Run. Run. Run

Food used to be my enemy, but I realized food is a part of life and we are born to eat, taste, and savor life. Whether it's clean eating or guilty pleasures, food is not a vilain. Gluttony is.

[stydialinskiqueen-blog-blog]

(x)

[inkskinned]

A FAT LITTLE GIRL is eight years old, she’s got pink cheeks that her grandmother calls chubby. She wants a second cookie but her aunt says “you’ll get huge if you keep eating.” She wants a dress and the woman in the changing room says “she’ll probably need a large in that.” She wants to have dessert and her waiter says “After all that dinner you just had? You must be really hungry!” and her parents laugh. A FAT LITTLE GIRL is eleven and she is picked second-to-last in gym class. She watches a cartoon and sees that everyone who is annoying is drawn with a big wide body, all sweaty and panting. At night she dreams she is swelling like the ocean over seabeds. When she wakes up, she skips school. A FAT LITTLE GIRL is thirteen and her friends are stick-thin ballerinas with valleys between their hipbones. She is instead developing the wide curves of her mother. She says she is thick but her friends argue that she’s “muscular” and for some reason this hurts worse than just admitting that she jiggles when she walks and she’ll never be a dancer. Eating seconds of anything feels like she’s breaking some unspoken rule. The word “indulgent” starts to go along with “food.” A FAT LITTLE GIRL is fourteen and she has stopped drinking soda and juice because they bloat you. She always takes the stairs. She fidgets when she has to sit still. Whenever she goes out for ice cream, she leaves half at the bottom - but someone else always leaves more and she feels like she’s falling. She pretends to like salad more than she does. She feels eyes burrowing through her body while she eats lunch. Kate Moss tells her nothing tastes as good as skinny feels, but she just feels like she is wilting. A FAT LITTLE GIRL is fifteen the first time her father says “you’re getting gaunt.” She rolls her eyes. She eats one meal a day but thinks she stays the same size. Every time she picks up a brownie she thinks of the people she sees on t.v. and every time she has cake, she thinks of the one million magazine articles on restricting calories. She used to have no idea a flat stomach was supposed to be beautiful until she saw advice on how to achieve it. She cuts back on everything. She controls. They tell her she’s getting too thin but she doesn’t believe it. A FAT LITTLE GIRL is sixteen and tearing herself into shreds in order for a thigh gap big enough to hush the screams in her head. She doesn’t “indulge,” ever. She can’t go out with friends, they expect her to eat. She damns her sweet tooth directly to hell. It’s coffee for breakfast and tea for lunch and if there’s dance that evening, two cups of water and then maybe an apple. She lies all the time until she thinks the words will rot her teeth. She dreams about food when she sleeps. Her aunt begs her to eat anything, even just a small cookie. They say, “One bite won’t make you fat, will it, darling?” A FAT LITTLE GIRL is seventeen and too sick to go to prom because she can’t stand up for very long. She thinks she wouldn’t look good in a dress anyway. Her nails are blue and not because they are painted. Her hair is too thin to do anything with. She’s tired all the time and always distracted. She once absently mentions the caloric value of grapes to the boy she is with and he looks at her like she’s gone insane and in that moment she realizes most people don’t have numbers constantly scrolling in their heads. She swallows hard and tries to figure out where it all went wrong, why more than a granola bar for a meal makes her feel sick, why she tastes disease and courts with death. She misses sleep. She misses being able to dream. She misses being herself instead of just being empty. A FAT LITTLE GIRL is twenty and writes poetry and is a healthy weight and still fights down the voices every single day. She puts food in her mouth and sometimes cries about it but more and more often feels good, feels balanced. Her cheeks are pink and they are chubby and soft and no longer growing slight fur. Her hair is long and it is beautiful. She still picks herself apart in the mirror, but she’s starting to get better about it. She wears the dress she likes even if it only fits her in a large and she doesn’t feel like a failure for it. She is falling in love with the fat on her hips. She is eating out with friends and not worrying about finding the lowest calorie item on the menu when she hears a mother tell her four year old daughter “You can’t have ice cream, we just had dinner. You don’t want to end up as a fat little girl.”

Why do we constantly do this to our children? /// r.i.d (via inkskinned)

[fat2skinnyfast]

[rxchelsea]

[fuckyeahtattoos]

[swanheart]

[young-and-green-blog]

The Young & Green Antioxidant Smoothie!!!

Berries, almond milk, frozen banana, dates, maca powder, linseed, chia seeds and goji berries!!! Accompanied by some beautiful flowers growing outside my window

[ohchickpea-blog]

[canisinferorum-blog]

[fitfood-love-blog]

Oatmeal topped with coconut, cacao nibs, sugar free choc chips, peanut butter, and caramel dulce de leche.

[arctium]

[destination-unkown]

~Let’s chill in my Hippie Van~

[mrsjonie]

Ways to Get Back on Track: Not long ago, you were energetic and determined to start your healthy lifestyle. Starting with enthusiasm and hope, you watched your food intake diligently, exercised like it was going out of style, and even avoided the temptation that seemed to lurk around every corner. You were confident that you were going to reach your goals once and for all! Then certain tragedy struck! You ate an extra piece of birthday cake. Realizing you had “blown” your diet, you ate another and another and couldn’t get it together the next day either. Or worse, you missed one workout, and that turned into a whole week away from the gym.

After that, your momentum to start over again was gone, and your gym bag hasn’t left the closet since. Every time you misstep on your healthy journey, you have two choices: to keep walking backwards, which will surely take you even further away from your goals; or to accept your lack of perfection as normal and forgivable, and take not one, but two positive steps down the path that brings your closer to the future you want. If you’re reading this, you might have been walking backwards for a while. But instead of waiting for the next day, week, month or even year to overhaul your habits, start TODAY. And start small. You can’t go from the recliner to running or from burgers to Brussels sprouts in an afternoon. But you can do one, two or even a handful of small things that will help you regain your momentum for healthy living. When you feel like getting back on track is overwhelming, try one (or more) of these small steps each day:

Try a short workout. Even five minutes is better than nothing. For ideas browse our video library or workout generator.

Try a new recipe. Cooking healthy foods can be fun and it never has to be bland.

Eat a healthy breakfast. Your morning meal sets the stage for the rest of your day, so start if off right! Get lots of breakfast ideas here.

Drink your water. Try to aim for 8 cups each day and you’ll feel the difference!

Exercise for 10 minutes. Jump rope, march in place, or do some crunches. Small amounts do add up to something big!

Find a buddy. Get support from friends, whether you need someone to listen or a mentor to give you ideas and encouragement.

Take a walk. Don’t worry about how long or far you go—just get out there!

Create a motivational collage. Include pictures of your goal and reasons why you want to get there.

Go shopping for some healthy foods. Use this shopping list for ideas.

Check the nutrition facts before you go out to eat. That way, you can make an informed choice.

Ride your bike. Even a leisurely ride has benefits for your body and mind.

Work in the yard. Gardening and yard work is a great way to add activity to your day.

[gigieatsvegan-deactivated201612]

lunchin’ // a bed of arugula with hummus, avocado, sautéed red bell peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli on top

[jassminekay]

Click here for the original video.

[deadlyvibes]

[rawbelly]

8 banana lunch on the run

[realizes]