This is Diet Culture

*I am not a dietician nor a nutritionist. I have no backing of these statements beyond my own experience and google education.

 

I want to talk about undereating.

Undereating? Is this bitch for real? I know, talking about undereating in a world focused on overeating seems unnatural. But is so important and not talked about enough, especially in a community of women geared towards poor relationships with food.

 

What do you mean a POOR relationship with food? I mean someone who overeats because of emotion. I mean someone who obsessively thinks about eating, or skips meals. Someone who yo-yo diets, calorie restricts or feels anxiety of any kind when thinking about eating/food in general.

Okay, so what is your history? For years I yo-yoed in weight, oscillating between calorie restricting diets and binge eating. Eventually I reached my heaviest weight ever because I used food to numb my emotions. Tired? Eat. Angry? Eat. Sad? Definitely eat. Happy? Celebrate with food. Bored? Eat all of the food. I grew up around people who had a disordered relationship with food, so it was one I came by honestly.

How or why did you realize you were undereating? I started a meal plan that put me at about 1200-1300 calories per day. At this time, I was working out little to none at all so I did not feel overly hungry and I was coming off of a diet where I had been gorging myself with food for months and months. It felt good to eat this amount, it allowed me time to detox what I had been putting my body through for so long and it also allowed me to develop cooking habits and portion control. When I started working out a lot more I began to notice I was hungry more often, but ignored it because I did not want to put weight back on, DUH! I would find myself going to bed hungry, waking up hungry. I found  myself obsessing over food, I wouldn’t be able to focus because all I wanted to do was think about when my next meal was. I had so much anxiety over food - not eating too much, making sure I hit my macros, planning my meals a week in advance so I could tweak as needed, meal prepping, eating out in restaurants. My bowel movements became very difficult and painful and were sometimes spaced out days at a time. My sex drive evaporated. My period disappeared (I also stopped taking my birth control for the first time in ten years, so I don’t attribute the lack of period to undereating)  

 

Why are you sharing this now? I’m sharing this now because I want this community to realize how easy it is to go from one extreme to another for some women. Or maybe it’s just me. I don’t want anyone to feel like a slave to their food, I don’t want anyone to feel tired or run down or end up hurting their body in the long term by not getting enough food. Food is nourishment. Carbs are energy. If you are only eating 1200 calories a day, do you really think you are squeezing in all of the macro and micronutrients that your body needs to be fully healthy? Probably not. Look into metabolic damage. Please realize that when your body is telling you it is HUNGRY and you choose to ignore it, you are not honoring your body. I have been seeing and hearing more women sayings things like, “I saved my calories for this meal” or “I skipped snack so I could eat this now” or “I didn’t work out today so I will have to eat less”. It’s worrying me and I just felt obligated to put this out there into the Universe, just in case someone needs it.

 

I ignored my body's natural cues for so long that I almost forgot how to listen. Over the past few months I have been intuitively eating so that I can remember what it means to be hungry, how it feels to be comfortably satiated and full, and how to listen and honor those triggers. I began to truly have a healthy relationship with food for the first time in my life. My research of a plant based and whole foods lifestyle is what finally, truly, opened my eyes to what I had been (literally) buying into, and how I could adopt a lifestyle, rather than a diet, that would not only make me my healthiest but also be something that I would be able to sustain for my entire life. Going vegan has healed me in more ways than one, and I would totally love to float you some literature or documentary suggestions if you are into reading more about it!

 

A more comprehensive list of symptoms that could be brought on from undereating:

Low energy

Insomnia

Mood swings

Brain fog or poor concentration

Depression or anxiety

Hair loss

Feeling cold

Loss of menstrual cycle

Infertility

Constipation

Low sex drive

Sugar (or other food) cravings

Undereating for an extended period of time has the potential to damage you physically and psychologically. Just be aware of the information that is out there, know you aren’t alone, know you can always evolve. Don’t be afraid of food. Don’t be scared to feel full. Listen to your body, it may need more or less food than someone else based on body type, height, activity level and just your own metabolism. You shouldn’t feel obligated to match your nutrition to someone else’s.

I go with love,

*if you have any questions about going vegan, tracking macros, foods for micronutrients, questions about your specific needs, etc. please feel free to reach out to me here, Instagram, or you can find my email address in the bio of my IG as well.

 

Coaching

Ever since a fellow fit sister planted the seed in my mind, I have been rolling this idea in and out of shape. How could I manifest health and fitness into a career? How could I bring my gifts to fruition?

 

One of the ways I am working towards this is by hopefully getting trained to instruct spinning class. I am now taking lots of classes from as many instructors as I can and waiting for a certification program to be close enough to travel to. (So. Exciting. And scary.)

 

Another idea that I had was possibly ‘coaching’ – being a cheerleader, mentor, friend, and I guess you would call it ‘coach’. I would share what my upcoming meal plan for the week would be, calories, etc. so if you wanted to use anything you could. I could also help determine how many calories you should be taking in for weight loss or gain. I would possibly work towards writing my own workouts to use myself / share those with you. I would be available for questions, concerns, moments of weakness etc. I would have a questionnaire so I would be caught up on your medical history, nutritional needs or wants, goals, etc. I would also eventually incorporate Skype meetings per week so we could talk about your goals and progress. this is something you would be interested in, having me as a ‘coach’, please email me JamminRhodes@gmail.com and also please let me know a roundabout price you would be willing to pay per month. A price that you would think is truly fair and one that would also be sustainable. $25-40 / $40-60 monthly or packaged together in 6-8 week increments 6-8 weeks $60, 12-16 weeks $120 that would be paid to me through PayPal.

 

Thanks for your input as I continue to grow, learn and act on my passions

XO

Why BBG Just Isn't For Me

Thousands and thousands of women LOVE the Bikini Body Guides aka BBG created by Kayla Itsines. It just wasn’t for me.

 

I started BBG 1 almost 12 weeks ago. I used the app called ‘Sweat with Kayla’ which I think is BRILLIANT and I really, really love it. The features are seamless, you have your timer, your food, ability to take selfies, your workouts everything is just right there in one place. It can sync to your phone’s calendar, set alarms, and checks off what you have completed while showing what you have left to do for the week. I think it is worth EVERY penny and I wish I could create this same app for every aspect of my life. You can adjust your meal plan to accommodate your dietary needs and they are all great ideas, although I never actually made anything from the app.

 

The workouts themselves are also great. 28 minutes is truly all you need to tone your body. For the first few weeks I absolutely loved BBG and the challenge it gave me… but then it got boring. REALLY boring. I need variety, I need continual changes within my workout or I just will stop doing them altogether. That’s what happened in Week 11. . I just got BORED of doing the same rotation of the same 5 exercises. If you LOVE structure and you love stability and repetition (which some people THRIVE on that, it’s not a bad thing at all) then you need to go out and get BBG right now because you will freaking slay the game. It just isn’t for me. I also came off of BBG after doing the Fit Girl’s Guide Bootcamp which is their version of a 12 week program very similar in structure to BBG. The Bootcamp has 3 different workout structures per week and within those there is a lot of variation of movements, I found myself missing that aspect A LOT.

 

Kayla herself is amazing, obviously. She works HARD for her body and for the empire she is creating for herself – and to be so young! Seriously AMAZING. If I had those accomplishments and those abs I would show them off – I do wish she would show more of her outtakes but when you become that public, I’m sure it’s different. Especially when your reputation and company rely on your physical fitness.

 

RESULTS:

To be fair while I was doing BBG I also was going to spin and yoga once a week and started doing Z Body Fitness for strength training of the booty, legs and arms. I also incorporated HIIT on some days that just called for LISS.

With that said, I did drop a liiiittle bit of weight over the past 12 weeks. I haven’t taken my progress photos for BBG yet but I plan to do that this weekend and I am excited to see if I notice changes! I feel strong, I know I definitely feel amazing from working out and adopting a plant based and whole foods diet. I absolutely think that BBG was awesome for me physically, the disconnect came after weeks of repetition and the mentality part of it. I will be posting photos soon

 

Hope this helps

XO

The Power of Now 'Review'

I could give a synopsis of the book and summarize it that way but, you could just google that. So I am just going to touch on the points that were and have become relevant to my life. You should read the book if you are an active mind that worries/becomes anxious or even find yourself obsessing over the details of things that have happened in the past and you now feel disappointed about. If you wish to strengthen your meditation practice or quiet your mind, read the book! You will undoubtedly learn something from this book and most likely, something different than what I learned.

 

*Disclaimer: it is definitely a “deep” book – he says things like “time is an illusion”... so unless you can go into it with an open mind and heart, don’t bother picking it up. I found myself inwardly rolling my eyes a couple of times but I reminded myself to have an open mind and heart, and I am glad that I did!

 

The biggest takeaway for me personally is the understanding of where my anxiety stems from. He talks about how when you obsess over a time that is not here yet (the future) you become anxious because you tear yourself in half. You let your mind be THERE (the future) while your body is obviously still HERE (the present). Once I let that realization truly wash over me, I have felt so much more free. ALL the time we have is right here, this very second, so to obsess over the details of the future is only causing me pain. I now actively seek to remain mindful of the present moment and only the future as it is necessary.

 

The other is deepening my conviction that positivity is THE MOST important quality I can work on; by positivity I mean gratitude, love, joy, and happiness. I had already started the process before reading this book but if you find yourself struggling with complaining or just feeling negativity in general, this book will definitely give you tools to kick start your own light.

“See if you can catch yourself complaining, in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.”

 

I started practicing yoga at the beginning of May and this helped build on those fundamentals as well. It had allowed me to become more spiritual and really helped me focus on my meditation. It has become a lot easier to clear my mind of noise and focus on the Now. I realized that I was creating a lot of my own problems. My mind was wanting problems because it gave my ego something to fix, something to feel good about. I was causing myself so much stress and for what? For nothing. I was allowing my mind to control me by creating problems aka creating pain. I am now actively working on listening to the mechanisms of my mind and shutting it down when it tries to create imaginary problems. EXAMPLE: when I start to have anxiety over my fitness progress, am I doing this right or that wrong etc… that is not a real problem. I know what I need to do every day to reach my goals and I am working on focusing on the day to day rather than allowing my ego to take over and make it a stressful situation. Imagine if EVERYONE took the time to focus on these issues – on finding true inner peace.

“The pollution of the planet is only an outward reflection of an inner psychic pollution: millions of unconscious individuals not taking responsibility for their inner space.”

 

And lastly, the biggest place in my life where this book helped was in my romantic relationship. I found myself judging him where I didn’t used to. (Again, my mind creating problems out of nothing) I found myself trying to pick at things that do not matter. “You cannot love your partner one moment and attack him or her the next.” It really opened my eyes to behaviors I had developed and it allowed for a discussion between Jeff and I which really did bring us closer and brought a lot of new respect to the relationship.

Hope you will be picking up a copy soon so we can chat about it!

XO