Maturity vs. Keeping it to Yourself

Disclaimer-- I'm PMSing. I'm moody, and anyone that so much as looked at me the wrong way today was getting it. I mean if looks could kill, I'm like Medusa today. Does that even make sense? Whatever. Go with it. Or else...

So today, when one of my lovely friends showed me this on instagram...

I KNEW that I had met this month's unlucky guy! Obviously, I commented. Which yeah, I guess makes me immature too but at least I can admit that :)

(xo is always the bitchiest thing I can thing to sign out with...thanks Gossip Girl)

Sooooooo sweet. I bet his mom is so proud. And then he screen shotted his er--clever? responses and posted them for all of instagram to see. Wisely leaving my comments out because that just would have been embarrassing for him.

So, I've got good news and bad news for you LITTLE BOY. Good news is you think you won by posting your comments back to me. Bad news for you is that I run a very successful blog AND we have mutual friends so I hope you see this.

Sincerely,
Mature...xo

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3 sets of 15 pushups.

In, Out, Up! 3 sets of 12

Curl ---> Press. 3 sets of 15

My leggies.

Yes.

Happy Life, Healthy Life.

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A Series of Unfortunate Events

I'm baaaaaaack! If you 'like' Happy Life, Healthy Life on facebook you knew I was coming back and if not, well go 'like' now so you can still get updates even when I'm not posting!

This week I want to talk about what I like to call the Series of Unfortunate Events. Not the books. These events make Claudia want to rip her eye balls out of the socket and even worse, it makes her talk in 3rd person.

Random food porn will be featured today because I'm hungry.

These events go something like this:

1. June rolls around, seemingly out of no where.
2. Girls realize it's summer and will need to partake in events that require a swimsuit.
3. Girls get on the scale, girls cry.
4. Girls post pictures to their motivation boards on Pinterest entitled "Lose 10 pounds by this weekend!" and "Tiny thighs in 6 days!"
5. 6 days later, the weekend rolls around, girls haven't lost 10 pounds, and don't have tinier thighs.
6. Girls decide they will eat 1,200 calories and work out every day.
7. Girls give up after a few days because they can't function like that.
8. Girls come to Claudia STUMPED as to why they can't lose weight fast.
9. Claudia writes down her blog's URL and tells them to read the entire thing starting from the beginning.
10. Girls still don't get it, so Claudia writes this post.

In case you're in a hurry and don't have time to read the rest of this post, let me give it to you straight right now: The number on the scale means nothing, it is physically impossible to lose 10 pounds of fat by this weekend, you cannot spot reduce your thighs and eating 1,200 calories will come back to bite you in the ass. Now I will explain.

Let's start with the number on the scale. I know I've posted before about why I hate the scale, however, I feel like I should restate it. I hate the scale. I hate it because we allow this stupid number to dictate how feel about ourselves, when really, if you want to go by a number, there are SO many other numbers that will tell you more about your body. For example, your body fat, how much weight you can lift, your mile time, etc. Furthermore, I hate BMI (body mass index) more than anything. It's complete BS. Based on your height and weight, you get a number. 18.5-25 is 'normal', 25-30 is 'overweight', 30-35 is 'obese', and 35-40 is 'severely obese'. This clearly doesn't take into account that muscle weighs more than fat because:

At 6'2 and an estimated 240 lbs, that's putting Arnold at a BMI of 30.8. Obviously obese.

Tom Cruise. 5'7, 166 lbs, BMI of 26. Totally overweight.

So stop it. Stop it now.

Now let's talk about why you can't lose 10 pounds by this weekend. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you read my post on why you should never go on a cleanse. And if you haven't, click here and go read it. Done? Cool. It is physically impossible to lose that much weight that fast. Whatever you lose cleansing or restricting, is water weight. And it's coming right back as soon as you put a carbohydrate in your mouth.

I love it when people say "I just couldn't live without carbs!" No shit. Literally, you can't. Phew.

People ask me a lot on my facebook page what a normal eating/exercising day looks like for me. So here it is:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup oats (makes 1 cup oatmeal) with 1 scoop protein powder and 1 tablespoon of peanut butter.

Snack: Varies a lot. Usually though a Lara Bar, rice cakes and almond butter, greek yogurt with honey and granola, an apple with peanut butter, etc.

Lunch: A huge salad with chicken or salmon, beans or 1/2 sweet potato, and 2 tablespoons of dressing. If I don't feel like a salad I'll do a turkey sandwich! Two slices of bread, a serving of sliced, organic, turkey, mustard, and avocado.

Snack: Same as above.

Dinner: Same as lunch for the most part or whatever my family is having!

After dinner snack: Usually a handful of chocolate covered almonds for my sweet tooth :)

My exercise routine is a little crazy but it's my thing. Monday/Wednesday/Friday I lift weights, Tuesday/Thursdays I do 40-60 minutes of cardio.

Basically my dream relationship.

Also, a little insight on exercise, you can NOT spot reduce areas. I see SO many posts out there like "the skinny arm work out" and the "7 days to skinny jeans work out" and it's just so ridiculous. I am not saying these aren't good work out routines. But if it only took 7 days to get into skinny jeans, we would no longer have an obesity crisis in America. But people know that we Americans want what we want and we want it fast. Hence why drive thrus are so popular. Yes, you should lift weights, but the only way to get rid of the fat above the muscle is by getting your heart rate up. So yes, you can do the "7 Minute a Day" work out. But if your heart rate is only up for 7 minutes a day, it's going to take you a long time to see results.

Eating clean is the ONLY way I have ever been able to see my abs. I have been doing ab exercises since I was 9 years old. Finally, at 21, I cleaned up my diet, eat around 2,000 calories a day, and I have abs (in the morning but hey, I have them!). By eating clean, I mean organic, trying to eat VERY rarely out of a package, and if you do eat something out of the package, make sure there isn't a laundry list of ingredients and that if you don't recognize any more than 4 of them, you don't put it in your body.

Now, eating clean and exercising the way I do, it took me 10 weeks to lose THREE POUNDS of pure body fat. Yes. TEN WEEKS. Ten weeks ago my body fat was 20.1% and yesterday, it was 17.9%. And I only lost three pounds because guess what? Muscle is SO much denser than fat! I lost inches, not really so many pounds. And best of all, my body is healthy and stable! I don't bloat after meals, I have energy, it's crazy and if someone told me a year ago this is where i'd be I would have never believed them. It takes TIME. And time is just about the only thing us girls aren't willing to give for a hot healthy body. We are willing to sacrifice our bodies, our minds, our moods, our favorite foods, but time? Absolutely not. CHANGE IT NOW! And it will NOT happen over night. It look my body a full year just about to balance out and to trust me again.

If you treat your insides kindly, they will respond kindly. Give your body delicious, wholesome, natural foods. Take your body outside on a beautiful summer day for a walk. Lay in the sun and let it soak in all that Vitamin D. Once you make peace, and let your body know you're going to treat it kindly, it will thank you in ways you've never felt before. You will have boundless energy, your skin will clear up, you will lose the bloat of all the yucky food and preservatives you've fed it with, and you will just glow. Trust me. Speaking from experience, I have never felt better, and I have never been less hungry :) Stay healthy, stay happy. x

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Childhood Obesity

I know I'm getting old when my friends (okay facebook friends), start having babies on purpose. Or get pregnant, and can't audition for "Teen Mom" anymore. I always say that I hate kids (pretty sure I'm emotionally damaged from babysitting...so not worth the 15 bucks), but my 'antichrist' attitude has changed over time from 'I hate kids' to 'I hate parents', to recently, 'Ugh that's so mean...okay, I hate parents that feed their children crap'.

Childhood obesity has more than TRIPLED in the last 30 years. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to 18% over the same period. What the HELL America. This is not only disgusting, it is devastating. Because of our choices over the last 30 years, we are now the first generation expected to die before our parents. Our life expectancy is 10 years shorter because of the food landscape today.

Since I'm a visual learner, let me show you an example. Let's put some faces to statistics that, unfortunately, we've become so used to.

This is Brittany. She lives in West Virginia which last year, was named the most unhealthy state in America. Brittany is 16 years old. Because of the food that she has eaten, Brittany has 6 years to live. She is literally eating her liver to death. At this rate, her body is unable to keep up and will give out in SIX short years.

This is Stacy Edwards and her two children. Justin is 12 years old. He weighs 250 pounds. Katie is 4 years old. She's obese before she's even started elementary school.

If you feel no sympathy for these people, let me try and get you angry:
Think about smoking. Smoking costs WAY less than obesity now. Obesity costs us Americans 10 percent of our health care bills. $150 BILLION dollars a year. In ten years, it's set to double. $300 billion dollars a year. And let's be honest America, we don't have that kind of money layin' around.

We spend our lives being paranoid about death. Murder, homicide, abductions, etc. It's in all the papers, on the news, and even on milk cartons (probably flavored milk...DAMMIT guys). We cope with this unnerving, irrational, fear by going through Del Taco because fuck it, we're going to die anyways right? Well, look at how well that's working out for us.

Heart disease, all cancers, and stroke are the top three causes of death in the United States. And then there's diabetes in red also. Oh yeah and the reason they're in red? Because they're diet related diseases. AKA, completely preventable. Look at homicide all tiny at the bottom. We need to seriously reevaluate our choices.

Obviously, obesity is a huge problem. Pun intended. So why choose to post on childhood obesity specifically? Because we have to break this chain. The last three generations of people have been so terribly unhealthy. If we continue this pattern, of feeding ourselves and our children the way the majority of America eats, we are doomed. Doomed for more heart disease, more cancer, more strokes, more Type II diabetes, more deaths.

Feeding your children processed, sugar filled, unhealthy, junk, is a direct form of child abuse. Think about that. You are setting your child up to crave those foods and in turn, you are setting them up for chronic disease. YOU control the type of foods your child likes. If you feed your children nutritiously dense, healthy, WHOLE foods, they will be hard wired to crave those foods. Alternatively, if you feed them chicken nuggets, cookies, soda, pizza, etc., they will be hard wired to crave those foods. Furthermore, (oh I'm on a roll now guys), let's talk about being pregnant for a second. It all starts there. I have never been pregnant but I have heard from every other girl that has been, that the cravings are insane. And sometimes, you just gotta give in. SOMETIMES ladies! If you're eating fast food for every meal, Doritos, Cheetos, nacho cheese from 7-11, slurpees, Twinkies, and pizza because "you can because you're pregnant", you're already abusing your unborn child. You're already setting that child up to crave these things!

Now, I'm not a barbarian. I'm not saying my future child will never eat dinosaur chicken nuggets or get a cookie cake for his/her birthday. But there is a HUGE difference between special occasion food, and making this your child's daily diet. So let's talk about some solutions.

1. Educate Your Children

I watched a video of Jamie Oliver holding up produce to a class of kindergarteners, and none of the children could identify an eggplant, a beet, a tomato, or a head of cauliflower. Scary. If kids don't know what things are, they won't eat it. And if you think I'm wrong, you're wrong.

2. PACK YOUR KID'S A LUNCH

This is huge. (That's what she said). I realized today while researching my topic, I was never allowed to buy lunch from school. I never really questioned it, my lunch was just always on the kitchen counter in the morning. Cafeteria food IS fast food. Maybe not McDonalds or Taco Bell, but it is highly processed, preserved, sugary, salty, greasy, finger food. Most schools don't even allow forks or knives because they're considered 'dangerous'. (Lol). So we are forced to feed our children food that they can eat with their hands. Burgers, pizza, burritos, sloppy joes, chicken nuggets, french fries and chimichangas. And then to wash it all down, they serve them flavored milk. I'm not even going to get into that because you can read my rant on flavored milk HERE.

3. Cook For Your Family

I know you're busy. I get it. We're all busy. Let me answer your prayers. It's called a Crock Pot. GET ONE. Then go HERE (I even Googled for you) and explore. Healthy crock pot breakfasts, lunch, dinners, and desserts. Welcome!

4. Stop Buying Your Kids Video Games

Also, you stop playing them too. Get up, and go play. When was the last time you played anything outside? When was the last time you saw your kid play anything other than Call of Duty? Teach them how to throw a football...boy or girl! There is something sexy about seeing a girl throw a football, teach her now, she'll thank you later.

5. Don't Use Food as a Reward

Pretty self explanatory. Your child is not a dog. And when they accomplish something in the future, they'll turn to food. Take your little girl to go get her nails done or your little boy to the batting cages.

There's obviously a fine line between being obsessive about what you and your child eat, and being mindful. So, be mindful, be happy, be healthy.

Ps- Whilst writing this I ate 4 pieces of dark chocolate. Keepin' it real over here. x

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Expecto Patronum

If you haven't 'liked' me on facebook yet, click THIS. Or wait until you read this post, then scroll back up. Our facebook page rules. Recipes, articles, new posts, suggestion box, yeah! Okay. Anyways--

Oh man guys, it has been a rough couple weeks since I've been back from Spain. I wish I could be one of those perma-vacotioners you know? No job, no schedule, no problems, sangria, sangria, sangria...what was I saying? But I knew eventually I'd have to come back and face my real life here. And it was waiting for me, guns a-blazing. Without getting into the hairy, intimate details of the shit show I've created for myself here, I will say this. I am working very very very hard right now on the most important relationship of my life. And that relationship is with myself. Cliche? For sure. But I'm a 21 year old girl living in Southern California with an eating disorder. Cliches are CLEARLY my thing. And yes, I do love the movie 'Mean Girls'.

Anyways, in addition to re-reading my post on Emotional Eating (I may or may not have destroyed some Dominos twice in the last two weeks...along with a pint of Cherry Garcia Ben & Jerry's...and washed it down with alcohol...lots and lots of alcohol) I have been doing a lot of reading. Now, I like to fancy myself as a pretty well read person. Catcher in the Rye, Pride and Prejudice, To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm...totally into it. And yeah I did read all of those in high school. But the last two weeks, I have been ALL about Harry Potter. If you know me in real life, this is no surprise to you. I am a huge Harry Potter nerd. An epic, uber, nooby nerd, if I may.

I love the Harry Potter series for SO many reasons. First of all, they're awesome. Second of all, there are some serious life lessons in there. So here's what I've learned, and here's what's getting me through these tough times right now.

Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Under no circumstance will I let my past define who I am now, and who I will be in the future. What's done is done and it's what I will do from here that matters. 

You can sit and dwell in the darkness, or be thankful you have the ability to turn on the light. 

Siriusly guys. 

I saved this quote for last because it has a different meaning to me now then it did when I first read The Deathly Hallows. Your thoughts and words are the most powerful tools you possess. They can inflict the most painful wounds, and also heal them. 

As someone who struggles every day with a mental illness, I will tell you right now, it is the most frustrating, infuriating, painful, thing when someone belittles your thoughts. Or tells you that you're crazy. Or tells you that you are unstable and making poor choices because of what's going on inside of your head. Don't let anyone tell you that. Because even though they may or may not be coming from a place of love, your thoughts are real. They are yours. And even if they are irrational, they affect you more than anyone else ever will. What you think, you become. 

First, we change our thoughts. Only then, can our thoughts change us. Happy Thursday :) x

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Hola from Madrid!

Hi Happy Life, Healthy Life-ers! If you 'like' me on facebook, you know I've been in Madrid, Spain, for the past week! My best friend Lauren is studying abroad here and I came to visit her. It has been a crazy, amazing experience and I am so sad to leave. Before I left, I naturally had MAD anxiety about the food situation here. One, because I've never been and fear the unknown and two, because Lauren told me it is carb central and there is practically nothing healthy. I had three goals this trip. To have fun and really experience life here in Spain without feeling guilty about food, two--stay on top of my work out schedule, and three, try and dress nicely the majority of days I'm here. Because if you know me, you know how much I would LOVE to go out in my sweats, running shoes, and dirty old headband every day. So, without further ado, here's how it went :)

First off, I had a 13 hour flight. 6 hours from Los Angeles to New York, and 7 from New York to Madrid. I ate a delicious, huge breakfast before my flight (oatmeal with peanut butter, greek yogurt, and an apple), and right before my flight I had a protein bar. Passed out, woke up, and wandered through JFK Airport for some food. And be still my beating heart here's what I found-

Real ingredients...I recognized them all. So happy.

Once I got to Madrid, checked into the hotel, I was starving. I am convinced that room service is God's gift to mankind...I wish I had it everywhere. And by everywhere I mean at my house.

Lobster salad? Yes please. 

Passed out early. Woke up the next morning at 6:30 AM. Horrible. With nothing else to do...I decided to make good on goal number two and go to the gym.

Whole gym to myself...happy camper!

Room service had this amazing breakfast called the "Fitness Breakfast" which was amazing and perfect. It was an egg white omelet, a box of all bran cereal, and half a grapefruit not pictured because I devoured it every morning before I could photograph it.

After breakfast every morning, we got showered, dressed and took the metro to Starbucks (I know, we're so so so American).

Metro!

Skinny Vanilla Latte...mmm

We walked around Madrid everyday and worked up quite an appetite. My absolute favorite lunch place was a place called Maoz Vegetarian. Apparently it's a chain, but I had never been there before, so I have been three times so far. I just can't get enough I mean look at this-

Ugh amazing. Lettuce, carrots, cous cous, garbanzo beans, roasted cauliflower and falafel.

Added some tzatziki sauce and mixed it up :)

The days I couldn't make it to the gym were not lazy days at all. We walked EVERYWHERE. Including Europe's largest flea market, El Rastro :)

At El Rastro is where I finally got my first real Spanish dining experience. And by that I mean we went to a hole in the wall restaurant, where no one spoke english, and I had no idea what I was ordering. I recognized the word "pollo" as chicken (thanks annoying El Pollo Loco commercials), and "ensalada verde" and green salad. I couldn't have gotten luckier. My food was AMAZINGLY delicious and fresh.

Apparently, all green salads come with tuna here. That's what Lauren said. Same with vegetable sandwiches. Tuna isn't considered 'meat' to the Spanish!

Pollo Asado. Clearly I forgot to take a picture before I devoured most of it.

Another amazing form of out of the gym exercise were these stairs in the metro stations. Literally kicked my booty!

There's Lauren on the escalator ;)

Later than night we went to Plaza Mayor...another famous spot!

Pretty walk over 

Plaza Mayor

One of the days we went to this crazy place called Mercado San Miguel.

 Hands down my favorite place here. It will become very clear when you see the pictures. This mercado was just a huge, indoor, market with TONS of stands selling tapas (appetizers), wine, beer, juice, fruit, vegetables, sweets, pastries, just anything you could possibly want. The best part was that it was cheap, and each tapas was about two bites. So I bought one, Lauren bought one, we took a bite, and switched. It was the perfect late lunch. Here was our haul...enjoy the food porn.

French bread with caramelized onions, garlic, and brie cheese. 

Merengue Cupcakes

Raspberry and caramel macaroons

Tomato, mozzarella and pesto kebob, and some sort of chicken tomato onion kebob 

French bread with FRESH mozzarella, arugala, and balsamic vinegar

French bread with fresh mozzarella, olive oil, blueberry jam, and walnuts

And literally the most amazing frozen yogurt I've ever had. Lauren's had apple pie on it, mine had Nutella crunch. MMM

After that we walked down to a bar called "100 Montaditos" and got sangria in a beer mug for 2 Euros! Obviously this was my cheat day :)

Came back to room, siesta timed, and then ordered more room service. I'm legit nervous to see my bill but I just love it.

More wine

Greek salad with grilled chicken

 We also went to Retiro Park, which is apparently famous and I could see why. It was absolutely beautiful and SO much to see we couldn't even walk to entire thing. It was so peaceful and relaxing.

Last night, we went bar hopping and it was CRAZY because Madrid won the world cup! I unfortunately didn't take pictures. But I can tell you there were 1 Euro tequila shots and a 24 hour pizza place...and I can also tell you I woke up at 4 PM and am going to the gym now :)

It has been a very happy, relatively healthy, and very balanced trip. Exactly what I needed. I am proud of myself for not having even ONE food freak out, and striking a good balance with my exercise habits. Hopefully all future trips are as great as this one :) Ciao! x

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