After my trip to New York, I decided to try to eat healthier. This is something I have intended to do for a while, but has become more important as of late. I think a lot of people making this decision tend to approach it in a non-sustainable way so my goal was/is to do this in a way that does not add significant cost/complexity to my daily routine. My primary objective is to do this in a way I can maintain, the elusive lifestyle change as it were.
The changes I have made are simple, but I feel like they will give me the best chance of success in this endeavor. First, I decided that eating out had to become the exception not the rule. In order to maintain my mantra of simple/cheap, I decided the only way to do this was to decide on a prepackaged option for work lunches. Since a good breakfast is a good start, I decided I would stick to the tried and true oatmeal option. In the spirit of this being a dynamic thing, I recently began to supplement with whey-isolate protein to get that important start of the day protein bump. For the evenings, I would either go prepackaged or cook some simple well balanced and portioned meals. Second, due to the realization that this would be a major portion size reduction, I realized I needed to incorporate some healthy snacks into my schedule. After some research, I decided almonds would be a good addition to my day as well. For some freshness, baby carrots would ride shotgun with the almonds. Also, I knew I needed to bump up my water consumption. A 1L stainless steel water bottle already occupies a place of honor on my desk and on trips to the water dispenser. In that same vein, my coffee cup (of awesomeness) would be relegated to green tea duty, since for some (possibly unfounded) reason I think tea is healthier than coffee.
Since I am a child of the technology age, I realized that I would need the tech to work with me to be a success. For tracking progress my friend @erin_ftw suggested http://www.myfitnesspal.com (@MyFitnessPal) which turns out to be one of the better trackers I have used. My favorite feature is the barcode lookup in their Android application, it seems to be a good solid tracker.
So far, I have stuck with the program decently well; I am still debating on incorporating a cheat day/meal. The next steps I see are increasing my activity and reducing the number of hours I spend in sedentary mode. I am still enjoying the challenge and I am pretty positive about a good outcome. I am evolving this process contiously, I am after all a software guy, weighing external inputs and information and trying to make the best changes. I think the sustainability level of an endeavor such as this is a major contributor to success/failure.
