#peaceandplants

EAT VIBRANTLY✌ Remember that your body is a garden, so fill it with all the beautiful, bright, nourishing fresh foods that make it thrive
In my (very pink!) blender, I have:
frozen bananas
frozen strawberries + raspberries
coconut water
hemp seeds
Blended until smooth + creamy to make instant ice cream that’s full of fibre, antioxidants, potassium, omega 3s, plant protein, iron + so much more! Tastes better than any strawberry ice cream I’ve tasted too✨
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TELL ME: What’s your favourite smoothie combo at the moment?

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Is there such thing as TOO HEALTHY?? My answer is yes.
No matter how ‘healthy’ your diet is, if you have a toxic relationship with food, one that controls you, consumes you, slowly destroys you, then that’s not healthy.
If eating healthy compromises your ability to:
Listen to your body
Eat the foods you love most + enjoy them too
Give your body all the nutrients and energy it needs
Recover from exercise
Feel at peace with yourself
Enjoy some less healthy foods occasionally, such as going out for icecream with friends
Go out to eat and eat food you haven’t prepared yourself
ENJOY LIFE and not worry about food all the time
Then that’s not healthy.
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I struggled with orthorexia for years and years of my life and refused to admit it because I was ‘just trying the be my healthiest’.
TRUE HEALTH includes balance. Harmony between the body, mind and soul. And if to overcome your food fears + maintain a healthy relationship with food you need to eat a square of chocolate after dinner or go out to eat once a week, then THAT IS HEALTHY for you.
Because in the end, we only have one life. Finding balance between a healthy body, mind and soul so you feel your best but also feel freedom + peace with food and your body, is so much more important than having the textbook ‘perfect’ diet (which doesn’t exist anyway, trust me)✌❤️

NOURISH TO FLOURISH What’s one food that you buy every single grocery shop??
FACT: I love food shopping more than clothes shopping. There’s just something so exciting + empowering about filling your cart with vibrant, whole foods that you know will fuel and nourish all your cells to feel and function their best!⚡️
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A few of my weekly STAPLES include:
bananas
lettuce, baby spinach + kale
carrots
apples, berries or other seasonal fruits
a variety of colourful, seasonal veggies
sweet potato + pumpkin
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I always bring my own shopping bags, buy as seasonally and locally as I can. Another perk of eating whole foods is that it’s actually so much cheaper if you shop smart!
Would you be interested in a full version of my #plantbased shopping list posted on the blog?? Let me know!

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REAL TALK: I wasn’t going to post this. To be honest, I still feel very self conscious and unsure about so many people seeing these photos…but this week is National Eating Disorders Awareness week, and if I can help even just one person, it’s a million times worth it❤️
I wouldn’t wish an eating disorder upon my worst enemy. It doesn’t just destroy the body, but it consumes the soul, leading you to wither away to nothingness. Losing all control over your life, your health, your mind.
Eating disorders make you lie, isolate yourself, break things, act irrationally and obsessively, hurt the people you love, hurt yourself.
It took me almost a decade of suffering to speak up about what i was going through, and even longer to truely admit I had a problem with food.
Admitting I had a problem was one of the hardest things I could possibly imagine. But it is nothing to be ashamed of. We are never ashamed of having a cut or a broken leg, so why should having a broken mind be any different?
If you are reading this, THIS IS A SIGN. Take that jump. Take a leap of faith. Reach out for help and accept all the help you can get. Recovery is painfully hard, tiring, scary, but I can tell you with all my heart, it’s so worth the fight
You don’t have to do this alone, and no matter how impossible it may seem right now, I can promise you with all my heart: if I can, you can too✨

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✨ A MESSAGE to me, from me. And also a message to YOU:
You do not have to be the best.
You do not have to be the skinniest.
You don’t have to get the highest marks in every test.
You don’t have to do the most exercise and eat the least amount of food.
You don’t have to be the most toned.
You don’t have to be the most successful.
You don’t have to burn yourself to the ground and make sacrifices that compromise your wellbeing.
None of this truly matters.
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What do you have to do? Learn to make your health and happiness a priority. You have to focus on yourself, do what brings you joy, follow your dreams. Surround yourself with people that inspire you + lift you higher. Work hard, but do it because you love it + to reach YOUR goals, not to punish yourself or because you think you ‘should’.
Learn to love and accept yourself for who you are right now, even if it’s hard sometimes.
You do have to enjoy LIFE

IG: @naturally_nina_

It’s a TRUE FACT that my #nourish bowls just keep getting bigger + bigger.
That’s the reality of aiming to gain weight on a mainly whole foods, always plant based diet. You have to eat BIG, because whole plant foods are so voluminous
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Also fact, as well as three decent meals a day, I also eat 3-4 energy dense snacks each day
I’ve swapped out all the low-calorie, high-volume things I used to eat, such as rice cakes, for the most calorie dense alternative I can find
I eat when I am not hungry, I keep eating when I am full, I get bloated + feel uncomfortable often
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Just keeping it #REAL that a ‘healthy’ looks different for everyone, and will even be different for the same person at different times in their lives + depending on their health goals.
For me, this is healthy.
My full post on gaining weight on a vegan diet is coming soon!!

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TREAT YOUR BODY RIGHT People always talk about the importance of eating healthy, nutrient-dense whole foods, or eating ‘clean’ (I don’t like that term, but we’ll get into that another time)…but what’s not often spoken about is the importance of eating ENOUGH
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When we eat, food is broken down into smaller and smaller units, eventually ending up as glucose, fatty acids and amino acids. Among other roles in the body, these are energy sources, used by our bodies to generate movement, breathe, digest, and about a million other important daily functions⚡️⚡️
Food is LITERALLY the fuel our bodies run on. .
We don’t expect our cars to drive without fuel. When our gas tanks are almost empty, do we step on the gas pedal harder? NO! We fuel up. And that is the way it should be with our bodies too.
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Not eating enough can leave us tired, weak, susceptible to illnesses, cold, dizzy, unmotivated, create hormonal imbalances + nutritional deficiencies, slow down our metabolism, and just not feeling great.
I’ve learnt the hard way what not eating enough does to our bodies + brains. Eating more has changed my life + I still notice how much of an impact it has on days where I don’t eat enough. I’ve become so passionate about this topic now
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If you’d like to see a full blog post on how to know if you’re underrating, or anything else related to this topic, let me know!

IG: @naturally_nina_

How do I stay BALANCED on a vegan diet?✨ Well, it couldn’t be easier!
Here’s an example of a perfectly balanced meal ~ and a super simple, wholesome bowl
Carbs - baked purple + orange sweet potato
Protein - lentil Dahl
Fats - avocado
And as a bonus I also got a whole lots of fibre, vitamins + minerals from all the veggies ⚡️⚡️
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What I’m trying to say here is: Eating a plant based diet really isn’t hard or complicated. You don’t have to plan out extravagant meals in order to get all the nutrients you need.
Mix and match a bunch of veggies, legumes, grains/starches + healthy fats, and you really can’t go wrong

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What my kind of salad looks like Salad makes such a great meal, especially in Summer, but you have to make sure it’s full of the right ingredients if you want it to satisfy + energise you
That means not just green leafys and a few bits of cucumber, but a good balance of complex carbs, protein + healthy fats, with plenty of fresh veg + a good dressing✨
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In my salad:
- Baked sweet potato + potato
- Chickpea ‘tuna’ (recipe is from my blog!)
- Lettuce, red cabbage + cucumber - A dollop of avo
- Apple cider vinegar + black pepper on top
So much goodness + kept me feeling great for hours

IG: @naturally_nina_