Holy Matrimony Between Muscles and Wellness
Have you NOTICED the 2 fascinating worlds that both have their eye on the PRIZE that is their own, best personal body??
Welcome the Holy Matrimony Between Muscles and Wellness
IF I’VE CAUGHT YOUR ATTENTION, you very well may be an enthusiast and practitioner of a gym rat (though I’ve personally changed THAT slang word to “gym bunny” but I’ll get back to all that!). Ok, so you may be one of the fine people who love body building, loving muscles and the aesthetics of them (you’re preaching to the choir!), you may be a competitive fitness person, or may just simply be in Love with the empowerment and self-awareness that comes from playing with dumbbells. Its the world of a different set of a “rush” that is endorphins, sleeping well, skipping happy hour and replacing it with biceps, and MOST of all: Making your PROTEIN intake a priority over martinis just the same as chia seed smoothies.
You guys are in an elite group. I salute you and am proud to say I’ve been with you since I’ve been a teenager.Your pay checks are most likely earmarked for Myoplex and amino acids. Substitute or add any other favorite “protein” powders and gone goes the priority of martinis and spirits and your budget gears towards your protein intake! And oh, I get it. You work, you have families, and quite frankly have a need to throw a good high protein shake in there at least once a day so it can all “work out”.
There’s another group of elite kiddies at the playground. I salute YOU guys too! And I’m also proud to say I’ve joined in your play dates of what’s all that in Kale and the new super heroes at the park that are “super foods”, Maca powder, olive oil leaf and raw greens powders that let’s face it: Our daily body builder friends would think to pick up as our muscle lovers eyes go straight to the protein section.
My thought provoking concept is this: WHY can’t everyone at the playground all get along?? Its beyond me to believe the muscle lovers aren’t open to some new tricks. Its also beyond me to believe our wellness junkies couldn’t benefit from the body builders bibles.
Let’s be OPEN. And HONEST. BOTH have their APPEAL. Both are clearly in touch with what it is to be extreme. And, if you’re extreme, then you’re as crazy as me. Which means this: That you’d be OPEN to absolutely anything that better fuels the machine that is your body, your vehicle. BOOM!! I HOPE I’ve just reached my point and blown your minds by hitting this idea out of the park 🙂
Let’s narrow this down and get this new party started.
Muscles: Meet “Wellness”.
Wellness: Meet “Muscles”.
Please don’t look at each other like the new kid and the playground that doesn’t play YOUR way and be in that clique. We didn’t like you in high school, so don’t be that way now. No, neither one of you is too cool for the other. Neither one of you is ALL right while the other is ALL wrong. Its called integration. Society has been striving for this for ages. Please keep in out of our fitness playground. Let’s lead by example and keep everyone friendly and playing nice 🙂
How do we START this NEW GAME?? Â Well how’s this:
Muscles: How about opening your minds to less chemicals and more REAL foods for a start. Think NO artificial crap. If you’re a machine I’d bet your thinking Jaguar and frankly, Jaguars don’t run on cheap gas. Please don’t tell me your still using Pam spray and using fake butter, artificial sweetener or ANY kind (Start to think of counting chemicals instead of calories!!), or using the microwave for EVERY meal. YES: its cool and important to get your protein in and adequate. I do it myself. Take some baby steps. Like you did your first squat workout. Try not to DEPEND on bars as meals.
Aim to get REAL food for your protein instead of powders. If you must use powders for your protein: limit them to 1 meal replacement. Go ahead and get CRAZY and add some raw spinach and or kale to that shake! I know! Crazy! But I do it now too! Gone are the days where I didn’t know better and ate everything out of convenience and out of a box. Which by the way: I felt like SHIT when I did that in my 20’s before I knew better. Another great baby step is aim to eat foods that have the fewest ingredients if you’re buying them prepared. If they have more than 4 ingredients AND you can’t pronounce them: Think twice before ingesting them. They should register as poison the same way you register butter in your muscle brains. (What is butter?? Says me, the girl in Love with muscle).
Where’s my other group of kiddies now??
Wellness Peeps: Your new body building buddies might seem to be the goth kid with the tattoos that you don’t quite know how to talk to. Get this: The more muscular they are: the more they get judged and same goes with the bigger they are, you’ll find those are the biggest teddy bears as they have nothing to prove. Think of how it might feel to get judged by what you LOOK like. It NEVER feels good, its usually wrong and its NEVER OK. And if they look like THAT: Rest assured: They KNOW a thing or 2 about the body!! For you can NOT attain that condition by being uninformed and undisciplined. Bonus points: remember: the ones with the most muscles are in the best moods as they’re well-fed and also they’ve worked OUT all their shit with those dumbbells already!! So you’ll be surprised! They’re friendly and super fun!
My Gaga green buddies: Open yourself UP to getting some more protein. I’m NOT one to start convincing anyone to change their ethically eating, as if someone’s already a vegan I won’t preach they should NOT being doing that just because its not MY own personal style. BUT: Green, hemp, chia, vegan or not: You can’t tell me honestly that you wouldn’t love yourself a harder bicep and a beach-friendly butt. Its perfectly morally correct to be environment and health conscious while wanting to be HOT. Trust me. This is NOT a sin and the world truly has bigger ones to worry about.
Here are some tips for merging you 2 Badass groups together:
Athena Lee’s Own Personal Muscle2Wellness Mergers:
1) When I have a protein shake body building style: I always add raw greens. Real ones! Like spinach or kale. You do NOT need any $300 fancy blender, a plain ol’ $20 glass one will do. I do this daily for breakfast. Bonus points if you add 1 tablespoon of Macha Powder daily. (I do).
2) I do the “real”, “actual” food as much as I can. If I have the opportunity to eat real, whole food, I’ll always do that as opposed to a box. Baby steps. Shop this way and little by little it’ll become a habit and get easier. Just like squats.
3) Muscle Peeps: Go in your fridge and cabinets: Do you have any diet soda, crystal light or anything of that nature?? DUMP IT! Dump it OUT!! Normally I’d make sure to never waste food or money as I grew up on Government cheese. But seriously: take the loss. You nor anyone else can benefit from that as its poison. Stop it. You’re better than that!
4) Green Peeps: When was the last time you had blood work? Yes, from a Doctor! If you’re vegan, vegetarian, celiac, lactose intolerant, you very well may be missing something that you will be able to add and benefit from without getting off your own ethical path. Vegans usually need a good B12 shot. Celiacs (that’s me) usually need a vitamin D supplement.
5) Muscles Playmates: How can you getting a little more organic in your life? Are you still doing sweatshop meat, eggs and any old fruit from the supermarket?? These things are NOT that expensive anymore. If you’re on a budget: do the BEST you can. Most stores have sales on organic fruit and meat weekly. If you REALLY want to be hardcore, (and I KNOW that you DO!), you’ll take it UP a notch and make a conscious effort to ingest less chemicals. You’re muscles will reward you, you’ll look less bloated, (HA! GOT YA!) and you’ll digest everything much more easily.
Overall: Its all about baby steps. And being open, of course. I personally aim to lead by example and I am someone who’s been extreme on BOTH ends. I can happily and with notable results in both my biceps and my blood work these 2 worlds intercept quite nicely. Take a little from 1 world and merge it with the other and it forms 1 big happy family. And isn’t that what its all about??
Being, feeling, looking our best all while remaining compassionate and open to learning more every day.
For more information on Athena Lee:
Visit:Â TheAthenaeffect.com
Twitter:Â @Buffgoddess
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