1500

After spending significant time in Houston pursuing my Mission:Burrito, I began noticing that Texans are not the most food responsible people. Spanish Omelette for breakfast, Whataburger for lunch, brisket and potato salad for dinner – not the most healthy of diets. Though my roommate knew this already, as his subscription to Men’s Fitness informed him weeks ago, but I just began to fully comprehend the extent to which this affected my home. To put it in perspective, 6 of the top 10 fattest cities are in Texas. I began imagining what my life would have been like had I returned to my place of origin. Would I have been another victim to great food and poor fitness culture? Words of my previous post began floating through my head, and I wondered, is it possible to satiate your desires for delicious, diverse and filling foods, and get into shape? The short time I spent home wreaked havoc on my body, so I shudder to think what would have happened had I lived there longer. Given the approaching beach weather and my pervasive fear of having a gut, I decided that it was time to get in shape. But alas, what of my blog?! What of my life?! Could I stomach giving up the rich and lush foods that I need to sustain my very existence?

This quagmire nearly toppled me, until I recalled the blockbuster of last summer that caused a stir in the workout community. 300, with its sculpted Adonis-like men, gave everyone a powerful and popular example of what consistent and intense workout can do for a person’s physique. As we all know, an intense workout regimen can only be effective when coupled with a nutritious and managed diet. So again, I ran into the dilemma of healthy vs. fulfilling foods. Are there recipes out there that satisfy the inner hunger while satiating my taste buds? I set off to discover the truth – can you “diet” and still eat delicious foods?

After doing a bit of scientific research, I found that 1 lb of fat carries 3500 stored calories. It is recommended that if you seek to burn fat, you should eat 500 calories less than you burn in a given day, so that every week you burn the equivalent of 1 lb of fat. I would assume that in a day I burn 2000 calories, so that requires that I only eat 1500 calories.

So the stipulations are:

1) Average 1500 calories a day in a given week (all forms of alcohol must be taken into consideration)
2) Cook at least once a week
3) Salad or smoothie for a meal 3 times a week
4) Exercise 4 times a week
5) Fast food (defined in the traditional sense) only allowed twice in the whole month
6) Eating out allowed only if caloric intake allows
7) As often as possible, eat natural or organic foods, avoiding all processed foods

So now, to ascend to Olympus and join the side of Leonidas and his Spartan gods, I will fight my own epic battle, more for Tone than Thermopylae. This is the battle for 1500…

-The UE