I am the author of FigureFoodie.com. My name is Lara Bross and I am an NPC Figure competitor, certified Personal Trainer, and self-proclaimed ‘clean-eating evangelist.’ I started FigureFoodie.com to help people discover that eating clean can and should taste good.
I wasn’t always an athlete. A few years back, I pretty much ate what I wanted, when I wanted. I thought I ate pretty well – I never ate much fast food; burgers, fries and soda were an occasional splurge. Yet my diet was pretty typical of the western diet.
The western diet is (as defined by dictionary.com):
…a dietary habit chosen by many people in developed countries, and increasingly in developing countries, characterized by high intakes of red meat, sugary desserts, high fat, and refined grains. It also typically contains high-fat dairy products, high-sugar drinks, and eggs.
I ate a lot of packaged foods and microwave meals with an occasional piece of fruit or canned vegetable. When I thought I was getting too rotund, I would skip breakfast and desserts and eat more of what I thought of as “diet foods” like yogurt and rice cakes.
At a time in my life when my son was about six months old, I found myself looking plumper than ever and always feeling tired. My older relatives suddenly were finding themselves with heart issues. Then to top if off, my husband remarked that perhaps the time had come that I should do something about my expanding butt!
Some neighbors of mine had recently joined a gym with personal training and were having some great results, so I decided to give it a try. In addition to two personal training sessions a week and four sessions a week of cardio, I kept a food journal and my trainer gave me some guidance with my food choices and portions. Six months or so went by and I had stopped gaining weight but I wasn’t losing it either. Changing my activity level and exercise habits alone, was not working!
It wasn’t until I took matters into my own hands and changed my diet, that I saw results. I used something called “eating clean” that I had read about in a women’s fitness magazine. I read about how bodybuilders and physique models all eat clean and thought that maybe they were on to something. Six months later I found that although I ate more food than I had in the past, I had dropped several inches and dress sizes.
It wasn’t just a change on the scale though; in fact I had only dropped about 15 lbs! But now I had curves from my new muscles, a sculpted waistline, and energy to spare. I always had admired competitive women athletes and now I began thinking I could compete. I set a goal to compete in my first Figure competition.
To my surprise, while training and preparing for competition, I found the affects of working towards a tangible goal and feeling great physically, spilled over into other parts of my life: I found myself smiling and joking more and becoming even more focused, organized, and disciplined. This discovery sparked my determination to become a certified Personal Trainer and help others discover this spillover effect for themselves.
Before
After
Diet change through eating clean is the area I focus on because…
-
…It’s what I love to do! I’ve been at it for some time and have gathered a bit of knowledge and experience on the subject
…It is hard to find good information on this topic, even on the internet
…There are beliefs in our society regarding food that are warped!
An underlying belief exists in our society that it is normal to eat out of boxes and other packages and that healthy food must taste bad, cost too much, or take too long to make. This is not true! Eating out of packages is not how we are meant to eat!
I want to become part of the growing movement to break these stigmas regarding food.
Recent Comments