Update, It's been a while...

Wow, seems like so much time has past since I began my blog,

And somehow life has been running from me, and I'm struggling to keep up.

It terms of my diet, a lot has changed. The first, most major symptom, I have stopped gaining weight!

And, I have stopped weighing myself. But hang on, how can you tell that you have stopped gaining weight then? I can just tell, all my clothes still fit and I am eating more abundantly then ever! And I can feel that things are starting to even themselves out, my skin is clearing, I don't suffer from night sweats on any sort of sweating, I energy (for the most part) and I am just thriving.

Also, my boyfriend has cut meat and dairy out of his diet. Wowzers, this has come from the man who has lived, and I truly mean LIVED, for steak and a big ol' glass of milk (not at the same time, of course.) for all his life. Until now. So what changed?

We watched Earthlings. If you don't know what Earthlings is, then please, search it up on youtube, it will change your life. I know it did for me.

The most evident thing that has changed is my mind set. When I started this blog, I did it in the hope that I would find the day, (hopefully sooner rather than later) that I would effortlessly loose weight, feel great, and possibly even be the next 'Freelee the Banana Girl'. How vein, right? Well, I let go of that mindset long ago, I couldn't care less what I look like (within reason, I wouldn't let myself become a 500lb woman) but, If I just stayed the same as I am, I would be happy. My priority lies with the fact that I know I am not contributing anymore to animal cruelty and child hunger. And that means the world to me. I actually feel for the first time that I have purpose in life. And this has led me to question a lot of things, but mainly;

What am I doing with my life?

What am I going to become?

And I realised, that this is the time in our lives where we choose what we stand up for and believe in, and what place we take in the world, who we want to be, and what our identity is. I want to be seen as someone who loves, and is kind, and supports equality and freedom for all people and animals, and then maybe I can inspire people to look at their lives and what they believe in, and if they decide to change, then I feel like I've accomplished something, that's my purpose in life.

What's yours?

Have you ever wondered what you are REALLY meant to do, and how you are going to get there, I feel like these upcoming years are going to be very testing, mainly due to the fact that you have one shot to make something of yourself, or else.. or else??? That's the scary part, the 'or else'. What if I wasn't at Uni? What if I decided to take a different path. And although I do feel like Nutrition is still a path I want to take, is it the most full-filling path?

These are the questions that swim around my head at the moment, and I feel like I am in the midst of a lot of critical decision making. Decisions which can alter the whole course of my life, I just wish I knew the outcome in advance!

So I wanted to ask, where are you in your life? Have you made decisions which you regret, or taken a risk that has turned out wonderfully?

I'd love to know :)

Exercise, Exercise, Exercise!

We all gotta do it.. 

That's right, exercise is important! 

That doesn't mean it's easy though right? Hell no. Hands up if you would opt out of exercising if you could be healthy without it? yea, exactly. 

But the truth of the matter is, we can't live without it. Exercise is essential not just to burn calories, because lets face it, if you just cut your calories enough you can loose weight without the need for exercising, however this is not healthy! Many people can be thin, but be unhealthy internally at the same time. Their are so many benefits of exercise that go beyond the aesthetic values. 

1. Mood/Emotional well-being 

Exercise has been shown in numerous studies to be able to lift a depressed mood, and also help with depression, a study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research concluded that "both clinical and non-clinical subjects may benefit acutely from even a single bout of exercise." This study was referring to subjects who fit into the category of being older men and women living in southern California. 

The reason for this is that exercise releases  endorphins which act as your bodies 'feel good' hormones. This hormone has also been shown to help us cope with stress, and with the ever increasing amount of stress that we are told to cope with on a day to day basis, I think a little exercise is the perfect kind of medicine! 

2. Circulation 

Humans are not stationary creatures, we have evolved to function best when we are moving around our environment. There are a lot of biological benefits that arise from regular exercise.

Circulation is an important one of those benefits. Blood needs to be pumped around our whole body, even down to your little pinky toe, and all of the pressure which pushes the blood down to your little toe is generated from the heart muscle. Even though the heart is a very powerful muscle, it isn't able to defy gravity, what I mean by this is that, once the blood from your heart has reached your little toe, it needs to be able to be transported back up to your heart, and how does it do this? Well, there are a couple of techniques that help blood get back to your heart, one of them is little valves which are present inside your veins which basically stop the back flow of blood that is trying to get back to your heart. Secondly, the muscles that surround these veins constrict when you walk and help to push the blood up to your heart. 

This is why regular exercise is beneficial for circulation! I think that's pretty neat, don't you? 

3. Heart Health 

Just as with all the muscles that surround your body, the more you work out your heart muscle, the stronger and healthier it gets. For me, this fact is the one that motivates me to fill my life with regular exercise, I want my heart to be the healthiest it can be so that it can do its job more effectively! 

Although I have only touched very briefly on some of the benefits of exercise, I hope you can appreciate that our bodies are a machine that needs to be moved and worked out in order to perform at its best. The body is an amazing and complex creation that deserves to be treated with respect, love and care, and it's the only one you've got! So look after it! 

http://www.premierfitnesscamp.com