Your Badass Body, Part 1

This is only the first part of my badass body ("BB") blogs because we all know
that a BB is made through a combination of several extremely important factors
to include (but of course never limited to): a ripped physique; a clean diet; über
confidence; and near superhuman immunity. I will cover each of these topics
separately since each topic has thousands of books worth of information on the
market. Lucky for you though, I have spent my whole life on the search for
badassishness, so I have already read all of the books for you and figured out the
FASTEST and HEALTHIEST ways to get the body you've always dreamed of.

So today's lesson is on diet. I start with diet only because no matter how many
crunches you do, your abs will never show if you have a layer of diet-induced flab
covering those abs. Exercise is about 20% of the battle. The rest is all based on
your diet. I know! It's hard to believe. When I was a teen I spent hours doing
crunches and then wondered why I didn't have abs of steel while I ate ice cream
out of the carton and watched Buffy kick ass on the WB. I was thin by the
standards of the time, but I still had that layer of abdominal fat that hid the six
pack abs underneath.

So, for that buff super-bod you have always craved, here is the hard truth. It's not
about calories; it's not about how much you work out. It's about nutrition. The
rules are simple, but first you have to get past your addictions to certain foods. If
you are eating processed foods, then your body is laced with sugar, preservatives,
and other poisons that are making you fat and flabby! And I'm not just referring
to the "bad" processed foods such as cookies, cake, pizza and all the stuff that
tastes good. Bread? Not good. Even the whole grain stuff is full of sugar and
preservatives. Cereal? Again, it's a no-go.

When it comes to your diet there are several seemingly simple rules. Do not buy
any food that contains more than one ingredient. Yes, I am serious. One. So you
want a meal? Make it yourself from your cupboards full of single ingredients.
Second, skip the sugar. Eliminate the sugar from your diet until it's gone for good.
Instead of sugar in your coffee, use Stevia or Truvia. Learn to appreciate the tastes
of real food. Finally, embrace protein in all of its forms. It will keep you full and
build up muscle as you lose fat.

So here's an example... You can't have cereal or bread for breakfast, so what do
you eat? How about oatmeal and two scrambled eggs? But here's the kicker. I bet
you're used to putting some sort of sweetener in that oatmeal. Well, not this
time. You can sweeten it with fruit, or if you must, a stevia-based sweetener.
To really accomplish any of this, you need to detox. You need to go cold turkey
and eat nothing but whole, single-ingredient foods. I will not kid you on this, it is
HARD, and this is not a diet; it is a lifestyle change. However, after about a week,
the intense cravings will subside. After two weeks, sugar will be nothing but a bad
dream.

One final word of advice. After awhile off of sugar, you may feel like you are
strong enough to have a dessert "just this once." Let me warn you, THIS IS A
VERY SLIPPERY SLOPE. One taste is all it takes for the cravings to begin again.
I still struggle with this diet. I love sugar and I love alcohol. I tend to have one or
the other every day. Even though the rest of my diet is nearly flawless, that daily
cheat is causing me to hang on to these last 10 pounds that are hiding my
gorgeous abs! However, I still lost 30 pounds, even with that daily cheat! Now I'm
just stalled.

So there it is. Follow the above and you will lose weight! Once I finally kick the
daily cheat I'll give you an update on my status. Give me two weeks. I'm going to
do it! For real.

For more information on Clean Eating, try Oxygen magazine, Muscle & Fitness Hers,
and the Eat Clean Diet series by Tosca Reno.

Good "Guy," Bad "Guy"... Both Sexy

Snow White and the Huntsman. It's been quite awhile since I've seen a movie that speaks to me on the badass, sexy level.

Firstly, the Witch (Charlize Theron, but for the record, I usually don't know actor/actress names. I'm all about the powerful characters that they play), is HOT. She is so deep and dark, something I have always related to at some level. While she does not have any specific characteristics I'm looking to emulate, she definitely has some attractive accessories that I need to get my hands on! Her wardrobe was phenomenally, again I say, DARK. I could see myself wearing every piece. Specifically though, this is what I'm obsessed with from her wardrobe.



While this entire outfit is just AWESOME, look at her pointer fingers. She uses
these beautiful contraptions to eat the hearts of sparrows. Gruesome, I know, but
goddess, how can you not want to live on the dark side after looking at this
picture? Ok, here is one more picture for your badass pleasure.



So next we move on to the heroine, none other than Snow White herself. Now
this girl (who played Bella in the Twilight series, can't remember her real name),
gives the badass woman (BW) something more to aspire towards. Despite being
unfairly imprisoned for many years, she somehow maintains a pure heart. Ah, that
we could all maintain such innocence. On my best days my expectation of the
worse in everything reduces to about 50/50. This has been a constant struggle in
my life. The best part about Snow White though is that even with her pure heart and desire to help everyone, she does what she must to accomplish what she believes in. This soft hearted beauty is a damn sexy warrior woman.
Plus that outfit she wears with the tights and boots is pretty sexy too.
All I have to say is BADASS!



Overall I highly recommend this movie for the BW. Enjoy! I know I'll be buying it
on DVD.

Go here for more suggestions on movie-inspired fashion:

http://www.sheknows.com/beauty-and-style/articles/961875/steal-the-style-snow-white-and-the-huntsman

Be yourself... kinda

When I was growing up, I always had someone that I did my best to emulate. I
was many people over the years, most of them not the typical idol: Ramona
Quimby (yeah I know. Who?); Laura Ingalls Wilder from the Little House series;
the various American girls; the various Babysitter Club girls; and Lucille Ball. I'm
sure there's more.

I certainly learned a lot of useful things by living this way. Gradually I began to
incorporate the characteristics of many characters in an attempt to build the best
"me." Unfortunately, as I grew older and actually began to care about what people
thought of me, I found that I was lost when it came to the real world. My idols
tended to be of the old fashioned/slightly nerdy variety. They did nothing for me
in my very predictable pursuit of boys and popularity.

So next I tried reading about popular (fictional) high school girls, namely the
Sweet Valley High girls. I'm not gonna deny that those books were helpful! I
continued to study similar fictions and also the typical teen magazines. However,
after studying those sources so closely, I began to obsess over doing everything
right. I just had to say the right thing, wear the right cloths, kiss the right way... I
remember my first kiss. I ran away covering my face, shamed at my obvious
ineptitude for kissing. I avoided my boyfriend's phone calls for two days after that.
You can only imagine what my first time having sex must've been like.

Eventually I just cracked under the pressure. Something finally clicked in me and I
realized that I mostly just had to be me. My life got a lot less stressful after that. I
still tended to obsess a little over the wrong things, and I'll admit that I regressed
to my old ways during my first lesbianic experience, but overall, my approach to
life changed dramatically.

My choice of role models changed dramatically too. My initiation into teenhood
brought about the strong desire to be sexy, witty, sexy, strong, sexy, and popular.
Oh, and sexy. My focus shifted to strong, kickass, badass, SEXY women.
Since that change in my life I've pretty much remained the same and used the
same approach in improving myself as a woman. Rather than idolizing my various
role models, I examine their characters and determine the characteristics that I
most want to incorporate into my own self. Also, it's not always female fictional
women. Sometimes it is real women; sometimes it is magical creatures;
sometimes it's amazing writers or actors; sometimes it's knowledge I come
across; and sometimes it's children or animals. The list goes on and on. The point
is that I find things throughout my life, everyday even, and I incorporate those
things into my life to make me a better person and the person I've always wanted
to be.

So this is my journey in becoming a BADASS WOMAN.