what to put in a blog...

Hi all,

Kind of bizarre - blogs. It's like a journal, but others read it. The difference between a blog and a journal is the mere fact of feeling judged or not - the pages of a diary are certainly not going to pass judgment, and the small 'secure' lock ensures no one else will either.

Anyways - I will try to write this blog as bluntly and honestly as possible. My worst fear is sounding either of timid or arrogant - I do my best to aim for between those two. I have a tendency to sound harsh or condescending in writing - so I hope I am not perceived this way by anyone who decides to read!

I made an account on blogger almost 2 years ago, and never posted anything because there was no actual purpose to the blog. It's one thing to treat a blog like a journal - but if there's no story, why would people read? I wanted to do something like "Julie and Julia" where a woman writes a blog about her venture to cook every recipe in a famous French cook book.

I have always been a bit of a health/fitness fanatic - but in the past year I have been doing more and more research and making more drastic changes in my life. I have grown a fierce passion to get very fit and to dedicate myself completely to healthy eating. When I became a vegetarian, I lost 20lbs. When I moved out to go to school and was doing my own grocery shopping, I got thinner still. Now I am at a comfortable weight - fat in spots but easy to hide! (I'm sure everyone can relate to that one lol) - but I want to maximize my potential. With athletic genes and an existent healthy lifestyle, I figured it wouldn't be too much difficulty to go "all the way" with health and fitness.

I am committing myself to gym and cardio time as well as a healthy diet. For gym I am mostly doing weights mixed in with strength/cardio workouts. I am also doing separate cardio sessions - mostly running and soon jump rope and swimming. My diet is a typical high protein, low carb diet. I will give details for all this in later posts when I have everything down-pat.

I have been doing this for a little over a week now, and as I develop and mold my diet for myself I am realizing just how restrictive it is! And how creative I need to be! For example. Olive oil - something I LOVE - goes on everything, good omega-3/6 ratio, healthiest cooking oil. BUT despite the fact that olive oil may be a good alternative - I can't even fit a table spoon of it into my diet due to the high fat and calorie content. So, for one of my meals I had been doing a quinoa and vegetable salad with seeds and nuts - very high in protein and all good fats. I put 1tbsp of Udo's DHA oil onto it - cut the olive oil - and instead I add a combination of lemon juice, mustard, and balsamic vinegar - all very low calorie fat free options - and it tastes GREAT!

To finish off - I hope that I can be an inspiration to dieters, gymers, vegetarians, fitness fanatics, health fanatics,  and anyone else who finds my content of an interest. It is motivating for ME to be able to post my experiences and knowledge for others to read! I love to help people - so hopefully I can do this through this blog :)

Have a great day everyone!!!
-Cait