The Task Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 16:33:00 +0000

Hi.

First let me preface with a little personal info. My name is Ryan and I am going into my Jr. year of college at the University of Michigan. I am majoring in Biomedical Engineering / Pre-med and I compete for the Men's Gymnastics team.

After coming to college I noticed that the quality of my diet has decreased substantially.

I have not always eaten poorly, and it seems that the catalyst for this decline in my diet is college. There are so many contributing factors that cause me to eat poorly. No longer do I live in the comfort of my home where I can return from gym practice to have dinner waiting on the table, or wake up on a Sunday morning to eggs and toast...basically, no more MOM!! Now don't get the wrong impression, I am not a lazy person, but between studying and training, who has time to cook? and even when I do have time, I am usually so worn out that I wound rather lay down then stand in front of the stove to cook a meal.

So basically this equation of no more mom, poor college student, less time, and a more demanding schedule has equated to a terrible diet. To get a sense of what I eat (or lack there of): Breakfast is a rarity, I don't have any breakfast food at my house right now so the only time I ever eat breakfast is when I go out with my friends to the local diner (either Flim Flam or Mark's Midtown), not to mention, I love sleepin in, I am a niteowl not a morning person, so i would rather sleep thhat get up and eat. Lunch, I average eating lunch about 3 times a week, and usually it is at Wendy's in the Student Union on campus. Dinner, well I haven't been shopping for a long time, so I either eat out fast food, or eat whatever I have left at my house (easy mac, popcorn, and some other microwavable stuff).

I don't usually like eating out unless it is at an on campus food place, like the Union, because you can use something called Entree Plus, (i.e. I don't have to directly pay for the food). I have noticed that eating out adds up quickly. But unfortunately, my entree plus account ran out of money about 3 weeks ago. So I kid you not, some days, the only thing I eat is a bag of popcorn right before I go to bed, or if I am really hungry, half of a large Hot'n'ready peperoni pizza from Little Caesars (because its cheap).

Looking back on this summer (which is coming to an end all too soon) I have cooked twice... TWICE! and by cooking, that does not include throwing ramen noodles into the microwave, I mean pots and pans and fresh ingredients. Earlier in the summer I cooked some spaghetti because I was really in the mood for my mother's home made spaghetti, and the other time was this past week when I cooked my favorite recipe, steak shish-ka-bobs in this killer marinade sauce, which was for a mock Top Chef contest that we ("we" being all the gym team girls and guys that are in town) decided to put together for fun.

This diet rut that I am in is terrible and it needs to be fixed, primarily, so that I can train for gymnastics at my highest level, but also, so that I can mentally feel awake and energized through class and during my studies.

I know that I am not in this boat alone. I am certain that many college students (or anyone that is busy in general) have experienced the same problems with a poor diet.

The goal, or call it the Mission Statement, for this blog is to document my quest in repairing my diet to pre-college days, with an emphasis on quick preparation, low cost, nutritious meals. I will be commenting on how changing my lifestyle and diet effect me in everyday life and in the gym. And as a bonus, I will be posting some gymnastics related content throughout the season.

Nutrition & Gymnastics

The Task Begins