Spectral Drapery

I like this definition. I've found out recently that the food you eat, and the quality (as in from a box or fresh) impacts your mood and well being. It's fascinating!

Thanks everyone! This advice is really helpful. As far as healthy is concerned I guess I had no idea what "healthy" meant. I tend to eat a lot of cheese, and salt so I want to cut down on all of that as much as possible. The idea of using a cookbook is something I've always wanted to try, but the issues was always that I never had the types of foods, spices or gadgets that are necessary. I suppose though that's part of living a lazy lifestyle... I also like the idea of either cooking everything in the morning (waking up early and cooking for the day) or making everything ahead of time on a Sunday. Thanks for the ideas!

I've realized that I don't know how to eat. The more I think about the food I make, the more I realize that although I'm cooking from scratch, I'm making food that isn't necessarily healthy (one recipe called for 1 cup of mayo...what the hell man?!) So I want to cleanup my diet and start eating like a person, not like a college freshman. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start? Maybe some good cook books and ideas for all meals? (Breakfasts, dinners, lunches?) and ideas for bringing lunch to work? (I work in an office.) For context, I hate tomatoes more than water hates oil. So if I could stray away from them as much as possible...that would be great.

I'm sure this topic has been covered to death, so please feel free to link me to any other threads that this applies to. I currently live with my girlfriend in an apartment, we both try to eat healthy but end up more often than not eating meals that come out of a box. I want to change my diet, but I have lived a sedentary life, never owning a gym membership until last year and never doing any workout routines. I was lucky growing up as I had (stress had) a great metabolism that allowed me to eat anything I wanted. Now that I'm out of the house and have a high stress job I am gaining weight and getting very self-conscious of myself. I tried getting a gym membership but I am unable to go because I feel embarrassed that I don't know how to use any of the machines. I had a trainer there for a month and he was expensive, and taught me very little other than my diet was crap, didn't tell me how to change it or why. I guess my question is: how do you stay motivated? I find that I try to change my diet, or try to get into a workout routine and I end up giving up after a couple days. How do you guys stay motivated/ What advice can you give me as someone who's starting a new routine?

I joined the newsletter email blasts thing over a week ago, and I thought that I should post something here as well. Here's my background: I am a tall, skinny, awkward guy living in the northern Canadian Tundra. I've always been skinny but since moving out of my parents place and into my own I've noticed my waistline getting bigger and my budget getting smaller. I've never worked out in my entire life, and joined a gym last year. It was the worst experience as my trainer didn't help me at all, and I ended up feeling like I wasted m time and money. The biggest issues I face are not knowing how to work out, and what that means. I also found out recently that I don't know how to eat. In fact, eating is a huge issue. I've found myself not eating all day (just drinking coffee) until late at night when my girlfriend gets home. I've begun reading the blog posts on this site and have found a great amount of information, all of which makes sense to me. All this is a little overwhelming to me so I'm going to try to work on one thing at a time (like learning how to eat, then learning how to work out) which should help ease myself into a routine of fitness. I don't know how this all works, but I'm looking forward to hearing what all of you have to say and I'm excited to start learning more and more about the fitness world. Thanks for hearing me out!