You are what you eat...

You are what you eat is such an underrated phrase in my opinion. You hear it all the time but how often do you actually take into account what it means?

I will be honest when I heard that phrase I would think yeah if you eat unhealthy processed high fat foods continuously then you will feel awful, be overweight and generally feel like crap, flip side if you eat healthy well balanced diet you feel wonderful - am I right?

So lets rewind to last summer, around May time 2016. A rash starts appearing on my body, a really red, sore rash on my legs, under arms and side of my stomach, I didn't notice it much until it started getting really painful and really obvious! 

Now I have super sensitive skin, it has taken me ages to work out my skin care routine and get the balance so I don't break out, and now something has tipped the balance.
So I tried changing my deodorant, my washing powder, cleaning products used around the house, even down to my exercise trousers, and nothing changed! 

Fast forward to September, winter is on its way and I am about to change to winter breakfast - summer is eggs and toast, winter is porridge with almond milk. I also take out a morning coffee as I find the porridge to be really filling and can't manage a coffee as well. 
After a few weeks I notice some changes, I am less bloated and also my rash is looking a little less red not by much but it looks like it is clearing up. 

So I start to consider that the phrase you are what you eat might have more meaning to that I originally thought, now I think about it I don't even know why I didn't think that the food I am putting into my body would effect the outside, my diet was always 80% clean 20% dirty, so I didn't think think that my diet would ever effect my complexion. 

So I looked at everything in my diet that contained dairy and took it out. Cheese (crying), milk products, yogurts, butter, chocolate, pizza etc and started from scratch. 

Since then the rash has completely cleared up, I had a flare up over Christmas, further confirming that any dairy product is going to effect me, the way I feel and also my complexion. 

At first it was a bit of a pain if I am totally honest, sometimes I would eat things and immediately feel sick, bloat out to looking 6 months pregnant, or break out- so I knew that had to leave the food group. Now I read every ingredient before buying and consider what might be in the meal when I go out to eat. After a few weeks of food shopping I pretty much knew what I can and couldn't have in my daily diet. I am pretty regimented with my eating, always the same thing every day, makes macro counting easier as well! 

I also look for alternatives - so pizza is my ultimate food I love it, so now I look at the free from section and making things from scratch, home made pizza is actually way better and the difference is SO much better. 

The free from aisle is now my favourite section, for foods that contain dairy they have the alternative, the only thing that is really not the same is cheese. Free from cheese is awful, so now I just don't eat it all, it makes me so sad because I love cheese, one day my body will change its mind I am sure.... ;)

So if you are having a similar problem I would highly recommend looking into your diet and thinking more about what you eat. 
Keep a food diary and if you have any reactions from bloating, feeling sick to hives make a note of what you ate and also at what time, and how you felt that day. 


Looking for nutrition plans, advice or eating tips email us barbellasandbuns@gmail.com for more information! 

I just can't get enough...

Food! 

Upping my training meant I was working alot harder and obviously I was going to be tired, but after week 3 I started to feel exhausted, like really exhausted and was finding it hard to function normally - but why? I was sleeping enough so that couldn't be it, so I turned to the foods I was eating. 
Now I briefly touched upon this last week but eating is SO important!! Sounds obvious right? But really it's not. I thought I was eating enough, but when I tracked for a day I was around 1000 cals under my eating, my carbs were too low and I was not getting the right amount of energy in for the energy I was putting out. 

So I logged into good old My Fitness Pal and reassessed my goals, my training hours and weight, hit save and up comes my calorie allowance of 2750... wow! I don't think I have ever eaten that much in one day unless it has been Dominos cheat meal!!
So I began logging my food for the day making sure I was eating enough carbs - still working on this, enough fats again still working on this, hitting my calorie goal or at least near it to make sure I have the energy and nutrients I need to function. 

Eating this amount of food is harder than you think, sure I could stuff my face with high calorie foods for 3 meals a day and hit it, but that it is not effective and will not benefit me in anyway! One of my fellow gym goers said it doesn't matter what form it goes in you just have to eat... even if it means takeaways and Burger King... no just no. If you are looking to get fat and basically undo the hard work you are putting in when in the gym then sure go for it, but I don't recommend following this advice at all! 

I want to be lean, muscular and have low body fat, so eating clean is a high priority to me, my boyfriend eats 3000 cals a day of healthy clean food, carbs and fats included, he is working on bulking so experimenting with food to see what works best for him - I can assure you it is not Burger King! 

So if you are looking to track your calories and see how much you are eating or not eating I highly recommend My Fitness Pal, it has a great online community as well!