Introduction

I decided to enter the world of blogging and needed an area to blog about.  I've been trying to enhance my nutrition and drop a couple pounds in the process as I work to stay fit.  Recently turning 50 has made fitness even more difficult.  Working full time hasn't helped either.  I could gain a pound or two over a weekend and work tirelessly to try and lose them, usually to no avail.

Earlier this year I was listening to the Adam Carolla podcast and as a guest he had fitness trainer Vinnie Tortorich (@vinnietortorich) on.  Adam was using Vinnie's "No Sugar No Grains" (#NSNG) way of eating and was having good results.  Adam's co host Gina Grad was also eating via Vinnie's guidlines and having great results as well.  If I remember correctly, Adam was down to a weight he hadn't seen in years and Gina was down 25 pounds or so.

The premise behind this was simple - don't eat any refined sugars or grains.  To me it sounded a lot like the Atkins diet which I previously found too restrictive.  Then I listened closer to Vinnie and the differences between #NSNG and Atkins.  #NSNG allows you to eat certain fruit "in moderation".  Atkins was much stricter on this.  I thought with fruit allowed, I could give this a go.

So I subscribed to Vinnie's Podcast, visited his website, bought his book on Amazon, and jumped right in.  Mainly I avoided pasta and breads and of course desserts.  I also had to give up the various energy bars that are filled with sugar, and my favorite sports drink Gatorade G2 grape.  I was also running and doing a boot camp class a few times a week.  I dropped some weight and started feeling better.

As I did this, being an Engineering type I researched #NSNG on the web.  I found a variety of info, from Vinnie's site to other similar sites.  I noticed the Paleo diet sites would sometimes reference #NSNG, as would other diet sites.  What I had a hard time finding was really anyone's specific personal experiences with it.  I wanted more details on what people found successful and what they didn't.  I'm a skeptic and I really need to hear from someone who is just a regular person.

And that is the start of this blog...  More to come, thanks for reading and thanks for sharing.