Hey Friends,
I was going to do a lil blurb on my current fitspo in my Fitness Friday post, but I decided that these wonderful ladies needed more than just a lil blurb. These are strong, beautiful and truly inspiring females who train hard and reap the benefits. Ummm hello, check out those bods! :-O I believe that it is so important to give credit to those who inspire and motivate you to make yourself a better person and these ladies do just that for me. So without further ado, I give you 2 females who have dedicated their lives to health and fitness and always remind me of the reasons why I love this lifestyle.
Vanessa Tib
Vanessa is someone I have admired for quite some time. Not only does she live and promote the lifestyle that I love, but she also spends her time sharing and informing others of issues that she finds important to health. For example, as of lately she has been discussing the dangers of consuming genetically modified (GMO) foods and providing insight into the many products that have these lil nasties hiding in them. So let me explain a lil bit more deeply why I think she is a great role model.
1. Her dedication to fitness. She lives and breathes this lifestyle and it definitely shows. Those abs, those arms! She works hard and she is always striving for more. What I really love about her is that she is open, honest and realistic with her goals. She also has the drive and the persistence to go the whole nine yards to get’er done. I find her very inspiring in general because she has always shown that time, effort and lil patience can earn you the results you are looking for. Also, on a more personal level, she is very motivating to me because she has stated in the past that she wanted more muscle and guess what? She got it! I am at a point in my training where I have built some muscle but want more. She has a great shape that is balanced, defined, strong and feminine. All great qualities for a female body to have if you ask me 😀
2. Her dedication to healthy eating. Healthy eating is not hard and Vanessa proves that to you. She shares her yummy and simple recipes and even some of the products that make their way into her house as staples. I love the fact that she advocates using whole, real and organic produce and grassfed meats because, despite my wallet not being able to cope with buying everything organic, I still believe that organic foods are what nourishes our body to the fullest and thus I try to nab organics as much as possible. Due to many people not knowing the many benefits of buying organic it’s great that she puts those issues forward to help enlighten others to take better care of their bodies.
Clean eating should not be hard or boring. She provides many pictures and recipes of the meals that she loves and how easy and quick they are to prepare to give some inspiration and tips for making those meals possible when you are swamped by a busy schedule.
3. She’s relatable. Relatable apparently is not a word, so it’s a new Chelsea-ism 😉 She has a life outside the gym. She enjoys time with her family. She goes on vacations. She tries new things. She even eats out at restaurants! Vanessa shows that even a fitness model can live a lil and still reach her goals. What else is inspirational? The fact that she raves about how much she loves her job because she has a the ability to help others every day. This is something I want to strive for. I want to be able to help others to the best of my ability in the world of health and nutrition. I suppose this blog is my first step.
Thanks Vanessa for being you. For being a great role model that others who are looking to conquer their goals in the realm of health and fitness can look up to. If you want to see more of Mrs. Tib you can visit her official Facebook page. Oh and guess what? She actually answers people’s questions on her pictures. 😀
Leah Peters
Leah is someone I first found on instagram and after creeping paroozing her pictures I have come to the conclusion that she’s pretty awesome! Aside from all of her yummy and healthy dishes, she is someone that I feel I can really relate to, despite me not competing like she does. She stays real with herself and her knowledge of the industry and what works well for her own body is impeccable for someone of her age. Yeah, she’s younger than me! I would say that at the moment she is one individual who is really helping to keep me motivated on my new goal that I mentioned in my last WIAW post.
One reason that I find her relatable to myself is the fact that she is petite. I stand at exactly 5 feet tall and although she has a few inches on me, her proportions and frame resemble mine in a way. Athletic type frame with smaller hips and slightly wider shoulders. With that being said, I love the fact that she has shown that muscle can be developed on any body shape no matter how small it is when you start off. Also, can I just mention that her abs and obliques are out of this world! :-O Whether she is competing or on her off season, she keeps them nice and tight. I’m suuuuupppper jealous. I would love for mine to have that same definition and tightness. I’m also adore her shoulders. They are capped nicely while still maintaining a feminine look. This particular body part is something I have been working hard on over the past lil while. For me, shoulders are a stubborn muscle group for me as they take a long time of heavy weight training to see any definition.
Post competition pictures vs. a couple weeks of normalized eating and training
A second very important reason why I feel that I can relate to her is because of this post. Here she describes her struggles post-competition and how she came to the conclusion that:
Perfection does not exist. Perfection will not come.
Throughout the post, she spoke about how she struggled with the thought of having to loose some of her competition leanness if she wanted to keep her body happy and healthy. Despite feeling as though maintaining her ‘shredded‘, as she likes to say, physique was all fine and dandy, she began to notice some not so nice changes to her body (unable to sleep or properly recover from workouts, aches, loss of period, etc) and that was when she wanted to make a change. So where did this lead her? Well it led to the increase of her calories back to what she was eating before her competition diet (which is nowhere near as low in calories as many other competitors) and as you can see, her body is looking stellar! Look at the muscle development! This is what I need to see. Those calories did not make her loose her abs. They did not lead to her getting jiggly. NO! Instead they fueled her muscles and enabled them to grow even more which is what I want to see for my own frame.
I’m so happy that I found her account because it is truly motivating for me to see as she continues her journey to sculpting her body. Oh, and on top of all of that, she has some serious food porn on her account too 😀 Check’it!
Yummo! This girl knows how to eat! I could be biased because she incorporates all my favourite things (ie oats, pb, etc). 😉 What you will also learn about Leah is that she does in fact eat! Shes gets plenty of calories and CARBS throughout her days to ensure that her muscles are getting the food they deserve. She also explains how she is not into extreme depletion and dieting even when she is getting prepped for the stage. Not only does she still look amaze-balls on her big day, but she is preppin in a way that is much more healthy than most body builders and fitness models who rely on water and carbohydrate depletion on top of hours upon hours of steady state cardio. Good on ya girl!
So yeah, two pretty awesome ladies who are living the life of fitness and health and loving every minute of it. Their drive and passion for their work (can I call it work if they enjoy it?) is so inspiring and I look forward to seeing what they do next!
I hope that these two ladies have inspired you as much as they have done for me!
-Chelsea
Lil Miss Fitness Freak 