Living as young adults we are reckless. Well, most of us. Our bodies are capable of surviving A LOT and our metabolisms are at their finest. Except then the time comes when none of it is true anymore.

I was always a thin kid, with quick metabolism and a good appetite. I was raised in a Russian family where we had a lot of fish, salads and soups and half of my family is vegetarian. We never really drank alcohol together, and my mom tried to hide her smoking habits for as long as she could to not influence us by it. She didnt. I was a huge ass smoker as a teen and my sister never touched a cig.

So as a kid I got healthy Food at home and luckily never craved greesy oily food, as it was not part of our habits. Then I moved. Own salary, own rules. I used to hate cooking, found it to be a huge waste of time, when you can eat out and have food cooked by a pro or a mom. I still think that, but I do cook. I spent my money eating places and drinking and drugging my savings away. I was a partyhead that needed her fix when I went to listen to my favourite drumandbass djs and would not sleep for at least day after that. I fed on greasy burgers and beer as a hangover cure. When I had no money I chose alcohol, drugs and a lot of packs of cigarettes rather than food. I spent my money on parties, awesome clothes and accessories, so I barely travelled or had any relaxing holidays either. I stopped caring for any types of sports either.

As weird as it sounds, I am fortunate all of this has happened and I had my fix of everything that I needed as a young adult. And once you get your shot, you are then able to let it go. I lived a life where I never ever gave up on anything I wanted, whatever it was. So it was hard when I decided to quit smoking around 12 years ago, that was the first time (out of the two) and by far the hardest. What made me do it was seeing older ex models from the fashion scene have this really typical smoker skin at a young age. I got terrified of looking  like and old man and made my first move. Did you know that if you get a face lift, you face might actually fall off if you are a smoker? Thats how horrible it is for your skin. (I do not think there is any justification for people still smoking in 2020.)

After quitting smoking, slowly but steadily I started to take take tiny steps towards feeling better. I started to do bikram yoga. I ate less greasy food, more salad on the side. I believe its really great if you take it slow, you do not need to rape yourself into it, stress out your Body and your soul. Just do it gradually and transition, because then you don’t feel a negative change in your habits. Today for me to have a greasy burger AND frenchfries instead of a salad, or rice or something lighter is actually very hard. That was not the case many years ago, it was a slow transition that made me love what I eat. Your bodywants to get better, so it will be an easy go when taking it slowly.

Salads became a norm, partying levels went down, drinking stopped (because why on earth would I poison my body and my liver for nothing). I stopped eating processed food as much as possible, and weirdly enough it does not taste good anymore. AGAIN take it slow!!! I barely eat meat, i barely eat dairy, I try to eat as little sugar as possible, I do not drink coffee, I stopped eating white wheat for months now, and NONE OF IT was hard.

You have to understand that the better you feel yourself mentally, the less you crave for anything that isn’t good for you. I do not drink for 2 years now and I do not feel any less when going out and it was not a mental rape either, I just slowly gave it up and today it feels weird to even think about drinking at a party (I can have a beer or a wine or a vodka soda if I want to, but it happens extremely rarely). Working on your inner state is the key to getting better, because you can push yourself, but you will continuously crave for the crap you gave up. The moment you start climbing up, a lot of the bad habits will shead away.

Nowdays I see a lot of friends and others post stories about how they are happy with their 20 hamburgers, and tummy fat because at least they get a chance to live a good life. This is dangerous on so many levels. Influencing this idea to the world and doing the bare minimum to change. It is absolutely fine if you can’t or do not want to. Your house, your rules, but if those people just took a few minutes to think about their inner worlds, they will probably see a very unhappy human being who stress eats and drinks all day long. I believe the core to a healthier lifestyle has to come from inside and not out, by taking good care of your mind, going to therapy if needed (I needed), reading books, taking your time and learning to be accepting with yourself and trying to live in the moment as much as possible. Once you are in a perfect state of mind, your body will show you the way further. You will realise that it also needs to be taken care of, it is all you got, and you need to be thankful to it for sticking around and working hard.

So get off the couch and think about the first steps you would like to take to get a little better. Slowly, step by step. Take your time and never force yourself if you do not have to. You will be surprised many years from now as to how much you have achieved.

KISS KISS BANG BANG

by Zhenya

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