About Me 1/1/22

About Me

by Jessica Taufer, 1/1/22

I am the world's #1 most average health enthusiast! 

My story starts with me getting a little bit lazy about exercising, eating way too much delicious unhealthy food, and having way too much stress and higher priorities to really take care of my health. 

I got in a terrible car accident that left me severally injured and mostly bed ridden for several months. During that time, I developed a habit of eating candy and potato chips while watching Netflix. It was the best I could do to try and feel happiness while being so injured. 

I was already overweight and I gained an extra 25 pounds very quickly after my car accident left me bedridden. 

I actually weighed 189 pounds the summer after my car accident, which for my 5foot 7inch frame (170 cm), is actually OBESE!

"I'm not an obese person," I told myself. I had to do something to change!

I had no idea how to exercise with all of my injuries. I could control what I ate though! 

My friend introduced me to "Bright Line Eating" and I got down to 156 pounds in a few months. It felt incredible to finally be back in the "healthy" weight range! However, it was a very restrictive diet and once I made it to my goal of being in the "healthy" weight range, I stopped the diet. I needed flour and sugar in my life! Who doesn't?

Around this time I had healed enough to start being active. I started walking and using some weights occasionally. I felt really good. So good, that after some more time, I was able to start a couch to 5k program to start running. After just 2 days of running, I had intense pain. Running reinjured some of my car accident injuries resulting in bone bruising in my knees and injury to my c5-c7 vertebrae and I had to take it easy for about 6 months. I was crushed that I had to stop running again!!

After being reinjured and stopping the diet I was on, I had gained back 11 pounds and weighed 167, which put me back into the "overweight" category. 

I wanted to loose the weight I gained and then some. I figured I'd be less achy if I weighed less because my injured body wouldn't have to carry extra weight.

Fast forward to today

My goal weight is 139 pounds, exactly 50 pounds less than my highest weight. Squarely in the "healthy" weight range, and what a few charts tell me is my ideal weight for my height. 

Right now, on January 1st, 2022, I weigh 162.8 pounds. Just 23.8 pounds more to loose, and then I'll be in "maintenance" mode. 

 I use a scale that tells me my body fat percentage. My body fat is 30%.

I'm following a low calorie diet plan -about 1200 calories a day. 

The idea is that I'll loose about 1.6 pounds a week if I'm about 660 calories deficient each week. 

The nice thing about calorie counting is I can sneak a taste of any baked good that comes through my kitchen, any bag of chips that got opened, any piece of candy, etc. It's totally fine (I just account for the calories). It feels so much less restrictive than the Bright Line Eating diet.

Most of the time, I enjoy oatmeal and fruit with breakfast, some sort of chicken salad or healthy soup for lunch, and a meal of protein and vegetables for dinner. I hardly feel like I'm starving as long as I eat low calorie, HIGH VOLUME food. 

High volume food is the key. It takes up more room in my stomach and take me longer to digest, so I don't feel like I'm starving. 

I've had so much fun creating low calorie, high volume recipes that actually taste delicious!! Even my family, who is really quite sensitive to "diet" food, really enjoys the food I make!! I actually almost made this a healthy recipe blog, but I have so much more to talk about than just recipes!

Being "healthy" is so much more than what we eat!

My motivation for creating this blog is to help me keep good healthy habits. I NEVER want to gain the weight back that I'm working so hard to loose. Having a daily reminder will keep me focused and hopefully I can help YOU do the same! 

Besides healthy recipes, I'm excited to share my fitness research and personal reviews with you- especially low impact exercising that can be done from home. I also want to share other mindfulness and wellness topics that I've used to help me on my journey. 

I've done a lot of reading about creating healthy habits, eating healthy foods, benefits of spices and herbs, nutrition, cooking delicious food, even reading about what body builders eat, mindful eating, behaviors, natural (chemical-free) living, organic gardening, meditation techniques, self-care, etc.

Our environment, daily movement and routines, and how we handle stress can all play a big part in our health.  

I'm still learning. I'm just like you.

If we make one healthier decision each day, think about how much better off we will be down the road, say in a  month, or year! Even after 10 years!

Come visit every day to help you keep health at the top of your mind! 

If we make a 1% improvement to our health everyday, we will be 32 times more healthy after one year!

LET'S DO IT!!