understood, and agree. i call it a diet because it's opposite of my habit <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

You should look at Crossfit...true, it's organized....but it falls in line with the principle you stated above (not to be routine). <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> The idea is to condition your body to changes and increase physical capability.

there is no such thing as "getting in shape." your body is an organic feedback mechanism. whatever you feed it constantly, it reacts to. whatever you make it do, it will optimize itself for that. this is why activity must remain constant and you can indulge but balance that with healthy food. make it a 2-1 ratio and don't over eat, and you should be fine.

routine isn't bad. i'm not saying all those commercial or popular plans are bad. just saying the successful ones are all really doing the same thing.

what if i sit behind a desk 12+ hours a day? it's the fight at hand.

i have been eating lots of fresh fruit to help balance my cravings.

OVER EATING...that's so so true. You realize I'm in Texas...right? I had lunch with an old Jew who survived the holocaust, and he laughed at me for not finishing my plate (something he does not feel one has the luxury of doing).

as long as your body is sustaining the strain of an active lifestyle, it will keep itself optimized for the particular strains you place on it.

okay, you don't need to spend hours at the gym. every day, do ten burpees. it's a full body exercise. when you get better at them, do twenty. it only takes a minute. keep increasing until maybe you can do two sessions a day, then three times a day, twenty burpees.

that'll only come to a few minutes a day, but combined with what you're eating (more what you're not eating) you should get results steadily. no overnight dramatic change, but you'll see it.

Can you expand on that, Mags....not quite sure I'm following. Are you just stating that if my body has experienced the same strains of an active lifestyle (allbeit I completed it in a 1 hr session, for example), then it's the equivelant of leading an regulated active lifestyle over a 24 hour period?

NM...you explained it. That's what I thought you meant.

as for what not to eat, the general guideline that i always recommend is avoiding preservatives.

Do you end up cooking alot?