Allow me to tell you a little story... I recently moved to a place I refer to as "protein land". This is one of those places where you think "that would be a fun place to visit" but once you do you find out it's not somewhere you necessarily want to settle down and raise a family. The odd thing though is that people who live in protein land seem to have a very close connection and understanding of one another, they can relate to each other and how it feels to spend a Sunday afternoon cooking in bulk for the entire week, scrambling to quickly clean up the kitchen before the whole house smells like eggs, chicken breast, broccoli, asparagus and fish. Protein land isn't necessarily somewhere that smells great (kinda like those towns you drive through that have a 'paper mill').

Here is one interesting thing I have learned in protein land... there is great tension between here and the neighboring city "carbville" and even more tension between a suburb of carbville called "sugartown". There are often dirty looks between those that live in protein land as they grow increasingly angry while grocery shopping as they watch loaves of bread and an abundance of refined carbohydrates flinging into the grocery baskets of those who live in the next county over "refined foods county" (the majority of those that live in this county reside in carbville and sugartown, although some live in the town named "frozen foodland").

I know my stay here in protein land is temporary (I only signed a 4 month lease) but while living here I have noticed that my life and eating in particular became much more simple, but very methodical and controlled. Some of those that live in protein land are near mathematicians! They can rhyme off all kinds of numbers regarding nutritional value and calculate the most complex caloric expenditures between food consumption and energy expenditure. I find myself starting this little neurotic journey, joining the ranks of these protein calculating, muscle pumping, hydrating, carb-restricting, veggie overloading, cardio capturing, perfect posing residents of protein land. Those of you reading this may choose to venture into protein land one day too and you'll understand everything I just wrote...