Thursday, March 3, 2016

How I Went From Fat-Baby-Belly to Fit-Flat-Beautiful In 9mo!

Weight didn't just fall off after I had Daryn. My abs didn't just firm up on their own. I'm not in the best shape of my life 9 months after having a baby on accident. It seems like that's what people want to believe (victim mentality) because that removes the blame from them for not being in shape. But that's not the case. I built this body. I built the body I wanted to have and if I can do it SO CAN YOU. There are no excuses, I don't want to hear how you're jealous of the way I look. I look this way because I put in work. You can too. You are a human, a creator. Like me. It just takes effort. Are you ready?


My guess is that you would love to look like this for swimsuit season. If you're tryna give me that "No I love my curves!" bullshit that's fine, but it's no excuse. Why? Because if you're fat and you don't work out - you're ploppy and fat. Unattractive. Lumpy, not curvy. Skinny and no muscle? That's scrawny, not sexy. Fat and workout? You are curvy, shapely, and yummy as fuck. Lean and muscly? No way to get around it, you are sexy as hell. See the pattern? Muscle is sexy. Building more muscle will make you more sexy no matter your size. Fat is not sexy. Scrawny and bony is not sexy. Muscle is sexy. If you want to cover your muscle with fat for a more "curvy" look be my guest. You can just eat more calories, but still workout.

Alright. Your body can be everything you want it to be this summer. Two steps. In order of importance. Really simple.
  1. Workout
  2. Diet
Now let me elaborate.

Workout
With weights. Workout with weights to build the shape you want. At least 4x/wk. I naturally have a tiny butt, so I do mainly weighted butt ('cause I wanna build size and muscle) and abs. Lots of elevated bridges, side-lying leg raises, squats, lunges, crunches, bicycles, dead bugs, etc. I also love pushups, and working out my back is important to even out my focus on abs.

You can't spot-reduce fat. But you CAN spot-increase muscle. Figure out what you want your body to look like. Google exercises for building up those muscles in the areas you want to focus on. Just make sure you workout the antagonist muscle/s as well when applicable!


Diet
Lose the fat to give yourself a blank canvas to work with. Calories DO matter, whether you are trying to lose, gain or stay the same. Type of calorie does matter too. Type being: Protien, Carbohydrate, or Fat. These are called "macronutrients" - you need significant quantities of them. Macronutrients matter. So do micronutrients. Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals. They do not provide energy for your body the way macronutrients do, but they are necessary to keep your body and mind healthy and functioning the way it should. I can tell you from personal experience that if you are not getting adequate micronutrients in your diet, it will be nearly impossible to stick to any diet. If you are getting plenty of micronutrients you'll find you're able to eat significantly less with significantly less hunger and cravings. While it's obviously best to get these micronutrients from your diet, if you need to take a supplement to make sure you're getting enough it's worth it. A successful diet for building the body you want is planned out and controlled, but it also needs to be unrestrictive and doable or you will fall off the wagon. Again, personal experience. If you are trying to lose weight, eat around 10x-12x your body weight in calories. If you weigh 100lb you would eat 1000-1200cal/day to lose weight. To maintain, find an online calculator and figure out how many calories you burn in a day. Eat around that many. To gain try to eat around/up to +300 calories from that amount. Your macronutrient ratio matters, too. Make sure you get enough protein - especially if you are trying to lose weight, because eating plenty of protein makes the difference between your body breaking down muscle for energy vs your body breaking down fat for energy! Shoot for anywhere between .5g-1g protein for every lb of bodyweight.

Now I'm going to tell you exactly what works for me. You can give it a shot - since it has worked for me it will probably work for you, too. But if not, take what you know and come up with something that will work for you.

  •  Caffeine my friend. I have a baby. I don't sleep enough. Caffeine....it gives me more energy than food soo it is my choice for the morning. I almost always drink sugar free because it keeps calories low and allows me to eat more food later. Again I can say from personal experience - artificial sweeteners do not make you fatter than sugar. I guess we'll see down the road whether they give me cancer. But sugar free in my experience, is a delightful way to enjoy a sweet flavor without the sweet flavor going to your hips.
  • I normally don't eat until the PM. I unconventionally hate the 8,000 small meals/day model. Not gonna lie, I eat very little throughout the day and prefer to enjoy one BIG relatively unrestricted meal at night. As a side note, also I feel better (better mood, more energy) throughout the day when I do not eat, and fall asleep better when I save one giant meal for at night.
  • Complete protein & nutrition meal powder is my best friend! Tastes delicious mixed with skim or almond milk (I do prefer the latter), supplies a huge hit of micronutrients, and you won't find such a high ratio of protien to fat and carbs in nearly any other food! This comes into play later. I drink 1-2 of these daily after working out, and if I feel hungry before it's time to eat. I also love that its soo easy to make and eat. I can take it to work with me and eat while I work, too.
  • Real food is important too. Fruits and veggies supply carbs, but more importantly they supply plenty of fiber and micronutrients, including trace micronutrients that would be less likely to be found in my protein powder. Basically eat these unlimitedly.
  • Plenty of junk food! Thats right...at the end of the day. After I've eaten my protein shakes (met my protein requirement for the day) and my fruits and veggies (plenty of fiber, vitamin c, etc for the day), I've probably only eaten 700cal max. The fun part is filling in the rest of your calories with, well - whatever the fuck you want! Nourish the body and mind with all the healthy shit throughout the day to meet your nutritional requirements, then nourish your soul and moral with well, whatever strikes you as worth the calories! Only thing is that junk food is pretty high caloric density food and its easy to eat a lot of calories really fast so sort of keep an eye on that and make sure you're not going far over your calorie goal.
That's that, folks. How I lost 30lb after having a baby, regained 10lb as muscle, and am looking better than ever and feeling better than ever - after my morning coffee that is. Hope to see y'all looking fabulous in your swim suits this summer!! You deserve to look good naked. (;

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Two Day Streak!

It's been two days since i promised baby Hendrik/Haven and myself to put only the best in our bodies. I'm excited to spend the remainder of my pregnancy and his/her childhood providing not only a good example, but also ensuring that my child has unlimited access to fruit and delectably prepared veggie dishes.

I always felt like the reason kids don't like vegetables is because nobody knows how to prepare vegetables so they taste really good! Nobody puts passion and love into the vegetables that have so much potential to nourish their families. Nobody except raw vegans that is!!! I have eaten some incredibly tasty foods... comprised of nothing but raw unadulterated vegetables, fruits, and spices! Making them just takes a little more effort than pb&js and a little more of a learning curve than making hamburger helper for dinner. There's a lot more uncharted territory when it comes to cooking - or not - with vegetables.

Anyway, it's day two and I am feeling so great! Even though I am in week 14 of my pregnancy and morning sickness is no longer supposed to be debilitating, I've still been throwing up (and not just in the morning). Today, however, I woke up with no nausia at all. I also just feel remarkably clearheaded and happy. I was in such a good mood all day at work too. All thanks to a sudden massive influx in vitamins, minerals, living food, and superior hydration in just one day. I'm excited for how I feel tomorrow after eating this way for 3 days!

Anyhow yesterday for breakfast i had an apple and a banana-frozen-strawberry-oj smoothie. It's literally the best smoothie in all the land. I used to eat A QUART OR MORE of it every day for breakfast. The combination is so good! It should be a staple food for everybody, vegan or raw vegan, because it's just so easy and tasty and filling. And nutritious! Talk about a great way to get your fiber and vitamin c in.

For lunch I ate fruitarian sushi, another favorite of mine back when I ate all raw. I will create a recipe soon.

Dinner was creamy cucumber noodles, recipe once I get at a computer. These so simple. And so good, another all time favorite from when I was raw.

I was hungry just a little later so I also made myself 2 eggs, and black beans wrapped in corn tortilla shell with enchilada sauce. Another win, super good, and a great, healthy way to push in some protien for me and baby (: I've decided to modify the diet from how I used to follow it, to include quality protiens like eggs and legumes.

Today I woke up and had a smoothie for breakfast. Lunch was apples. Here's dinner:




But nom tho!! BBQ shredded carrots! Wrapped in homegrown cabbage leaves with a dill pickle. (: Here's a link to the recipe.http://thegaychickwiththeblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/fresh-creamy-noodle-like-goodness.html?m=1

Thursday, November 20, 2014

On My Mind//13

I've posted this link before but I just read it again tonight and I'm in love all over again. Seriously, read this!!

It Has Been A MINUTE!

Wow! It's been a while since I posted. It's been a while since I thought a lot about this part of my life! So much has changed since my last post, where do I start?

I would no longer call myself a vegan, hippie, or child anymore. Let me go on.



I'm pregnant!!! My fetus is 3 months old and I'm starting to show and my life has changed so much since I got pregnant, since I found out, and it's only going to continue to change at a rapid rate with the growth and birth of our child. I wasn't planning on the pregnancy obviously at 18 years old with plans for college but my boyfriend and I are both so excited for him.

I also slipped off the wagon. I began struggling again with eating disorder tendencies last winter and began eating unhealthy food with enthusiasm this past summer. Non fruitarian food is freaking good! Icecream, cookies, french fries, pizza, vegan burgers. There's a reason those foods are pretty much universally loved. My hair thinned considerably this summer though too and I can't help but wonder if that wasn't affected at all by my poor diet in the previous months. Wanna see it somewhere around its worst?



Remember how long and thick and nice it was when I was eating lots of healthy living vegan nutrients!? Let me refresh your memory if not.



Since then I cut most of it off and it's looking thicker and better but it's nowhere near as nice as it used to be.

I've been trying hard to eat healthy and also lots of protiens, but admittedly there are still a lot of bad foods in my diet that shouldn't be there for the sake and health of my future kid. I've been thinking a lot lately about how amazing I felt all the time when i ate all raw vegan. It seems pretty normal to think back to a time in my life when I was healthier and happier than ever, at a time in my life when I wake up feeling like I got punched in the gut by a train every day. And also at a time when I'm making a fragile, impressionable little person in my belly and have greater nutritional requirements than I've ever had before. I really wish to teach my child how to live healthy, happy, and fruitfully too. I've been dreaming of going back to a high fruit diet - obviously though, this time including plenty of healthy fats and protiens due to, well, you know. My little person.

From here out this blog is going to be dedicated to the story and struggles of a 18 year old girl learning about pregnancy and childhood in a whole new way as I relearn the art of raw vegan fruitarian veganism.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Thought Of The Day

Criminalizing hemp because marijuana is an illegal drug is like telling a diabetic they shouldn't eat peppers because their cousin the potato is high in starch....



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Monday, November 18, 2013

Deep Breath

Deep breath, so deep.
Fill my lungs
With sweet carbon smoke

It's swirling upwards,
Painting a monochromatic
In crisp, cool air

Breathe deep,
I am awake.
Vibrant colors all around

Fiery reds
and golden leaves
Fall gently
When a breath moves through the trees.

Firm, supple ground
Beneath my feet;
Deep green mosses
At my toes

Rich black soil
The past from which
The forest now grows

And leaves fall too
Beginning again,
Back to the earth.

I'm walking now.
The forest changes
at my feet.

From cool, moist earth
To firm,
Dry with grasses

Warm, safe, golden sun
Cuts through
Fresh autumn air

Laying down I meet some locusts
And a fly or two.
Living it up
Before the air gets cold.

And cicadas still hum,
Closing the year
With that high-pitched little song.

The sun grows hot
As my eyes grow heavy
Cicadas hum in soft, warm blackness

Deep breath, so deep.
The forest fills my lungs

Swirling upwards now
Painting a monochromatic
In crisp, cool air.



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Friday, October 4, 2013

Drug Of The Nation

Disclaimer: this post has little, if any, relevance to my blog.

Ok, so we can agree that caffeine is our societies "chosen drug", right? Everybody uses caffeine.

What if, one day in the future once weed has been legalized....lots more people start becoming open to it, and everyone starts smokin' it. Food production companies start putting it in prepared foods and stuff, and within however many generations, weed has saturated society, like caffeine has today.

Get what I'm saying?

The entire underlying fabric of our culture would change, with that simple change in substances we're putting in our body. Instead of being rushed, always busy, super competitive and always left feeling like there's something missing, we would instead be a loving, accepting, chill, thoughtful, friendly, (though maybe a little forgetful and aimless) society.


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