abbyful
Tue, May-24-11, 06:36
Hi everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Abby, I live in Kansas City with my fiance (will be husband on June 7th 2011!) and 3 dogs. I work as a web developer at a hospital. I was born & raised in rural Kansas, grew up on a farm, moved to the "big city" after college.
My hobbies include my dogs, one of which I show at AKC shows; cooking; ethnic cuisine (love Ethiopian, hands-down my all-time favorite cuisine); and more recently added is learning more about nutrition and health.
About a year and a half ago, wondering how I could "eat better". I was eating all the stuff I thought was healthy but I didn't really feel healthy: low fat, lots of whole-grain, basically trying to follow the food pyramid. It just didn't really seem right, so I started doing some research and came across books by Michael Pollan and Nina Planck. I've since then ditched pretty much all processed junk and became an obsessive label-reader: no HFCS, no hydrogenated oil, no soy, no chemical preservatives, etc. So I'm currently on what I refer to as a "real food" diet. In a way I feel kind of stupid because it seems like it should be common sense to try to eat only "real food" and not "food-like substances", but I had been brainwashed by the food pyramid and government recommendations.
Then a few months ago I came across a blog on the Paleo diet, this has peaked my interest even more.(I don't think I'll ever go 100% hard core Paleo because giving up cheese just seems dreadful, it's my favorite food!) I'm not a bread lover, so cutting back on bread has been pretty easy. I haven't jumped in with both feet, but I have been trying to cut back on carbs more and my current goal is 1/3 of my meals to be Paleo, I plan to keep increasing that over time. So I guess my goal would be "low-carb" than "Paleo".
On a side note: my 3 dogs are already fully Paleo! They eat what's called "raw prey-model diet".
The other thing I need to work on besides diet is physical fitness. I'm skinny, but not fit. I used to dance (ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, lyrical) for about 17 years, I stopped in college when I couldn't find a dance studio I liked. At that time, I took up Tae Kwon Do for a year or so and that didn't really hold my interest. So now I know I'm out of shape even though I'm still the same size I was when I was 15.
Anyways, sorry if that was a really long introduction!
My hobbies include my dogs, one of which I show at AKC shows; cooking; ethnic cuisine (love Ethiopian, hands-down my all-time favorite cuisine); and more recently added is learning more about nutrition and health.
About a year and a half ago, wondering how I could "eat better". I was eating all the stuff I thought was healthy but I didn't really feel healthy: low fat, lots of whole-grain, basically trying to follow the food pyramid. It just didn't really seem right, so I started doing some research and came across books by Michael Pollan and Nina Planck. I've since then ditched pretty much all processed junk and became an obsessive label-reader: no HFCS, no hydrogenated oil, no soy, no chemical preservatives, etc. So I'm currently on what I refer to as a "real food" diet. In a way I feel kind of stupid because it seems like it should be common sense to try to eat only "real food" and not "food-like substances", but I had been brainwashed by the food pyramid and government recommendations.
Then a few months ago I came across a blog on the Paleo diet, this has peaked my interest even more.(I don't think I'll ever go 100% hard core Paleo because giving up cheese just seems dreadful, it's my favorite food!) I'm not a bread lover, so cutting back on bread has been pretty easy. I haven't jumped in with both feet, but I have been trying to cut back on carbs more and my current goal is 1/3 of my meals to be Paleo, I plan to keep increasing that over time. So I guess my goal would be "low-carb" than "Paleo".
On a side note: my 3 dogs are already fully Paleo! They eat what's called "raw prey-model diet".
The other thing I need to work on besides diet is physical fitness. I'm skinny, but not fit. I used to dance (ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, lyrical) for about 17 years, I stopped in college when I couldn't find a dance studio I liked. At that time, I took up Tae Kwon Do for a year or so and that didn't really hold my interest. So now I know I'm out of shape even though I'm still the same size I was when I was 15.
Anyways, sorry if that was a really long introduction!