"I've been underweight, I've been chubby, I've been skinny fat, I've been super lean, I've been at the peak of my physical fitness and then lost it all again. All along this journey, I've hated my body, loathed it, accepted it, then loved it, then hated it again, wanted it to be skinnier, then stronger, fitter, more flexible, and the list goes on...
If you could go back and talk to your younger self, what would you tell her?
This is what I would say to my younger “eating disorder self”…
Dear Me,
You probably don’t recognize me now. You won’t recognize me for the happy, healthy person that you see before you. I know that you are not in a good place right now, but I just want to let you know that you will get through this. In fact, you won’t only get through this but you will come out of the other side as a better and stronger person.
Can you believe that I've lived in Sydney for 10 months now and have not done one single healthy restaurant review?! What.the.hell.is.wrong.with.me. There's a million of places to get your healthy food fix in Sydney, and I find it so incredibly easy to make good food choices around this city. With breakfast being the most important meal to Sydney-siders, I’ve done the leg-work for you and compiled my Top 7 Healthy Eats below. I actually had soooo many more to put on this list, but if you only had time for 7 meals in Sydney, you wouldn't want to miss out on any of these.
Have I told you guys how much I love you? If not, here it is: I FREAKINNNG LOVE YOU!
To celebrate my love for you, Vic and I decided to create the ultimate giveaway that’s bound to make your tastebuds and skin tingle with happiness.
I've stripped myself "naked" on this blog by sharing my deepest struggles with food and body image, heck I even posted pictures of myself in undies of when I was anorexic/in the depth of my bulimia. Yet, hitting publish on this post today was a whole new level of anxiety-causing.
Ever since I was about 15 years old, I've had problems with my skin. But what started with the typical teenage-pimpled face got worse and worse over time instead of getting better.
It's time for another #healthspotalk, yay! Sorry being MIA on these lately, time has just been flying by and life got in the way. But they are coming back with a bang, because today I am introducing you to the lovely Claudia from Bare Vitality. Claudia runs a holistic health and fitness business in Balmain, Sydney, but also wears many other entrepreneurial hats. Like with many of my friends here in Sydney, we initially met through Instagram and hit it off straight away. I have yet to go to one of her training sessions, but in the mean time I'll let her take over and share her story with you.
Before I got into health and fitness the way I am now, I was one of those people that considered meditation a "waste of time". I mean, why would I just sit there quiet and not do anything for 15 minutes, if I could be running around ticking stuff off my to-do list?! Time is precious, after all.
But with time I realised that slowing down is actually a good thing and that it's necessary. In fact, becoming more mindful and present in the moment was a big part of my recovery journey.
It wasn't easy to start with, to say the least. For the longest time, even just five minutes of sitting and breathing was extremely difficult. It was like a crazy jungle party in my brain 24/7 and I always felt like I wasn't doing it right...
I used to hate looking into the mirror.
Maybe it was because I didn't like seeing my uneven nose and un-chizzled cheekbones.
Maybe it was because I didn't like the way my hair fell flat along my face.
Maybe it was because of the extra pounds that I'd been carrying around with me and tried so desperately to rid myself of; a graphic reminder of my lack of self-control.
Those days are in the past and I have since then learned to embrace what I see in the mirror every day. But it was a long and hard journey...
Today, I've invited optimism and life coach, international motivational speaker and author of The Optimist In You, Jessica J. Lockhart, to talk about the complicated relationship most of us have with the mirror.
You look in the mirror. Your image looks back at you. But do you truly see yourself? Do you see your soul, your being, your humanity? Do you see the person behind the mirror? Most people don't.
I had the honor of connecting with Jenna from You Aint Your Weight a couple of weeks ago and we immediately bonded over one common goal: helping people back out of dieting and into a body and life they love.
What do we mean by that? Well, we all know by now that diets just don't work. They just DON'T. (If you want to fight me on this, I'd love to hear from you!) We are both advocates of finding a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable in the long run and will help you become the healthiest and happiest person along the way, minus the deprivation. We are all for losing unnecessary weight, but please without losing your mind along in the process.
Why is Jenna so passionate about this? Because, just like me, she's had her fair struggle with dieting as well and has an inspiring story of how an innocent diet turned into years of deprivation and body dysmorphia.
Today I invite her to the blog to talk about how self love is the first and most important step in living a healthy life and how you shouldn't feel one bit guilty for pampering yourself.
Happy weekend everyone!
Before I get into the deliciousness of these fluffy vegan banana blueberry pancakes, let me just get something off my chest quickly: I am so grateful for the mind-blowing feedback about my ED posts (here, here and here) and the words of encouragement I have received about starting to health coach. You. guys. are. the. best.
Now, back to these glorious pancakes...I don't eat pancakes very often, but every now and then I get a major craving for them. With frozen berries in the freezer and overripe bananas on the counter at all times, I can always whip up some pancakes whenever that craving creeps in.
These banana blueberry pancakes are vegan and gluten free. Nutritionally speaking they are a bit on the indulgent side, but who doesn't love a good weekend treat. Make sure the bananas are really ripe to get the best flavour. If they are covered in brown spots, they are good to go. If you're looking for an eggy version with maca, these might be for you.
During my month in Chiang Mai last year, I was scrolling through the hashtag #chiangmai and stumbled across Mary from Mantras and Mangos who was there on holidays. We chatted a while through Instagram and spontaneously decided to meet up, and so we went for dinner with a couple of other girls atImm Aim for some delicious Thai vegan food.
So here we are, sitting in this little cafe in Thailand, complete strangers from different parts of the world and we instantly clicked. Even though we barely knew each other, we started sharing our stories with our food struggles and journey to plant based living over lovely fresh food, followed by vegan ice cream, steamed buns and mango with sticky rice.
I remember leaving that evening bursting full of energy, excitement and gratitude. Full of energy because I felt so positive about everything, excitement because all girls inspired me to keep moving forward on my own health journey and grateful because I think it's just so damn amazing how social media allows us to connect with other like-minded people.
