Back To Basics: A New Beginning

Hi friends, paleo followers, health enthusiasts and anyone else who may have stumbled upon us:

Welcome.  Lori and Caryn here.  We're two girls who have been invested in the health & wellness world for the past 15 or so years.  We've spent the majority of our lives trying our best to keep up with food and fitness trends, and have found that even with all of the research we do, we're learning something new every day.  We thought it would be helpful to share what we're discovering with others, so that as we continue to become the best version of ourselves, you too can learn what foods to avoid, healthy solutions, and so forth.

Let us introduce ourselves:

I'm Lori.  31, born & raised Brooklynite before being from Brooklyn was cool.  From a physical standpoint, I've been an overly active individual since about 2001.  I've been going to gyms (pretty much every gym in NY, from Dolphin to Bally's to Gold's to the Y to New York Sports Club to Equinox), doing cardio 5x a week literally since I was 18.  As the years progressed I moved into more endurance-type activities.  Began cycling in 2007, starting off with a mountain bike from Toys R Us and now complete 1-2 century (100+ mile) bike rides a year (no longer on a mountain bike).  In 2008 I got into running, and despite a plethora of injuries over the years I've managed to complete 3 half marathons and a bunch of smaller races; 5 & 10Ks over the years.  I do yoga, pilates and barre classes.  I love trying out new studios all over the city; some of my favorites are Soul Cycle, Prana Yoga and Chaise 23.  From a food sense, I've struggled with it since I was a kid.  I've always loved food, but sadly, food doesn't love me back.  I have to watch everything I eat so I don't gain weight, and I've developed allergies over the years that have caused me to move from a low-calorie to a vegetarian to a gluten-free to soy-free to now paleo diet.  It's been a hell of a journey, but what I've learned every step of it is that when it comes to  health, things change every day.  New nutritional benefits are uncovered; foods that were once thought to be healthy actually aren't; other foods that were thought were bad for you have positive effects.  It's a lot to keep up with, and Caryn and I have done a pretty good job of keeping up to speed with the evolution in nutrition and spend a lot of time (maybe too much time) wandering the aisles of Whole Foods, discovering new foods, drinks and vitamins each and every day.  For me, this blog will serve as a place to house all of this information, a place to evaluate new findings, and share with our friends and fellow health-nuts new products we find so you can enjoy them too.

I am Caryn, very similar background to Lori; ran a few marathons, biked multiple centuries, and practically live at the gym 4-5 times a week. When not at the gym  I am walking everywhere perusing the shelves of Whole Foods and any other health food market.

However I was not always this way, born and raised in SOUTH Brooklyn, growing up in the 80’s and 90’s to a family who had no idea what a “healthy” meal meant. Dinners consisted of frozen meals, jarred tomato sauces, and whatever item was on sale for the week. You could be sure our house was always stocked with Bryer’s or Edy’s ice cream along with cookies, chips, soda etc.  By some miracle I was never overweight, but was always interested in food and fitness.

By sixteen, saving my small income from my job selling pretzels at the mall I joined my first gym (back then a gym was  $15-$20 a month!!!). I lived on the elliptical machine and ignored weights like the plague. At this point I still had no idea what a vegetable was and feasted on “healthy” cereals all day 3 meals a day such as Special K, Reese Pieces cereal (for those hard days on elliptical), and whatever other sugary item I could find. At this point Lori and I met and congratulated ourselves on being so healthy, as she followed a similar routine. No one we knew even went to a gym!

 On weekends we would be very “cool” and take the B/Q train to Broadway Lafayette and walk uptown to Bloomingdales, burning  calories, and treating ourselves along the way with more sugary treats.

Then came college…Wal-Mart and Wegmans was my heaven on earth. The aisles of cereal, candy, cookies, chips--- all so much cheaper than at home!  I literally spent my first two years of college living off anything in a package, especially cereal and wheat thins (my healthy snack). I still continued to go to the gym and at this point I added salad into my diet (super healthy).

It wasn’t until my junior year that my roommate and I moved in with a bunch of people who were environmentalists and spoke of this weird term ORGANIC. My roommate and I had no idea what these “hippies” were talking about. Why would you spend more money on food because its “ORGANIC.” Who eats ORGANIC eggs and drinks ORGANIC milk… Being curious about health, my roommate and I took a class on environmental studies and learned about “ORGANIC” and why it’s better for you, and so much more (which will be discussed throughout the blog).. The class was eye opening. It began my journey to eat cleaner and healthier- and to pay attention to ingredients.

However this has been a long journey. After college “healthy” eating meant packaged dinners at Trader Joe’s  laden with soy, gluten, and god knows what else. Lori and I would meet up after work and raid TJ, then eat our meals and we both had same reaction--- stomachaches, bloating, etc.. How could this be if we were eating healthy???

As time went on, we learned more about soy, gluten, additives and continued to modify our diets, however it wasn’t until very recently (like 2 months ago) that our worlds changed by reading “It Starts With Food,” which basically outlined and scientifically proved why everything we thought was correct was hurting us… So begins our quest to share our knowledge with you!

Thanks for reading!