An in depth q/a!

Effective Fitness | ED Recovery | ​Stretching Routine |  Mental Health | My Top Plant Based Tips!

A: I am not a mom (yet!) but I definitely know that I don’t have the want to spend a set amount of time working out daily or having to stick to a strict “workout plan”. I prefer sustainable / intuitive fitness above all! 

This mindset stems from already being through the harsh fitness regimes and realizing that any extreme scheduled fitness/habit is going to kill any craving/joy the activity gives you.

For example: if you love to draw but try to set yourself on a schedule of 1-2 hours of timed drawing at a certain time every day, you will most likely hate drawing within 2 weeks and not find joy from it anymore. Forcing a habit is just going to make you resist it more and more!

That being said, first what needs focus is: fuel intake/rest. These two have to be on point if you want to enjoy any kind of higher intensity fitness. You can’t try to workout or get more active when the energy tank is on E .. it just won’t work and you will feel drained and depleted (and most likely cranky and bingey!). Start by eating wholesome foods, eating enough and resting enough (sleep and daily down time).

After you have handled those, find YOUR sustainable fitness. This means something that 1. You love and 2. You can easily fit into your every day schedule!
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For me this is: walks daily (or runs), yoga daily and hikes whenever possible! I love walking/running almost daily – unless the day is super busy or I know in my heart I need more rest than normal! Whether it be a 10 minute jog or 60 minute walk or 30 min jog or anything in between .. I get outside and go for a bit every single day and I love it! It works for me, makes me feel amazing every single time and never gets old. I have been doing it for years now!

The same goes for yoga — sometimes it is intense and sweaty and sometimes its me laying flat on my back for 10 minutes and listening to some music!

Hiking is touch and go depending on the season, weather, location, schedule etc.. But again, it is something I have loved for years and will continue to enjoy for the majority of the rest of my life!

Some other sustainable fitness ideas (but not all!): playing a sport with a group of friends – like soccer or basketball! Swimming, biking, jogging, pilates, dancing .. and so on and so forth! Even at home workouts are ideal – I do these maybe 1x a week (sometimes more and sometimes not at all) .. they usually are only about 10-15 minutes long and aren’t difficult at all!

Find what works for you .. try different activities out .. see what feels right/where your passion lies and stick with it!! Don’t try to OVER do it or force yourself to do X amount of minutes… that will lead to resistance, stress and an aversion to the activity itself 😛

A: This one is tricky .. tricky in the fact that it truly depends on where your head is at when coming to the plant based vegan lifestyle. Are you here to heal or here to use the lifestyle as a cover up for your ED? 

Some folks are here to heal – that is where I came from when going plant based! I saw women who were eating in abundance and thriving and I craved that with everything in me. I wanted to stop every old habit I was carrying and become ME again. And so I used this lifestyle to heal.
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Some women/men come to the lifestyle and trick themselves into using it as a cover up .. using it to pretend that they are “eating normal” but they are only using it to cater to their eating disorder. Feeding the ED and creating a safe place for it in the plant based lifestyle.

So, if you are here to heal – then this lifestyle is right for you and you WILL heal. If you are here to hide and manipulate the lifestyle – then you need a bit more time to find your way, which is also ok! Eating disorders are very controlling diseases and they can really take control of your decisions .. but underneath all that, the real you is there and he/she is craving freedom! Let that part of your shine harder than the others and eventually the others will leave, I promise!

Start by journaling – asking yourself where your motives are in going plant based vegan. Are you here to heal? To drop old patterns? To leave every part of your ED behind? .. Make sure that is the path you are on and move on from there 🙂

A: This is 100% normal and healthy! As long as you aren’t feeling severe pain the day after. The muscles, when stretched at a higher rate, will feel almost “sore” the next 2-3 days and a bit still?

There is a fine line between a solid sore stretch feeling and over exertion .. but I think that trusting your instincts is key. Listening to your body – does it feel like you are in a LOT of pain? Or are you just a little sore and tight? Does the pain subside after a day or two or is the pain getting worse?

Gentle, consistent stretching is the way to go .. not heavy/extreme stretching 1-2x per week. Try 15 minutes of gentle, fluid stretches daily and give up any hour long, intense stretch sessions 😛

A: I am not sure if this is personally asking or broadly (the general population) .. I will go with #2 because I don’t want my own personal experience to define yours!

I think generally speaking, mental health has a large impact on physical health aspects. When you feel low, your actions usually follow suit. 

You choose the wrong activities to participate in, you might use substances to cope (caffeine stimulants, nicotine, alcohol, pharmaceuticals etc) .. you might choose junk food over wholesome food or under eat day to day, your sleep schedule tends to be thrown off and you generally don’t have that craving for movement/fitness!..

This leads to back to back physical / mental health issues. They feed off of each other, so 1 poor mental health decisions leads to physical health suffering and same goes for the physical health decisions effecting the mental health.

Two of my biggest tips when first coming to a plant based vegan lifestyle:

1. Educate yourself. Don’t try to just “eat some fruits and veggies instead of meat/dairy” .. you’ll end up under eating, not getting the right amount of food/types of foods and fall off the boat within the week — shoot, maybe within the day! Haha. Read all the plant based books, watch all the documentaries, read all the research studies and articles, take some courses or find a coach/mentor.. soak it all in and take your time!! 
2. Eat enough!! This goes hand in hand with the first tip. You have to know what to eat / how much you must eat on this lifestyle to thrive. You have to eat double, sometimes triple the portion sizes simply due to the fact that plant foods are far less calorie dense than meat/dairy and junk food items. Most folks don’t realize this and think after 3 days of eating some vegetables, tiny bowls of oatmeal and low calorie smoothies that their body is ‘craving’ meat .. or they feel “SO DRAINED” … not realizing that they accidentally only ate about 1000 calories that day! Eat big, eat a variety of all plant foods and pay CLOSE attention to cravings / binge feelings – these are the truest signs of not eating enough! 

 

Here are a few others tips:

1. Make the base of each meal carb dense — fruits or starch or grains. No 1/2 a cup of cooked rice or 1 small potato .. think 2-3 cups of grains, 2-3 potatoes per meal etc! 
2. Never make a meal JUST from vegetables! 
3. Include at least several handfuls of a variety of plant fats daily. This means fats like avocado, hemp, chia, flax, nuts, coconut etc.
4. It is far better to eat an abundance and plethora of wholesome plant foods then to try to limit calorie intake or portion these foods and binge out on junk later. The first few weeks, eat and eat and eat. 
5. Keep snacks on hand at all times for quick hunger cues – your hunger cues will come in a lot quicker than normal because plant foods digest at a quicker rate and are used at a quicker rate than heavy animal products.. Keep fruits, nuts, homemade bars/granola, topper ware meals on hand at all times! 

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