The Beginning of My Journey

Welcome to my new blog about my journey to eat more healthfully. You might wonder since I'm already a vegetarian, why do I feel I need to improve my eating habits? The truth is there are plenty of foods out there that vegetarians can eat that are not necessarily good for you. Vegetarians are not immune to the consumption of foods that are high in sugar or fat. Vegetarianism just means we don't eat meat.

I love food; I love to eat it and I love to cook it. I'm not a professional chef, in fact far from it. Up until my junior year of college, my cooking skills pretty much consisted of anything that could go into the microwave. When I moved into my first apartment, I found myself having to prepare foods on my own, rather than just heading over to the cafeteria for meals. This jump started my desire to learn to cook. Most of my "education" came from cookbooks or the internet, however I recently took a class on vegan cooking, which taught me some useful basics that I had missed in my self-education, as well as got me thinking about the benefits of limiting the consumption of animal by-products.

The real inspiration behind this new blog, though, is that in the past 10 months since my graduation, I have gained around 20 pounds. And now that my clothes don't fit, I've decided that I really need to put a stop to this. The truth is I eat when I'm bored, so this is particularly difficult since I am currently unemployed. However I can be very determined and have decided that I am going to start limiting my daily caloric intake to 1800 or less. By adding in daily exercise, it is my hope that I will in time be able to comfortably wear my favorite jeans again.

I will be blogging about my experiences and posting pictures and recipes (or where the recipes can be found). If you feel inspired by my latest health kick and wish to join me in my journey, I'd love to hear about what you're doing to better your life.