New site!!

Hello there all my wonderful fitness friends! I am trying a new blogging platform and wanted to share that with you... Check it out! This week I will be posting some clean eating recipes for those who need some easy meal options! xoxo 💜

bodysoulspiritfitness.wordpress.com

A lull in the storm

What a week! When my plate is too full, I am both stressed and happy. I love the focus it requires yet I hate how I have left so many things to the last minute. It is performance week for me and my students, and in the midst of it I have managed to make time to workout nearly every day, even though I am moving enough that I must already be burning about 3,000 calories a day! I rarely take rest days, as my habit to work out each day is so strong and I love that moment of the day. 

Today was apparently a rest day from fitness, and instead I sewed for about 5 hours, rehearsed for 3 hours with my students, cleaned my house, went shopping to get ingredients to make dark chocolate covered strawberries for myopathy performance reception tomorrow night, and cooked a yummy dinner of baked chicken and sautéed veggies for myself and my fiancé who arrived this evening. I ran around like a maniac this morning trying to get all the costumes I needed from work into my car and writing down the seating order of students for the teachers in the performing hall of the local high school, which I am renting for the event. 

On Sunday night I was struggling with waves of guilt and questioning my lifestyle choices, which happens every now and then and helps me "clean out the closet" a bit. It led me to delete my social media apps for a few days, just to focus on my life directly around me and reorient myself with my priorities. 

And now it is the eve of the performance, and I am proud of my students and all they have achieved. Now I am hoping the Angels will work on it for us and send it back fresh, new, and full of life for our audience. 

Hope you are having a wonderful week! 

  

Stormy with a Lining of Sunshine

A sixth grade boy noted today, "You seem happy." Whether or not he knew that the new ring on my finger symbolized my engagement to the love of my life, I was delighted with his comment and responded happily, I am!"

I am in love with life because of these moments. One moment you are struggling with the challenges and hiccups of life, and the next surprises you with pure, heavenly delight. The road is not flat, or not for long at least. I am a seeker of adventure and truth, and thus I am generally on a road that crosses mountains and hills. 

With the hope of a wedding sometime this year, I find myself filled with a new motivation to reach new health and fitness goals. I was serious before; I am ready to push beyond my limits now. Perfect timing, as I feel I was in a bit of an unsatisfactory plateau. The joy that is fueling me from this past week is a wind in my sails. I hope it lasts me during the next few weeks of performance prep time with my students in grades 3-8, as well as my fitness goals. 

Happy spring!

Anorexia

I don't look at someone who is skinny and judge them for being skinny. I am familiar enough with anorexia, seeing as it affected/affects my little sister and a few of my close girl friends, to know the other signs that show its present and not simply a body type. And it cannot be ignored. 

Each person who struggles with this illness has made a choice in the past and fought to create the habit of depriving the body of the nutrients it needs to be alive and active. They are surely struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts, for slowly but surely they are killing themselves. They feel completely guilty if they eat something, for it shows a lack of willpower and a plea for life. 

THIS DISEASE DESERVES NO SYMPATHY. Do not attack a person who is ill with it. But the disease must be attacked, for it is taking away the possibility of that person truly living their dreams. They do not have the energy, the stamina, the clarity of thought to move forward towards their life goals. They could be someone, they could be themselves, but they have given themselves to the demons of anorexia and this will determine their future. My sister had to sleep away half her day in order to have enough energy to do her chores on the farm and hang out with her friends. Sometimes she had enough energy to ride horses, after she had snuck in the house and raided the ice cream. She has so many gifts, and during her most intense time of illness she could produce only a quarter of those things, and that only because her willpower failed her in moments. One of my dearest friends was anorexic for 7 years when I met her. In our movement classes in college she would turn gray and nearly pass out. She had to sit out for 90% of our practices and 25% of our classes. Our teacher knew she was ill and gave her ultimatums. Because of these ultimatums and the respect my friend had for our teacher, whom she knew had her best interests in mind, she was halfway to recovery a year later and completely weaned off all of her antidepressants. 

My little sister is now almost fully recovered herself, due to this same amazing teacher, and I think, I say humbly, also myself because of our own bond and connection. I do not sympathize with her excuses or take no for an answer when I ask her to join me for a healthy meal. This feeds the illness. 

Again, I emphasize that it is not that a skinny body is in any way ugly that one should "criticize" anorexia. It is all the power that it is weilding over the individual that must be fought courageously. We can do this, together. 

I love you all, fat, thin, muscular, in between. And you all deserve life. 

Healthy Habits In the Making

Making new, healthy habits can be challenging for anyone, and getting enough motivation to keep our will active is not a guarantee. Taking baby steps towards goals is always the best way to begin, for there is less chance of falling on your face on the way. 

I am going to offer a few tips that may help on your journey to becoming healthy and fit. 

First of all, make a grocery shopping list that suits your ideals. Only buy the items on that list so that you don't have foods in the house that tempt you and yet make you feel guilty eating them. 

If you are craving dessert, try eating some protein if you'd like to cut the craving for sweets. This often is quite effective. If it's not or you'd rather not have extra protein in the moment, make sure you always have plenty of fruit or some yogurt around for your sweets substitute. I often make some tea sweetened with stevia. 

Get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning and do some push-ups, sit ups, crunches, squats, or run a mile. If you can't manage to get out of bed, hit those squats or push-ups while you're waiting for your coffee or your breakfast to cook. If you have a break at work, do the same thing. It will all add up, and best of all, be strengthening a new habit. 

Join the Pumpup community if you use a smartphone. It's the most positive, supportive group you can imagine, and you will attain your goals. 

Best of luck to you, and happy journeying. Xoxo ❤️

Agricultural Change & Awareness: from a fit perspective

The world, one could say, is a little bit of a mess right now. There's a lot going on and much of it is not very pretty. In the world of agriculture, this hasn't been pretty for awhile, but with more and more people becoming interested in where their food comes from and what nutrient value it has, there is potential for positive change. In Essex, New York, on the shores of Lake Champlain, one organic farm has grown it's family to over 200 members who are part of a CSA (community supported agriculture) model, and because of its popularity (helped by the farmer Kristin Kimball's book, The Dirty Life) more small organic farms have sprung up all over that area of northeastern New York, operated by young people, some of whom used to have occupations as lawyers or travel writers. 

Suddenly food is important again. And it is. The fitness world knows it. We derive our cognitive and physical capacities from health, which is supported by enough nourishment and enough sleep. Therefore movements like this one in New York are important to all of us. If food wasn't so mass produced, perhaps it would hold more nutrient value and we could take fewer vitamins and supplements, for the plants and the animal products that we ate potentially would hold more of them for us. 

Each of us can look in our own backyard. Perhaps there's a small farm, or a garden space, that we can take hold of or be a part of. It actually can save on the cost of groceries, which stops many people from being able to buy organic or biodynamic foods. And these steps could make one part of our crazy world picture today, a little less crazy. Community and food and fitness-they fit together. 

Fitness: a journey that needs nourishment

Life is a journey. We all know this. Because a landscape always changes, our journey is sometimes easy, sometimes struggle some, sometimes fun.  Each of us has to find our way, has to choose a clear destination. For some of us, fitness is a friend on the road who gives us strength to move forward. It provides distraction or protection from less pleasant things. It creates stamina within us, on inner and outer levels.
Fitness is not just about working out, lifting heavier weights or running extra miles. It's also about what we give back to our body when we have spent our energy.  We have to think about what would be appropriate for such a time. Our body is our own, it's a gift which allows us to be here on earth and do the tasks at hand. Should we not consider being thankful for it, and treat it accordingly? A lot of food these days seems to be empty calories, and we end up having to take supplements and vitamins to create balance for our body. In the United States, we can choose to buy conventional or organic food. Some of us are poor and to save money, buy the food that has been sprayed with chemicals, cleaned with chemicals, preserved with chemicals, and was grown in soil fertilized with artificial ingredients. Some of us decide we can't put those things in our bodies and try to buy organic food in order to keep the chemicals, artificial ingredients, and heavy metals out of our system. In Europe, biodynamic food is slightly more available and well known, which is a version of agriculture with the mindset of "I am taking from the earth, so I need to give something back." Thus preparations have been created using the parts of plants and animals to rebuild the soil before, during, and after the plants and animals on a farm are on that ground. These biodynamic foods contain more nutrient possibility compared to foods grown on soil that has been treated like it must only serve and get nothing back.
In the fitness world, people care about their bodies and about the food they put in it. Maybe one day good food, created right, will be more widely available and more affordable than it is now. We exert ourselves, push our limits, until we are empty-and then to thank our body, we need proper nourishment. This is fitness. It's a lifestyle and not only that, but one that must become more and more aware of the world around it.