt or granola bars that also contained nutritional value; however, I've never been a big meat eater and my diet was seriously lacking in protein. I mainly ate grains, but now that Keegan and I live together, I prepare many more meals with meat (although chicken is my primary source of meat). I used to whip out measuring cups and spoons to measure everything I ate, even counting out pretzels to make sure I was eating the serving size that I thought I was eating (I always used to gauge my food intake for things like pretzels and crackers by handfuls, which is not the most accurate measuring technique). Leading up to the wedding I was going about 6 miles/day on the treadmill and lifting weights, so it didn't matter that I was snacking more than was strictly necessary because I was working it off in my 1000 calorie-burning treadmill sessions. While living in Wolf Village my last two years of undergrad I also cut myself down to one Diet Coke a day (and for those who knew me before then, 1 per day was a pretty amazing achievement) but I think that also contributed to my weight loss.

Before the wedding I was drinking as many as 3 Diet Cokes per day, which is not only expensive, but is bad for my dental health and the rest of my body as well. My snacking was limited because my dress was certainly not going to magically get bigger if I did, but once we were on the honeymoon I went totally overboard with the candy eating and splurging. I wouldn't be surprised if I had gained 5-8 pounds since the wedding. That would put me around 135 pounds, which is still perfectly normal, but it's not the size I was before and I know that I have not been getting the daily values I need for any of the dietary categories.

Keegan and I received a scale as a wedding gift (thanks Clark!) so now I will really be able to accurately assess myself. Starting on Friday I cut myself back to 1 Diet Coke per day, and it's going fine so far. I drink the 1 per day because I get seriously intense headaches without caffeine, but I really think I could overcome that if I tried slowly cutting back on my intake. One can of soda contains 12 oz; I will continue the rest of the summer limiting myself to one can per day. I hope to eventually transition to buying bottles of soda so that I can slowly reduce my intake or switch over to buying caffeine-free Diet Coke to try to fool my mind into thinking I've got what I think I want... if that makes sense. Caffeine in soda doesn't actually make me stay awake, it just prevents the headaches.

I desperately need to increase the protein in my diet, but I really don't like to eat red meat and fish does not agree with me (translation: unpleasant digestion). I do however, really like eggs and nuts like almonds, cashews, peanuts, and pistachios, so I would like to incorporate these things in to my diet. I think I've avoided eating nuts lately because of the fat content, but small servings would be beneficial. I had high cholesterol when I was younger (middle school) so I try to steer clear of eggs for this reason, but once I read more about the dietary guidelines and perhaps get my cholesterol checked somewhere I'll be able to make more informed decisions.

Fruit and veggies have never been a problem with me because I love to eat them and will eat way more than the recommended servings without finding it to be inconvenient. However, I need to vary the types of vegetables that I eat to include more colorful veggies. I tend to gravitate towards the green veggies (broccoli, green peppers, cucumbers, green beans, spinach, lettuce, etc) but I don't eat the colorful ones (eggplant, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, etc). However, some veggies I just don't like or upset my stomach (tomatoes, peas, onions, mushrooms, squash, zucchini, lima beans) but I think I might like them if I tried them again or just found a new way to prepare them. There is no hope for the onion, the mushroom, or the tomato.

Keegan and I would be thrilled and blessed to have a large family someday and although such developments are not in the near future, I want to make sure that I am as healthy as I can possibly be before we decide to have kids. It may take awhile for me to actually integrate all of these changes into my(/our) diet, but I think it will definitely be worth it in the long run. I know I want to significantly reduce or eliminate my caffeine intake while pregnant and I need to be eating the foods that will provide the nutrients necessary for the development of a baby. I know there are prenatal vitamins that I will also be taking, but for myself I want to be able to be healthy without the need of supplements. Right now all I take is zinc to help with my immune system (and I only take that probably twice a week at best) and chewable fibers, but I don't want to be one of those folks who tosses down one of those GNC Vitapak things every day. I feel like something is wrong if you need to be taking 6 different supplement pills every day, but that's just me and that's just my view.

I don't really have a defined weight-loss guide for myself because I think my main desire is to be healthy on the inside, which will then most likely be reflected in my external appearance. I would like my "normal" weight to be between 120 and 125 pounds, but I realize as I develop my exercise and weight lift routines this may not be feasible. So I guess I should say that I want my size 4 pants to fit comfortably again. I was wearing a size 2 at the end of undergrad, but I think that size may be too small for someone of my height and build. I would like to achieve this goal by Christmas (although I may reach the goal and then succumb to the holiday treats!) and this seems to be a realistic time frame.

Along with these goals Keegan and I need to limit the number of times we visit restaurants to eat (which is not too frequently) but will still help us make healthy eating choices so we're not hit with meals where we consume more than a day's worth of calories in one sitting. My water intake also needs to be significantly increased; I did accomplish this in the months before the wedding but I've since slacked off and replaced water with soda or juice (which is not so bad, but high in calories and sugar if you don't watch the brands you buy).

So these are some lofty goals that are now tacked on to the list of personal goals I've set for myself involving my career and things like saving money to put in a Roth IRA (which I still have not opened- I'm such a slacker- my reason now is that I'll just wait until I change my name so I don't have to go through the hassle of changing the name on the IRA), to put towards a house, and towards more current things, such as a trip to Europe for Keegan and myself in a few years. I also realize that although I own my car now and have no payments or anything (other than insurance and routine checkups) to make on it, I will some day need to replace it. Sadly this month the way we were paid is different; I've been moved to a grant to be paid, so I will now have a W-2 instead of a 1099 MISC and I will have Social Security removed from my stipend. Students were also "given" roughly $2700 on top of our usual stipend for us to turn around and pay to Duke to cover our student fees for the summer; however, we were then taxed on that amount, and taxed at a staggering percentage, because it looks like we make almost $3000 more in a month than we actually do. So after the taxes were taken out from the total and I pay the $2727 owed to Duke for my summer fees (which incidentally is almost as much as my TUITION for one year at NCSU) my salary for June is about $730, which is less than half of what it should be... and I'm still trying to recover from paying the final wedding checks in the weeks prior to the wedding. I will be fine because I had some money saved from previous months, but it's a little irksome the way the payroll office chose to pay us to pay themselves instead of just taking their money out first. That extra $2727 makes it look like I get paid more than 10% more than I actually do and sucks for the purpose of taxes. I think there is a Lifetime Learning Credit I can claim on my taxes for instances like this; I remember learning about it before doing my taxes for this year although I couldn't use it last year (but my officemate could, so I talked to her about it). But all in all I can't complain; we got a 2.5% raise (which will cover some of the deficit caused by the Social Security that will now be taken from me) and I am still getting paid. I know many graduate students and recent grads are not so lucky, so I really am thankful, even if I don't sound it.

So I will post updates on my progress (and other life events, of course) as I work towards a healthier lifestyle!