It's time for a new Loving Lately post! In case you missed the last one, take a look here. I absolutely love writing about the ish I am into and currently there's a lot. From natural skin care to toxic-free home cleaning supplies and my latest activewear obsessions, here's a little overview of what I'm loving at the moment.
There's some promo codes for you guys below in case you want to try some of the things for yourself, so keep your eyes open for those!
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.
I've been feeling VERY blah of late. Struggling to find a good routine between office work and working from home, putting a lot of pressure on myself for literally everything and subsequently having gained a little unwanted pudginess has left me feeling not my best self.
I also stopped meal prep Sundays, which was such a big part of my routine when I was following the 8-week I Quit Sugar program. And frankly, without that my eating routine has kind of just been off track. So there I was thinking...: "All I want is someone else to make me three healthy meals a day for me so that I don't need to shop, cook, clean and can just get back on track..."
We’ve all been there: having to go to work in our gym shoes (Holly, I'm looking at you!) or spending the day with our arms crossed because we’re secretly free-boobing.
Fitting in a gym routine is no easy feat as it is, but remembering all the things you need to bring for your workout and post-workout shower is a whole other story. And let's be frank: nothing kills your motivation like forgetting your headphones (I've actually had times where I considered going back home because I couldn't bare the thought of doing a gym workout without my beloved music...).
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...
After last month's debut of the green smoothie on WSS, I thought it was about time to share another breakfast favorite of mine with you all - the chia pudding.
Chia seeds are teeny tiny, but impressively clever. They don't have a lot of flavor, but when soaked in water they transform into a highly detoxifying gel that absorbs flavour really well. Because of this, they are super versatile and can be used in so many different ways. My favorite, however, is still to make a simple chia pudding with them.
I have been dabbling with the thought of doing Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar Program for quite some time already, but never took the leap.
Why? Because I was worried I wouldn't be able to stick to it.
Why? Because even though I haven't been bulimic for many years now and consider myself recovered, my journey of recovery (read more about it here, here, here and here) has nevertheless been plagued by many binges and spurts of overeating (mainly on sugary stuff) where I felt completely out of control.
And although I really really badly wanted to kick my sugar addiction in the butt for good, I also knew that I would be setting myself up for failure if I did the program with the wrong mindset.
ey there #wholesometribe! I hope you all had a healthy & active weekend?
I thought I would mix things up a bit around here and start a new blog series called Loving Lately - WSS's Fave New Discoveries. Ever since moving to Australia, I've had SO MUCH fun discovering all the amazing healthy brands that this country has to offer, it's like I'm a toddler in a candy shop. One of my fave weekend activities includes perusing through the aisles of the many health food stores around my area, no joke. As I'm sort of obsessed with learning about the latest and greatest food/fitness/well-being products and I'm being sent some pretty cool stuff these days, I thought it’d be fun to start sharing my favourite discoveries on the blog. Just FYI, some of the products I'll be showing you are gifted from companies, but a) they only make it onto this post if I truly like them and b) I will always share my honest opinion about them.
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.
After last week's post where I talked about the power of surrounding yourself with like-minded people, I only have one thing left to say for this post: I absolutely love love freaking love this chica. She's the salt to my pepper, the peanut butter to my celery stick, the yin to my yang. Too much? Sorry... But the truth is that she 100% get's me, supports me and pushes me to dream bigger and better. When we're together, we talk about all the things that we want to do in life, the things that we want to achieve, the places that we want to visit and the new things that we want to explore. I'm so happy that she's now finally in Australia as well and that we can see each other from time to time, even though she's on the Sunshine Coast and I'm in Sydney.
This first Aussie-reunion was the ultimate #bestieweekend and of course it included lots of picture-taking, working out and....you guessed it....eating!
I thought it was time for a more personal post about my journey over the last couple months. After all, lots has happened! Many of you have asked why I came to Australia and how I am liking it, so I thought I would share some of my experiences here.
As you may know, I had never been to Australia before and had not yet found a job or apartment to live in when we arrived, though we had a lovely friend who accommodated us for the first three weeks. So it was a pretty scary and bold move, to say the least.
A bit of a background on me: I guess you could call me a third culture kid, having moved around a lot and never having lived in one place for longer than 2-3 years (except when I went to uni). I was born in Germany and I feel very connected to my home country, but in the end, home for me is wherever I feel comfortable. Because of this, I'm pretty used to the constant moving around, adapting to new cultures, learning new languages, finding new friends etc.
It's been exactly four months since I stepped into a plane that would bring me to Sydney, and I can say that I already feel pretty darn comfortable here. Sydney is my home now.
