First ChicaLOVerde Guest Post From Claudia!

After guest posting for Claudia, she sent me her post for Clean Eating Teen and I've been beyond excited to share it here. She is such an inspirational woman, who is incredibly intelligent and beautiful. This is only her first post of many, so stay tuned to hear more from her! :) <3 

Hello there! My name is Claudia Deen. I’m a former advertising producer and I just started towards my certification to be a Health Coach. I met Nat a few weeks back in Texas and felt very excited to find out we have very similar interests! She is a beautiful young lady that can definitely inspire anyone in a heartbeat so, thanks Nat for having me as your guest!

Here is a little but about me… In March 2010 I decided to move from Venezuela to the U.S. to get my Master’s degree in Film and TV. Coming from a country where hormones and pesticides are ont added to food as much as in the U.S. moving here took a toll on my body. I started to make poor food decisions because I felt lonely, I was bored, or just to “fit in”.

I consider myself a very lucky girl since I had been blessed with great genetics and I love to stay active. In Venezuela I played tennis, basketball, I swam, I practiced yoga and I even earned a brown belt in karate!

After two months of living in the U.S. I decided to sign up for my first marathon but something not very pleasant happened. I noticed I started gaining weight… and even though people said it was “muscle weight” I knew they were wrong. I was eating everything I wanted just because I was logging 40-50 miles a week. My skin started to change, I felt I was lacking energy and I wasn’t happy with the way I looked.

The bad eating habits continued even though I was not happy with myself. It was just hard for my to get back on track (I guess I just didn’t have to motivation and determination). I’d eat 50% of my meals extremely healthy and then 50% extremely bad. One day I finally realized that I was the only one who had control over my body and that I was the only one who could make me feel good about myself. I needed to change if I wanted to improve my performance and attitude so I went back to my roots.

After 3 years of living a very unbalanced life I went back to the way I used to eat, or better! As I said, I love exercising and have always been passionate about it so I finally found my passion about nutrition as well. I’m fascinated on how everything we put into our bodies impact the way we feel, act, and think.

I try to but as many organic products as my wallet allows me; I prefer to take care of myself this way than having to deal with diseases later on. If we spend money on partying, shopping and eating out, why not spend money in buying high quality foods that nourish us? The changes I’ve experienced since I made the decision to be as healthy as I can have been incredible… and most importantly I’m comfortable on my on skin!

When I was working in advertising I noticed that every time I had a free minute I’d start reading online about nutrition and fitness. I learned so much and was so interested in all the information available that I decided to do a shift in my career. If I was able to help myself (with a lot of trial and error) I know I can help others to improve their quality of life as well.

I started my blog Chicaloverde a few months back to connect with people that have to same interests than me and to share my experience with others.

I keep living a very active life, I exercise every day (run, yoga, strength conditioning) and want to motivate and help others to CHANGE.

Bye for now!

Claudia

www.chicaloverde.com

Twitter-Instagram-Facebook: @chicaloverde  

How amazing is she? I totally agree with Claudia about the importance to invest in quality, nourishing food, and I love the fact that she makes fitness a part of her every day life. 

I'm also jealous of that awesome yoga pose in her last picture :)

I look forward to having you guest post in the future Claudia!