Stepping out from the shadows

[Hidden Storm]

Hey everybody. I've been lurking on the Nerd Fitness page for a while now, bit never participated in the forums until now. One of the Nerd Fitness tips is that community support is a key factor in success, so I figured it's time to get involved. I also felt particularly motivated by the new 6-week challenge. I'll be signing on as a Monk.

I spent a good while talking about myself on my profile page, but to summarize, I'm a 19 year old male, going to college, working part-time, studying martial arts, and generally looking to level up my life. I feel truly passionate about the study of Martial Arts. I'm a purple belt in Shorin-Ryu and am well on my way to ranking up. However, with my life being so hectic with trying to balance school and work - not to mention trying to move out- I'm finding it to be increasingly difficult to keep up on my training. I perform exercises whenever I can, even if it's just a 10 minutes window before I have to get ready for work. I've dropped drinking soda altogether and I refuse to touch fast food, but I know I can do more.

My goals for myself are going to be designed to amend the areas of my life where I have slacked off a bit so that I can start leading a more productive lifestyle and a have a solid foundation on which to set even higher goals for myself.

Goals!

1. Regularly wake at 6 a.m. to go for a run.

2. Learn to cook 2 different healthy meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

3. Earn my blue belt in karate

4. Find (an move into) a place of my own.

I look forward to meeting all the cool people on this site and sharing experiences with you guys. Now that I've finally registered, I'll probably spend some time exploring the forum and getting a feel for the place. Feel free to message me, I'm always down for talking to people. I'll be seein' you guys around.

[The *Other* Green Fairy]

Welcome!

Exploring the forum is a good idea. I've found this place to be a pretty warm community. Always someone willing to toss you some advice or answer a question.

I'm curious about what kind of healthy recipes you're looking for. Are you doing the Paleo/Primal, or raw foods, or more "generally fresh and avoiding processed"...?

Cause I've got a ton of recipes I could suggest, but helps to know what you're hoping to do in terms of handling your nutrition goals.

[Hidden Storm]

I'm mostly looking for whatever I can make on a college student's budget. Things that are relatively cheap and simple to prepare, while still being on the healthier side. One of the more difficult aspects of eating healthy is that it can be pretty expensive, but I know way too many people who have resorted to surviving off of ramen noodles and I'd like to try my best to avoid that. So I guess what I'm looking for is any advice healthy, low budget meals.

[CyningaDena]

At some point in my college years, someone gave me this cookbook as a gift. It was great, because I'd never really cooked a full meal before and the cookbook assumes you're an utter bonehead when it comes to shopping, making grocery lists, chopping crap, sauteing...everything up through the actual eating. And it keeps a pretty good eye toward budget, too. I still have it. It's a great reference for when I need a quick, cheap pasta sauce or when I have nothing in the cupboards but chickpeas, canned pears, and some Kool-Aid powder.

There isn't actually a recipe in the book using those ingredients. Just a legal disclaimer there.

[CyningaDena]

Also, if you're not going paleo, there are pretty much infinite variations on beans and rice (as long as you shell out for some spices up front). Protein, carbs (get brown rice), when the rice has about 5 minutes left just throw in whatever veggies were on sale, bam. Get some whole wheat tortillas and make a burrito out of the leftovers for lunch the next day. Two meals for under $5.