I haven't been 100% happy with my overall health and wellness as of this past year. Having grown up a competitive swimmer, track athlete, and honestly, constantly moving, I never really had issues. However, since moving to Montana, I gained weight, felt more self-conscious in clothes, had to buy more clothes, and hated how I felt. Some of these things were due to my new job and living in a remote area, but definitely some areas could be attributed to not eating well and not scheduling time for working out. So throughout the past six months, I started upping my workouts. This included lifting more, doing more cardio, adding variety, etc. I still wasn't seeing the results that I wanted. I knew that I had to change my diet and I had to clean up areas of it.
I met up with my friend Ashton, aka Tinkerbell and Battle Buddy, and she helped me go over several points of great nutrition. She also introduced me to the cookbook,
Against the Grain by Danielle Walker. The recipes had variations of great recipes and ingredient replacements that are so yummy! I also started reading the cookbook,
Practical Paleo by Diane Sanflippo and
It's All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow. It made me realize that there are so many areas of my diet where I could replace something that might not necessarily be providing my body with fuel and instead add spinach, fruits, etc.
