At the end of 2016, I had just gone through the most unhealthy year of my life. I had a bad case of bronchitis twice, I spent a week with the stomach bug, I felt anxious all the time, and I never was truly content in my mind or my body. So I took it upon myself to wake up one day and ask myself, WHY? Why do you feel this way? But then I didn’t stop with that question. I asked myself WHAT? What could I do to make a change? And finally I asked myself HOW? How was I going to make that change? See what people always get wrong is that the start of something new is a tangible action, but the start is when you make the choice to let go of old habits, when you let go of fear, when you let go of everything that has been holding you back. And it’s not that choice alone. It’s the commitment to that choice. A commitment so strong that no matter how hard it gets you know you will get to the other side. So I committed.
I started with a focus on diet and nutrition because that’s where my biggest downfall was. I would demolish sugary, processed foods and I had no idea what it was doing to my mental and physical health. Nutrition is the first place to start. It’s the place that truly changes your body and truly changes the mind. The brain has a direct connection to the gut, so what we put in fuels our thoughts. I started small with cutting out all processed foods and all white refined sugar. The first week was SO hard. My body was craving the things I had been giving it for so long. Let me tell you SUGAR IS AN ADDICTION. It’s one of the hardest habits for the brain to break, but once you do it will change your life. So after sugar, I started cutting out gluten, then dairy, then red meat, then corn, then soy, then carbonated water, then canola oil. I was paleo for awhile but once I started running I had to increase my intake of whole grains. Whole grains are the number one best thing for your heart health so NEVER cut them out! I relied heavily on pre-made healthy foods at the beginning to make it feel like I was still getting all my favorite “snacks”.
The magic in it was that as I began to let go of the ingredients that were holding me back, I started adding in things I never thought I would ever like. Tons of leafy greens, mushrooms, seafood, matcha, etc. I started researching how I could make healthy recipes. I started investigating healthy baking through Pinterest searches. It took about eight weeks to really notice changes and form habits. These first eight weeks are HARD. But when you start to see the changes, in your mind and body, you will start to feel passion. I became so passionate seeing how this new lifestyle helped me to begin helping other people. I educate my family everyday on new research I’ve read and geeked out over :) Now once I had mastered the eating portion, I dove into exercise.
This was 2016 vs end of 2019 :)
I had always danced and played field hockey until 9th grade but I never felt good doing it because I was never fueling myself properly. So I started by doing at home HIIT and strength training workouts and after a few months decided I was going to start running. I have run several 10ks and even completed a half marathon. But no matter how good it feels to cross a finish line and complete a goal, I never LOVED running. So I tried out rowing. I loved rowing for a while but again, I never LOVED it. Finally I decided to give hot yoga a try. I really really loved it. So I started going a few times a week and became hooked. Now I have recently added a consistent pilates practice to my routine along with yoga and have never been more at peace with my workout routine. I never dread the workouts, I always feel incredible, and I feel my happiest doing them. I realized that doing such intense workouts for so long was beating up my body, stressing my body out, and holding me back from trying other options that I thought weren’t “hard” enough. It has also drastically changed my routine to start walking more. I pop in a podcast, listen to music, or just go out and walk. I walk to the grocery store, to the bank, anytime I have an excuse to walk I will.
With my passion at an all time high, I started investigating clean beauty, skincare, and even cleaning products. The toxins in these products are often at the root of many cancerous diseases and ruin the effects of healthy eating and exercise. The first thing I changed was using an aluminum free deodorant. Seriously this is SO important. Aluminum is a root cause of many breast cancers. Then I changed my shampoo and body washes to make sure they didn’t contain SLS (sodium laurel sulfate). This foaming agent is in most soaps and is SO bad for us. I then changed my makeup and nail polish. I never ever go to a regular nail salon anymore. They are crawling with bacteria and toxins. I only use a 10-free nail polish which I will talk about in my clean beauty post.
After nutrition and exercise, I wanted to touch on a book I read that truly is life changing. It’s called The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. He talks all about presence in our thoughts and actions, and it’s an incredible read. It’s a little bit weird to get into at first but I have now read through it about 3-4 times. It’s something you can always come back to which I love.
So I know this is lengthy, but I wanted to share because I want to help people change their lives. To see that there is a way out of feeling down about yourself. To see that we have so much to offer life and life has so much to offer us, if we take care of ourselves. When people say it takes years to truly get to a balanced place with diet and exercise it’s true. So be patient with yourself, even though I know it can be really hard, and trust that you are moving forward even if it’s only a little at a time. While it’s important to have a healthy and happy mind and body, above all it’s important to have a happy heart. A heart that feels full. Of love and magic forever.
With all my love, C