On the road to healthy...

Sometimes, you find yourself at the crossroads... I was 29, 270 pounds, and quite frankly, going nowhere at school/work. The time had come to make one of two choices: To be strong, to make my own decisions and to drive myself into the life I wanted to live, or to be weak, and to let life take those decisions for me. I guess is safe to assume you know I chose the strength. 

Today, I'm 30 years old, and 70 pounds leaner. What made the difference? Well, remember, I made "the choice"... I decided to be in control of what I do, and what I eat. And yes, I could potentially avoid eating fat, and carbs, and whoever the new bad guy is now. But eating just the 10 things that I can afford, that I would enjoy and that would also be "healthy" would bore me up to 300 pounds in no time. So, I decided that instead of just saying NO to foods, I would say yes... Yes to more food. Yes to variety, yes to more flavors, and yes to more techniques for cooking all this food. You see, variety doesn't just keep me from getting bored, it also delivers me the nutrients I need to feel better, to have more energy, and to be able to actually see results after every workout I do. And the more new "things" I try, the better I feel, the happier I am, and the more motivated it gets me, to improve my fitness, and to improve many other areas of life. 

This new approach to life, and to the way I treat myself, woke up my passion for cooking in unforeseen  ways. I really love the challenge of cooking. I love preparing my breakfast, my lunch, and my dinner. And in at least one of these meals, I try to spice things up by incorporating foods that I may not get to eat too often. Oh, and I feel amazing when they turn out to actually taste great!

Now I want to share my enthusiasm and ask you to join me in my journey to try ways of spicing up my diet with new ingredients, with some of the often ignored ones, and even with some of the ones scarlet-lettered as unhealthy. If you decide to read about these adventures, I'll do my best to give you a bit of info on the ingredient I'm using, the technique I went for, and I will do my best to convey you why my choices made sense to my taste buds, and to my lifestyle. But I'm not really that much into hearing, or I guess reading, myself. Lets make this an open conversation. Feel free to give me suggestions, or share with me how you prepare these foods. Let's keep it healthy, and let's keep it delicious. That's all I ask.

Let's make it happen!