#my sleep deprived brain (who's also fighting off being sick) demanded it

[broadwayfangirl222]

#i had to make this meme #my sleep deprived brain (who's also fighting off being sick) demanded it #ofmd #ofmd spoilers #our flag means death #our flag means death spoilers #gentlebeard #blackbonnet

[thera-daydreams]

INDAY

± A Trese Fic ±

[Crispin/Basilio/Maliksi/Dominic x Skymaiden!Reader]

01: Noon at Ngayon (✓)

02: Ang Kambal na Anak ni Datu Talagbusao, Diyos ng Digmaan (Link)

03: Ang Prinsipe ng Mga Tikbalang (Link)

04: Ang Pinuno ng Mga Aswang (Link)

05: (Link) 06: (Link) 07: (Link)

01: Noon at Ngayon

Back then, long before you were born, your mother used to work as a katulong of the Trese Family and was very close to its matriarch, Miranda Trese. Coming from the province, she was no stranger to superstitions—even more so after knowing the work of Miranda's husband Anton Trese, who was actually the Babaylan-Mandirigma of Manila.

Years later, after giving birth to you around the same time Miranda gave birth to her twins (one a stillborn, unfortunately), it was you and Alexandra who became best buddies instead, as different your personalities were. You two had practically grown up together and you yourself heard countless stories of the supernatural from your Tito Anton. It wasn't that hard to believe when he and his sigbin companions would sometimes come home tracking blood prints on the floors (which you'd helped your mother clean up). Heck, you'd even met Señor Armanaz, the Great Stallion himself and the ruling tikbalang of the Armanaz herd. That pretty, white-haired diwata seemed extremely fond of you, too, which was evident when you'd sneak in with Alexandra to Tito Anton's meetings and she would smile (even wave) at you happily.

You had absolutely no idea why the fae-like lady was so nice to you, but you weren't complaining at all!

However, in spite of your experiences with the supernatural, you and your mother always believed that you were normal humans. In actuality, that was who you were for the majority of your childhood. It was only until Miranda herself saw a vision of you—a much older you—fighting the monsters of the Underworld alongside her own daughter. During dinnertime, Miranda told your mother that she saw you blessed by the heavens with powers that would aid in the battle against evil.

It sounded absolutely ridiculous, right? Yeah, your mom thought so, too.

Your mother only laughed it off as she placed a steaming bowl of tinola in front of Alexandra's brothers, who instantly dug in like they haven't been fed in years.

"Boys! Dahan-dahan lang," Anton reprimanded his sons. "Or else you'll choke and the soup will come out of your noses!"

"Okay, Papa."

"Grabe ka naman, Miranda. I doubt that anything like that's going to happen to my daughter," your mom chuckled, watching your little hands try to feed Alexandra with a piece of chicken. "Unlike you guys, our lineage isn't anything special. Ordinaryo lang ang lahi namin."

Miranda sighed, looking at you and her only living daughter enjoying your time being kids, "I guess you're right. Baka panaginip lang talaga 'yun."

Anton glanced at her knowingly. Although he was aware that you and your mom didn't dabble in magic or anything like they did, he knew that whenever Miranda—one of the Seven Seers—had such vivid dreams, it was something of great importance. But he decided to say nothing, understanding how much your mother wanted to let you live as normal of a life possible in this household.

That was when you were seven years old. One year later, Miranda died fighting against a group of aswang who decided to betray Anton. Said man found the eight-year-old Alexandra hiding in a corner behind the waterfalls, scared and holding Sinag close to her heaving chest as she tried to hold her tearful sobs in.

Of course, a few days later, you and your mother attended the funeral with the mourning Trese family. All the brothers had done their best to stay strong, especially for their little sister who didn't fully understand yet what just happened. Little you ran towards Alexandra, holding her hand tightly as her mother's casket was lowered. Around you were various comrades, both human and non-human, paying their respects to their bereaved allies.

That day, as you turned your back to return to your mother's arms, you knew you would never forget the feeling of numerous unearthly eyes following your every movement.

Even they could sense that there was something about you, a so-called regular human child. You smelled human and had the aura of one, but there was something they couldn't place. It was like a tiny rock getting into your shoe, not coming out at all.

Much changed after that, but you and Alexandra remained close together. To your dismay, just after you graduated elementary, you and your mother had to move back to the province to stay with your sick grandparents. The last thing you could remember was kneeling in the back of the car, looking sadly through the rear windscreen as Alexandra and her brothers waved goodbye to you.

More than a decade had passed since then. You used to write letters to Alexandra, but after Hank told you she had to undergo the trials of the Puno ng Balete, you haven't heard from her (although Hank did disclose that she'd managed to come home safely, which was a great relief to you). You didn't blame her; you knew Tito Anton had passed away in the five years she was gone and that she had to take over the title of Lakan, as well as the Babaylan-Mandirigma of Manila. It was a demanding job! You remembered Tito Anton sometimes staying up all night—breakfast would be served and he would still be in his study, going over paperwork. On other days, he would be gone for consecutive nights handling cases all around Manila. You could only pray Alexandra was fine.

Your life had continued on, as well—you took care of your ill grandparents until they died, helped your mother in the province, went to a good highschool, then earned your degree in another prominent city that wasn't Manila.

Your mom actually recommended that you go to school somewhere else, given the constantly rising number of attacks in the capital of the country. And so you did. Life was hard, but normal until then.

The funny thing was that, when you reached the age of twenty-one, you finally understood why those supernatural creatures kept looking at you weirdly as a kid (and why Lady Diwata liked you so much).

What was even funnier was that the dramatic revelation came to you when you weren't in the Philippines. It was after you freshly graduated college, when you were traveling all over Asia to volunteer in charity projects. It was always your dream to one day expand your horizons not only beyond your province, but the Philippines itself, while also doing good in the world.

And here you were, walking that path you dreamt of.

The organization you luckily managed to become a member of provided everything you needed, and every few months, you would move from country to country. Because of that, you'd already been able to travel to so many places. First it was Thailand, then Indonesia, China, South Korea, India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, and currently, you were in Vietnam. Visiting those places was fun and gave you a whole new perspective of the world you lived in; it was a... learning experience, too.

Still, that incident happened when you were in Thailand, when you were the last one in the rented apartment balcony taping up the boxes for the donation drive tomorrow. Yawning, you cut more duct tape and stuck them to the open boxes tightly.

"Inday," someone said from behind you. You didn't bother turning around, thinking it was one of your fellow volunteers looking for you this late at night. Probably your roommate. She was the only one who usually called you by your nickname instead of your real name.

"Hmm?" you hummed, taping up more boxes. "Papasok na ako sa kwarto, Lyn. I just have a few more boxes to close. Alam mong mapapagalitan ako kung may hindi madidistribute bukas."

"Hindi ako si Lyn."

You paused, then slowly turned around, flinching at the sudden bright light that shone right against your eyes. For a moment, akala mo namatay ka na at hinaharap mo si San Pedro.

It was a glowing figure in white whose face you couldn't clearly see, which frightened you even more.

"Ay, mama!" you exclaimed, shielding your eyes and falling to your knees. Then, you gasped loudly, patting your body and panicking with closed lids. "Oh my God, am I dead? Nasa heaven na po ba ako?" Your lips wobbled. "Ngayon pa nga lang ako nakaalis ng Pilipinas... I haven't even done all the things I've wanted to do! Hindi pa ako nakapagpaalam sa nanay ko—aray!"

You'd felt something hit the back of your head. Hard. It was the glowing figure in white, but now you could see their unimpressed face scowling at you.

"Kalma lang, Inday. Hindi ka pa patay, pero makinig ka nang mabuti," they shushed you urgently (you weren't sure if they were male or female). "Do not be afraid. I am a messenger from the heavens, and I bear great news!"

"Great news...?" you trailed off, then your eyes widened excitedly. "Like, nanalo ba ako ng lotto? Isang milyon? Bilyon? Hala! Wait, is this a Mama Mary moment? I'm not ready to be the next immaculate conception!"

They glared at you, making you shut up instantly. "Sorry, I'll shut up now," you apologized with a mumble. This person (thing?) was kind of... strict. Whatever did you do wrong? You were just sleep-deprived and running on energy drinks (as well as kape).

"I have come to tell you that you are the vessel of the last skymaiden," they revealed, arms wide open. The light around them seemed to grow even brighter, making you squint. You felt like you were about the go blind! "Ikaw ang huling biraddali, Y/N L/N."

At ayun, zero brain cells remaining. Tunay na nagloading screen ang brain mo. Nag-error at nagcrash pa nga siguro, eh.

"... Ha? Ano?"

You blinked, completely speechless—as seen by how wide your jaw had dropped open. It wasn't that you were unfamiliar with the biraddali, it was just that you'd only heard of them once when you were just a young child. Your Tita Miranda had mentioned they were long gone from the world of the supernatural.

"Oh no, me? A biraddali? You're joking," you stuttered out, pointing at yourself. "Aren't they extinct or something? And, uh... not human?"

They nodded, "Yes. It is correct that everyone in the mystical world thought that the biraddali were long gone, even before the colonizers came to conquer the native lands. However, before the skymaidens all disappeared, the youngest and most powerful one among the seven sisters sealed her soul away to the rivers of time until the strength of a heavenly being was needed to help purify the evils of the world." The figure floated closer to you. "That last biraddali's soul, along with its corresponding power, traits, and knowledge, had chosen to reside deep within you the moment you were conceived."

Honestly, how were you even supposed to react? Your life was nowhere near ready for something like this. Was this a prank by your friends? Your colleagues? The light around this person seemed too authentic to be fake, though.

You stayed in shock for an entire minute, silent. The being in front of you only waited for a response.

"Ano 'to, Sailor Moon? Winx Club?" you whispered to yourself, before slapping your own cheek and scolding yourself. A stinging red mark was left on your face. "Inday, kakamanhwa mo 'yan! Nasosobraan ka na ata, matulog ka na!"

Sighing heavily, you rubbed your face tiredly, still in disbelief that you—according to this stranger—were apparently some old soul from a species of ethereal beings that were long gone. It sounded like something out of those reincarnation webnovels you got addicted to. What now, you were the MC? Wattpad ka, girl?

"Look, this is a mistake. I still have to wake up early tomorrow to give out the donations," you spoke to the glowing being (or whatever it was), laughing nervously. "I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong person. Either that or I must be hallucinating from sleep deprivation, because I'm definitely not a divine creature. You're probably just a product of my imagination. Sorry, I'm going to bed."

Bang!

At that moment, the power in the building went out. The only thing you could see was the thing who assumed you were a biraddali (they were so bright they were like a flashlight in the dark for you).

"Brownout?" you blinked. It felt wrong, though. It was eerily silent. "Did a fuse blow up?"

"Nagsimula na ang iyong unang pagsubok, Y/N," they announced seriously. "Creatures of the dark have already begun to take over this building. You may not have noticed, but all throughout your life, you have always been helping and giving. It is your nature as a being descended from the heavens themselves, and now, it is time for you to accept your destiny."

"Hoy, sandali lang! Sandali, sandali!" You were absolutely wide awake now as you heard the sounds of strange whispers around you. It was terrifyingly creepy, much creepier than whatever you'd seen back in the Trese Residence (and you'd seen a lot in that house). You did not want to be a part of a horror movie-like lifestyle. "Don't I have a choice in this?! I—I don't have any training or fighting skills! Hindi ako Alexandra Trese o Babaylan-Mandirigma! I'm not ready for this, holy sh—"

The candescent creature raised a brow at you, "Inday, I just told you that you have the power of a lost mystical being. And tell me, if you had the power to save your companions in this building from the forces of evil, would you save them?"

You were silent, knowing the answer.

"Well?" they prodded.

You bit your lip, "Oo naman. I'm not heartless!" But you were a little impulsive. And apparently, insane.

"That's what I thought. I just need you to believe in yourself," the being encouraged, gentler this time. It transformed into something smaller and rounder—like a ball of light. "Ikaw ang huling biraddali, Y/N, at marami kang kapangyarihan. Isa dito ay ang pagtulong sa mga nangangailangan, lalo na laban sa masasamang nilalang."

Bestie, what had you just gotten into?

You swallowed apprehensively, then nodded in determination, "Sige. So, how do I save the people in the building? Biraddali were said to be able to shapeshift, right? If I remember the tale correctly. Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening to me right now."

"That's just one of your abilities, but I'll teach you. I'm actually your guide," they replied confidently. "With me, you'll be able to master your powers and exceed your capabilities in no time!"

"Wait! Anong pangalan mo?" you asked breathlessly, following them as they speedily flew out of the room. "Grabe, slow down! I'm not athletic! I haven't even exercised this week, goodness."

"... Gabay. Ako si Gabay."

Despite the adrenaline and fear running in your veins, you still grinned up at the ball of light, "Okay. Nice to meet you, Gabay."

This was just the beginning of your supernatural combat training abroad. When you returned to the Philippines three years later, you were stronger, faster, and more powerful than you'd ever felt before. It was crazy.

Oh, that guy who tried to rob you when you came back to Manila was crazy, too. The two identical-looking men in dark suits and white ties—you wondered how they were surviving the heat in that attire—could only watch in awe as you chased down that man who stole your bag while doing acrobatics and parkour.

"Uy, Kuya Crispin, sino kaya 'yun?"

"Ewan ko, Basilio."

"... She's kind of pretty. Type ko. Type mo rin ata."

"The more important question is, paano niya na nahuli ang magnanakaw?"

"Oo nga, no? One in a million chance 'yan dito sa Maynila, haha! Ang astig ni ate!"

(Next Chapter.)

± Author's Notes ±

Ayieee, type daw tayo ng kambal! 😌

How the hell did I write this entirely random thing in one day? 2k+ words? Ano daw? 😃⁉️

You know, this was supposed to just be a Trese one-shot or a bunch of drabbles for the characters I'm currently simping for... but it turned into a full-blown, shameless self-insert slash crackfic. Kakacellphone ko 'yan. 🤦‍♀️

Nagresearch pa ako ng articles about Filipino skymaidens because I wanted something similiar to the Japanese celestial maidens (tennyo). Very random idea but why not? Gusto ko ng badass Y/N na hindi takot lumaban sa mga mumu! 👻

Also, pagbigyan niyo nalang ang matandang 'to kasi ilang taon na akong hindi nagpopost ng mga writings ko. May track record pa naman ako bilang author na hindi nagtatapos ng mga fanfic, hehe. I also haven't read the comics so please forgive me for any inaccuracies and of course, misspellings/errors. Gusto ko lang matapos 'to para makakabalik na ako sa Jujutsu Kaisen. 🥲😗

Anyways, comments and constructive criticism are welcome! Hit those heart, reblog, and follow buttons for updates! Just comment if you want to be tagged in the next chapters. ❤

#trese #trese netflix #trese 2021 #crispin #basilio #maliksi #dominic #x reader #kambal x reader #crispin x reader #basilio x reader #maliksi x reader #dominic x reader #trese x reader #thera.writes

[sonoftatooine]

Whumpay 2021

DAY 31: ALT DAY - SLEEP DEPRIVATION

Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Shaak Ti

Summary: When Anakin makes the decision to go and save Palpatine from Mace Windu, his lack of sleep over the past week chooses the worst possible moment to catch up with him. Shaak Ti attempts to intervene.

***

It was said that the Force, in the hands of a competent Jedi, could do many things. It was also said—with greater and greater frequency over the course of the war—that in the hands of Anakin Skywalker, it could do the impossible. Right now, however, Anakin himself was of the opinion that this was a bold-faced lie, for the one thing he could not make it do, as he staggered unsteadily yet imperturbably toward the main doors of the Jedi Temple, was have it chase away the fog that was threatening to take over his over-tired mind and send him spiralling into the deep, impenetrable darkness of forced rest. He had been fighting it for days, drawing on the Force to fend off sleep as he searched desperately for a solution to save his wife from the awful fate that plagued his dreams whenever he tried to rest. And now, only now, when he was so close to finding the solution that the Jedi had denied him, when a moment's delay meant that he could lose that knowledge for ever, did his reserves finally run out, and the ability to stay awake and moving start to slip through his durasteel grip like sand.

Sand. Sand. His head felt like it was full of sand. Scratchy and grainy, lodged in unlikely places, disrupting all the whirring mechanisms that governed his thoughts. He'd had the same problem with Threepio when he was building him, without his coverings to protect him from the ravages of Tatooine, and he'd spent hours cleaning the stuff out of his servos just as he had with Watto's junk at the shop. He wanted to shake his head to dislodge it, but nothing he did made it—

He had been so focused on putting one foot in front of the other that he barely realised when he collided full on with a tall, slim figure standing directly in front of the door. The world swam before as one of the frequent waves of dizziness overcame him, and he felt strong, slim fingers circling about the flesh of his biceps to keep him upright. Dazed, he blinked, trying to chase away the strange blur that had overtaken his vision, and the smudge of red and white and purple before him coalesced into the face of Jedi Master Shaak Ti. Her hairless brows were drawn into a frown, and she looked very concerned.

“Anakin,” she said. “Are you alright? Where are you going?”

Anakin wished he could dislodge the sand from his brain, but his thoughts wouldn't come coherently, and all he could force out from his lips was a garbled, “the Chancellor— I need—”

Shaak Ti's frown deepened.

“The Chancellor?,” she asked. “But the Masters have already gone to confront him. You need not worry—the situation is already in hand.”

Anakin could only shake his head wordlessly, immediately wishing that he hadn't as his vision swam once again at the sudden movement. She didn't understand. The situation wasn't in hand because Windu might kill Palpatine who was the only one who knew how to save Padmé and he couldn't let Padmé die, he couldn't live without her -

“Shaak Ti,” he gasped out. “Get out of my way.”

He had to get to the door, had to— If he could just get to the door— He tried to pull out of her grasp, but Shaak Ti held on, the press of her fingers on his arms gentle yet firm.

“The Temple is sealed,” she reminded him. “The door is code-locked.”

Oh. Yes. They were expecting retaliation from Palpatine should the Masters fail. Windu had put Shaak Ti in charge of the Temple's defence as a precautionary measure when he had ordered Anakin to wait like a good little Jedi in the Council Chambers while he marched off to kill the man who had always been kind to him, had lied to him, had been the only one to offer to help him save Padmé— But what did it matter? He was a Jedi himself. He had the codes, and Shaak Ti couldn't keep him here when he needed to go—

“And you're in the way of the pad” he snapped.

He jerked back, and this time, he managed break free, but the force of the movement had unbalanced him, bringing on another alarming wave of faintness. His vision blurred, the world spun, his head throbbing painfully with exhaustion and hunger and fear. Hands shot out to catch him once again, and he pitched forward, forced to lean against Shaak Ti to keep his knees from buckling.

“You're not well, Anakin,” the Jedi Master's soft voice spoke somewhere in the vicinity of his ear, but despite how close she was, she sounded distant, muffled, as if she were talking over a bad comm connection. “You should be in the Halls of Healing.”

“I— No. I can't—,” Anakin stammered desperately. He couldn't afford distractions, not with Padmé's life on the line. He had to get to Palpatine now, before Windu— “I'm fine,” he added, trying to push himself back upright again. “I need to go—”

Shaak Ti shook her head.

“What can you possibly do?,” she asked. “Master Windu and the others will handle it. You have done your duty. Let yourself rest.”

Yes, Windu will handle it, Anakin wanted to shout. That's precisely the problem. Padmé was going to die because he couldn't get away, because he couldn't get there on time. His head swam again, and to his horror, he felt tears of fear and frustration pricking at his eyes.

“You don't understand!,” he babbled. How could she understand? How could he explain it to her after he had broken the Code so badly? “There's no time. I have go! I have to do something! I can't just—”

“Anakin, please,” Shaak Ti cut across him. She looked deeply worried. “Let me take you to the healers. You are in no state to be fighting battles against a Sith Lord. You will get yourself killed.”

Anakin shook his head.

“He...he won't kill me,” he murmured, more to himself than to her. “He wants—”

Realising exactly what it is he was about to say, Anakin cut himself off abruptly. He wants me as his apprentice, he thought. That's the price of Padmé's life. My life in service so she and the baby can live. He knew this deeply, instinctively, with all the knowledge of the little boy on Tatooine who had spent his life at the mercy of his masters, even though the part of him that wanted to think not of the Chancellor's lies but of their long friendship tried to tell him that there wouldn't be a price for his help. He couldn't tell Shaak Ti that. Couldn't tell her that, as much as the prospect alarmed him, there was a tiny spark in him beneath the furious insistence that all he wanted was to make sure that Palpatine wasn't killed that was actually considering it. Something of his thoughts must have shown on his face, however, for a look of severe alarm found its way into Shaak Ti's violet eyes.

“He wants what?,” she said, and there was a note of urgency in her tone that he had never heard from her before—usually, she was the very epitome of Jedi calm. “Anakin, what does he want. What has he told you—?”

But before she could demand anything further of him, and before he could even begin to think about evading her questions, four lights blinked out of existence, and the Force screamed. Both Anakin and Shaak Ti staggered under the weight of it.

“What—?” Anakin gasps. He knew those lights. Windu. Fisto. Kolar. Tiin. Where were they? They couldn't just be gone. They couldn't be— There had been four of them and only one of Palpatine. He couldn't have—

“It cannot be,” Shaak Ti breathed, her eyes wide with horror. “Four Jedi Masters... How could he have—?”

She shook herself, as if she could rid herself of fear the way an akk dog did water after a swim.

“We must see to the Temple's defences. I fear he will come for us next, and without—”

But she never got to finish, as Anakin took advantage of her distraction to dart around her towards the keypad. Another wave of dizziness overcame him, and he nearly crumpled in a heap on the floor, but he flung out an arm to break his fall. Bracing his right arm against the wall, he raised his trembling flesh hand to the pad, intent on typing in his code. If only he could stop it from shaking so violently, let alone shift the sand in his head to remember what the damned code was—

A hand circled around his wrist, and he froze.

“Anakin, no,” Shaak Ti said sternly, even as her voice shook at the feeling in the Force of four Jedi Masters dead. “I cannot let you go to him. Whatever he wants with you, it will bring you nothing but harm.”

Harm. Harm. Palpatine had harmed Windu and the others. Had killed them. He should want to kill him, as he had for one short moment in the man's office when he revealed to him that he was the Sith Lord behind the war. Did he want to kill him now? No, he needed him to save Padmé. He needed that knowledge, that power. Who cared if it harmed him as long as it helped her? A small voice in his head whispered to him that if Sidious had the power to defeat four Jedi alone, then surely being able to save Padmé would be nothing by comparison. Oh Force, he felt sick.

“Please,” he begged, appalled to hear his voice tremble and break as he spoke. He wanted to cry, wanted to rest, to fall asleep in Padmé's arms knowing that she was safe, that he would no longer be plagued by dreams of her death and that he wouldn't have to turn to the Sith Lord that had just killed four Jedi Masters for help. But he couldn't have any of that. All he had was one possible way to save her life that Shaak Ti wouldn't let him take. “Please, it's not me, it's— She's going to die! Padmé's going to die and I have to...”

Shaak Ti's eyes widened in sudden realisation, but he could barely see her through the blackness that was encroaching on his vision. She tilted sideways or—no, he tilted sideways, tumbling to the floor and what was that? Was the door opening? Had she opened the door? No, it was someone coming in—many someones with heavy booted feet and blue and white armour and weapons pointed—

There was a click of many weapons being primed, a shout, the snap-hiss of a lightsaber being ignited, and then the darkness consumed him amid a hurricane of blaster fire.

#star wars #star wars prequels #star wars fic #star wars au #rots au #star wars: revenge of the sith #revenge of the sith #anakin skywalker #shaak ti #canon divergence #order 66 #sleep deprivation #anakin skywalker doesn't turn to the dark side #anakin doesn't turn to the dark side #though not for lack of trying #mine #my fic #whumpay #whumpay2021 #sfw

[oh-look-isa-weeb]

Fly Me to the Moon

Yuri Plisetsky

Celestial beings + royalty AU. You're the Night. He's the Moon. You're stuck together, whether you like it or not.

Notes: A longer post this time! I could have gone with a normal royalty AU but nooo, of course I didn't. I hope this turned out okay! Title is from a Frank Sinatra song of the same name. 

---------------

The Day is the bringer of the Sun; It surrounds it, and it holds the Sun up, just as the Sun brings the Day with it wherever it goes. They move and work together.

The Night is the guardian of the Moon; it is the contrast which allows the Moon to shine brighter, stretching endlessly behind the Moon, the herald to its beauty and grace.

You are the Heir of the Night, training tirelessly to prepare to take on the mantle of the Moon's Guardian, and you are tired.

No, seriously. If you have to hear about the union of the Sun and the Moon one more time, you're going to scream. You mutter exactly that to yourself, under your breath, as you walk through the training facility to your studio. To your surprise, someone replies.

"I know, right? It's gross. If I ever fall in love, hit me."

Who in the world…?

You spin around, coming face-to-face with sea green eyes and golden hair. The same eyes hair you would one day be sworn to protect. Before you stood Yuri Plisetsky, the Heir of the Moon. He didn't know who you were, but you certainly recognised him. After all, you'd been watching his progress since you were selected to become the Heir of the Night. Your life's work would be dedicated to his being.

Only after a split-second did he seem to realise that he had talked to another being, and that he was decidedly not alone. He spun around, glaring.

"Who are you? The hell are you doing here?"

I'm the only one allowed around here, you thought amusedly. You're the trespasser. You wondered if you could tell him that. Heck, what was stopping you? It would be nice to see the look on his face. 

"As a matter of fact, I'm the Heir of the Night. Also known as the person who'll be working with you closely for the entirety of your reign." You pause and shoot him a pointed look. "And the only person allowed in here, Mr. Trespassing Heir of the Moon."

Ah, the sweet satisfaction of watching someone's brain shut down. He sputters for a bit and turns ever-so-slightly pink, scrambling to come up with an excuse.

"If we're gonna work together, w- what's wrong with me being here anyway? I- It's not like I'm not some random civilian!" 

He pauses, and an oddly aged look crosses his features.

"I just- I needed somewhere to get away for a minute, okay? I would very much like to be able to breathe without those two advertising their relationship. And I don't want to go for class," He sighs. "I'll just go now."

Something about the way he says it resonates with you. Maybe it's the resigned tone in his voice, or the weary look on his face. And you understand, you really do. After all, you've been preparing to take up an equally important -- and equally heavy role. Sometimes you wanted an escape, too.

"Do you… Want to stay? And watch for a bit?"

He pauses and turns to look at you. He's trying to act nonchalant, shrugging casually with a "Sure,", but you see the way his shoulders sag a little, as if the tension was released, and his features smoothen out just a fraction. You tell him to make himself comfortable along the sides somewhere and begin running through your combat drills.

As it turns out, Yuri is a pretty courteous audience. He doesn't ask too many questions, and only does when you stop for breaks. At the end of your training session, you sit together, backs to the wall, and bask in companionable silence, taking a breather from the stress that your roles bring you. Finally, you prepare to leave the studio, locking up and exchanging farewells.

"Hey, uh, thanks for letting me stay. I think I needed that. I'll, uh, see you around. I hope."

"Well, we'll meet again eventually. Moon and Night and all that. Feel free to come back anytime, though."

He heads off in the other direction, waving as he walks away. 

You don't see him for a good month.

You don't know why. Did he get in trouble? Did he not want to return? Was he doing alright?

You'd just about given up seeing him until coronation day ever again, until one day you open the door to the studio to find it already unlocked.  You open the door anyway, paying it no mind, and promptly walk face first into something. Someone.

Yuri.

He grumbles about getting crashed into, mumbling a "Watch where you're going, moron" under his breath quietly, but he steps aside to let you in anyway. How did he get in? No, nevermind that, Lilia was coming in today. He shouldn't be here.

"My advisor's coming today. You should get out before you get caught."

He stares at you like you've grown a second head.

"Moron, did no one tell you? I bargained with Yakov. You're gonna teach me to fight, and I'll, well, they'll find something for me to teach you. Anyway, I'm meant to be here, stupid."

You gape at him as Lilia strides past you two and into the studio, thoroughly unimpressed at your expression. She tells you to "close your mouth, you are an Heir, not a fish", and she "certainly did not teach you to dawdle in doorways". You put your stuff down, but you have no clue where to begin. Teach someone? 

Lilia sighs. "The basics, girl, unless you want him to spend more time on his butt than his feet."

Right, you feel like an idiot now. Please let there be a hole to swallow you up. You gesture for Yuri to join you in the centre of the room, and slowly run him through warm-ups.

Over time, you fall into a routine. Some weeks, you teach Yuri to fight, and other weeks, he teaches you dance. Not just waltz, you know how to do that, but other forms of dance. Ballet. Tango. Flamenco. The macarena, because why not, although that was mostly a joke. You meet Yakov, his advisor, as well and the current Sun and Moon, Yuuri and Victor. Most importantly, you meet his cat, and his grandfather. Victor says it's wonderful that Yuri's friends with you. Yuri says he's too nosy.

As the time passes, you find yourself enjoying his company more and more. You realise that he's actually a kind person, even if he doesn't outwardly show it. And one day, you catch yourself thinking, he's really pretty.

When did you fall for him? You don't know. But as soon as you realise, you never stop realising. You're hyper-aware of everything he does. It frustrates you to no end. You're in the middle of a foxtrot with Yuri, and you can feel yourself flushing wildly. He frowns at you and stops.

"What's up with you? Why've you been so jumpy these days?" He presses a hand to your forehead. "Tch. You're not sick, are you?" You shake your head, but you can't quite meet his eyes.

Because the heat from your cheeks seems to have somehow fried your brain cells, you decide to throw all caution to the wind. You might also be too sleep-deprived to regret this.

"I- I LIKE YOU!" You blurt, before your common sense finally catches up to you and you clap a hand to your mouth. "Ah, sorry, you uh, heard nothing… Ahah…"

He gapes at you, and then he averts his eyes. Great, he totally thinks you're a weirdo. You've just messed up your relationship with the guy you're stuck working with for your entire career.

"I like you too, moron." It's so quiet you could swear you imagined it, but Yuri stands across from you, eyes on the ground, face as flushed as yours. It's your turn to gape at him, as he bites out a "What? Quit staring at me!", although you can tell there's no real heat to his words. 

"I'm glad," you hum, smiling gently as you extend a hand to him, a silent invitation to resume dancing. You let the music wash over you, losing yourself in the steps, and every time your eyes meet, there's a soft smile on his face.

Epilogue

You take your place on the dais next to Yuri, preparing to face the court for your coronation. You'd been there for him before this, through demanding days and insecurities. You'd seen him at his worst, in the days just after Victor announced he was stepping down as the Moon, helping him to fight off his self-doubt. You'd been there for Yuri, and as the new Night and Moon, you'll continue being by his side. As his guardian, but also as his betrothed.

Over the next week, there are ceremonies and festivities, including your wedding, which takes place on the last day. It's a whirlwind of crowds, carnivals, and dancing. You and Yuri have your first dance, the same foxtrot you had been dancing when you got together all those years ago, the same soft smile ever-present on his face, as if it's just you two in the ballroom, like it was back then.

Then the music changes to something more bold, and you charge at each other in a mock-battle, your movements dynamic and explosive, yet graceful, a testament to your proficiency in both combat and dance.

As the night progresses, your friends and family join you on the dance floor, laughing and mingling. There's not much actual dancing happening, but that's perfectly fine, because you're surrounded by loved ones. Someone starts a line dance at some point, and you get everyone who joins to do the macarena, just for laughs. You see Lilia rolling her eyes, but you laugh and pull her into the crowd to join you.

And at the end of the night, you're in the comfort of your room, Yuri by your side. He pulls you in for a sweet, languid kiss. This is the love of your life, the man you'll wake up next to every day for the rest of your life.

After all, the Night is the guardian of the Moon; it is by its side, always. It is the Moon's refuge, its home. It loves the Moon dearly, and the Moon loves it back.

#yuri on ice imagine #yuri on ice #yuri plisetsky #yuri plisetsky x reader #yuri!!! on ice

[harringrovehouse]

“The kids, the kids still don’t know.” The voice is distant, far enough away that Billy has a hard time heaeing it but yet close enough he can understand what’s being said. It’s confusing, terrifying. “Doc Owens says he’ll be easier this way. If you make it out then-“ The voice faulters a bit, cracking as whoever is speaking tries to collect themselves. “If you make it out then we can just tell them, and you know.” A heavy sigh, and Billy inches closer, needing to hear the rest. “Then we’ll deal with Max’s anger. She’s pretty torn up about you, keep demanding to know when your body will be released. Says her mom and your dad are thinking of moving again.” Good reidence then. “But they haven’t cause her mom says they have to at least bury you.” Another deep inhale. “This is fucking crazy.”

Silence, and then the sound of a chair being slide backwards and retreating foodsteps. The click of a door handle turning, and then the click of the lock sliding back into place. And silence. Still, complete silence. Billy sags and slips backwards into the darkness.

“They had to shave your heas you know. You’ll be pissed if you ever get out of here, Max says you’ve been growing it out for two years.” Billy lifts his eyesbrows at that, the voice is back. Back and closer. Billy struggles to lean in but he’s trapped. “Hopper got out of the ICU today. Joyce cried for about an hour. Wait. You probably don’t even know who they are huh. Hopper’s the Cheif of Police, he’s El’s dad. You remember El right.” There’s a pause, nervous shuffling and then a chuckle. “She’s the little kid who kicked your ass Hargrove.” Billy huffs. A little kid with freaky brain powers. It’s not like she’s a tutu wearing ballerina who beat him up outside of her lemonade stand. “She’s a good kid. Max loves her.” Billy tries to move again. He wants to know how Max is. Who’s taking her to the Arcade, making sure she takes the trash out. Is Neil treating her well. As if on cue the voice answers his unasked questions. “Max is doung better now. The shocks worn off a bit. She’s been spending a lot of time with El and Joyce, talking about you with them. They’re good with lose. They understand.” Billy hopes Max isn’t over staying her welcome in other people’s houses. “She misses you. Her mom and your dad have been fighting, she’s been at my place a lot. Can’t stay with Joyce every night but doesn’t want to get caught sleeping in your room again.” Billy frowns. The shithead better not be touching his shit, but then again if she’s in his room at least Neil won’t throw his things out. “I don’t even know why I’m here. You’re not going to wake up. Doc says you’re brain dead.”

Billy wants to flip the voice off. He aint fucking brain dead but hey if this asshole doesn’t want to talk, Billy’s fine not listening. He lets the darkness slip back over him.

“Holy crap.” The new voice shooks Billy awake, if he could move he’d be throwing punches.

“Shh! This is an ICU.”

“Sorry. It’s just he looks,”

“Like shit. I know.”

The old voice is back, back and Billy rolls his eyes. How long had it been since the last visit? Days, hours, Billy doesn’t know but do they really have to be here so much? He just wants to sleep.

“His face.” The higher voice squeaks out and the sound of shuffling returns.

“You should see the scars.”

“You’ve looked!”

“Not like that!” The first voice is embarrassed, Billy can tell. “I’ve seen it when the nurses change the dressing. It’s pretty bad. All black and gooey.” The both make uncomfortable sounds and Billy tilts his head down, trying to see his torso but all he can see is darkness. He really want to see himself not.

“Don’t get all worked up ya dingus. I wasn’t implying anything.”

“Yeah.” A snort. “You were going to flat out say it!” Billy’s excluded for most of ths conversation after that, though listening to them bicker is pretty entertaining. For the first time in a long time Billy stays awake long enough to feel someone touch his shoulder as they say goodbye, then the darkness is on him once again.

“I had a bad night last night.” The voice is somber, like it’s been for the past few days. Billy’s fighitng hard to keep the sleep away but it’s hard. Especially now that his faceless voice friend has been coming in later and later, and sleep deprived by the sound of it. “You never met Barb but she uh she died in my pool. Or near my pool. I don’t know but the last time anyone saw her it was by my pool.” The bed dips and Billy’s aware that the voice, or well the voice’s body is now pressed against his arm. It’s warm and comforting. “I dreamt about her. What if I hadn’t been so quick to get laid, what if I had made sure she got home okay.” The bed creaks and Billy feels the voice shake. “It got her man. It got her like it got you and Will. It took her and I was too busy having mediocre sex to care.” Billy laughs, actually laughs. He knew Wheeler couldn’t be that good.

Wait. Wheeler. The face bursts into his mind. Curly, huge brown eyes. He knows her. He’s seen her. He hates her.

But why?

He can’t remember what she did to him. She’s not his type so it wasn’t a bitter break up. So then why.

“I’m sorry it got you.” The warmth moves and Billy hears the creak of a chair like someone putting too much of their weight on it. “Sorry this town got you.” Billy and the voice sit in silence for a long time, and then the voice snores. Billy inches his hand closer to the remaning warmth. It feels like a longer limb, a leg maybe. Gently he pressed he’s hand against it and follows his friends into a dreamless sleep.

“You’re probably the pretties guy I’ve ever seen.” Billy’s been up. Been waiting for the voice. He’s gotten to know the footsteps of his most requent visitors. There aren’t many. His voice friend is one, their sneakers squeak on the tile and fall heavily when they’re leaving, like they don’t want to go. Someone who’s got to be a doctor, they’re much softer in their gate and their vocie isn’t as nice, too fake cheery for Billy’s taste. A handful of nurses. A gruff older man who wears boots too often. And a soft, motherly woman who’s only been by three times, but each time her sneakered feet squeak when she bounces her leg. Each time she leaves it’s only have brushing a hand over Billy’s forehead and squeezing his hand tightly, a soft ‘we’ll be here when you’re ready’ is also whispered each time. She’s probably Billy’s second favorite faceless visitor. “Probably the prettiest human I’ve ever seen. The first time I saw you climbing out of your stupid car I actually forgot what Nancy and I were talking about. She got so mad.” The voice laughs and Billy smiles, it’s a nice sound. “Billy!” The voice jumps in pitch and then actually jumps. “Holy crap! Can you hear me? Billy smile again if you can hear me.” Billy tries to smile, but his face feels cold. He can’t seem to get anything to work. “It’s okay man. It’s okay, next time right.” The voice whispers, Billy wonders if thise doe eyes are soft and round.

Oh. Doe eyes. A vivid flash of brown eye hair flopping over a forehead and blocking out those eyes for the briefest of seconds flashes through Billy’s dark mind, lighting it up. He smiles again.

“Holy shit. Doc! I need a doctor.” And then the voice drifts away, echoing from a long hallway. Billy frowns.

“I’m telling you. I saw him smile.” The voice is back. This time Billy knows it hasn’t been a long time. Minutes maybe. Not days like most of the time. Not hours either. The ticking of the clock on the wall told him as much. The darkness is fading but not enough that Billy didn’t slip away for at least a few seconds.

“Smiling is a reflex. Unborn babies do it all the time. It was probably a response to an outside stimulus.” That’s the doc. Billy’s not the biggest fan of him. Too cold and distant.

“No.” His voice friend is adamant. Hard. Just like during practice. Wait. “He smiled when I mentioned our old school.”

“You mentioned high school and he smiled?” Doubt. All the doc did was doubt. Doubt if Billy was alive. Doubt if they could cover up what happened at the Mall.

A bright flash of neon and the words ‘Starcourt’ burned bright for a second and then the screaming started.

Billy flinched. He hated the screaming. The screeching. The monster. He hated it.

“He flinched!” The voice shouted and then hands were on Billy, bringing him back to earth. If only for a second. “You saw that. He responded.”

“Muscle spasm. They happen as muscle atrophy.”

“Can’t you just believe in him! You believed in Hopper!” It’s the first time Billy’s heard the voice that angry in a long time. Not since, Billy’s hands begin to ache. He remembers bloody knuckles and the pathetic look those eyes gave him. He feels shame. He feels sick. He turns in on himself.

The door clicks shut and Billy knows the doc’s left. His voice friend had argued his case for him, said that he was alive in there but the doc insisted that until he show real brain activity any smiles or twitches were just the bodies naturally normal reflexes and that his voice friend shouldn’t let that give him false hope. They both sat in silence for the remainder of the visit.

“I’m sorry about your car.” Billy lifts his head at the sound. It’s been days since he last had a real visitor, not a nurse or doctor making their rounds. “They totalled it today. I’m really sorry man.” Billy closes his eyes and sighs. He loved his fucking car, even if he got mad at it sometimes. Of course his dad would let someone crush it, he was probably really mad Billy had been gone so long. “It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if I uh if I hadn’t driven into you like that.” A hand presses against his cheek and Billy wants to lean into it. “I’m really sorry we didn’t help you sooner. We’re normally really good at saving people and fighting off that-that thing.” Billy doesn’t even know what his voice friend is talking about, and frankly he doesn’t care. As long as they keep touching his cheek, they can say whatever their little heart desires. “Sorry I haven’t been by as much. Kids started school, works been crazy.” The fingers stroke up, and then down. Billy leans into them. “Joyce thinks I shouldn’t spend too much time here. She’s keeping me busy shuttling all the kids back and forth from school to the arcade to their houses. You know when I’m not working.” A chuckle. Billy smiles. “You keep smiling man. You gotta give me more. Open your eyes, smile on command, some more than this.”

Billy wanted to scream. He was trying! It wasn’t easy being trapped in the dark all the time. He felt like he was swiming through the ocean, only it was November and he didn’t have a wetsuit. Like that time his mom took him out to her favorite point in Washington, and he almost got hypothermia from falling in.

“You grabbed my hand again.” The voice whispers this time and Billy feels his arm moving. The press of slightly chapped lips to his skin. “They had to remove the IV from your hand. The skin tore.” Billy had felt that. It had been cold, and painful. “Billy. You gotta wake up man. It’s been a month. They’re losing hope.” But not you right? Billy wants to scream. He wants to beg. Don’t leave me too.

His mom. His dad. Max. It seemed like everyone left or turned away. Billy didn’t want the same thing to happen with Steve.

Steve.

Steve!

Steve Harrington.

Billy jolts to his feet. He remembers who The Voice belongs to! It’s Steve, Steve Harrington. Billy struggles forward. He’s got to apologize for how he acted, make amends like he’d been trying to all summer, staking out the Scoops Ahoy! counter but never getting the courage to actually say anything, Billy has to thank the other man for sticking by his side despite everything but as he struggles to get closer Steve begins to leave.

“I gotta go. The kids will be done with the arcade soon, I promised Joyce I’d bring El, Mike and Max to her house for a sleep over. Well I guess El does live there now.” A second kiss to the knuckles. “I’ll be back soon.” And then he was gone.

Billy screamed, screamed and pulled himself free from the remaining darkness that held him. He began to float, hovering above the dark pool below but just under the too bright nothingness above him. Billy sagged and let the feeling of being weightless take him.

The next time Steve returns he’s brought someone new. Their footsteps aren’t like any Billy has heard in the MONTH he’s been sleeping. They’re soft pad like steps, barely making a sound but the small tik tik of a heel hitting the floor with each steo makes up for it. Billy instant knows who it is.

Nancy Wheeler.

Of course.

“Steve. He doesn’t look good.” She whispers, never making her way to sit in one of the chairs Billy assumes are by his bed side. “He looks like,”

“Don’t say it Nance. He’s alive.” Steve says as he settles down next to Billy’s side. Nancy clicks her tongue. “You didn’t have to come.”

“Robin says you’ve been spending all your free time here.” She’s delicate in the way she puts it. Like she’s afraid Steve is going to swat her away. He should. Billy’s fingers twitch and Steve jumps, holding his hand tighter.

“Did you see that!”

“Steve.” Nancy says slowly. “It’s just,”

“Don’t say a relex Nancy. It’s not. I know it’s not.”

“Why do you care so much Steve!” Billy wants to flip her off. If Steve Harrington wants to be at his bed side then Nancy Wheeler should mind her own fucking business. “He beat you up!”

“So did Jonathon.”

“That was different.”

“Was it Nancy? Was it really. You’ve seen Max’s arm. Billy’s face, his wrist. We know what happened in that house.” Nancy makes a pained sound. “Look I’m not saying I forgive him okay. But jesus, we failed him Nancy. Not just at Starcourt. We all saw what was happening with him before this and we didn’t do anything about it. Just like with Jonathon.”

Nancy steps closer. “Joyce,”

“Do you really think Billy has a Joyce?” They’re silent and Billy wonders if all this was out of pure pitty but then Steve sighs. “I want to be here okay. I want to help him Nancy. Just let me do that.”

Billy listens as Nancy hesitates and then finally takes a seat. Then after a long still silence she speaks again “He looks terrible. He didn’t look bad that night.”

“The kids did a number on him.” Steve answers. “The kids, the car I rammed into him, that monster.” It all rushes back and Billy feels sick. He doesn’t want to remember it. “Doc says he’s lucky to even be alive. He’s breathing on his own now, no more tubes. Those spike things didn’t do much, just broke the skin and cracked a few ribs. It was going to let him bleed out.” Steve tightens his grip on Billy’s hand. “We should have tried harder to help him. To help them.”

Billy turns away. He doesn’t want to hear this.

Steve doesn’t come to visit for a long time after that, Billy sulks. He’s lonely.

But each day without Steve is a day Billy can relive the horrors of the past month without worrying about scaring what’s probably the only person who gives a damn about him right now. Each day he makes it closer to the blinding white light above him.

Then finally it happens.

Billy breaks through the hot white light and back into the real world.

It’s dark outside the small window to his left, and dark inside the room except for the dim light above Billy’s bed. Which is just bright enough for him to see how mangled his chest looks. It’s held together by tape, and guaze and staples. It makes him queezy looking at it so he looks away. Toward the door, just beyond it is someone is having a barely hushed conversation.

Billy ignores them and turns his stiff neck to look at the rest of the room. There’s a call button just inches from his right hand but he’s not sure he can reach that. Beyond that is a half made pull out bed, someone’s been sleeping in his room with them.

The door clicks and Billy slowly turns to look at it. The angry rushed voices now floating into his room.

“I can’t believe you followed me here! Do your parents even know you’re here right now!” Steve’s voice hisses at someone Billy can’t see. Someone who shuffles their wieght from one foot to the next. “And don’t even get me started on you trying to sneak in here! What were you even thinking!”

“I know what you’re hiding!” The voice replies. High and cocky, a girl. Her voice is familiar but Billy can’t place it. “Max deserves to know!”

Steve sighs so long and so hard Billy thinks he might hurt himself. “Eleven this is complicated.” He starts but the girl cuts him off.

“He’s still in there! Steve I heard him.”

“You what.” The curtain that was blocking the door shifts and Steve slips into the room, finally letting the door go. Behind him follows a girl, just slightly taller than Max with braided curls and a too big sweater shirt on that falls to the knees of her baggy jeans. Billy struggles to place her.

“I heard him. He’s still in there and Max deserves to know! She’s sad.” The last word is said with almost a child like lithe to it. “Steve I heard him.”

“Okay. I heard you kid. But,” Steve turns to him and for the first time in months their eyes lock. Billy is lost, he doesn’t think he’d be able to say anything even if he tried but Steve doesn’t move either. The girl is the first to break the silence. Gasping as she finally notices Billy’s open eyes.

She turns to look at Steve, a smug look on her face. “I told you he was in there.”

#WIP #harringrove #billy hargrove #steve harrington #IM BACK ON MY #BULL SHIT! #sorry it’s so long! !!!! #gotta get on desktop to fucking ad the read more!

[misograce]

I’ll Make the World Safe and Sound for You

Summary:

The other sects think he’s busy doing evil deeds.

Even if he were so inclined, which he is not, Wei Wuxian thinks, he wouldn’t have the time. Looking after a toddler is a full time job after all.

A/N: Right, this fandom has me on a roll atm.

Title is from Hamilton

Single Dad Yiling Patriarch!WWX with his cobbled together found family is my ultimate weakness

This has no conceivable plot, but I hope you enjoy it anyways

I would have put this under the cut but I’m on vacation in Italy currently and only have my phone with me, I’ll do it once I’m back home.

————

Nowadays Wei Wuxian was woken up more often than not by an exuberant toddler clambering all over him and shaking him awake.

It was too early to be awake, no matter what Wen Qing said.

And so he hauled Wen Yuan properly on top of him and cuddled the child close. He buried his nose in Wen Yuan’s hair and breathed in his comforting scent and gave the boy another affectionate squeeze

“A-Yuan, have some mercy, let your poor old gege sleep a bit more, hm?”

“But A-Yuan wants to play with Xian-gege!” the child whined. “And Qing-jie said I shouldn’t allow you to be lazy, because being lazy is bad for the body and brain. I don’t want Xian-gege to become sick!”

Wen Yuan looked up at him with teary eyes and tried to wrap his little arms as far around Wei Wuxian as he could.

Curse Wen Qian, that woman knew exactly how to tug on his heartstrings to get him to do what she wanted him to. (Not that he truly minded; it felt good to have people treat him normally, see him for what he was and not thinking of him as evil incarnate)

“Sshhh, A-Yuan, Xian-gege is alright, don’t worry.” he said and blew a raspberry against Wen Yuan’s cheek and tickled his ribs. The child squealed and squirmed in delight.

“Look, look, Xian-gege’s awake and playing with A-Yuan, and not sick at all!”

“Good!” A-Yuan solemnly declared, nodded his head and proceeded to press a big, wet, slobbery kiss to his Xian-gege’s face with a look of utmost concentration and determination in his eyes.

“Ah, A-Yuan, you’re the sweetest child!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed.

He hugged Wen Yuan tightly again for a moment and then peppered little kisses all over his face.

The boy’s delighted laughter rang out again and even Wen Qing couldn’t scold them for still being in bed and making a mess in the face of such pure, unadulterated happiness. The boy had know far too much sadness and pain in his short life so far, she would not be the one to deprive him of even the tiniest sliver of happiness.

“Really, who is the child here, you or A-Yuan?” She called out, mirth shining in here eyes

“Xianxian is three years old!” Wei Wuxian gleefully exclaimed from where he was halfway hanging down the bed.

“Are you sure that isn’t actually a bit too old?” Wen Qing snorted.

“That’s what shijie said too!” he said, still just as gleeful.

How was that something to be this proud of, she thought to herself and shook her head fondly.

“C’mon kids, it’s time for breakfast.” she said and left, knowing both of them would clamber after her at the mention of food.

The Burial Mounds, being as they were soaked through with resentful energy, did not encourage lush foliage and so the ground was perpetually covered in dead leaves.

After their breakfast Wei Wuxian and Wen Yuan grabbed rakes and set out to clearing the leaves away. It was a simple task, but it needed to be done and this way Wei Wuxian and Wen Yuan were occupied and didn’t get in anybody else’s way. Admittedly, the Yiling Patriarch planting Wen Yuan like a radish was a hilarious sight, but it also made planting actual radishes rather a bit more difficult.

The two of them had been raking leaves for a while now and it was quiet. Too quiet. Suspiciously quiet.

When Wen Qing went to check on them the only thing she found was a large pile of leaves no Wei Wuxian or Wen Yuan in sight.

“UARGH!!!”

“ARRRGHH!!!”

With twin screams the two of them jumped out of the pile, throwing leaves at Wen Qing.

“I wasn’t aware you were so keen on washing A-Yuan’s clothes again and so soon too.” she simply deadpanned.

Wei Wuxian’s pout and puppy eyes would have made a weaker woman give in, but Wen Qing firmly stood her ground.

“You’re lucky his other set of clothes is currently clean and dry!” she said as she ushered them off to take baths, “that does not mean you’re getting out of washing this set of clothes, Wei Wuxian, you hear me?”

Dinner that evening was a quiet affair. Wen Yuan was worn out from raking leaves and otherwise running all over all day and was now securely snuggled up against Wei Wuxian’s side, demanding that his Xian-gege feed him.

Wei Wuxian was more than happy to indulge him.

Wen Qing and Wen Ning were both there too and the three of them talked softly, not wanting to disturb an already half asleep Wen Yuan. It was peaceful. Wei Wuxian smiled as warmth filled him. He never expected this cobbled together family they’d created, but he would forever be grateful to the universe for these people in his life.

After Wen Yuan failed to fight a jaw cracking yawn for the third time in a row Wei Wuxian picked the boy up.

“I think it’s bed time for sticky little A-Yuans!” he said

Wen Yuan stubbornly shook his head.

“Don’t wanna.” he mumbled, “wanna stay with Xian-gege!”

Wei Wuxian felt himself melt.

“Tell you what, how about you sleep here, with Xian-gege tonight?” he asked and stroked the boys hair.

Wen Yuan nodded and tucked his head into Wei Wuxian’s neck. He was fully asleep within minutes.

He gently put the child to bed, careful not to wake him, and sat by his side, still stroking his hair, making sure he was sleeping peacefully.

That night, with a warm Wen Yuan tucked into his side he slept the best he had in a long time

And if the next morning he was woken up in the same manner as the day before, well, he didn’t mind. Anything for his A-Yuan’s happiness

On AO3

#mdzs #the untamed #mdzs fic #wei wuxian #wen yuan #lan sizhui #miri writes #give me all the fluffy tender family feels

[robininthelabyrinth]

Fic: The Beginning of Wisdom - Chapter 22 (Ao3 link)

Fandom: Flash, Legends of Tomorrow Pairing: Leonard Snart (Len) & Leonard Snart (Leo), Len Snart/Mick Rory, Leo Snart/Mick Rory, Len Snart/Mick Rory/Leo Snart, Leo Snart/Ray Terrill, Len Snart/Barry Allen

Summary: In which Leonard Snart is twins.

(the life and times and loves of Len and Leo Snart)

—————————————————————————————————–

Leo woke slowly, which was unusual for him – both he and Len typically woke up all at once, a sharp shift from sleep to wakefulness, and any lying around in bed after that was a conscious choice. This groggy feeling of rising up slowly through the mud towards awareness was something he associated, if at all, with being severely sick and stuffed full of medications that warned of causing drowsiness.

He didn't remember being sick.

Had he gotten drugged?

It wasn't as though people hadn't tried, of course, slipping something into his drink at clubs or even at model shoots – whether out of misplaced lust, ambition or revenge, he was never sure. He'd even accidentally had some a few times before he'd learned that he needed to be as cautious in his world of fashion as Len was in his world of crime; the only reason nothing had happened to him was that he'd generally reacted by tottering into the nearby coatroom, telling Len he was sleepy, and letting Len handle the rest of the evening while he slept it off.

Following the first few instances of that, they'd told Mick about Leo's newfound party-related narcolepsy and he'd rolled his eyes and asked them if they'd ever considered the possibility of roofies.

Since that little revelation, Leo had opted to bring his own water bottles to drink at parties. He wasn't much of a drinker anyway, he always said no to drugs – he was always getting offered so very many drugs, seriously, models were ridiculous – and anyway, it was good for a designer to have a few quirks.

(Leo was well aware that his models weren't all as clean as he'd like, but he made sure that while they were in his employ, they had regular but highly supervised access to their drug of choice to keep them from buying it anyway unsafe, and also that they had access to rehab services without the embarrassment of publicly going to a clinic. A surprising number took him up on the offer, enough that he would routinely disappear them on highly secret photography projects that let them go in-patient for a short while – it felt like the least he could do.)

Still, it'd been a long time since any of that had happened, so this was still unusual.

Where had he been the night before? A party? Some bar? Some...

No, hadn't he gone to the racetrack on that job of Len's? Yes, that was it, the racetrack job.

What boring work it was, sitting around to wait for the right moment before finally going in, doing a bit of shouting and gun-waving, and walking out with the money. It was terribly anti-climactic; Leo remembered now how much he'd disliked it as a child.

Ugh, and he'd agreed to do more of this; he must have lost his mind...

"I know you're awake."

Every muscle in Leo's body froze in terror well before his mind, floundering, finally placed the voice in his memory.

He'd heard that voice so often, so many times before, that it was indelibly seared into his brain, but he'd tried so hard to forget it and it had been so long that he'd almost succeeded.

But now it was back.

"Dad," Leo croaked, and opened his eyes.

Lewis Snart was older, fatter, and smaller than Leo remembered, but when he smiled, a stretch of the lips with no warmth in the eyes, all of that was immaterial to the terror and hatred he invoked in Leo's heart.

He was three again, five again, seven again, ten again – he was in the position he'd sworn he'd never be again, caught at the mercy of Lewis Snart, who had none.

And the worst part was: his first thought was to wonder why Len was not here to protect him.

To be him.

No.

Lewis smirked. "About time you gave up the charade," he said. "We have work to do."

"Don't work with you anymore," Leo said, struggling to sit up. He was still woozy, but he had willpower to fight through the dizziness. This was not a time to display weakness. "Haven't for years – or have you started to forget already, old man?"

Bravado, of course, and Leo was already tensing up in anticipation of the blow that speaking back to his father would earn him.

But it didn't.

Instead, Lewis smiled, a sick, twisted little smile, as if some question had been answered.

"On the contrary," he said, his piggish little eyes gleaming, "I'm starting to remember."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Leo asked cautiously.

"A few things," Lewis said, standing up. "First: you haven't asked where your sister is."

Leo froze.

No!

"Don't worry," Lewis assured him, smirk widening. "She's free as a bird – but I'm keeping a very close eye on her. If you disobey, well, that wouldn't make me happy – with either of you."

The threat was clear enough, even without the details that Lewis would undoubtedly be more than happy to fill Leo in on later. Worse, Lewis would go through with it; of that, Leo had no doubt.

Len might have doubted the depths of their father's cruelty, might have protested, if only in his mind, in the hopes of changing their father's mind, but then Len always did have the softer heart.

Especially, as much as Leo hated it, where their father was concerned.

"Do we understand each other, son?" Lewis asked, putting a hand on Leo's shoulder – a paternal gesture twisted into an act of dominance, of possession, rather than of any affection.

"Yeah," Leo spits out. "I read you loud and clear."

It was fine: Lisa and Mick would go to Len, and Len would recruit Barry and Ray and everyone else, and they'd come to rescue him the second they figured out where he was.

He'd just have to play Len a little more closely than anticipated for a little longer.

He could do that.

He was pretty sure he could do that, anyway.

"Good," Lewis said, not removing his hand. "Because I've got a plan that needs your – special expertise."

Leo pressed his lips together.

Forget about whether he could do this. He would do this.

"I'm all ears, Dad," Leonard said to his father. "What's the job? What skills do you need?"

"Skills is probably the wrong word," Lewis mused. "You never did have any skills other than cringing away from me, did you?"

What was that supposed to mean?

Leo's confusion must have been evident, because Lewis laughed and his grip tightened on Leo's shoulder until the point of pain.

"Like I said, son," Lewis said. "I've been remembering a lot of things, these last few years in prison. And skills or no skills, I think you've got something that I can use."

His smirk widened into a maniacal grin of triumph.

"Ain't that right, Lionel?"

No.

No.

Not that.

Anything but that.

The name they hated most, the name of that empty and forgotten boy, the one they'd tried so hard to bury the ghost of, the one whom no one loved and no one cared for or thought about or knew existed, not since their mother died.

Or so they'd thought.

But that wasn't exactly true, now, was it?

Leo stared at their father in horror. He should have realized – should have expected – he never even considered –

Of course Lewis Snart knew about them.

Of all people, he had the most right to know: he'd been there in the hospital when they'd been born, he'd signed off on their birth certificates, he'd taken the two of them back to his home.

No amount of hiding, no clever tricks, no bribes or computer viruses could erase that knowledge.

And if he knew –

All those years of hiding. All those years of taking each other’s' place, of Len bearing the scars of abuse so that Leo wouldn't have to, of Leo just as scarred by the endless neglect, all those jobs, all those sacrifices, all those fights –

Lewis had known.

He just hadn't cared.

One son was all he needed, after all; one son was all that was convenient for him to have, and it was one son he'd helped make them into.

It was their own decision, yes, and they loved playing each other so much that they would have done it no matter what -

But he was where the trauma around it started.

He was the one who'd turned it from a game into survival.

And now, all these years later, he'd emerged from whatever dark hole he should have rotted in and seen that the Leonard he had raised, the Leonard he’d wanted, the thief par excellence, the kleptomaniac, the supervillain, the killer with nightmares, the soft heart frozen over – all his work, all due to him, all forced upon them by him -

Now, after all that, he didn't have any more use for that Leonard.

No, now he wanted the other Leonard: the one Len and Leo had created together through pain and suffering and deprivation, the one born of other's sacrifice, the one who had the space to go straight, to pursue his passions, to finish college, to be free to do as he wished.

To be free of Lewis.

And now Lewis wanted Leo.

Leo, who was enraged.

"That ain't my name," he said, and his voice was cold enough to burn stars.

Lewis backhanded him.

"Your name is whatever I say it is," he said, casual as if he were remarking on the weather. "I gave it to you, and only I can take it away, whatever nonsense you might've done with changing your name by the law."

"My name," Leo said again, ignoring the pain and quickly forming bruise, "is Leonard."

Lewis barked a laugh. "You know that's a name I gave you too, right?" he jeered. "But sure, son, have it your way. I know you're not the thief – anyone watching you could've figured that out. Your reflexes are slow and you don't have the confidence to do a proper stick-up; it was pathetic to watch."

So what if Leo wasn't a good thief?

He didn't have to be. That was the point.

"Now get up," Lewis added. "We have a job to plan. Unless you care less about your sister than you do your name...?"

Wordless, Leo got up.

Len sat down.

"What do you mean, you're having trouble tracking him?!" he demanded. "You designed the goddamn gun, Ramon; I know you know how to pinpoint its location."

"It's not as easy as all that," Cisco protested.

"You tracked me with it, didn't you?"

"You were using it! I've set up a city-wide tracking system, but I haven't picked up a single downward spike in temperature anywhere –"

"Nothing," Barry reported, appearing in a burst of lightning. He was panting lightly, suggesting that he'd pushed himself past the limits of even his ridiculous speed. "I've been through the streets twice; not a sign of him or the van you describe. He must be underground or inside somewhere."

"He can't just be gone," Ray said from where he's been pacing for the last hour. He was shining like a lamp, unable to contain the spike in his powers due to sheer worry-fueled adrenaline, but there was nothing he could use them for right now. He'd mastered throwing light beams and was working on using his light as a means of propulsion to fly, but while they'd theorized that he might have the ability to use his light powers as some sort of advanced scanning system – comparisons had been made to both echolocation (but with light) and super-vision (and associated puns about supervising), and there had been perhaps gratuitous misuse of the line about "everywhere the light touches" from The Lion King – but he hadn't managed it yet.

He'd been too busy to properly practice the ability, something he was clearly regretting now.

It didn't matter, though. If Barry couldn't find Leo, and Cisco couldn't find Leo, then they were dealing with something – different.

Len still thought a new supervillain seemed like a likely option for the culprit, but he was starting to suspect that it wasn't that. Mick's injuries had been somewhat worse than reported – he'd left the hospital AMA, only to collapse again once he reached STAR Labs, where Caitlin was now treating him – and if it had been a supervillain looking to catch a supervillain, then why not take Mick as well?

Maybe this was personal.

"I'm going to go ask some contacts of mine some questions," he decided.

"Won't that tip people off about there being two of you?" Cisco asked.

"I don't fucking care," Len said, and found that it was true. Leo was more important to him than Leonard would ever be – that's how this whole mess started, after all, back in the beginning.

It had always been about protecting Leo.

And no matter what it cost, Len would find a way to protect him now.

Unfortunately, most of his contacts had no clue about anyone gunning for him – no need to confuse them with details – but it didn't matter. Len was going to keep going down his list until someone told him something.

Even if it meant –

There was a small neighborhood of Keystone that Len always avoided. It wasn't a great area – pretty run-down – but it was out of the slums and moderately respectable, with a decent school for children and a possible way out of poverty if you worked hard and were lucky. The Families left it largely alone, despite the thriving sex work industry centered there, considering it a neutral area.

Len had helped broker that deal himself, at some considerable personal cost.

People had thought, at first, that he was getting something out of it – jokes regarding sex workers had been made at his expense – but when the years passed and he avoided the area like the plague, his work on behalf of that neighborhood was seen not as a measure for personal gain, but of unlikely sentimentality.

The neighborhood was, after all, home to one of the best known and most well-protected domestic violence relocation shelters in the Gem Cities.

(Leo always did say that Len was the one with the soft heart.)

Len never went there.

Not for anything.

He went there now.

(For Leo, he would do far more than anything.)

The neighborhood had been even more poor and unwanted, years and years ago, so it had been easy enough for an infusion of some serious (mostly illegal) cash to enable the shelter to buy the land for a song during one of the housing crashes. What houses and shops were still functioning and could pay rent, even minimal, did so, and helped restore the shelter's coffers; those that were empty and abandoned were redistributed to those who needed them: women fleeing from abusive husbands, husbands from wives, children from parents, people of any gender or sexuality but the norm from those who did not understand, or any mixture of the above.

The shelter had originally expected people to move out of the area when they no longer needed the help, but they hadn't. They'd stayed, even as they flourished, and helped pay for more houses, more apartments, and for a neighborhood watch strong enough to do what the corrupt or indifferent police would not.

They protected their own.

When Len came to the neighborhood, they watched him with a wary eye: he was dangerous, they could tell just by looking at him, and this neighborhood had no love for dangerous men.

"I want to speak with the head of the shelter," Len told the first one that stopped him, a woman half a head shorter than him but with eyes of steel.

"Why?" she asked bluntly. "Looking for someone?"

Len's face twisted up in a grimace of pain.

"Yes," he said. "But I doubt I'd find him here. I just need to know if – if she's heard anything. That's all. Then I'll leave."

The woman, whose name he did not ask, and which she did not share, waited to receive confirmation that he would be allowed in before letting him pass onwards, and Len waited with her in silence. He wasn't sure if she'd get that confirmation: there was a reason he did not come here.

After all, he was dangerous, and this neighborhood had good reason to hate dangerous men. Why should he be exempted?

And yet –

He needed to come here now, to ask. This shelter took in everyone who needed it, rich or poor, and some of those who came here were those with connections to every branch of power in either Central or Keystone: politicians and Families and more.

There was a chance, however small, that they might know something that would show him the way.

He was willing to break his vow never to come here for that chance.

For Leo, he would do anything.

More than anything.

The woman checked her phone when it buzzed. "Okay," she said, not softening even in the slightest degree. "You can go."

Len nodded and continued past her. He could feel her watching him as he went, and her eyes were not the only ones he could feel on his back as he climbed the shallow steps to the old armory, that massive squat building that no one had wanted when it fell into disrepair and which had now been converted into the main offices of the shelter - a bomb shelter and a place designed to resist a siege, all in one.

The first stop for anyone seeking aid, and the final stop for those that sought to abuse the shelter's offerings.

Len hoped he would be considered the former.

The head of the shelter had been beautiful in her youth, with soft dark hair that she'd once dyed even more black and dark eyes that always seemed wet and hurt but somehow warm, and she was beautiful still today - hardly more than fifty years old, with hair streaked with silver that she didn't bother to dye, the faint traces of Asian features more noticeable now that she no longer hid them with layers of makeup, and the same big eyes that were hurt no longer –

But they were still warm.

"Leonard," she said with a smile, reaching out her arms to him, but taking no offense when he instinctively shied away from her. "My little man."

Len shuddered. "I'm not your anything," he said, but he couldn't make his voice as sharp as he would have liked.

He never could, with people he cared for.

"I know," she said, and her voice was sad, though the warmth was still there. "You aren't. Not anymore. But won't you at least say it's good to see me?"

Len would rather not.

But he came here as a supplicant, and there was no harm in telling the truth when it served his purposes.

"It's good to see you," he said. "Marie."

#leonard snart #leo snart #len snart #beginning of wisdom #my fic

[wholerestart-blog]

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/six-reasons-you-cant-lose-weight/

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

When I owned a gym I watched countless people struggle with losing weight. If they did lose it, it was almost a given that they would eventually gain it back. Through my nutrition program, I was able to help countless people gain a healthy lifestyle. Consistently, I saw the same behaviors and problems during those coaching sessions. Here are the top six reasons you can’t lose weight.

I hardly eat anything!

One of the biggest reasons many people struggle with losing weight and staying in top condition is that they are not eating nutritiously. There are many diets out there that encourage people to cut their calories, carbs, fat grams, etc. to ridiculously small levels.

The human body is a wonderful and resourceful thing. When you try to lose weight by restricting your calories in your body fights back. This is commonly known as starvation mode.

As you restrict calories and add exercise you start to create a deficit. This causes your body to burn fat. Unfortunately, your body is hard-wired for survival and doesn’t see this calorie restriction and weight loss as anything but the potential to starve to death. While you know that you are doing this intentionally your body does not. So it attempts to increase hunger, make you feel more apathetic to conserve energy and in general try to keep you alive.

The moral of the story is that the more radically you reduce your intake of calories the more the body fights you and the tougher it becomes. That’s why 1-2 lbs of weight loss a week is key.

Last, be sure that you are writing down what you are actually eating every day. There are many great apps for this like Fitness Pal. I have seen it dramatically help people to lose weight when they are keeping a daily account of what they are eating. Sometimes you don’t realize how often you graze throughout the day.

Take it one step further and find an accountability partner. You don’t have to pay, find a friend that may also want to lose weight and agree to have to show each other your journals once per week.

I’m hungry all of the time!

Insulin to name the biggest culprit in hormone dysregulation may be part of your problem. Insulin is a hormone that is meant to help deal with all of the energy you consume after you eat. You’re either burning it for energy or storing it as fat.

In a healthy body the insulin level spikes immediately after eating. Whether you eat carbs or protein. However, sometimes the body doesn’t regulate the hormone right and your insulin stays high.

When insulin is chronically elevated the body never reverts to burning its storage of energy (aka fat). What does this mean? You may feel like you’re starving but never lose weight.

The danger is that eventually, chronically elevated insulin can lead to diabetes.

How did you get here? Chronically elevated insulin is typically caused by excess fat specifically the kind stored around the middle of your body. Sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, and smoking can also contribute.

To read more about this I suggest this excellent article on sustainable weight loss.

I hate Exercise!

I have seen it all when it comes to exercise done wrong. Here are just a few common mistakes people make when it comes to exercise.

Excessive: It may be in response to our fast-paced, instant gratification lifestyles. We start something new and we go hard so we can see quick results. People come to the gym for the first time in years and just absolutely punish themselves. I mean the running ten miles uphill while stopping to do 25 burpees every 2 minutes kind of punishment. Chillax! Why not start with something sustainable? Maybe walking 20 minutes every day? You can do anything for just 20 minutes, right? Find it boring? Try a book on audible while you walk. If you go so hard that you hate it you won’t do it again. Increase your workouts as you lose weight and gain muscle. Challenge yourself to do more as your workout becomes easy.

No Variety: It would be like if you ate the same food every day for the rest of your life. Spice it up. Do something different. Pre-plan your workouts one day a week for the next seven days. Think about what you’re going to do and when. Beach Body has all kinds of workouts on their on-demand program if you are looking for some variety and don’t want to join a gym.

Discipline: It’s a Monday, my legs hurt, my job is stressful, I have friends coming over, my house is a mess, I have split ends… I’ve heard all of the excuses in the book. Pick a time every day that will work for you and do it as if your life depends on it because it does.

Not enough: Matthew McConaughey says to sweat a little every day. Do whatever that looks like for you, note that “I chase my kids around all day” is not actually considered a form of exercise it’s more a form of sleep deprivation. 🙂

Consistency: It’s forever, every week, all of the time. The consistency is what makes the difference. It’s like brushing your teeth, you have to brush them for 2 minutes twice a day every day. Brushing them for 2 minutes once per week will likely result in your teeth falling out.

I love OrangeTheory, it’s consistent, it’s variety, it’s “go at my pace”. I can see when I am way overdoing or slacking off on the heart monitor. You can read my article about it here.

I am addicted….chips/sweets!

Whether you love dessert or love chips you have a sugar addiction. Sugar can be addictive and may be part of the reason that you struggle to lose weight. Your brain is constantly sending you messages about how you can get your next sugar fix! Listen to me, you can not out “will power” an addiction that you keep feeding. Eventually, it will win. Read my article about sugar here.

It’s classic addictive behavior, most people can’t imagine giving up gluten because they can’t fathom giving up the sugar. Since the American diet is laced with sugar in just about every processed food item it is hard to avoid.

Try this experiment with yourself the next time you get a craving for a cookie or a chip. Stop and consider if you are actually hungry. The way I determine this is to think about eating some broccoli or a meat stick as a snack instead. Huh! I’m not as hungry as I thought I was.

Does it mean that if you eat sugar you are destined to be overweight? You know you best. I know some people who can smoke an occasional cigarette but don’t become addicted, rather the exception than the rule. If you know you don’t have that level of discipline, stop tempting yourself beyond what you are capable of enduring and work on eliminating sugar.

The “It’s Not Fair” mentality

If you value food, sugar, and lack of exercise in your life more than you value how you look, feel, or a longer life with your loved ones than stop worrying about it! I have a close friend that totally is comfortable with himself and couldn’t care less about any of those things.

Embrace you! Be happy in your skin and be comfortable with your decision. What is really important to you? Stop and really think about it. Your body can take a ton of abuse and keep on going. In fact, it probably already has. You do you and stop worrying about what’s important to other people.

If on the other hand how you look, feel, and longer life is more important than its time to give up the “It’s not fair” mentality. It’s just food, it’s not you, it’s not your life, your kids, your friends, your work.

Stop viewing food as a source of happiness. Stop viewing eating healthy as deprivation of enjoyment. Enjoy your life, eat to stay alive. Only eat when you’re hungry and then only eat until you’re satisfied not stuffed.

When you go out for dinner with friends focus on enjoying their company rather than focusing on the food. Focus on the healthy things you are going to eat that will contribute to many more occasions that you can enjoy.

Gut Health

You are the host to 1,000’s of microbes that help you stay alive. They live in your large intestine. When we eat processed food and artificial sweeteners like aspartame we can destroy the healthy gut bacteria and allow bad bacteria to enter.

Several well-known studies have shown that weight gain can be linked to an unhealthy gut biome. One study compared two identical twins one slender and one obese. In the study, they found that the twins had very different microbes living in their gut. This challenged the genetics theory on obesity for scientists.

Even more interesting, the results were mimicked in mice. The gut biome from the slender twin given to mice yielded slender mice while the gut biome from the obese twin yielded obese mice.

Improving gut health can be done in a few different ways. You can learn about many ways to achieve this in this great article. My advice? Start with a probiotic, try this one. Consider a Paleo, Whole30 or even Vegan approach to eating. You can read my article here on what that means. You can also check out some of my favorite recipes here or join my mailing list!

Last prescription medications including antibiotics can ruin your gut health. It is one of the reasons that I stopped taking anti-depressants and found alternatives through clean eating with the help of my naturopathic doctor. You can learn a lot about it from Kelly Brogan MD. Start by visiting her website here.

I am not advocating going without antibiotics or stopping immunizations. That is a personal decision. However, knowing that being on a course of antibiotics can really mess with your gut health may help you understand what’s happening with your body. I rarely get sick, maybe once every two to three years. If I am prescribed an antibiotic, I take it, and then I get very strict on getting my gut biome back to healthy afterward.

In conclusion, there are a lot of reasons people can’t lose weight. Much of it starts with admitting there is no easy button and that this needs to be part of your life. Go to work at it as you do personal hygiene it’s what you do to take care of yourself like showering, brushing your teeth, and combing your hair.

You can do it, and we can help!

#addicted to sugar #gut health #hardly eating #hate exercise #healthy eating #low calorie #weighloss challenges #weightloss #weightloss challenges

[lopezdorothy70-blog]

Arizona Parents Falsely Accused of Child Abuse Lose Infant Son – Have 2-Day-Old Newborn Also Medically Kidnapped

Jordan Meissinger holds his newborn son. His joy was short-lived. When Baby Paxton was only 48 hours old, Arizona social workers took him away from his family. Photo provided by family.

by Health Impact News/MedicalKidnap.com Staff

Paxton Meissinger came into the world on Tuesday, October 16, 2018, weighing all of 7 pounds and 2 ounces. Like every newborn baby, he wanted and expected only one thing – the presence of his mommy.

To an infant, the most important thing in the world is be surrounded by the love and warmth of the person whose heartbeat he has heard for as long as he had the ability to hear.

In her arms, every need he has is met, from her milk and the nutrition and antibodies it provides to the reassurance of her warmth and love.

Brain growth, his immune system, and his respiration rate develop ideally as he rests against her skin-to-skin, releasing the perfect hormones needed for his system, and hers.

The foundation for basic trust is laid as he hears the voices of both father and mother, and they respond to his communication. The first few weeks and months of life have been likened to a “fourth trimester,” where baby humans are designed to remain still a unit with their mothers.

There is nothing in the world as important to a baby as his mother.

However, for Baby Paxton, these basic human needs are no longer being met, thanks to the Arizona Department of Children's Services (DCS).

When he was only 48 hours old, social workers took him away from his parents, Briana and Jordan Meissinger, claiming that this is “necessary to protect the child from suffering abuse or neglect.”

In the name of protecting him from potential possible harm, Child Protective Services is depriving him of the very things he needs the most.

Briana Meissinger told Health Impact News:

They took him! I was hoping they would leave us alone.

Newborn Baby Paxton Meissinger only had 48 hours with his parents before the state seized him away. Photo supplied by family

Social Worker – “We Are at Your House. Where Are You?”

The devastated parents got a call from DCS just 24 hours after Briana's c-section.

While she was recovering from surgery in her hospital room and bonding with her new baby, social workers were sitting in the driveway of the Meissingers' home demanding a meeting.

The workers refused to say what it was about other than that there were new allegations of “general neglect” that they needed to discuss. Obviously, Briana was not able to go home to meet with them since her baby had been born the day before and they were still at the hospital.

The social workers refused to divulge what the allegations were, but Briana and Jordan later learned that the social workers had reportedly received an anonymous call that the baby had been born 8 days prior and that they were home already neglecting the baby. The DCS workers had already obtained a warrant based on this and other incorrect information, but they didn't mention that to the Meissingers.

They showed up at the hospital the next day, Thursday, October 18, and seized Baby Paxton from his parents.

The incorrect birth date was another in a long line of wrong, false, or outright deceptive statements made by the department over the last year. In conjunction with Phoenix Children's Hospital and their Child Abuse Pediatrician, DCS had taken the Meissingers' son Keaton last September over allegations of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

From the very beginning of that case, some doctors suspected that he had an infection which was treated with several antibiotics. Other medical experts have stated the same, but DCS and the Child Abuse Pediatrician have stubbornly clung to their interpretation of Keaton's symptoms.

The long, drawn-out case to decide which diagnosis to believe is still in the Maricopa Juvenile Court. Dependency has yet to be determined by the courts.

After she learned that DCS intended to step in and take their newest baby, Briana said:

This warrant was one-sided. They didn't give our side, which is the fact that this is a highly contested case. We have experts and medical professionals that are saying that their allegations are bullshit.

THEIR experts are saying that they can't even for sure say that this is abuse, so they haven't proven anything. Nothing. And they're trying to take our newborn from us.

There's nothing we can do!

She explained that, until they can go before a judge, they cannot even fight this to keep their baby.

The Maricopa County social workers went to a different judge than the one in Keaton's case in order to get the warrant to seize Baby Paxton. The Meissingers believe that, had they gone to the judge who is currently presiding over their case, they would not have been able to get a warrant. The judge who signed it was “misled,” says Briana.

Their judge has heard some of the Meissingers' side of the story as well as a little bit from medical experts who adamantly disagree with the diagnosis of abuse by the Child Abuse doctor at Phoenix Children's Hospital.

There are still at least a couple more days left of the trial. The next one is at the end of October, followed by another day or two possibly to be held in December before the dependency case wraps up.

According to several doctors and medical experts whose presuppositions have not blinded them to see other medical conditions that can cause similar symptoms, Keaton's medical history and records do not show any signs of trauma or abuse. Rather, they are, in the words of one of their experts, “100% consistent with [a] brain infection.”

Baby Keaton's Story – Force Vaccinated in Spite of Medical Problems

Baby Paxton's big brother was born on June 6, 2017. Briana's labor was induced, and she was given high doses of pitocin (labor-inducing drug).

After 2 days of hard labor, the baby was not handling the contractions well. His chart showed “decels” in his heart rate, and Briana began having convulsions. They were rushed into surgery for an emergency c-section.

Keaton required resuscitation to help him to breathe when he was born, and he was given oxygen. His APGAR score was just 5 at both one minute and 5 minutes, which indicates that he was in trouble.

He spent his first few hours in the NICU, but he recovered. He was given a Vitamin K shot and Hepatitis B vaccine.

Briana says that “he was extremely fussy for a newborn baby.” After a few weeks, he improved, until his 2 month shots:

At his 2 month doctor appointment he was diagnosed with Acid Reflux and was prescribed renititidine. I had done quite a bit of research on vaccines, but not nearly enough I know now. At his 2 month appointment on 8/10/2017, I asked his Pediatrician at the time, Dr. Mary Lavalley, to do a delayed and spaced out schedule for his vaccinations.

He was very croupy frequently as he breathed, which was another concern we brought up at the appointment. Because of this, Dr. Lavalley got upset and snappy with me stating that we HAD to get ALL of his vaccines THAT day, BECAUSE he was sick- that not doing this would mean we were knowingly neglecting his safety. She bullied us into it, so I sat there and cried while he received all of his shots aside from the pneumococcal vaccine. [It was a total of 6 vaccines.] That's when things began, and steadily went downhill.

For the first almost 4 days he screamed a shrill painful scream as he tensed up his whole body, pulling his legs to his chest. He would scream so hard that he would have a ” silent scream ” where he would hold his breath, which really worried us and broke our hearts.  knew he was in pain, but at the time I had no idea that this was due to encephalitis.

He ran a fever on and off for the next week. His typical hour or two naps became 20 minutes, and he “would wake up from his sleep tensed up screaming before he'd even open his eyes.”

The second week is when the vomiting started. Keaton began seeming dazed, and the happy baby we knew started to fade away. He wasn't focusing or tracking as much. He was rarely smiling. All of this, the pediatrician informed us was “normal,”  and that some babies' symptoms last a little longer than others.

As a Mother, I knew, I FELT that these things weren't normal. I felt it with every inch of my being that something was wrong with my baby.

It was apparent to Briana and Jordan Meissinger that Keaton was not the same after his 2 month shots. Photo provided by family.

On August 24, 2017, Keaton woke up from a nap, crying. Briana was out running an errand, and Jordan changed his son's diaper. When he went into the kitchen to prepare a bottle, the baby suddenly stopped crying.

Alarmed, his father went to check on him. He looked like he was sleeping, but when Jordan picked him up, he was “completely limp” and wouldn't wake up.

He called Briana who was just 5 minutes away from home by that time. When she got home, Keaton was “awake, but not alert.”

While she stripped him down to check for any sign of insect or spider bites or a rash or some other explanation, he seemed dazed. She says his eyes were as wide as saucers and his pupils were “huge.”

The terrified couple knew immediately that they needed to rush him to the hospital.

At nearby Banner Del Webb Hospital, a nurse recommended that they try to feed him. Keaton promptly projectile vomited “everywhere.”

Doctors began running tests. One doctor came in and said that the x-ray showed that he had “junked up lungs,” and told them that this could be septic pneumonia or meningitis.

His white blood cell count was high, at 22,000. The normal range is 5,000 to 10,000. (Source). Elevated levels usually indicate infection.

With babies that young, the doctor explained, infections can be very serious. They cannot afford to wait for the results of a culture to determine what organism is causing the infection. They begin treatment immediately. Doctors started Keaton on 3 strong antibiotics.

The baby began improving dramatically in less than an hour. He stopped crying, and began cooing and making eye contact. Briana and Jordan were greatly relieved.

The Doctor then said that he needed a Lumbar Puncture, and that he also needed to be transferred to a Childrens Specialty Hospital – that we could either choose Banner Thunderbird, or Phoenix Children's, and that we could either have him get the LP there, or once he's transferred.

This is where we made our biggest mistake, we chose Phoenix Children's Hospital, and opted to have them do the LP, because they specialize in Children, and we felt we could trust them more with doing an LP.

They were wrong.

Phoenix Children's Hospital has a long history of medically kidnapping children, as we have reported many times.

The Meissingers didn't know that information. Nor were they aware that, like many Children's Hospitals, Phoenix has Child Abuse Pediatricians on staff.

The pattern of these doctors is to “find” abuse where none exists, often ignoring signs of real medical conditions or neglecting to do needed testing in order to do differential diagnoses.

At Phoenix Children's Hospital, the lumbar puncture showed that Keaton's cerebral spinal fluid was positive for enterovirus, a virus that can cause various illnesses including encephalitis (brain inflammation) and meningitis.

Other tests were run, including repeat x-rays, an MRI, a CT scan of Keaton's head, and an ophthalmology test.

Not surprisingly, given Keaton's traumatic birth history, he was found to have subdural hematomas and retinal hemorrhaging. These symptoms can even occur in the most normal of childbirths, and they are extremely common with difficult births, pitocin induction, and rescuscitation with oxygen, all of which factors were present when Keaton was born.

See:

Common Childbirth Practice Could Lead to Later False Diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome

Combined with the brain swelling likely caused by the enterovirus, that meant that “the triad” was present.

When this trio of symptoms are present, some doctors, including most Child Abuse Pediatricians, view that as diagnostic of Shaken Baby Syndrome, even if there are genuine medical conditions, such as a viral illness, that could cause the same symptoms.

Neuropathologist Doctor: I Believed in Shaken Baby Syndrome until Science Showed I was Wrong

By the time labs were run for Keaton at Phoenix Children's Hospital, his white blood cell was much closer to normal, at 11,000. He tested negative for any bacterial infection at that time, but he had been on 3 strong antibiotics for several hours. According to several medical expert reports, this was normal.

However, the Child Abuse Pediatrician at Phoenix Children's, Dr. Cynthia Nelson, didn't see it that way. From her medical reports, it appears that once she saw the “triad” of symptoms associated with Shaken Baby Syndrome, she threw out the possibility of infection or anything else besides abuse being the the cause of Baby Keaton's symptoms.

DCS was called, and the Meissingers were accused of abusing Keaton by shaking him, and he was seized from them.

The family has been fighting to get him back ever since.

A juvenile court trial to determine dependency was set for early April, but in typical fashion, DCS has requested delay after delay. There were a couple of court dates in September, but the hearings are not complete. Most of the defense testimony has not yet been heard. The next court date is set for October 31.

A case worker argued that Keaton was developmentally delayed. The Guardian ad Litem promptly went to see him at his day care, and found that nothing the social worker said about his development was true. Photo provided by family.

Meanwhile, Briana Meissinger gave birth to a new baby this week. The parents had hoped that everything would be resolved by the time Baby Paxton would be born, and that DCS and the court would see that they didn't hurt Keaton, that instead he was sick.

The first hospital that saw Keaton saw no reason to suspect abuse. They believed that there was evidence of an infectious process, and they began treatment in line with that evidence. Other medical experts have looked at their case and come to a very difference conclusion than the doctors at Phoenix Children's and DCS.

In fact, in contrast with the Child Abuse Pediatricians, these experts take into account the entire symptom picture, not throwing out symptoms such as 3 days of fever, shrill, high-pitched crying, frequent leg tremors, and other symptoms such as the high white blood cell count.

The Child Abuse Pediatrician wrote in the records that the baby tested positive for enterovirus but that it was not the cause of Keaton's problems. Because he had the triad, it was “suspicious for abuse,” and other symptoms were thrown out the window as irrelevant. Because she suspected abuse, she rejected the possibility of infection, though meningitis was never truly ruled out.

Everything was seen from that point through the lens of abuse.

This is circular reasoning at its most insidious. The parents are deemed guilty because the doctor has interpreted the data as evidence of guilt. DCS and the family court system often makes no room for another interpretation of the facts.

During the course of the DCS case against the Meissingers, they and their attorneys thought at one point that they had all of the medical records. They were supposed to have them, and DCS told them that they had all the records. A representative of Phoenix Children's Hospital signed an affidavit that all of the records had been released to the family's attorneys.

However, some evidence, specifically some of the scans that DCS and Phoenix Children's Hospital said were evidence of abuse, were not included in the records they released. DCS said they do not consider medical imaging and scans to be part of the medical record, thus their practice is never to disclose them. This deprives the defense of being able to have them independently evaluated.

Circular Reasoning and Arrogance by Child Abuse Pediatricians

Attorneys for the couple filed an objection with sobering words about the arrogance that the decision represents:

DCS's position also presumes that the scans are subject to only one interpretation and PCH's report on the scan is conclusive to 100% accuracy.

That decision is not theirs to make.

If that is DCS's position, it is disingenuous at best and a misrepresentation to the Court at worst.

It is indicative of a factor common to almost every medical kidnapping case that we have covered involving Child Abuse Specialists: These doctors apparently expect that their verdict is the only possible conclusion.

As they work hand in hand with Child Protective Services, their testimony is elevated above any other evidence and is not to be challenged.

Dissenters are ridiculed and discredited. All other interpretations, even if they are more solidly aligned with scientific evidence, are rejected.

Social workers, attorneys, and judges are all expected to fall into line in giving one particular class of people – Child Abuse Pediatricians – the omnipotent ability to be judge and jury, boding no challenge or alternate interpretation of the evidence.

They are accountable to no one for their decisions, even if it leads to the destruction of an innocent family or the incarceration of an innocent parent.

A doctor with an agenda and a conflict of interest is allowed to unilaterally make decisions that rob children and parents of each other. Photo provided by family.

In countless cases across America, medical professionals who challenge the decisions of Child Abuse Pediatricians are ridiculed and discredited.

Judges have been known to ignore a dozen reports by various experts in favor of one report by a Child Abuse Pediatrician.

Yet these doctors are not qualified or trained as experts in the fields who are better suited to identify medical conditions that are not the result of abuse. They are not experts in radiology, infectious diseases, genetics, or neurology.

See:

Pediatric Child Abuse “Experts” are NOT Experts in Anything

Child Abuse Pediatricians Have Financial Motive to Kidnap Children

Attorneys for the Meissingers have discovered that taxpayers, through the Arizona Department of Children and Families, are paying financial incentives to Child Abuse Pediatricians to turn in parents for abuse. The hospitals get kickbacks of more than $800 per child.

Here is a price sheet for the Kids for Cash agreement between DCS and Phoenix Children's Hospital – the hospital that has been involved in more Medical Kidnap stories than any other hospital in the entire country:

Source: Phoenix Children's Hospital

There is ample evidence that the Meissinger's son Keaton suffered from a viral infection following vaccines. While the trial is not yet finished and all the testimony has not yet been heard, DCS social workers have proceeded as though Briana and Jordan Meissinger are guilty. There is no presumption of innocence until proven guilty with the agency.

Social workers presented a petition to a judge asserting their guilt as established fact though it is far from such.

The warrant says:

Due to the parents' continued denials about the cause of the injuries to Keaton, their home is an unsuitable environment for Baby Boy Meissinger.

Because they refuse to admit guilt, the social workers reasoned, the parents are guilty.

The warrant also states:

The parents have claimed the injuries to Keaton were the result of vaccines and/or viral infections but medical professionals have indicated Keaton's injuries could not have been sustained from vaccines or viral infections as suggested by the parents.

The social workers represent that the opinion of the Child Abuse Pediatrician at Phoenix Children's Hospital is the only valid one, while ignoring the fact that numerous doctors and medical experts assert that Keaton's injuries were, indeed, the result of a viral infection.

Thus, based on wrong information, Baby Paxton has been ordered by a judge to be taken from his parents.

In the course of “protecting” him, DCS is subjecting him to risks that began from the moment they tried to put him in a social worker's car at the hospital.

Paxton's father noticed that the car seat in her vehicle did not have the insert to protect a newborn's head. In order to protect his baby, he had to inform the worker that it was needed, and then he was the one who provided the insert for the social worker's car.

How You Can Help

A Facebook page was established by supporters when the family first began trying to get Keaton back called Bring Keaton Home. Now, as Briana and Jordan Meissinger work to get Paxton home as well, supporters want to continue to utilize Keaton's page for people to learn how they can help with getting both babies restored to their parents.

Governor Doug Ducey can be reached at 602-542-4331 or contacted here.

Greg McKay is the Director of DCS/CPS in Arizona. His office may be reached at 602-255-2500.

The Senator for the Meissingers' district is Senator Rick Gray. He is on the Health and Human Services Committee and may be reached at 602-926-5413 or contacted here.

The House Representative for their district is Representative David L. Cook. He may be reached at 602-926-5162 or contacted here.

Many Arizona parents are fed up with Phoenix Children's Hospital and DCS medically kidnapping children, and some of them are gathering together to rally in front of the hospital next Saturday, October 27, 2018. See the event page, Peace Rally – Against Medical Kidnapping on Facebook for more details.

Comment on this article at MedicalKidnap.com.

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See: Medical Kidnapping: A Threat to Every Family in America Today

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[kaylilly21-blog]

10 Tips For A Healthy Old Age

1. Live the Active Regular exercise is one in every of the most important keys to physical and mental properly-being. An energetic life will assist you stay suit enough to maintain your freedom going wherein you want and doing all of your own sports. Regular exercise can prevent the onset of continual conditions together with coronary heart ailment, diabetes, melancholy,  Miami Personal Training and arthritis, and so forth. Tips: The secret's to stay lively, so do something you'll enjoy. If you are not the sort of man or woman who frequently sports often, instead you can take a walk or journey a motorbike every day. Try to make sport as your recurring interest. Think about what is great for you, seek advice from your health practitioner regularly, and move on!

2. Eat Healthy Food The majority of adults devour extra than double the day by day sodium consumption than recommended, that can result in high blood pressure and cardiovascular disorder. Most of this high sodium consumption comes from food and packaged meals. Tips: Eat nutrient-dense foods like end result, greens, and entire-grain foods. Avoid sweet, salty foods, and packaged or processed meals. Remember that everyone has one of a kind dietary needs, comply with your doctor's advice on nutritional restrictions.

3. Maintain Your Brain One in eight older adults (age> 65 years) in the United States and some other countries suffer from Alzheimer's disorder, whereas a few cognitive decline is a normal a part of getting older. Studies have proven that life that stimulate cognitive stimulation thru energetic gaining knowledge of will sluggish down cognitive decline. Tip: Never prevent learning and task your thoughts. Take dance lessons, study a new language, attend a lecture at a local college, learn how to play a musical instrument, or study a ebook, for Muslims to attempt to memorize the Qur'an.

4. Build Social Relationships Nearly 30% of dad and mom who live on my own and stay on my own feel the loneliness of the heavy. Changes in existence  Best Miami Personal Training inclusive of retirement, fitness problems, or lack of partner, can result in social isolation. Tips: Always hold in contact with your circle of relatives and buddies, particularly after experiencing huge existence changes. Schedule regular time to meet buddies and circle of relatives over tea, devour collectively as soon as per week, or do different activities together. Invite other friends who may additionally feel lonely or isolated.

5. Enough Sleep Humans may be more resilient without a food than without sleep. Parents want as lots sleep as other adults, seven to nine hours in keeping with night. Sleep deprivation can cause depression, irritability, extended threat of falling, and reminiscence issues. Tips: Create a ordinary time table to sleep. Keep your bed room darkish and freed from noise whilst snoozing, keep away from watching television or gambling internet even as in mattress. Stay faraway from ingesting coffee at night.

6. Reduce Stress As we become older, there might be changes in our stress country and so does our capability to cope with strain. Long-time period stress can harm brain cells and motive melancholy. Stress also can purpose reminiscence loss, fatigue, and reduced ability to fight and recover from contamination. In truth, it's far estimated that over 90% of diseases are caused or complex with the aid of strain. Tips: We can't completely avoid stressful conditions however we can examine accurate techniques to deal with stress. Take care of your self while you are pressured with sufficient sleep, workout, and consume nutritious meals. Talk to humans you accept as true with or who can advocate you in your pressure, and try to do some relaxation techniques, inclusive of circular breathing, yoga, or meditation and in case you are a Muslim wake up to a third of a night time praying tahajud. Remember to continually hold matters in attitude, try and receive and behave in a way that you can't manipulate.

7. Try Prevention Many not unusual accidents, illnesses, and fitness situations of geriatric fitness, together with sicknesses, persistent sicknesses, depression, and weak point, may be averted. Tips: To prevent illness, wash your hands after of completion of bathroom and earlier than meals. To save you falls, maintain objects in your house that could motive you to stumble or slip, use aids as a take care of or guide, wear appropriate shoes, take vitamin D and calcium.

Eight. Maintain Health Much of our fitness isn't always managed with the aid of the fitness care machine but by our personal actions, our environment, social factors. Also do not completely rely on a health practitioner  personal training in miami because a health practitioner may not be one hundred% ideal. Medical errors are feasible. The more sufferers who play a role in maintaining and worrying for their very own fitness, the extra they are happy with the care they get. Tips: Think of methods to hold your health with the aid of converting your lifestyle. Contact your physician when you have worries about your fitness. Show me a list of your modern-day prescription and non-prescribed drugs, inclusive of herbal supplements.

Nine. Create a Community / Association Create or join a community / affiliation in social activities or recitation. Tips: Join a community / affiliation that makes you glad and comfy and no longer demanding.

10. Save Important Information Keep records or commands approximately managing your medical emergency, in addition to essential smartphone numbers whilst there are troubles in your health. Tips: Take the time to apprehend all of the commands and information.

Selecting Just The Right Accessories Can Make Your Outfit

If you want to start putting your best foot forward when it comes to fashion, then you are in the right place   Tribal Tattoos . You can create a whole new look for yourself without spending a lot of money by using the following advice.

Add a belt to finish off your look. You can find them in countless styles and colors. Be trendy by wearing a bright belt with some skinny jeans, or be sophisticated with a professional black belt.

White and black is always in season. These colors can be seen on today's runways. There are many ways to pair these colors. The sky is the limit when it comes to wearing these colors together.

Make your style unique. It is easy to dress like everyone else, but you should create a style all your own. You, of course, need a certain personality to be comfortable doing this, but once you take the leap, you will surely enjoy the many compliments for being unique.

Don't carry a ton of makeup inside your makeup bag. Instead, pick your desired products in colors that are appropriate for the season. Think about both night and day uses. Makeup can go bad if it's opened, just like other products. It can also grow germs if it sits for a long time.

Do not strive for perfection in fashion. There isn't anyone who has perfect fashion. Second, by trying to be perfect, you can come across as trying too hard. Kat Moss sets a fine example of how to pull together a fashion look with a casual messy hair style or a button left undone.

Subscribing to a good fashion newsletter can help you stay up to date regarding current trends as well. This will help you stay on top of the constantly changing world of fashion.

The perfect foundation is the start to good fashion. A well-fitting bra defines your figure and gives you a silhouette that is appealing. Underwear is meant to give you support and create a smooth fit. There are a lot of garments made just to slim and hide imperfections.

Don't pay attention to the negative things that other people say. The thing about opinions is that they're utterly meaningless unless they're your opinions! You should feel comfortable in what you are wearing because the message you give will attract someone who is drawn to your style in due time.

Be fashionable by getting a little funky. Keep your hair looking a little mussed, don't button shirts all the way to the top, or wear shoes that don't match exactly. It is impossible to be perfect, so having a controlled sense of chaos makes you stand out and implies you have a unique fashion sense.

If you do not want to wear certain items of clothing anymore, give them to a non-profit organization. Not only will your clothes receive a new life with someone who will appreciate them, but you will have an easier time finding the clothes that you actually want to wear.

Floral patterns are an up and coming trend to take advantage of. Don't be intimidated to wear a shirt, pants or even a floral patterned dress. However, you also don't want to overdo it. One item with a floral pattern is enough. Don't try mixing and matching different patterns.

Try on an article of clothing that you normally wouldn't wear. Not only will this exercise keep you open-minded when it comes to fashion, but it may help you discover new colors, shapes and styles that look fabulous on your frame. This is the perfect way to spice up your clothing.

If your look includes shorts, skip the long socks unless you are still in grammar school. Little kids do this, but if you do it, off to fashion jail with you! Be certain you have an air of sophistication and avoid wearing socks with short pants.

Get familiar with what clothing looks best on your figure. Is your shape rectangular, square, pear, or something else? Once you figure out the exact type of body you have, you can then begin to figure out which colors and patterns work the best per your shape. After finding your niche, your fashion sense will evolve.

As you can see, it doesn't have to be expensive or difficult to revamp your fashion sense. With some dedication and time to learn how to change and better your appearance, you can look your best for a long time.

Furniture Tips You Should Be Aware Of

How do you feel about your furniture purchase decisions of the past? If you think that you could do better, then Pallet Furniture  it's a good idea to read through the information that is here in this article. It will help guide you to making better decisions about buying furniture when it's time.

When you find a piece of furniture you want, wait for it to go on sale. This is the best way to ensure you get a great deal on it. You may want it the moment you see it, but with a little patience you can save money on your purchase.

If you have small children, you should avoid purchasing furniture with sharp edges. Little ones tend to trip and fall often which can result in a trip to the emergency room if your furniture has sharp edges. Instead, when shopping for sofa tables and end tables look for furniture with routered curved edges.

Ask friends and relatives for recommendations. Everyone has bought furniture at one time or another, so it's important that you check with people you know, who can give you a place to start. That way, you can hit the ground running and make your search go more efficiently, getting your furniture much quicker.

If you want to save money when replacing furniture, you should look into purchasing previously owned furniture. With a little bit of elbow grease you can easily transform an older looking piece that is overall in good shape. You can find pieces like dressers, coffee tables, kitchen tables and more that just need a bit of paint to look good.

Choose your furniture in function of your lifestyle. If you have children or pets, you should buy furniture that is stain resistant. Choose darker colors so stains or scratches are less noticeable. If you do not have pets or children, do not hesitate to purchase some lighter colors if this is the style you want.

Avoid furniture with plastic or metal legs. These pieces of furniture are usually cheaper but they can actually damage your floors. If you leave a piece of plastic or metal furniture in the same spot for too long, it will probably leave a dark spot on your floor as well as a dent.

If you are in desperate need of furniture but cannot afford it, thing about renting it. Many rental companies, like Rent-A-Center or Aaron's, allow you to rent sofas, beds, chairs, and other furniture without having to pay up front. Instead, you can pay weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Once you are done paying it off, the furniture is yours.

If you need a new sofa, try finding one with some fully covered cushions. These cushions last longer and can be flipped regularly. Ideally, you should buy a sofa with removable covers so you can easily wash them. Removable covers can also be replaced very easily in case you cannot clean a stain.

If you're getting furniture for your teen's room, let them help you. Give them a budget, set some boundaries, and let them choose a few pieces. You can help them mix and match, but a teen will appreciate the freedom of being able to outfit his room and environment the way he sees fit.

Upholstered chairs should offer a good leg angle. When your thighs are not perpendicular with the ground when sitting, you will be unable to find comfort. Avoid chairs that give your legs an upward or downward tilt. The normal height for a seat is approximately eighteen inches; however, you can find chairs that offer a lower or higher seat to accommodate your height.

Thoroughly check any cushions on the furniture you are buying. Cushions should be firm, and have a cover that can be removed for cleaning. Try to find ones that have the same fabric on both sides. It will cost a bit more than one-sided cushions with a backing, but they will last longer and wear more evenly because you can flip them over every few months.

If you want to save money on furniture, consider alternatives to traditional shopping. Goodwill stores sometimes have pieces. Check out yard and garage sales. Also peruse Craiglist or local Freecycle options. Any community of some size has a secondary market of furniture not on showroom floors. Even consider going to storage locker auctions. If you see a piece you like, talk to the winning bidder for that locker.

If you are looking into used furniture, be sure to look under cushions and even do a smell test. The furniture may look great from a few feet away, but there can be hidden mold and even wood rot that will make the choice a poor investment. Just a little extra time and diligence is needed.

Surely, you now feel like you could do what you need to do when buying furniture now. The tips and advice that were contained in this article are geared towards helping you make those decisions without all the stress or regrets. Make sure that you remember what you've read so that you can do just that.

[wholerestart-blog]

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/six-reasons-you-cant-lose-weight/

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

When I owned a gym I watched countless people struggle with losing weight. If they did lose it, it was almost a given that they would eventually gain it back. Through my nutrition program, I was able to help countless people gain a healthy lifestyle. Consistently, I saw the same behaviors and problems during those coaching sessions. Here are the top six reasons you can’t lose weight.

I hardly eat anything!

One of the biggest reasons many people struggle with losing weight and staying in top condition is that they are not eating nutritiously. There are many diets out there that encourage people to cut their calories, carbs, fat grams, etc. to ridiculously small levels.

The human body is a wonderful and resourceful thing. When you try to lose weight by restricting your calories in your body fights back. This is commonly known as starvation mode.

As you restrict calories and add exercise you start to create a deficit. This causes your body to burn fat. Unfortunately, your body is hard-wired for survival and doesn’t see this calorie restriction and weight loss as anything but the potential to starve to death. While you know that you are doing this intentionally your body does not. So it attempts to increase hunger, make you feel more apathetic to conserve energy and in general try to keep you alive.

The moral of the story is that the more radically you reduce your intake of calories the more the body fights you and the tougher it becomes. That’s why 1-2 lbs of weight loss a week is key.

Last, be sure that you are writing down what you are actually eating every day. There are many great apps for this like Fitness Pal. I have seen it dramatically help people to lose weight when they are keeping a daily account of what they are eating. Sometimes you don’t realize how often you graze throughout the day.

Take it one step further and find an accountability partner. You don’t have to pay, find a friend that may also want to lose weight and agree to have to show each other your journals once per week.

I’m hungry all of the time!

Insulin to name the biggest culprit in hormone dysregulation may be part of your problem. Insulin is a hormone that is meant to help deal with all of the energy you consume after you eat. You’re either burning it for energy or storing it as fat.

In a healthy body the insulin level spikes immediately after eating. Whether you eat carbs or protein. However, sometimes the body doesn’t regulate the hormone right and your insulin stays high.

When insulin is chronically elevated the body never reverts to burning its storage of energy (aka fat). What does this mean? You may feel like you’re starving but never lose weight.

The danger is that eventually, chronically elevated insulin can lead to diabetes.

How did you get here? Chronically elevated insulin is typically caused by excess fat specifically the kind stored around the middle of your body. Sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, and smoking can also contribute.

To read more about this I suggest this excellent article on sustainable weight loss.

I hate Exercise!

I have seen it all when it comes to exercise done wrong. Here are just a few common mistakes people make when it comes to exercise.

Excessive: It may be in response to our fast-paced, instant gratification lifestyles. We start something new and we go hard so we can see quick results. People come to the gym for the first time in years and just absolutely punish themselves. I mean the running ten miles uphill while stopping to do 25 burpees every 2 minutes kind of punishment. Chillax! Why not start with something sustainable? Maybe walking 20 minutes every day? You can do anything for just 20 minutes, right? Find it boring? Try a book on audible while you walk. If you go so hard that you hate it you won’t do it again. Increase your workouts as you lose weight and gain muscle. Challenge yourself to do more as your workout becomes easy.

No Variety: It would be like if you ate the same food every day for the rest of your life. Spice it up. Do something different. Pre-plan your workouts one day a week for the next seven days. Think about what you’re going to do and when. Beach Body has all kinds of workouts on their on-demand program if you are looking for some variety and don’t want to join a gym.

Discipline: It’s a Monday, my legs hurt, my job is stressful, I have friends coming over, my house is a mess, I have split ends… I’ve heard all of the excuses in the book. Pick a time every day that will work for you and do it as if your life depends on it because it does.

Not enough: Matthew McConaughey says to sweat a little every day. Do whatever that looks like for you, note that “I chase my kids around all day” is not actually considered a form of exercise it’s more a form of sleep deprivation. 🙂

Consistency: It’s forever, every week, all of the time. The consistency is what makes the difference. It’s like brushing your teeth, you have to brush them for 2 minutes twice a day every day. Brushing them for 2 minutes once per week will likely result in your teeth falling out.

I love OrangeTheory, it’s consistent, it’s variety, it’s “go at my pace”. I can see when I am way overdoing or slacking off on the heart monitor. You can read my article about it here.

I am addicted….chips/sweets!

Whether you love dessert or love chips you have a sugar addiction. Sugar can be addictive and may be part of the reason that you struggle to lose weight. Your brain is constantly sending you messages about how you can get your next sugar fix! Listen to me, you can not out “will power” an addiction that you keep feeding. Eventually, it will win. Read my article about sugar here.

It’s classic addictive behavior, most people can’t imagine giving up gluten because they can’t fathom giving up the sugar. Since the American diet is laced with sugar in just about every processed food item it is hard to avoid.

Try this experiment with yourself the next time you get a craving for a cookie or a chip. Stop and consider if you are actually hungry. The way I determine this is to think about eating some broccoli or a meat stick as a snack instead. Huh! I’m not as hungry as I thought I was.

Does it mean that if you eat sugar you are destined to be overweight? You know you best. I know some people who can smoke an occasional cigarette but don’t become addicted, rather the exception than the rule. If you know you don’t have that level of discipline, stop tempting yourself beyond what you are capable of enduring and work on eliminating sugar.

The “It’s Not Fair” mentality

If you value food, sugar, and lack of exercise in your life more than you value how you look, feel, or a longer life with your loved ones than stop worrying about it! I have a close friend that totally is comfortable with himself and couldn’t care less about any of those things.

Embrace you! Be happy in your skin and be comfortable with your decision. What is really important to you? Stop and really think about it. Your body can take a ton of abuse and keep on going. In fact, it probably already has. You do you and stop worrying about what’s important to other people.

If on the other hand how you look, feel, and longer life is more important than its time to give up the “It’s not fair” mentality. It’s just food, it’s not you, it’s not your life, your kids, your friends, your work.

Stop viewing food as a source of happiness. Stop viewing eating healthy as deprivation of enjoyment. Enjoy your life, eat to stay alive. Only eat when you’re hungry and then only eat until you’re satisfied not stuffed.

When you go out for dinner with friends focus on enjoying their company rather than focusing on the food. Focus on the healthy things you are going to eat that will contribute to many more occasions that you can enjoy.

Gut Health

You are the host to 1,000’s of microbes that help you stay alive. They live in your large intestine. When we eat processed food and artificial sweeteners like aspartame we can destroy the healthy gut bacteria and allow bad bacteria to enter.

Several well-known studies have shown that weight gain can be linked to an unhealthy gut biome. One study compared two identical twins one slender and one obese. In the study, they found that the twins had very different microbes living in their gut. This challenged the genetics theory on obesity for scientists.

Even more interesting, the results were mimicked in mice. The gut biome from the slender twin given to mice yielded slender mice while the gut biome from the obese twin yielded obese mice.

Improving gut health can be done in a few different ways. You can learn about many ways to achieve this in this great article. My advice? Start with a probiotic, try this one. Consider a Paleo, Whole30 or even Vegan approach to eating. You can read my article here on what that means. You can also check out some of my favorite recipes here or join my mailing list!

Last prescription medications including antibiotics can ruin your gut health. It is one of the reasons that I stopped taking anti-depressants and found alternatives through clean eating with the help of my naturopathic doctor. You can learn a lot about it from Kelly Brogan MD. Start by visiting her website here.

I am not advocating going without antibiotics or stopping immunizations. That is a personal decision. However, knowing that being on a course of antibiotics can really mess with your gut health may help you understand what’s happening with your body. I rarely get sick, maybe once every two to three years. If I am prescribed an antibiotic, I take it, and then I get very strict on getting my gut biome back to healthy afterward.

In conclusion, there are a lot of reasons people can’t lose weight. Much of it starts with admitting there is no easy button and that this needs to be part of your life. Go to work at it as you do personal hygiene it’s what you do to take care of yourself like showering, brushing your teeth, and combing your hair.

You can do it, and we can help!

#addicted to sugar #gut health #hardly eating #hate exercise #healthy eating #low calorie #weighloss challenges #weightloss #weightloss challenges

[wholerestart-blog]

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/six-reasons-you-cant-lose-weight/

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

When I owned a gym I watched countless people struggle with losing weight. If they did lose it, it was almost a given that they would eventually gain it back. Through my nutrition program, I was able to help countless people gain a healthy lifestyle. Consistently, I saw the same behaviors and problems during those coaching sessions. Here are the top six reasons you can’t lose weight.

I hardly eat anything!

One of the biggest reasons many people struggle with losing weight and staying in top condition is that they are not eating nutritiously. There are many diets out there that encourage people to cut their calories, carbs, fat grams, etc. to ridiculously small levels.

The human body is a wonderful and resourceful thing. When you try to lose weight by restricting your calories in your body fights back. This is commonly known as starvation mode.

As you restrict calories and add exercise you start to create a deficit. This causes your body to burn fat. Unfortunately, your body is hard-wired for survival and doesn’t see this calorie restriction and weight loss as anything but the potential to starve to death. While you know that you are doing this intentionally your body does not. So it attempts to increase hunger, make you feel more apathetic to conserve energy and in general try to keep you alive.

The moral of the story is that the more radically you reduce your intake of calories the more the body fights you and the tougher it becomes. That’s why 1-2 lbs of weight loss a week is key.

Last, be sure that you are writing down what you are actually eating every day. There are many great apps for this like Fitness Pal. I have seen it dramatically help people to lose weight when they are keeping a daily account of what they are eating. Sometimes you don’t realize how often you graze throughout the day.

Take it one step further and find an accountability partner. You don’t have to pay, find a friend that may also want to lose weight and agree to have to show each other your journals once per week.

I’m hungry all of the time!

Insulin to name the biggest culprit in hormone dysregulation may be part of your problem. Insulin is a hormone that is meant to help deal with all of the energy you consume after you eat. You’re either burning it for energy or storing it as fat.

In a healthy body the insulin level spikes immediately after eating. Whether you eat carbs or protein. However, sometimes the body doesn’t regulate the hormone right and your insulin stays high.

When insulin is chronically elevated the body never reverts to burning its storage of energy (aka fat). What does this mean? You may feel like you’re starving but never lose weight.

The danger is that eventually, chronically elevated insulin can lead to diabetes.

How did you get here? Chronically elevated insulin is typically caused by excess fat specifically the kind stored around the middle of your body. Sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, and smoking can also contribute.

To read more about this I suggest this excellent article on sustainable weight loss.

I hate Exercise!

I have seen it all when it comes to exercise done wrong. Here are just a few common mistakes people make when it comes to exercise.

Excessive: It may be in response to our fast-paced, instant gratification lifestyles. We start something new and we go hard so we can see quick results. People come to the gym for the first time in years and just absolutely punish themselves. I mean the running ten miles uphill while stopping to do 25 burpees every 2 minutes kind of punishment. Chillax! Why not start with something sustainable? Maybe walking 20 minutes every day? You can do anything for just 20 minutes, right? Find it boring? Try a book on audible while you walk. If you go so hard that you hate it you won’t do it again. Increase your workouts as you lose weight and gain muscle. Challenge yourself to do more as your workout becomes easy.

No Variety: It would be like if you ate the same food every day for the rest of your life. Spice it up. Do something different. Pre-plan your workouts one day a week for the next seven days. Think about what you’re going to do and when. Beach Body has all kinds of workouts on their on-demand program if you are looking for some variety and don’t want to join a gym.

Discipline: It’s a Monday, my legs hurt, my job is stressful, I have friends coming over, my house is a mess, I have split ends… I’ve heard all of the excuses in the book. Pick a time every day that will work for you and do it as if your life depends on it because it does.

Not enough: Matthew McConaughey says to sweat a little every day. Do whatever that looks like for you, note that “I chase my kids around all day” is not actually considered a form of exercise it’s more a form of sleep deprivation. 🙂

Consistency: It’s forever, every week, all of the time. The consistency is what makes the difference. It’s like brushing your teeth, you have to brush them for 2 minutes twice a day every day. Brushing them for 2 minutes once per week will likely result in your teeth falling out.

I love OrangeTheory, it’s consistent, it’s variety, it’s “go at my pace”. I can see when I am way overdoing or slacking off on the heart monitor. You can read my article about it here.

I am addicted….chips/sweets!

Whether you love dessert or love chips you have a sugar addiction. Sugar can be addictive and may be part of the reason that you struggle to lose weight. Your brain is constantly sending you messages about how you can get your next sugar fix! Listen to me, you can not out “will power” an addiction that you keep feeding. Eventually, it will win. Read my article about sugar here.

It’s classic addictive behavior, most people can’t imagine giving up gluten because they can’t fathom giving up the sugar. Since the American diet is laced with sugar in just about every processed food item it is hard to avoid.

Try this experiment with yourself the next time you get a craving for a cookie or a chip. Stop and consider if you are actually hungry. The way I determine this is to think about eating some broccoli or a meat stick as a snack instead. Huh! I’m not as hungry as I thought I was.

Does it mean that if you eat sugar you are destined to be overweight? You know you best. I know some people who can smoke an occasional cigarette but don’t become addicted, rather the exception than the rule. If you know you don’t have that level of discipline, stop tempting yourself beyond what you are capable of enduring and work on eliminating sugar.

The “It’s Not Fair” mentality

If you value food, sugar, and lack of exercise in your life more than you value how you look, feel, or a longer life with your loved ones than stop worrying about it! I have a close friend that totally is comfortable with himself and couldn’t care less about any of those things.

Embrace you! Be happy in your skin and be comfortable with your decision. What is really important to you? Stop and really think about it. Your body can take a ton of abuse and keep on going. In fact, it probably already has. You do you and stop worrying about what’s important to other people.

If on the other hand how you look, feel, and longer life is more important than its time to give up the “It’s not fair” mentality. It’s just food, it’s not you, it’s not your life, your kids, your friends, your work.

Stop viewing food as a source of happiness. Stop viewing eating healthy as deprivation of enjoyment. Enjoy your life, eat to stay alive. Only eat when you’re hungry and then only eat until you’re satisfied not stuffed.

When you go out for dinner with friends focus on enjoying their company rather than focusing on the food. Focus on the healthy things you are going to eat that will contribute to many more occasions that you can enjoy.

Gut Health

You are the host to 1,000’s of microbes that help you stay alive. They live in your large intestine. When we eat processed food and artificial sweeteners like aspartame we can destroy the healthy gut bacteria and allow bad bacteria to enter.

Several well-known studies have shown that weight gain can be linked to an unhealthy gut biome. One study compared two identical twins one slender and one obese. In the study, they found that the twins had very different microbes living in their gut. This challenged the genetics theory on obesity for scientists.

Even more interesting, the results were mimicked in mice. The gut biome from the slender twin given to mice yielded slender mice while the gut biome from the obese twin yielded obese mice.

Improving gut health can be done in a few different ways. You can learn about many ways to achieve this in this great article. My advice? Start with a probiotic, try this one. Consider a Paleo, Whole30 or even Vegan approach to eating. You can read my article here on what that means. You can also check out some of my favorite recipes here or join my mailing list!

Last prescription medications including antibiotics can ruin your gut health. It is one of the reasons that I stopped taking anti-depressants and found alternatives through clean eating with the help of my naturopathic doctor. You can learn a lot about it from Kelly Brogan MD. Start by visiting her website here.

I am not advocating going without antibiotics or stopping immunizations. That is a personal decision. However, knowing that being on a course of antibiotics can really mess with your gut health may help you understand what’s happening with your body. I rarely get sick, maybe once every two to three years. If I am prescribed an antibiotic, I take it, and then I get very strict on getting my gut biome back to healthy afterward.

In conclusion, there are a lot of reasons people can’t lose weight. Much of it starts with admitting there is no easy button and that this needs to be part of your life. Go to work at it as you do personal hygiene it’s what you do to take care of yourself like showering, brushing your teeth, and combing your hair.

You can do it, and we can help!

#addicted to sugar #gut health #hardly eating #hate exercise #healthy eating #low calorie #weighloss challenges #weightloss #weightloss challenges

[wholerestart-blog]

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/six-reasons-you-cant-lose-weight/

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

When I owned a gym I watched countless people struggle with losing weight. If they did lose it, it was almost a given that they would eventually gain it back. Through my nutrition program, I was able to help countless people gain a healthy lifestyle. Consistently, I saw the same behaviors and problems during those coaching sessions. Here are the top six reasons you can’t lose weight.

I hardly eat anything!

One of the biggest reasons many people struggle with losing weight and staying in top condition is that they are not eating nutritiously. There are many diets out there that encourage people to cut their calories, carbs, fat grams, etc. to ridiculously small levels.

The human body is a wonderful and resourceful thing. When you try to lose weight by restricting your calories in your body fights back. This is commonly known as starvation mode.

As you restrict calories and add exercise you start to create a deficit. This causes your body to burn fat. Unfortunately, your body is hard-wired for survival and doesn’t see this calorie restriction and weight loss as anything but the potential to starve to death. While you know that you are doing this intentionally your body does not. So it attempts to increase hunger, make you feel more apathetic to conserve energy and in general try to keep you alive.

The moral of the story is that the more radically you reduce your intake of calories the more the body fights you and the tougher it becomes. That’s why 1-2 lbs of weight loss a week is key.

Last, be sure that you are writing down what you are actually eating every day. There are many great apps for this like Fitness Pal. I have seen it dramatically help people to lose weight when they are keeping a daily account of what they are eating. Sometimes you don’t realize how often you graze throughout the day.

Take it one step further and find an accountability partner. You don’t have to pay, find a friend that may also want to lose weight and agree to have to show each other your journals once per week.

I’m hungry all of the time!

Insulin to name the biggest culprit in hormone dysregulation may be part of your problem. Insulin is a hormone that is meant to help deal with all of the energy you consume after you eat. You’re either burning it for energy or storing it as fat.

In a healthy body the insulin level spikes immediately after eating. Whether you eat carbs or protein. However, sometimes the body doesn’t regulate the hormone right and your insulin stays high.

When insulin is chronically elevated the body never reverts to burning its storage of energy (aka fat). What does this mean? You may feel like you’re starving but never lose weight.

The danger is that eventually, chronically elevated insulin can lead to diabetes.

How did you get here? Chronically elevated insulin is typically caused by excess fat specifically the kind stored around the middle of your body. Sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, and smoking can also contribute.

To read more about this I suggest this excellent article on sustainable weight loss.

I hate Exercise!

I have seen it all when it comes to exercise done wrong. Here are just a few common mistakes people make when it comes to exercise.

Excessive: It may be in response to our fast-paced, instant gratification lifestyles. We start something new and we go hard so we can see quick results. People come to the gym for the first time in years and just absolutely punish themselves. I mean the running ten miles uphill while stopping to do 25 burpees every 2 minutes kind of punishment. Chillax! Why not start with something sustainable? Maybe walking 20 minutes every day? You can do anything for just 20 minutes, right? Find it boring? Try a book on audible while you walk. If you go so hard that you hate it you won’t do it again. Increase your workouts as you lose weight and gain muscle. Challenge yourself to do more as your workout becomes easy.

No Variety: It would be like if you ate the same food every day for the rest of your life. Spice it up. Do something different. Pre-plan your workouts one day a week for the next seven days. Think about what you’re going to do and when. Beach Body has all kinds of workouts on their on-demand program if you are looking for some variety and don’t want to join a gym.

Discipline: It’s a Monday, my legs hurt, my job is stressful, I have friends coming over, my house is a mess, I have split ends… I’ve heard all of the excuses in the book. Pick a time every day that will work for you and do it as if your life depends on it because it does.

Not enough: Matthew McConaughey says to sweat a little every day. Do whatever that looks like for you, note that “I chase my kids around all day” is not actually considered a form of exercise it’s more a form of sleep deprivation. 🙂

Consistency: It’s forever, every week, all of the time. The consistency is what makes the difference. It’s like brushing your teeth, you have to brush them for 2 minutes twice a day every day. Brushing them for 2 minutes once per week will likely result in your teeth falling out.

I love OrangeTheory, it’s consistent, it’s variety, it’s “go at my pace”. I can see when I am way overdoing or slacking off on the heart monitor. You can read my article about it here.

I am addicted….chips/sweets!

Whether you love dessert or love chips you have a sugar addiction. Sugar can be addictive and may be part of the reason that you struggle to lose weight. Your brain is constantly sending you messages about how you can get your next sugar fix! Listen to me, you can not out “will power” an addiction that you keep feeding. Eventually, it will win. Read my article about sugar here.

It’s classic addictive behavior, most people can’t imagine giving up gluten because they can’t fathom giving up the sugar. Since the American diet is laced with sugar in just about every processed food item it is hard to avoid.

Try this experiment with yourself the next time you get a craving for a cookie or a chip. Stop and consider if you are actually hungry. The way I determine this is to think about eating some broccoli or a meat stick as a snack instead. Huh! I’m not as hungry as I thought I was.

Does it mean that if you eat sugar you are destined to be overweight? You know you best. I know some people who can smoke an occasional cigarette but don’t become addicted, rather the exception than the rule. If you know you don’t have that level of discipline, stop tempting yourself beyond what you are capable of enduring and work on eliminating sugar.

The “It’s Not Fair” mentality

If you value food, sugar, and lack of exercise in your life more than you value how you look, feel, or a longer life with your loved ones than stop worrying about it! I have a close friend that totally is comfortable with himself and couldn’t care less about any of those things.

Embrace you! Be happy in your skin and be comfortable with your decision. What is really important to you? Stop and really think about it. Your body can take a ton of abuse and keep on going. In fact, it probably already has. You do you and stop worrying about what’s important to other people.

If on the other hand how you look, feel, and longer life is more important than its time to give up the “It’s not fair” mentality. It’s just food, it’s not you, it’s not your life, your kids, your friends, your work.

Stop viewing food as a source of happiness. Stop viewing eating healthy as deprivation of enjoyment. Enjoy your life, eat to stay alive. Only eat when you’re hungry and then only eat until you’re satisfied not stuffed.

When you go out for dinner with friends focus on enjoying their company rather than focusing on the food. Focus on the healthy things you are going to eat that will contribute to many more occasions that you can enjoy.

Gut Health

You are the host to 1,000’s of microbes that help you stay alive. They live in your large intestine. When we eat processed food and artificial sweeteners like aspartame we can destroy the healthy gut bacteria and allow bad bacteria to enter.

Several well-known studies have shown that weight gain can be linked to an unhealthy gut biome. One study compared two identical twins one slender and one obese. In the study, they found that the twins had very different microbes living in their gut. This challenged the genetics theory on obesity for scientists.

Even more interesting, the results were mimicked in mice. The gut biome from the slender twin given to mice yielded slender mice while the gut biome from the obese twin yielded obese mice.

Improving gut health can be done in a few different ways. You can learn about many ways to achieve this in this great article. My advice? Start with a probiotic, try this one. Consider a Paleo, Whole30 or even Vegan approach to eating. You can read my article here on what that means. You can also check out some of my favorite recipes here or join my mailing list!

Last prescription medications including antibiotics can ruin your gut health. It is one of the reasons that I stopped taking anti-depressants and found alternatives through clean eating with the help of my naturopathic doctor. You can learn a lot about it from Kelly Brogan MD. Start by visiting her website here.

I am not advocating going without antibiotics or stopping immunizations. That is a personal decision. However, knowing that being on a course of antibiotics can really mess with your gut health may help you understand what’s happening with your body. I rarely get sick, maybe once every two to three years. If I am prescribed an antibiotic, I take it, and then I get very strict on getting my gut biome back to healthy afterward.

In conclusion, there are a lot of reasons people can’t lose weight. Much of it starts with admitting there is no easy button and that this needs to be part of your life. Go to work at it as you do personal hygiene it’s what you do to take care of yourself like showering, brushing your teeth, and combing your hair.

You can do it, and we can help!

#addicted to sugar #gut health #hardly eating #hate exercise #healthy eating #low calorie #weighloss challenges #weightloss #weightloss challenges

[wholerestart-blog]

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/six-reasons-you-cant-lose-weight/

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

When I owned a gym I watched countless people struggle with losing weight. If they did lose it, it was almost a given that they would eventually gain it back. Through my nutrition program, I was able to help countless people gain a healthy lifestyle. Consistently, I saw the same behaviors and problems during those coaching sessions. Here are the top six reasons you can’t lose weight.

I hardly eat anything!

One of the biggest reasons many people struggle with losing weight and staying in top condition is that they are not eating nutritiously. There are many diets out there that encourage people to cut their calories, carbs, fat grams, etc. to ridiculously small levels.

The human body is a wonderful and resourceful thing. When you try to lose weight by restricting your calories in your body fights back. This is commonly known as starvation mode.

As you restrict calories and add exercise you start to create a deficit. This causes your body to burn fat. Unfortunately, your body is hard-wired for survival and doesn’t see this calorie restriction and weight loss as anything but the potential to starve to death. While you know that you are doing this intentionally your body does not. So it attempts to increase hunger, make you feel more apathetic to conserve energy and in general try to keep you alive.

The moral of the story is that the more radically you reduce your intake of calories the more the body fights you and the tougher it becomes. That’s why 1-2 lbs of weight loss a week is key.

Last, be sure that you are writing down what you are actually eating every day. There are many great apps for this like Fitness Pal. I have seen it dramatically help people to lose weight when they are keeping a daily account of what they are eating. Sometimes you don’t realize how often you graze throughout the day.

Take it one step further and find an accountability partner. You don’t have to pay, find a friend that may also want to lose weight and agree to have to show each other your journals once per week.

I’m hungry all of the time!

Insulin to name the biggest culprit in hormone dysregulation may be part of your problem. Insulin is a hormone that is meant to help deal with all of the energy you consume after you eat. You’re either burning it for energy or storing it as fat.

In a healthy body the insulin level spikes immediately after eating. Whether you eat carbs or protein. However, sometimes the body doesn’t regulate the hormone right and your insulin stays high.

When insulin is chronically elevated the body never reverts to burning its storage of energy (aka fat). What does this mean? You may feel like you’re starving but never lose weight.

The danger is that eventually, chronically elevated insulin can lead to diabetes.

How did you get here? Chronically elevated insulin is typically caused by excess fat specifically the kind stored around the middle of your body. Sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, and smoking can also contribute.

To read more about this I suggest this excellent article on sustainable weight loss.

I hate Exercise!

I have seen it all when it comes to exercise done wrong. Here are just a few common mistakes people make when it comes to exercise.

Excessive: It may be in response to our fast-paced, instant gratification lifestyles. We start something new and we go hard so we can see quick results. People come to the gym for the first time in years and just absolutely punish themselves. I mean the running ten miles uphill while stopping to do 25 burpees every 2 minutes kind of punishment. Chillax! Why not start with something sustainable? Maybe walking 20 minutes every day? You can do anything for just 20 minutes, right? Find it boring? Try a book on audible while you walk. If you go so hard that you hate it you won’t do it again. Increase your workouts as you lose weight and gain muscle. Challenge yourself to do more as your workout becomes easy.

No Variety: It would be like if you ate the same food every day for the rest of your life. Spice it up. Do something different. Pre-plan your workouts one day a week for the next seven days. Think about what you’re going to do and when. Beach Body has all kinds of workouts on their on-demand program if you are looking for some variety and don’t want to join a gym.

Discipline: It’s a Monday, my legs hurt, my job is stressful, I have friends coming over, my house is a mess, I have split ends… I’ve heard all of the excuses in the book. Pick a time every day that will work for you and do it as if your life depends on it because it does.

Not enough: Matthew McConaughey says to sweat a little every day. Do whatever that looks like for you, note that “I chase my kids around all day” is not actually considered a form of exercise it’s more a form of sleep deprivation. 🙂

Consistency: It’s forever, every week, all of the time. The consistency is what makes the difference. It’s like brushing your teeth, you have to brush them for 2 minutes twice a day every day. Brushing them for 2 minutes once per week will likely result in your teeth falling out.

I love OrangeTheory, it’s consistent, it’s variety, it’s “go at my pace”. I can see when I am way overdoing or slacking off on the heart monitor. You can read my article about it here.

I am addicted….chips/sweets!

Whether you love dessert or love chips you have a sugar addiction. Sugar can be addictive and may be part of the reason that you struggle to lose weight. Your brain is constantly sending you messages about how you can get your next sugar fix! Listen to me, you can not out “will power” an addiction that you keep feeding. Eventually, it will win. Read my article about sugar here.

It’s classic addictive behavior, most people can’t imagine giving up gluten because they can’t fathom giving up the sugar. Since the American diet is laced with sugar in just about every processed food item it is hard to avoid.

Try this experiment with yourself the next time you get a craving for a cookie or a chip. Stop and consider if you are actually hungry. The way I determine this is to think about eating some broccoli or a meat stick as a snack instead. Huh! I’m not as hungry as I thought I was.

Does it mean that if you eat sugar you are destined to be overweight? You know you best. I know some people who can smoke an occasional cigarette but don’t become addicted, rather the exception than the rule. If you know you don’t have that level of discipline, stop tempting yourself beyond what you are capable of enduring and work on eliminating sugar.

The “It’s Not Fair” mentality

If you value food, sugar, and lack of exercise in your life more than you value how you look, feel, or a longer life with your loved ones than stop worrying about it! I have a close friend that totally is comfortable with himself and couldn’t care less about any of those things.

Embrace you! Be happy in your skin and be comfortable with your decision. What is really important to you? Stop and really think about it. Your body can take a ton of abuse and keep on going. In fact, it probably already has. You do you and stop worrying about what’s important to other people.

If on the other hand how you look, feel, and longer life is more important than its time to give up the “It’s not fair” mentality. It’s just food, it’s not you, it’s not your life, your kids, your friends, your work.

Stop viewing food as a source of happiness. Stop viewing eating healthy as deprivation of enjoyment. Enjoy your life, eat to stay alive. Only eat when you’re hungry and then only eat until you’re satisfied not stuffed.

When you go out for dinner with friends focus on enjoying their company rather than focusing on the food. Focus on the healthy things you are going to eat that will contribute to many more occasions that you can enjoy.

Gut Health

You are the host to 1,000’s of microbes that help you stay alive. They live in your large intestine. When we eat processed food and artificial sweeteners like aspartame we can destroy the healthy gut bacteria and allow bad bacteria to enter.

Several well-known studies have shown that weight gain can be linked to an unhealthy gut biome. One study compared two identical twins one slender and one obese. In the study, they found that the twins had very different microbes living in their gut. This challenged the genetics theory on obesity for scientists.

Even more interesting, the results were mimicked in mice. The gut biome from the slender twin given to mice yielded slender mice while the gut biome from the obese twin yielded obese mice.

Improving gut health can be done in a few different ways. You can learn about many ways to achieve this in this great article. My advice? Start with a probiotic, try this one. Consider a Paleo, Whole30 or even Vegan approach to eating. You can read my article here on what that means. You can also check out some of my favorite recipes here or join my mailing list!

Last prescription medications including antibiotics can ruin your gut health. It is one of the reasons that I stopped taking anti-depressants and found alternatives through clean eating with the help of my naturopathic doctor. You can learn a lot about it from Kelly Brogan MD. Start by visiting her website here.

I am not advocating going without antibiotics or stopping immunizations. That is a personal decision. However, knowing that being on a course of antibiotics can really mess with your gut health may help you understand what’s happening with your body. I rarely get sick, maybe once every two to three years. If I am prescribed an antibiotic, I take it, and then I get very strict on getting my gut biome back to healthy afterward.

In conclusion, there are a lot of reasons people can’t lose weight. Much of it starts with admitting there is no easy button and that this needs to be part of your life. Go to work at it as you do personal hygiene it’s what you do to take care of yourself like showering, brushing your teeth, and combing your hair.

You can do it, and we can help!

#addicted to sugar #gut health #hardly eating #hate exercise #healthy eating #low calorie #weighloss challenges #weightloss #weightloss challenges

[wholerestart-blog]

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/six-reasons-you-cant-lose-weight/

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

When I owned a gym I watched countless people struggle with losing weight. If they did lose it, it was almost a given that they would eventually gain it back. Through my nutrition program, I was able to help countless people gain a healthy lifestyle. Consistently, I saw the same behaviors and problems during those coaching sessions. Here are the top six reasons you can’t lose weight.

I hardly eat anything!

One of the biggest reasons many people struggle with losing weight and staying in top condition is that they are not eating nutritiously. There are many diets out there that encourage people to cut their calories, carbs, fat grams, etc. to ridiculously small levels.

The human body is a wonderful and resourceful thing. When you try to lose weight by restricting your calories in your body fights back. This is commonly known as starvation mode.

As you restrict calories and add exercise you start to create a deficit. This causes your body to burn fat. Unfortunately, your body is hard-wired for survival and doesn’t see this calorie restriction and weight loss as anything but the potential to starve to death. While you know that you are doing this intentionally your body does not. So it attempts to increase hunger, make you feel more apathetic to conserve energy and in general try to keep you alive.

The moral of the story is that the more radically you reduce your intake of calories the more the body fights you and the tougher it becomes. That’s why 1-2 lbs of weight loss a week is key.

Last, be sure that you are writing down what you are actually eating every day. There are many great apps for this like Fitness Pal. I have seen it dramatically help people to lose weight when they are keeping a daily account of what they are eating. Sometimes you don’t realize how often you graze throughout the day.

Take it one step further and find an accountability partner. You don’t have to pay, find a friend that may also want to lose weight and agree to have to show each other your journals once per week.

I’m hungry all of the time!

Insulin to name the biggest culprit in hormone dysregulation may be part of your problem. Insulin is a hormone that is meant to help deal with all of the energy you consume after you eat. You’re either burning it for energy or storing it as fat.

In a healthy body the insulin level spikes immediately after eating. Whether you eat carbs or protein. However, sometimes the body doesn’t regulate the hormone right and your insulin stays high.

When insulin is chronically elevated the body never reverts to burning its storage of energy (aka fat). What does this mean? You may feel like you’re starving but never lose weight.

The danger is that eventually, chronically elevated insulin can lead to diabetes.

How did you get here? Chronically elevated insulin is typically caused by excess fat specifically the kind stored around the middle of your body. Sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, and smoking can also contribute.

To read more about this I suggest this excellent article on sustainable weight loss.

I hate Exercise!

I have seen it all when it comes to exercise done wrong. Here are just a few common mistakes people make when it comes to exercise.

Excessive: It may be in response to our fast-paced, instant gratification lifestyles. We start something new and we go hard so we can see quick results. People come to the gym for the first time in years and just absolutely punish themselves. I mean the running ten miles uphill while stopping to do 25 burpees every 2 minutes kind of punishment. Chillax! Why not start with something sustainable? Maybe walking 20 minutes every day? You can do anything for just 20 minutes, right? Find it boring? Try a book on audible while you walk. If you go so hard that you hate it you won’t do it again. Increase your workouts as you lose weight and gain muscle. Challenge yourself to do more as your workout becomes easy.

No Variety: It would be like if you ate the same food every day for the rest of your life. Spice it up. Do something different. Pre-plan your workouts one day a week for the next seven days. Think about what you’re going to do and when. Beach Body has all kinds of workouts on their on-demand program if you are looking for some variety and don’t want to join a gym.

Discipline: It’s a Monday, my legs hurt, my job is stressful, I have friends coming over, my house is a mess, I have split ends… I’ve heard all of the excuses in the book. Pick a time every day that will work for you and do it as if your life depends on it because it does.

Not enough: Matthew McConaughey says to sweat a little every day. Do whatever that looks like for you, note that “I chase my kids around all day” is not actually considered a form of exercise it’s more a form of sleep deprivation. 🙂

Consistency: It’s forever, every week, all of the time. The consistency is what makes the difference. It’s like brushing your teeth, you have to brush them for 2 minutes twice a day every day. Brushing them for 2 minutes once per week will likely result in your teeth falling out.

I love OrangeTheory, it’s consistent, it’s variety, it’s “go at my pace”. I can see when I am way overdoing or slacking off on the heart monitor. You can read my article about it here.

I am addicted….chips/sweets!

Whether you love dessert or love chips you have a sugar addiction. Sugar can be addictive and may be part of the reason that you struggle to lose weight. Your brain is constantly sending you messages about how you can get your next sugar fix! Listen to me, you can not out “will power” an addiction that you keep feeding. Eventually, it will win. Read my article about sugar here.

It’s classic addictive behavior, most people can’t imagine giving up gluten because they can’t fathom giving up the sugar. Since the American diet is laced with sugar in just about every processed food item it is hard to avoid.

Try this experiment with yourself the next time you get a craving for a cookie or a chip. Stop and consider if you are actually hungry. The way I determine this is to think about eating some broccoli or a meat stick as a snack instead. Huh! I’m not as hungry as I thought I was.

Does it mean that if you eat sugar you are destined to be overweight? You know you best. I know some people who can smoke an occasional cigarette but don’t become addicted, rather the exception than the rule. If you know you don’t have that level of discipline, stop tempting yourself beyond what you are capable of enduring and work on eliminating sugar.

The “It’s Not Fair” mentality

If you value food, sugar, and lack of exercise in your life more than you value how you look, feel, or a longer life with your loved ones than stop worrying about it! I have a close friend that totally is comfortable with himself and couldn’t care less about any of those things.

Embrace you! Be happy in your skin and be comfortable with your decision. What is really important to you? Stop and really think about it. Your body can take a ton of abuse and keep on going. In fact, it probably already has. You do you and stop worrying about what’s important to other people.

If on the other hand how you look, feel, and longer life is more important than its time to give up the “It’s not fair” mentality. It’s just food, it’s not you, it’s not your life, your kids, your friends, your work.

Stop viewing food as a source of happiness. Stop viewing eating healthy as deprivation of enjoyment. Enjoy your life, eat to stay alive. Only eat when you’re hungry and then only eat until you’re satisfied not stuffed.

When you go out for dinner with friends focus on enjoying their company rather than focusing on the food. Focus on the healthy things you are going to eat that will contribute to many more occasions that you can enjoy.

Gut Health

You are the host to 1,000’s of microbes that help you stay alive. They live in your large intestine. When we eat processed food and artificial sweeteners like aspartame we can destroy the healthy gut bacteria and allow bad bacteria to enter.

Several well-known studies have shown that weight gain can be linked to an unhealthy gut biome. One study compared two identical twins one slender and one obese. In the study, they found that the twins had very different microbes living in their gut. This challenged the genetics theory on obesity for scientists.

Even more interesting, the results were mimicked in mice. The gut biome from the slender twin given to mice yielded slender mice while the gut biome from the obese twin yielded obese mice.

Improving gut health can be done in a few different ways. You can learn about many ways to achieve this in this great article. My advice? Start with a probiotic, try this one. Consider a Paleo, Whole30 or even Vegan approach to eating. You can read my article here on what that means. You can also check out some of my favorite recipes here or join my mailing list!

Last prescription medications including antibiotics can ruin your gut health. It is one of the reasons that I stopped taking anti-depressants and found alternatives through clean eating with the help of my naturopathic doctor. You can learn a lot about it from Kelly Brogan MD. Start by visiting her website here.

I am not advocating going without antibiotics or stopping immunizations. That is a personal decision. However, knowing that being on a course of antibiotics can really mess with your gut health may help you understand what’s happening with your body. I rarely get sick, maybe once every two to three years. If I am prescribed an antibiotic, I take it, and then I get very strict on getting my gut biome back to healthy afterward.

In conclusion, there are a lot of reasons people can’t lose weight. Much of it starts with admitting there is no easy button and that this needs to be part of your life. Go to work at it as you do personal hygiene it’s what you do to take care of yourself like showering, brushing your teeth, and combing your hair.

You can do it, and we can help!

#addicted to sugar #gut health #hardly eating #hate exercise #healthy eating #low calorie #weighloss challenges #weightloss #weightloss challenges

[wholerestart-blog]

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/six-reasons-you-cant-lose-weight/

Six Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

When I owned a gym I watched countless people struggle with losing weight. If they did lose it, it was almost a given that they would eventually gain it back. Through my nutrition program, I was able to help countless people gain a healthy lifestyle. Consistently, I saw the same behaviors and problems during those coaching sessions. Here are the top six reasons you can’t lose weight.

I hardly eat anything!

One of the biggest reasons many people struggle with losing weight and staying in top condition is that they are not eating nutritiously. There are many diets out there that encourage people to cut their calories, carbs, fat grams, etc. to ridiculously small levels.

The human body is a wonderful and resourceful thing. When you try to lose weight by restricting your calories in your body fights back. This is commonly known as starvation mode.

As you restrict calories and add exercise you start to create a deficit. This causes your body to burn fat. Unfortunately, your body is hard-wired for survival and doesn’t see this calorie restriction and weight loss as anything but the potential to starve to death. While you know that you are doing this intentionally your body does not. So it attempts to increase hunger, make you feel more apathetic to conserve energy and in general try to keep you alive.

The moral of the story is that the more radically you reduce your intake of calories the more the body fights you and the tougher it becomes. That’s why 1-2 lbs of weight loss a week is key.

Last, be sure that you are writing down what you are actually eating every day. There are many great apps for this like Fitness Pal. I have seen it dramatically help people to lose weight when they are keeping a daily account of what they are eating. Sometimes you don’t realize how often you graze throughout the day.

Take it one step further and find an accountability partner. You don’t have to pay, find a friend that may also want to lose weight and agree to have to show each other your journals once per week.

I’m hungry all of the time!

Insulin to name the biggest culprit in hormone dysregulation may be part of your problem. Insulin is a hormone that is meant to help deal with all of the energy you consume after you eat. You’re either burning it for energy or storing it as fat.

In a healthy body the insulin level spikes immediately after eating. Whether you eat carbs or protein. However, sometimes the body doesn’t regulate the hormone right and your insulin stays high.

When insulin is chronically elevated the body never reverts to burning its storage of energy (aka fat). What does this mean? You may feel like you’re starving but never lose weight.

The danger is that eventually, chronically elevated insulin can lead to diabetes.

How did you get here? Chronically elevated insulin is typically caused by excess fat specifically the kind stored around the middle of your body. Sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, and smoking can also contribute.

To read more about this I suggest this excellent article on sustainable weight loss.

I hate Exercise!

I have seen it all when it comes to exercise done wrong. Here are just a few common mistakes people make when it comes to exercise.

Excessive: It may be in response to our fast-paced, instant gratification lifestyles. We start something new and we go hard so we can see quick results. People come to the gym for the first time in years and just absolutely punish themselves. I mean the running ten miles uphill while stopping to do 25 burpees every 2 minutes kind of punishment. Chillax! Why not start with something sustainable? Maybe walking 20 minutes every day? You can do anything for just 20 minutes, right? Find it boring? Try a book on audible while you walk. If you go so hard that you hate it you won’t do it again. Increase your workouts as you lose weight and gain muscle. Challenge yourself to do more as your workout becomes easy.

No Variety: It would be like if you ate the same food every day for the rest of your life. Spice it up. Do something different. Pre-plan your workouts one day a week for the next seven days. Think about what you’re going to do and when. Beach Body has all kinds of workouts on their on-demand program if you are looking for some variety and don’t want to join a gym.

Discipline: It’s a Monday, my legs hurt, my job is stressful, I have friends coming over, my house is a mess, I have split ends… I’ve heard all of the excuses in the book. Pick a time every day that will work for you and do it as if your life depends on it because it does.

Not enough: Matthew McConaughey says to sweat a little every day. Do whatever that looks like for you, note that “I chase my kids around all day” is not actually considered a form of exercise it’s more a form of sleep deprivation. 🙂

Consistency: It’s forever, every week, all of the time. The consistency is what makes the difference. It’s like brushing your teeth, you have to brush them for 2 minutes twice a day every day. Brushing them for 2 minutes once per week will likely result in your teeth falling out.

I love OrangeTheory, it’s consistent, it’s variety, it’s “go at my pace”. I can see when I am way overdoing or slacking off on the heart monitor. You can read my article about it here.

I am addicted….chips/sweets!

Whether you love dessert or love chips you have a sugar addiction. Sugar can be addictive and may be part of the reason that you struggle to lose weight. Your brain is constantly sending you messages about how you can get your next sugar fix! Listen to me, you can not out “will power” an addiction that you keep feeding. Eventually, it will win. Read my article about sugar here.

It’s classic addictive behavior, most people can’t imagine giving up gluten because they can’t fathom giving up the sugar. Since the American diet is laced with sugar in just about every processed food item it is hard to avoid.

Try this experiment with yourself the next time you get a craving for a cookie or a chip. Stop and consider if you are actually hungry. The way I determine this is to think about eating some broccoli or a meat stick as a snack instead. Huh! I’m not as hungry as I thought I was.

Does it mean that if you eat sugar you are destined to be overweight? You know you best. I know some people who can smoke an occasional cigarette but don’t become addicted, rather the exception than the rule. If you know you don’t have that level of discipline, stop tempting yourself beyond what you are capable of enduring and work on eliminating sugar.

The “It’s Not Fair” mentality

If you value food, sugar, and lack of exercise in your life more than you value how you look, feel, or a longer life with your loved ones than stop worrying about it! I have a close friend that totally is comfortable with himself and couldn’t care less about any of those things.

Embrace you! Be happy in your skin and be comfortable with your decision. What is really important to you? Stop and really think about it. Your body can take a ton of abuse and keep on going. In fact, it probably already has. You do you and stop worrying about what’s important to other people.

If on the other hand how you look, feel, and longer life is more important than its time to give up the “It’s not fair” mentality. It’s just food, it’s not you, it’s not your life, your kids, your friends, your work.

Stop viewing food as a source of happiness. Stop viewing eating healthy as deprivation of enjoyment. Enjoy your life, eat to stay alive. Only eat when you’re hungry and then only eat until you’re satisfied not stuffed.

When you go out for dinner with friends focus on enjoying their company rather than focusing on the food. Focus on the healthy things you are going to eat that will contribute to many more occasions that you can enjoy.

Gut Health

You are the host to 1,000’s of microbes that help you stay alive. They live in your large intestine. When we eat processed food and artificial sweeteners like aspartame we can destroy the healthy gut bacteria and allow bad bacteria to enter.

Several well-known studies have shown that weight gain can be linked to an unhealthy gut biome. One study compared two identical twins one slender and one obese. In the study, they found that the twins had very different microbes living in their gut. This challenged the genetics theory on obesity for scientists.

Even more interesting, the results were mimicked in mice. The gut biome from the slender twin given to mice yielded slender mice while the gut biome from the obese twin yielded obese mice.

Improving gut health can be done in a few different ways. You can learn about many ways to achieve this in this great article. My advice? Start with a probiotic, try this one. Consider a Paleo, Whole30 or even Vegan approach to eating. You can read my article here on what that means. You can also check out some of my favorite recipes here or join my mailing list!

Last prescription medications including antibiotics can ruin your gut health. It is one of the reasons that I stopped taking anti-depressants and found alternatives through clean eating with the help of my naturopathic doctor. You can learn a lot about it from Kelly Brogan MD. Start by visiting her website here.

I am not advocating going without antibiotics or stopping immunizations. That is a personal decision. However, knowing that being on a course of antibiotics can really mess with your gut health may help you understand what’s happening with your body. I rarely get sick, maybe once every two to three years. If I am prescribed an antibiotic, I take it, and then I get very strict on getting my gut biome back to healthy afterward.

In conclusion, there are a lot of reasons people can’t lose weight. Much of it starts with admitting there is no easy button and that this needs to be part of your life. Go to work at it as you do personal hygiene it’s what you do to take care of yourself like showering, brushing your teeth, and combing your hair.

You can do it, and we can help!

#addicted to sugar #gut health #hardly eating #hate exercise #healthy eating #low calorie #weighloss challenges #weightloss #weightloss challenges