I am a Texas native who realized my life long dream of living in Seattle in the Spring of 2006. Shortly after moving, I decided it was high time to get healthy, and through careful research, dedication, and hard work I was able to lose a total of 150 lbs, basically an entire person. It took me 2 years to do this, I did it by completely changing the way I eat. I am passionate about nutrition and about good food.
I do not have a formal education in nutrition or any qualifications as a nutritionist, but I do my best to research holistic nutrition and try to keep my foods as natural as I can. I try to use a mixture of science and common sense, but do not always trust everything said as there are so many differing points of view. Ultimately you have to take things with a grain of salt and make up your own mind, that is what I have done and I can only tell you what has worked for me.
My diet is fairly specialized, and I mean diet as in what I eat…forever. I do not mean “diet” as in a quick fix for weight loss that you will ultimately stop. To become healthy you must change things for life. That said, I do not completely omit occasional foods. I just see them as occasional, and do not make a habit of them. The vast majority of the food I eat can be eaten on a daily basis.
For the most part my diet is grain free and dairy free, free of cane sugar and corn syrup, as natural as possible. I am not low-carb, but I am very picky about where I get my carbs. I also am not a huge fan of labels, so while there are some foods I do not eat I prefer not to use certain labels as this can set me up for confusing people or coming off as a complete hypocrite. I am comfortable with one exception though, I am a pescetarian. I do not eat any other kind of meat but seafood, and even in this I am very picky and only on rare occasions. Fish is not a vegetable, I am NOT vegetarian.
Food aside, I am the happy caretaker of 3 felines. I have a degree in theatre and a passion for acting and the arts.
Email
Twitter
Flickr
Wow, our ways of eating sound very similar. No sugar or corn syrup for me…ever. No dairy either, but I do love me some grains…read oat bran. :)
Seattle – such a cool city, and congrats on your weight loss. That is amazing!
Thank you so much! I love grains as well, and I do eat them on occasion, but I don’t keep them around the house unless it is a single serving of something. I know my weaknesses!
Hello Marissa,
I just found your blog and I am loving it. I’m finishing a degree in holistic nutrition and your approach is very akin to mine. My family is vegan and we stay away from processed foods. I’m not ready to give up brown rice, however! I am working on losing some weight I’ve gained from some health problems, and I’m definitely taking some inspiration from you. You haven’t mentioned exercise…did you add in exercise when you were losing weight? If so, what kind and how often? I love to save these stories of people who really took charge of their health, to inspire my future clients (and myself).
Thanks for writing!
Thank you so much! I admit to being a tad envious. I would LOVE to go to school for holistic nutrition but there is no school anywhere close to where I live. Bastyr is a great school, but while they offer other holistic degrees, their nutrition degree does not seem to be as holistic as others. Plus I don’t think I can even begin to think about a student loan at present ;-)
When I first began I did have 1 serving of grains a day, the reason I gave them up fully is because I saw what a difference that made and I wanted to make my diet the best it could be. Like I said I do have grains on occasion, I just don’t make them a habit and I do try to create similar dishes (like the banana bread) out of non-grains.
About exercise, I purposefully left that bit out because I ultimately feel that most of fat loss comes from proper nutrition. I lost my first 30 lbs with VERY little exercise, I am talking maybe a half a mile every other day to start, and then working up to 2.8 mile walk around a local lake. I worked up to hitting the gym 5 days a week for an hour at a time and being guilt ridden for not doing it. Through my endless blog readying I came across a blog that turned me off Cardio. I really suggest this read http://www.marksdailyapple.com/case-against-cardio/ The problem for me giving advice when it comes to exercise is that I have absolutely no background in it. I do something entirely different now. My seriously heavy exercise regime *could* have helped me lose the weight faster, but honestly I don’t think so. I think I could have done more strength training and cut way back on the cardio and had the same results (and much more free time).
I am currently looking for a new “routine” but basically what I do is walk for 1-2 hours with a friend 2-3 times a week. We walk around a lake in town. Sometimes me do twice, and sometimes once. Then another 2-3 days I try to get in 20 minutes of strength training. I was hitting the gym, but ultimately I cannot afford it so I just do different body weight exercises and some jumping jacks or burps (I am unable to do a full burpee). I am looking for something new though, not because I want my body to change but because I like being able to move and I like how I feel after I exercise. I am hoping to start yoga and perhaps do more hiking. Basically I won’t do anything I hate anymore. There are too many things I enjoy doing and I prefer to move that way. I don’t want to be a body builder, I cannot have the body of a gymnast, and I don’t need to run a marathon. I just want to be healthy and look as good as I can. Right now that means I maintain my weight, and move enough to be able to keep moving ;-) I think it is good to have reasonable goals…and my looking like Jessica Biel is just not reasonable. Feel free to e-mail me if you want any more advice, I know I got a tad wordy here :-)
Thanks for that explanation. I’m all about doing exercise I enjoy. I swim in the lake, I do yoga, and I do a 30-minute strength/cardio workout a few times a week. I do love how I feel when I work out. But I feel the same way, I’m just not going to go crazy with it. I also can’t afford a gym membership so I’m just doing the best I can at home.
I’m attending Clayton College of Natural Health. It’s a distance learning program, which is important for me because I have young kids and I don’t have an in-house school anywhere nearby. It’s actually a really great program, VERY holistic in nature. For example, one of my textbooks is The China Study and another is Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens…one of my classes right now has me working out of a raw cookbook. I get a pretty broad range of information and opinion in my classes. Another thing I like about CCNH is that they offer a payment plan if you can make a deposit. My family is pretty poor and most programs require humongous up-front payments. They even gave me a deferment on payments when my partner lost his job. If you’re really interested in doing this professionally, I would recommend CCNH. (And I promise they’re not paying me to say that.) There are probably better programs out there but this is a great one for people in limited circumstances.
Thank you for that information. I have never heard of that school before but I am definitely going to look into it. I have respect for the China study so it is lovely to hear that it is included!
Since I do not count calories, I really get irritated when she mentions “burning calories” during a workout. I fall into the school of believing that you burn calories all the time, not just during your workout. I think too much cardio can be harmful, and that the goal is to be strong and in good shape, not to “burn calories”. I am much more interested in evolutionary fitness and cross-fit, however I think cross fit may be a bit too extreme for me at present. I probably will eventually get more into that. She really, really irritates me ;-)
I saw your tweet, I guess I am your juice genie. Email me directly and let’s get you some POM to try. I love that Heather is the first comment on this page, we love her! :)
Jeff, POM Blogger
Wow – congrats – that is tremendous. My thoughts about food exactly.
What is wrong with grain and why do you abstain from it if I may know Marisa?
The first reason is that grain has less nutrient density per calorie than the vast majority of other foods I eat. Grains also effect hormones in your body in a negative way. They also can cause lethargy and many people have intolerance to different types of grains. ultimately I just know that when I cut out grains and sugar from my diet I lost fat. When I add those things back in they make me feel tired and sick.