What’s the right track?!?

Seven years ago I hopped on the “I wanna be a badass” train. I focused heavily on exercise, eating healthy, drinking water, and avoiding just about anything that caused my body harm. Well, last year was a doozy, and for the first time I found myself questioning what the point was. I signed up for wildland fire fighting and ate terrible, lost sleep, and basically lost my motivation, or energy, to push myself towards “perfection.” Kinda weird that something everyone views as badass made me feel differently. That’s not saying I don’t think fire fighters are badass, BECAUSE THEY ARE!

That brings me to today. I’ve found a love, or comfort, in my body not being a lean mean fighting machine. I’ve found comfort in some of it being softer, mostly because the people I’ve spent time with seemed to appreciate me, whether my body was rock hard, or not. (Self worth issues, for sure!)

BUT I’ve also realized that I’m wearing down. I don’t have the energy like I did before, and my skin is definitely starting to show it’s age. While I’d love to say I don’t suffer with body dysmorphia anymore, that’s just not true. It still rears it’s ugly little head when I’m getting ready to go out dancing on the town. I change my outfit ten times, and I often revert back to my first outfit and end up feeling great in it.  So, I’ve decided to reflect on the things that I know make me feel my best. Not just visually, but internally too. 

I’ve talked with you guys about depression before, it’s not new news that’s it’s something I struggle with seasonally, and sometimes longer. This may be TMI, but last year, I got the IUD and it leveled out my hormones. Literally felt like the week after I got it, I leveled off and my depression went away. It also brought a lot of baggage with other things though, and I had it removed recently. Part of my want to feel my best is contributed to that. Just like having it put in, taking it out, I felt an almost immediate change. Finding balance is necessary. I know that hormones can be affected by gut health, and I know that I’ve been neglecting that too, so eventually that will get added into my focus.

I’m not saying that I’m committing to becoming a badass with my workouts and nutrition, but I want to be more intentional with my day to day choices. And sharing with my people helps me to stay accountable. Routine, helps me stay accountable. I need more of that in my life, for me…

If you have a minute, check out this video on YouTube. It’s a great giver of perspective.

What’s my plan?

Wake up earlier!!!

I know that I feel my best when I get up and start my day productively. It’s easy to stay snuggled up in bed and let the day fly away, but I don’t want that. I want the most out of my days.

Movement

Daily! Whether it be weights, hiking, dancing, HIIT, roller skating, whatever. I’ll say that I’ve noticed the most change when I’m using weights, so that will likely be my go to. I wish it wasn’t so easy to be a couch potato because there are too many things to enjoy in life.

Skin care

This has the potential of sounding vain, but I need to take care of my skin. I’m no spring chicken anymore and I prefer to keep a youthful appearance as looong as I can. I moisturize my face twice a day, why wouldn’t I do the same for the rest of the skin on my body?

Also, once a week I plan to do a salt scrub. I learned how to do this at a health retreat. My skin felt amazing each time I did it.

Salt Scrub

• 1/2 cup epsom salt
• 1/2 cup table salt, sometimes I’ll use Dead Sea salt
• A couple drops of water
• Optional couple drops of essential oil, like tea tree oil or lavender

Mix ingredients in a bowl and then hop into the shower. Rinse off with hot water for a few minutes to open up your pores. Turn it off and take a handful of salt, scrubbing it from your feet to your face, if your face isn’t too sensitive. Use common sense. Once all the salt has been used, shower like normal.

Skin feels baby smooth! Added benefits are the epsom salt helps you feel relaxed. I’m always in a great mood after a salt scrub.

Drink… Water

My goal used to be a gallon. I’m not going to set that goal. I’m not even going to put a number on it. Water has too many good benefits to allow myself to not be good about drinking it.

First thing in the morning… One quart of warm water with juice from 1/2 a lemon. 

Throughout the day, try to drink water every hour. When it’s hot out, that’s not typically a problem. When is cold, I like warm water, that’s not a problem either. It’s the in between days when I’m not sweating or cold that it’s harder.

Also, I’ve been drinking alcohol. Not that I’m abusing it, but I should limit it to less than it’s been. #depressant #emptycalories 

Eat, duh.

It’s funny how being plant based, you’d assume I eat a lot of veggies. Well, I’ve been neglecting those. Carbs are easy to find when you eat out. 

Time to start cooking, and prepping food again. I’m going to aim for a schedule like below, but I’m not aiming for perfection. I opted for dinner as a smoothie because I typically want a treat, or snack in the evening and this gives me a healthy option, kinda like having ice cream. It’s finding the little tricks like this to help make eating a more successful journey.

Breakfast, fruits.

Lunch, veggies.

Dinner, smoothie/protein.

Include nuts and seeds for brain health!

Update: One Week In

Has it been perfect? Heck to the no. But I feel really good. I opted to do a 3 day juice and raw food type cleanse to start the week and even though I felt a little brain dead a couple of days, it was a great kickstart to this. I’ve gotten in a workout almost every day, even got in rollerskating a couple times on top of my workouts. On Tuesday I did my salt scrub and even though I had a crappy start to my work shift, I didn’t let it get to me. Another thing I’ve remembered is that health not only comes in the physical but the mental with being creative for me. So I’m working on incorporating creativity into each week. Life is fluid and I’m learning more and more each day to go with the flow, while also making space for my needs. I’d love to hear any tips or tricks you use to help keep yourself moving forward with your health, and/or life goals. <3