Health
My favorite memories growing up in Mexico include eating cereal and watching anime in the mornings alongside my brother on the weekends. Another was taking a walk to the park and on my way back stopping at the local miscellaneous store to buy chocolate and cookies. I loved eating sugar as a kid and had trouble finishing my plate when it came to dinner, which I would often get in trouble for. As a preteen I was very thin due to always forgetting to ask for lunch money and having to walk to and from school everyday. My body started changing when I turned fifteen and for the first time in my life I had developed an appetite and stretch marks, and that same year I started experimenting with alcohol.
For two years I found myself sneaking out of my house to go to parties and nightclubs, all while being underage. I quickly reached a low point and noticed that nothing I was doing was special or unique, and instead being a huge detriment in my life. After cutting ties with all of my "friends" and removing myself from tempting environments and situations I started to find some inner peace. Spending lots of quality time with myself, my dogs and nature, I started going on walks and discovered a new found love for exercising. During one day upon researching new modalities for how to feel better, I came across a food blogger who was an advocate for a plant based lifestyle. Before then I was completely ignorant of an eating modality that was solely focused on health, the environment and animal welfare.
Astounded and intrigued, I decided to experiment with some version of this and solely ate whole foods for the first time in my life. Nothing with a food label, sugar, oil or salt (I was still consuming fish & dairy). I found it extremely challenging to cut out everything that was so ingrained in my Mexican diet, so I began taking it day by day. Slowly I noticed how all processed food had some form of sugar and salt, two white crystalline substances that would never be found in nature. After a week or so I started really experiencing a complete shift in my consciousness, and more and more I was beginning to truly love being in my own company. Learning to read for inspiration, ride my bike for fun, cook with peace and wake up to breathtaking sunrises. It was a complete radical shift from my previous nocturnal self destructive ways, and the longer I did it the more clarity came to me. Never having felt better, I decided it was time to fully commit to the change I intended and so the summer I turned seventeen I became fully plant based and my life would never be the same.
Even though I no longer consider myself fully plant based, I still predominantly eat plants as my main source of fuel. Today I study the science of nutrition and physiology to fully understand the biological aspects of holistic wellness. It has become one of my greatest passions and how I most want to help those in need.
All of my projects in one form or another are related to health and wellness and it is how I myself obtain more practice in my own personal life. I know that it will be an important part of me for as long as I live. It excites me to know that more and more we as a society are interested in the effects our lifestyle has on our over wellbeing. Yet there is still much work to be done as a whole, and that is where I find that what I can provide is important to anyone who needs it.
Fitness
For over ten years I danced ballet on and off during my childhood and teenage years. Where I would perform in recitals and train rigorously for several times a week. There I developed an outlet where I could see my progress day to day, and how ever much work I put into it I would get out. But it wasn't until again I was seventeen that I began to train with a professional fitness coach who was a friend of my mothers, where I learned the art of weight lifting and kinesthetic movements. I absolutely loved how I felt and how I could see that I had more strength and endurance, but more importantly that I had all of this extra energy which I could use to be even more active during the day. So much so that I had a friend who lived in my neighborhood, and she would come over to my house at 5 am to workout together. We would do an hour of mixed exercises and then get ready for school. It was amazing, to wake up in the morning and create more energy! I even went as far as riding my bike to and from school every day, then I would eat, rest and work out in the evenings. It got to the point where I was noticeably athletic and my high school peers started noticing and asking for tips as to how they could also upgrade their lifestyle. I remember gaining so much confidence my last year in high school and knowing that I would do whatever it takes to never give up this way of life.