Breakfast is served.

After more than a year of planning, recipe creating and testing, writing, and design, Mind + Body and Breakfast is finally done. Well, at least the e-book is done.

I’m excited but also a bit nervous about putting Mind + Body and Breakfast out there. I joked with a friend that I was ready to “throw it to the wolves.” But it’s not just a matter of throwing it out there. I’ve put a lot of time and poured a lot of myself into it. And the latter is why I’m a bit nervous.

The project was meant to be more than just a compilation of healthy breakfast recipes I created. My intention was to take a negative portion of my life and channel it into something positive, something that would hopefully open up a conversation.

The part that I left out when talking about this project, my e-book, was that I was including short personal essays about overcoming an eating disorder and negative body image. At first this might seem like a random thing to add into a cookbook. That’s where my big idea comes into play.

In a nutshell, Mind + Body and Breakfast was conceived because when I started my journey to recovery and finding a healthy balance, I started in the kitchen. Learning how to cook and develop my own recipes from wholesome ingredients helped me shift my focus from counting calories to giving my body the nutrition it desperately needed.

Cooking and baking is my way of relaxing, and perhaps, sometimes procrastinating. Either way, my kitchen has become an important space for me. I love getting creative with new recipes and sharing the fruit of my labour with friends and family. Now I can share some of my favourite recipes beyond my group of friends and family. And I can share my story.

The hardest and most time consuming part of putting together Mind + Body and Breakfast was writing, editing, re-writing, and editing (again), what I refer to as “Food + Body Philosophy.” These four short essays touch on the topics of restriction, balance, guilt & intuition, and recovery. I know my experience is not unique, many women and men have dealt with negative body image and eating disorders. However, there is still so much silence around these topics.

I have just started to skim the surface. I’m not an expert – I can only speak from my own experience. It’s important to look at issues such as mental health and recognize that we can bring them to the forefront. Just look at the massive success of Bell Let’s Talk campaign at bringing mental health awareness to the masses.

This project will definitely not bring awareness and start a conversation about eating disorder awareness at the same capacity as #BellLetsTalk, but it’s my tiny step in that direction.

Fit Girl, Johanna Seier

I had the pleasure of sitting down with the bubbly girl-on-the-go, Johanna Seier. At 21, she’s already started her own personal training business, Aurea Fitness. We chatted over smoothies at Green Carrot about what inspired her to start her own business and her latest project– The Fit Girl Guide.

All photos courtesy of Pantel Photography

Johanna started Aurea Fitness after returning from a gap year trip to Australia.

“When I got back from Australia I had gained a lot of weight, I wasn’t feeling great about myself. It’s so silly that I spent time on this trip and there were times when I knew I wasn’t getting the most out of experiences because I was stressed about the way I felt about my body,” says Johanna.

She jokes about having an “a-ha” moment of realization, “I was on the plane and I was having a moment as I sat next to a mom and a screaming baby and I thought, ‘this is going to be different, I’m going to educate myself.”

And that’s exactly what she did. Like many other young females, Johanna had tried various fad diets. This time around, she decided to ditch the diet and focus on effective, healthy ways to get in shape.

Johanna has spent the last three years reading about different exercises and trying them out at home and at the gym. From there she started her business which offers personal one-on-one training, group training sessions, or group bootcamps.

“I want to help girls and women feel better about themselves and have balance in their lives, so that they can be proud and confident, but they’re not obsessed over things.”

Johanna believes that fitness, like most things in life, should be about balance. That’s why her workouts are designed to be intense, quick, and effective.

“I know during my bootcamps some people hate me in the moment, but they’re also fun. We blast some pretty hard rap music and work together as a community. Everyone supports eachother.”

Aurea Fitness has built a large community on social media. So when Johanna decided to start her current project, The Fit Girl Guide, she reached out to her followers on Instagram and Twitter to see if any females would be interested in trialling a ten-week fitness plan, completely free of charge.

“I didn’t know what the response would be and the messages were over-whelming, it was really exciting.”

She had originally wanted 4 girls to trial her fitness program and ended up having 6 because the response was so great.

Johanna has spent the last 8 months creating The Fit Girl Guide and all the exercises featured in the 10-week program she’s carefully curated from what has worked for her one-on-one and group fitness clients.

The Fit Girl Guide features dynamic exercises that are a combination of cardio, strength and plyometrics. All the workouts are around 30 minutes, so that they fit easily into your day.

“I believe in pushing yourself, I think that so many people want the results but don’t want to put in the effort. Unfortunately that’s not the way it works.”

The program is specifically designed for girls on-the-go. The workouts are short and intense. To do the program you’ll need very little equipment. And at around $50, The Fit Girl Guide packs a fitness punch at a great price point.

“I was broke from traveling but I wanted to get in shape. A lot of my friends were in the same predicament. We’re in our twenties, we don’t have a lot of money, or money to spend on a gym membership. We definitely don’t have money to see a personal trainer on a regular basis.”

Johanna notes that her personal training rates, bootcamps, and The Girl Guide are priced very competitively because she wants getting into shape to be accessible to a large demographic. She has meticulously designed The Fit Girl Guide so that even fitness newbies can easily complete the 10-week program. Each exercise has several photos to illustrate proper form. And minimal equipment is needed for the exercises– a mat, free weights, a weight bench, and a stability ball. All of these items are relatively inexpensive and Johanna says you can find them all at Canadian Tire.

The Fit Girl Guide also features smoothie recipes that are great on-the-go meals or post-workout snacks as well as a “healthy swap” section that has ways to health-ify certain foods.

“I’m not a nutritionist and I don’t claim to be… I don’t want to set up strict meal plans which can lead people to ‘cheating’ and I don’t really like that term… ‘what the hell are you cheating on?’”

She’s truly a girl after my own heart. I couldn’t agree more with Johanna’s health and fitness philosophy. There’s no cheating, there’s only eating. And there’s no cheating when you want to get in shape. You gotta put in the work!

I’m super excited to try our The Fit Girl Guide. The ebook will be available in late January through the Aurea Fitness website.

 

Hope you’re hungry.

I’m hungry for a few things right now, the most literal one is dinner.

For anyone who reads my blog this phrase “hope you’re hungry” might seem familiar. Back in the beginning of January I posted that I was proposing an e-cookbook for my Independent Professional Project (IPP). After brainstorming, drafting, and editing, I handed in my proposal at the end of February. When I handed it in, it felt like I was done with one small stage of my IPP. But wait, what about  pitching my idea and actually getting it approved… oh yeah. At the end of February, I thought, “oh, I don’t even have to pitch my IPP until April 14. That’s an eternity!” That eternity turned into a quick flash.

Monday was the big day. Probably one of my biggest days in Creative Communications thus far. Oddly enough I felt a sense of calm, which is a bit out of character for me. I get anxious pretty much anytime I have to do a presentation. Maybe I’ve been thrown into anxiety-provoking situations enough times during CreComm so far that I’ve finally learned to relax. Probably not. I’ll probably still get nervous about the most random little things. That’s just me. I can usually hide it well.

Nearing the end of the semester, I’m getting pretty nostalgic about the past year (or eight months, I guess). This nostalgia made me reflect back on the journey that led me to this program. I won’t get into details, because most of my classmates have an idea about my story.

It took me two tries to get accepted into CreComm. After I applied for the second time, I knew I had put together my best possible portfolio. I had a nagging doubt in the back of my mind, but I knew it was what I wanted to do.

I remember getting the letter in the mail and not being able to open it right away because I was so nervous that it would be yet another rejection letter. It wasn’t.

I couldn’t sleep the night before my interview for the program. All I could do was play potential scenarios over and over in my head. What if they ask me… or what if they…

I guess I managed to interview well enough, because here I am. I honestly don’t really have a vivid memory of my interview; I think I may have blacked out. However, I do remember my interview on Monday. It started with these words,

“We’re hungry.”

I walked in genuinely excited. I think it hit me sometime late Sunday night or Early Monday morning… I’m excited and extremely thankful to be exactly where I am right now. Sure my workload has been overbearing at times and I’ve been quite a stress case. Sometimes I just need to stop, breathe, and realize that this journey is hard work but it’s also fun. I’m trying to remind myself of that right now as I finish off my final assignments for my first year of Creative Communications.

Oh, I guess you might be wondering…

My IPP was approved.