I had a couple questions regarding this recipe when I posted it on Instagram, and I would love to start sharing some more nutrition-related posts with you all, so I thought this recipe was perfect to blog about! This is super quick and easy to throw together, and the hardest part about this recipe is the amount of time it needs to bake. Plus, overall it's a pretty inexpensive recipe!
I would be lying if I said that I have never looked at another female's flawless face and said "mannnnn I wish my skin was that nice."
But what if I told you that, with a little TLC, you can have it, too? As a natural fair-skinned redhead, I have been s t r u g g l i n g with acne, dry skin, and redness for almost a decade now. Up until this point, I have managed these issues, but not gotten rid of them. Usually, this involved switching birth control a million times, visiting dermatologists, switching facial cleansers, and trying a million different acne product lines (most of which just made my face drier and more irritated). None of this "cured" me, and my acne was never bad enough to consider trying Accutane. It was just really annoying. Acne, unfortunately, is something that, at age 21, I have not outgrown. However, recently I have switched up my skincare routine, and I have seen the most drastic difference in my skin ever. Nothing, not even switching to a birth control that is FDA approved for treating acne, has cleared my skin up like this routine has. My goal with this post is not to say "use these products, they will work for you too!" (though I will link them at the bottom in case y'all are curious). My goal is to show you that there is HOPE, and you just have to find what works for you. Here are some tips how.
My current favorite products: Anti-Aging/Moisturization (without oiliness) Mario Badescu Vitamin C Serum (CF) Tarte Maracuja Oil (Add a few drops to moisturizer - V) Tarte Maracuja C Brightener Eye Treatment (CF) Derma E Hydrating Night Cream (night moisturizer - CF/V) My current favorite products: Acne Mario Badescu Drying Lotion (spot treatment - CF) Juice Beauty Cleansing Milk (V/CF) L'Oreal Purify & Mattify Pure-Clay Mask (not CF :( ) Mary Kay Clear Proof Oil-Free Moisturizer (not CF :( ) My current favorite products: Exfoliation Mario Badescu Glycolic Foaming Cleanser (chemical exfoliant - CF) L'Oreal Exfoliate & Refine Clay Mask (physical exfoliant - not CF :( ) Paula's Choice CLEAR Anti-Redness Exfoliant (chemical exfoliant, good for acne/redness - V/CF) V: Vegan CF: Cruelty Free I really don't know where to start this, but I know it needs to come out of my head and onto this page.
Throughout the past week, Americans had their first dabble in the holiday season of 2016. Personally, I spent time at home, eating meals my mother prepared for me as opposed to meals I would normally prepare for myself. For some, this might not be ideal. For some, this might bring feelings of uncertainty, lack of control, and even anxiety. Thankfully, for me, that was not the case. Unfortunately, this has been the case for me in the past. I have experienced feelings of anxiety over the inability to count my calories, the inability to control what ingredients I was consuming, the inability to control the foods that were brought into the house. I have experienced uncontrollable concern over when I would have my next meal, which really sounds ridiculous to me now considering I live in a very food-secure household. Experiencing feelings like this is not normal. It is a true cause for concern. Whether you are an athlete, a recreational exerciser, or someone who avoids the gym at all costs, feeling like this is not normal. It is normal, and important, to be mindful of your intake during the holidays, but it is not normal to be hyper-aware of it. If you have spent any time exploring the realms of Fitness-Twitter or -Instagram, this is probably not the first time that you have heard this spiel. Rather than repeat and hammer in this point, I want to shine light on a new one. Many people will say that "unless you are preparing for a competition of some sort, tracking macros/calories during the holidays is unnecessary and unhealthy." While I agree largely with this statement, I think it is important to also identify that many people will use competitions to "excuse" their fear of food, weight gain, not tracking, etc. So let's get this straight: Preparing for a competition should never be used as a crutch to avoid eating holiday food. Preparing for a competition should never be used as an excuse to keep you on track. Preparing for a competition should never be used to "respectfully" decline your family's meals. Preparing for a competition should never be used to avoid binging during the holidays. While I have personally had poor experiences with competing in bodybuilding competitions, some people find great passion and joy in it. Although I recognize that prolonged intensive dieting inherently has negative consequences (that's another 20+ blogs), I think it truly is wonderful when people have a strong passion for something. I understand passion. I understand dedication. Unfortunately, I understand using these things as an excuse to restrict, too. Both times that I prepped, I began my preps January 1st. Why might that be????????? Because I knew I could enjoy Thanksgiving. I knew I could enjoy Christmas dinner. I knew I could enjoy holiday parties. I knew I could bake my lil heart out. I knew I could enjoy drinking on New Years. I also knew that I lacked self-control around normal food, so weight gain would be unavoidable. Putting a deadline on that weight gain, that "lack of control," took away my fear of the holiday food because I knew that I would have no choice but to lose the weight for prep. I know there are many people who have a different, yet similar, mindset from the one I had. Many people choose to prep during the holidays because they can more easily turn down holiday food. They choose to prep during the holidays because they have a "valid excuse" to tell their mother when they decline her freshly baked pumpkin pie. They have a "valid excuse" to decline desserts, meals at holiday parties, outings with friends. They have a "valid excuse," and this can allow them to avoid holiday weight gain. Obviously, not every single person who chooses to prep throughout the holidays has this mindset. Many people are set on a particular show, a particular goal, etc., and the holidays become an unfortunate casualty. But I think that too often do we say "unless you are prepping for a competition, you don't need to track on Thanksgiving," and not often enough do we ask "why are you truly prepping for this competition during these months?" As most of you know from my posts on twitter, I attended an incredibly informative seminar regarding menstrual dysfunction in female athletes. The presentation was “Recovery of Menstrual Dysfunction Induced by Low Energy Availability,” presented by Dr. Mary Jane De Souza, who is a brilliant professor and researcher in the Kinesiology and Physiology Departments at Penn State. This seminar was both valuable to me as a female athlete as well as a future nutrition professional, and I received a lot of requests to summarize the information that was presented.
First, an overview of energy availability is necessary in order to understand our body’s physiological adaptations. Our body’s energy expenditure is made up of three things: the basal metabolic rate (BMR), thermic effect of food (TEF), and thermic effect of exercise (TEE). The basal metabolic rate uses the greatest portion of our energy. BMR is basically the amount of energy needed to sustain proper bodily functions – energy needed for respiration, reproduction, cardiac capacity, ATP production, etc. The thermic effect of food and thermic effect of exercise make up a much smaller portion of energy used. TEF is the energy needed to digest specific macronutrients, and TEE is exactly what it sounds like: energy needed for functional movement, including exclusive exercise as well as simply moving and existing in the real world. When low energy availability exists – primarily energy availability that is lower than what is needed to maintain proper bodily functions – *hormonal changes occur. The hypothalamus is suppressed, which causes these changes. Leptin decreases, along with insulin, Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF-1), and thyroid function. In addition, ghrelin, Peptide YY (PYY), cortisol, and growth hormone (GH) increase. All of these hormonal changes cause further suppression of Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH), Luteinizing Hormone (LH), and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH). Lack of LH causes complete suppression of estrogen and progesterone production, leading to amenorrhea. Specifically, LH drops when we have around 30 calories per kg of FFM per day. The pattern that LH and FSH levels fall into mirror the pattern of prepubertal levels of these hormones. *A review of these hormones' specific functions is summarized at the bottom of this page. When we eat, we use energy for reproduction, growth, thermoregulation, cell maintenance, movement, etc. When energy availability is low, energy is shunted away from growth and reproduction. These just become low priority, so the body does not make the hormones important for these processes. This is primarily why we see issues with both menstrual function and bone health impairment. Actually, when we see low energy availability in female athletes, our primary concern is the impact on bone. Estrogen plays a vital role in controlling osteoblast/osteoclast activity. Specifically, osteoclasts are suppressed by estrogen activity, leading to less bone breakdown (resorption). When estrogen is not produced endogenously, excess bone resorption can occur. This is especially an issue when female athletes are consuming low calorie and low calcium/Vitamin D3 diets. Estrogen’s role in bone health is specifically why professionals are more concerned with female bone density, female menses, elderly females, etc rather than males. In fact, young female athletes are at an especially high risk due to the development of bone mass. Bone mass is accrued mostly during adolescence – more than 90% is accrued before the age of 20. Achieving an individual's peak bone mass is vitally important to diminish the risk of osteoporosis later in life. If calories, Calcium, and Vitamin D are restricted during the time period when bone mass is being accrued (aka adolescence), the individual will be at a higher risk of osteoporosis because they will achieve a lower bone density. So – female athletes typically lose their menstrual cycles due to these hormone decreases caused by overexercising, undereating, or a combination of these two. The common mistake, however, is in assuming that hormone levels have been restored upon the resumption of menstruation. The optimal menstrual cycle has an estrogen peak, followed by a LH peak, leading to the release of a follicle. Thereafter, a corpus luteum forms from the follicle and produces progesterone. This cycle is not really necessary to understand, but the order of hormonal levels released is what is important. There are different types of cycles that can occur with menstruation: anovulatory, luteal phase defect, and optimal. An anovulatory cycle means that ovulation is not occurring. This means that there are not enough hormones to stimulate ovulation (not enough estrogen). A luteal phase defect cycle occurs when there is not enough progesterone. Both of these issues mean that reproductivity is impaired and bone health is still at risk, but these are undetectable without testing for the hormones specifically. A menstrual cycle does not signal that these hormonal levels are okay. Basically, Dr. De Souza performed a refuel study with female athletes to evaluate the amount of calories necessary to induce menstrual function as well as the resulting hormone responses. The study increased the athletes' calories 20-30% above baseline. The average body fat of the athletes was 22%, and the majority recovered menstrual function (with this caloric increase) within the first 3 months. However, half of women did not resume menses, and most resumed cycles were anovulatory (meaning hormone levels were still inadequate.) The study found that for each increase in BMI by 1kg/m2, recovery probability increased about 25%. The average increase in bodyweight to recover menses was about 10%. Hormone Functions Leptin - signals satiation Insulin - stimulates glucose uptake into cells IGF1 - acts similar to insulin Thyroid hormone (T3/T4) - regulates growth hormone creation and regulates metabolic rate Ghrelin - signals hunger PYY - suppresses digestive activities, signals satiation Cortisol - regulates the body's responses to stress, acts on blood glucose levels and carb/fat/protein metabolism, immune responses GH - stimulates growth of all tissues GnRH - stimulates secretion of LH and FSH, large surge of GnRH right before ovulation, stimulates follicular growth FSH - stimulates the growth of the follicle and increases estrogen production LH - triggers ovulation and corpus luteum development Estrogen - peaks at the middle of the cycle to trigger LH release (to signal ovulation), prepares uterus for pregnancy; functions in bone health to suppress osteoclast activity (osteoclasts break down bone) Progesterone - prepares uterus for pregnancy Hello friends.
Since I am procrastinating studying for an exam, and everyone and their mother in State College is celebrating the ever-so overly hyped State Patty's... here is some rare word vomit that I know you all missed - If I could take it all back, I wouldn't have competed in August 2014. I wouldn't have dieted down for 8 months. I wouldn't have eaten tilapia and asparagus 7 days straight for a week leading up to my show and allowed myself only 16 oz of water the Friday before. I wouldn't have done it. Before I came to college, I had a full blown eating disorder. Over the years, it has manifested itself as anorexia and BED. Competing was the cause of my BED. I followed a meal plan, and not even a strict meal plan at that. I had my macros, and I was able to fit whatever I desired within the range, but something about that "counting" and "restricting" made my cravings uncontrollable. My "refeeds" would turn into a full-blown binge, resulting in me shoving as many oreos, ice cream PINTS, or poptarts into my mouth at 11:59pm (before the day was over and I had to start over tomorrow!!!) as was humanly possible. Does this sound familiar? ANY dieter, former or current, can tell you that if you break your diet once, it becomes a free-for-all before the night ends and you have to start over in the morning. This is a binge. Fast forward EIGHT MONTHS of cutting and bulking until I finally decided I would step on stage, and I was a wreck. I stepped off of that stage and after feeling deprived for so long, I didn't stop eating everything in sight for 2 months. I went from 120lbs to 145lbs in less than 3 weeks, and that was the HEAVIEST I had ever been in my life. I owe it to competing. I did not have the willpower to reverse diet. It is HARD. I told myself I would be fine but that's not always the case. Ask any competitor around you, it requires more discipline than the prep itself. Your body is so deprived of calories, and usually sugar, salt, and fat, that as soon as you get a taste of it, it wants more. Your body thinks it is never going to get these things again, so it wants to hold onto it. You LITERALLY cannot help yourself. When you gain 25 lbs in less than a month and sit at the heaviest weight you've ever been after looking the best you ever have in your life, it messes with you. Every time I looked in the mirror I was depressed. I didn't feel good in the gym, mostly because I knew I didn't look good and partly because I was eating like an asshole. I didn't love the things I had used to love, and I was engaging in more destructive behavior than I was used to. It felt like I had lost all control and I thought my only option was to hire another prep coach and compete again - THEN I would reverse diet properly. This is the problem. If you get sucked into this vicious deprive, binge, repeat cycle, you can become convinced that the only way out of it is to hire a coach and compete again. The problem is: if you can't reach your goal weight or body on your own and stay there, there's nothing a coach can do to get you there, either. To add on top of this, staying competition lean is no where near healthy for your body, especially if you are a female with hopes of having children in the future. The ultimate conundrum is: do you compete once and then slave away at a difficult reverse diet to remain a weight that isn't physiologically healthy for you or your hormones, or do you continue the cycle of dieting to look good, binging when it's not maintainable, and repeat? [Edit: Let's take a look at the definition of disordered eating. According to eatingdisorders.org "disordered eating refers to a wide range of abnormal eating behaviours, many of which are shared with diagnosed eating disorders." When you take a closer look at the list of "abnormal eating behaviors" they provide, you will see things such as "binge eating," "dieting," "obsessive calorie counting," "self-worth based on body shape and weight," and "misusing laxatives or diuretics." If you have competed in a bodybuilding competition, you know that these words inherently describe the nature of the preparation for the competition. Preparing for a competition revolves around dieting. Your cheat meals become your binges. Your placement in a competition is centered around your body shape. Your peak week involves diuretics. This is the definition of disordered eating. It has nothing to do with how you "feel" during your prep because these are the things you actually do to prepare to compete. As stated above, you do not have an eating disorder because you choose to compete in this sport, but these are signs of disordered eating. This is why there is especially a problem with those who have had prior eating disorders choosing to compete in a bodybuilding competition. The sport requires you to participate in disordered eating habits. Why, if you know that you have had an eating disorder in the past, would you ever decide to participate in this sport? I can't answer that, obviously, since I competed before, but I can tell you that my initial attraction to the sport was due to the fact that it seemed like the easiest way to get the body I wanted. That is most definitely not the right reason to compete.] Ultimately, studies have shown that we don't know if bodybuilding competitions develop eating disorders, or if those who have eating disorders are attracted to compete in bodybuilding competitions. However, as someone with a history of obsessing over my body and how it wasn't perfect, I can tell you that messing up your metabolism only to step on stage and receive criticism about how you could have looked better doesn't help. People with a history of eating disorders need professional help, not an online coach to assist in their starvation. If I could do it all over, I wouldn't ever step on stage. Hi friends! So it's been a while.
Friendships and relationships are crazy things. We search and search for people that we find to be similar to ourselves. Whether we're looking for a best friend or a partner, we constantly try our best to form connections in order to feel a little less lonely.
And let's be real here: we're all a little lonely until we find someone who understands and accepts us as we are. This is not an easy task. Some of the loneliest times of my life thus far have been spent surrounded by "friends," going out every night, and self-medicating with alcohol or other inhibitors. I had convinced myself that I was happy and popular, but I knew I was lacking purpose and support. The only time I was laughing was when I was drunk, but I was drunk all the time. When I decided to cut frequent alcohol use from my life, "friends" dropped like flies. The people I had once spent entire weeks with were now difficult to come by even once a month. We didn't connect on anything other than partying. Eventually, I saw this as a solution rather than a problem. The situations I had put myself in were holding me back. This is not to say that the people I was hanging out with weren't wonderful people, but they did not add anything to my life. They didn't drag me down, but they also did not push me to be better. I was essentially stagnant during these times, which in and of itself is toxic to my potential. I don't regret these times in my life, but rather see them as teaching experiences. The things I did were just distractions that taught me a lot about myself and who I wanted to become. Since cutting down on the time I spend partying, I've found I'm a harder worker. I am more focussed and happier surrounding myself with people who are working as hard as I am. I set goals more frequently, have a more positive outlook, and push myself to try new things far more frequently. No one is going to tell you who or what is toxic to your potential, you instead have to discover it for yourself. Life is too short to waste time on people who don't add anything to your life. If you are not overwhelmed with love, support, and happiness due to the people around you, it may be time to reevaluate. Surround yourself with people who push you to be better than you were yesterday. Find the people who believe you are capable of the things that are nearly impossible. Invest your time and effort into those who reciprocate that time and effort. Very few people reach intense levels of success without some type of support system, and achievements are so much sweeter when you have someone awesome to celebrate with. Hi guys! I know it's been a while since I've blogged. I got completely lost in classes and undergraduate activities last semester that it was incredibly difficult for me to keep up with this as much as I would have liked, so lemme fill ya in. As of January 1st (or the Sunday following), I started competition prep for the 2015 season with my new coach. My plan is to compete in multiple shows starting the end of May. I am so excited for this season I can hardly put it into words. Last year, I entertained the idea of competing, contacted a coach to discuss it, and before I knew it I was thrust into prep. I had no idea what to expect, and I definitely wasn't prepared for the road ahead of me. I think I was looking for an "easy" way out of college weight gain (freshman 15 amirite tho.) Let me just say this: COMPETING IN A SHOW IS NOT AN EASY WAY TO GET LEAN AND STAY LEAN AND IT'S V NOT GOOD FOR A COLLEGE SOCIAL LIFE IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE GOING OUT AND NOT DRINKING/EATING WITH FRIENDS. Do NOT compete if you just want to be lean. Do not compete if you have/still have eating disorder tendencies. Do not compete if you fear gaining fat in order to gain muscle. Compete if you love and can handle the grind. Compete if you are willing to put in work even when you are utterly exhausted. Compete if you love the tan and the makeup and the suits and the lights. Compete if you can handle "fluffy" you post-show. Compete if you have a coach that wants to see you do well whilst keeping you healthy throughout your prep. Anyways, I'm getting off track. Originally, I wanted to compete in an August and an October show during 2014. I ended up going straight into my offseason after the August show because I was so incredibly drained. I had been "dieting" on a strict plan - NOT flexible dieting - since January with very limited cheat meals. By peak week, my calories were at 1350 and I was doing an hour of steady state cardio per day. I rebounded so hard during the following months that I didn't know if I would ever gain control again... which brings me to my main point. I am not the type of person who can follow a strict and "clean" diet year round. Did I know that last year? Maybe not, but I love food, guys. Every single type of food. This is why flexible dieting (IIFYM) works for me. I wish I had known how to count macros when I entered my 2014 prep, and I wish my coach would have been more open to the idea of me counting them. I had been so restricted during my prep that once I ate something off plan, I could not stop. Not anymore. Everything in moderation, ya feel? I started working with my new and local coach in November. I loosely tracked macros for a while, but once I went home for the holidays, I was entirely intuitively eating. Guess what? Imaintained my weight over the holidays. I didn't stuff myself silly or spend hours doing cardio to burn off the cookies and pie and holiday ham. I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it, and I stopped when I was satisfied. (Such a crazy thought, right?) Starting to track macros a few months after my show gave me my hunger cues back. My hormones were probably finally not all out of whack, which allowed me to eat as I normally would (estimating protein and fiber.) I got my food freedom back for the first time in years, and that's how I was able to maintain over the holidays. Now, tracking for prep is so stress-free for me. I used to get the worst anxiety trying to substitute things on my plan last year by following the macros. What if it's not exact? Am I screwing up my chances at this competition? (This would ultimately lead to me saying "f*ck it" and eating everything in my refrigerator.) Now I realize that it doesn't have to be perfect. It's okay to estimate. I will be fine. Tracking never makes me feel like I can't have anything. Don't get me wrong, you cannot fit ANYTHING you want into prep macros (not even close, that's what refeeds are for) but you can dabble in a variety of foods. If you can't fit a craving in one day, you can try the next. That's what makes it flexible. Obviously, I'm not eating cookies all day long. As a nutrition major, I fit delicious and nutrient dense (usually organic) foods into my macros daily, but if I want a damn cookie then I'll eat one. Flexible dieting reminds me that my eating disorder doesn't control me anymore. I think that we all have rough days where we don't like what we see in the mirror, but all of my triggers are gone. Restrictive and cardio-bunny thoughts are millions of miles away from me. I have never felt more in control of my body than I do now. I'm not this girl anymore. She was strict. She couldn't relax. She needed perfection. She needed chicken and broccoli and NO CARBS EVER SERIOUSLY. She was never as in control as she thought she was. So who am I now? I'm the girl who's proud of the muscles she's built from nothing. I'm motivated by friends who push me to be the best I can be, who encourage me to come out with them but do not judge me for skipping the alcohol because of my goals. I'm the one who has stopped allowing judgements to hold me back from doing what I need to do. I can recognize my capabilities, my strengths, and my weaknesses and use that information to push my body to it's limits and achieve what it's meant to. I am not limited by food or guilt or fear of fat gain. I'm the girl who has hit PRs that I never fathomed I would be able to hit. I've become someone who can finally keep ice cream in their fridge without the fear that I'll eat the entire container. I've become someone who can finally eat ice cream again. I am no longer held back by demons whispering in my ear that my waist needs to be thinner, my thigh gap a little bigger, "Can you pinch that fat on your stomach? That's because you eat too many cupcakes." I am no longer the dainty, helpless girl that needs help opening jars and a boy to validate that yes, I am beautiful. I am beautiful. I am strong. I am me, and I think I'm finally free. |
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