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Six weeks ago, I started some pretty big changes in my diet and my lifestyle. The week between Christmas and New Years I did a cleanse. It was an amazing experience for a few reasons. First, I learned the difference between hunger and eating from emotions and habit. Second, for the first time in years, I have kicked the caffeine habit. There are no more highs and lows from the caffeine swing.

After going through a week of body and head aches and finally feeling lighter and more energetic, I couldn’t simply return to business as usual. I decided it was time to overhaul the diet to see how I felt. I began by eating strictly vegan. For six weeks now, I have not had any dairy or eggs. That’s right… No cheese! I thought I would never be able to do that but you know what, I don’t miss it at all. As a matter of fact, I feel more energetic and have less cravings overall and a nice bonus is my clothes are getting looser and I’m not evening counting calories. I know that it will level out soon but it has helped me to stay motivated to live healthier this year.

I realize that eating vegan alone won’t make me healthier so I am also dedicated to cutting out fructose and other refined sugars as well. This has been harder because it is in everything! I had to go through at least ten loaves of bread the other day in the store aisle to find one that didn’t have milk, eggs or fructose syrup in it. The best solution is to make my own bread and, while I have experimented, I haven’t been that motivated yet. I’m working on the learning to love to cook part. I’m getting there I think… well more so than days of old.

Finally, today I met with a trainer to start a 12 week cardio program. You see, I want to be a runner and I want to improve my cardio and endurance so that my favorite outdoor activities, like hiking and biking, are not so hard for me. I want an active life style. I have been going to the gym for a few weeks now and the other day I saw an ad for a trainer that does heart-rate based training. I came straight home, looked up his web site and emailed him immediately. This is exactly what I had in mind. I scheduled my first meeting and fitness assessment (um, I have some work to do) for this afternoon and now I have a game plan in hand and am ready to get to work.

I plan on keeping track of the journey here with updates on the vegan diet and fitness goals. The thing I’m most excited about is that this isn’t a diet but a true lifestyle change. Until science figures out the whole fountain of youth bit or making me immortal a healthy ticker will have to be my focus.

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