#cuba #behindthescenes with @paulbuceta @lorifabrizio @paintorgy @pouyanfard #blessedbodies365 #photoshoot #beach #workout @lululemon #ocean #fitness #wbff #motivation #model #brunettes #dailymotivators @fit_freakz @fitmarkbags @questnutrition @essentiawater #sunwarrior #sistersiniron2013 @toscareno @oxygenmagazine #oxygenmagazine #bodybuilding #igdaily #picoftheday @bodybuildingcom #inspiration #glutes #abs #quads @girlswithmuscle #girlswithmuscle
What is it? 70 grams #oats 1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder, cinnamon to your liking, 1 tsp maca powder, 1 packet vanilla #stevia = bliss đ #eatclean #theresajennprep #wwtd #foodporn #oatmeal #chocolate #sweet #delish #recipe #wbff #abs #lean #build #muscles #fit #blessedbodies365 #plantpower #spices
Oh baby! Look what I finally got my hands on! @oxygenmagazine #Abs Special featuring Cover Model @svetaromanova A few of my friends are in this issue which makes it EXTRA special!! Have you picked up your copy yet? #oxygenmagazine @toscareno @eatcleandiet #fitness #fit #girlswithmuscle #wbff @paulbuceta @paintorgy @lorifabrizio @fatikusch #eatclean
Just got my #hair did by the one and only @elizatrendiak #sistersiniron2013 @toscareno #asf2013 @oxygenmagazine @briannamogg #ufe #competitors #abs #shredded #igfitness #igers #ripped #blessedbodies365 @essentiawater #essentiawater #fashion #health #picoftheday #igdaily
I’m coming for ya 2013! Last workout of 2012 is complete! Let’s do this!!! 236 days until my WBFF Pro show Fitness Model debut!! #fitnessmodel #wbffpro #debut #train #offseason #august2013 #opportunity #challenge #bringit #noexcuses #noregrets #teamblessedbodies #abs #biceps #lift #muscles #leanout @fatikusch #coach #progress
DOES FITNESS LEAD TO HAVING MORE PROBLEMS? The answer is NO. However, with that being said, I want to share with you some experiences I have had myself and through discussions with others since I began my journey.
Let me get down to the point. Once people get their bodies to a point they have always dreamed of, some realize that they are still not happy. This is puzzling for people because they always believed if they ‘lost the weight’ or ‘gained muscle’ that all their problems would melt away. But in fact what’s happened is that people are now forced to face their life circumstances and really connect to ‘why’ they are not happy. In the end, happiness has nothing to do with whether you’re fit or not. Sure, you might feel better looking in the mirror, trying on a pair of jeans, or walking into a room full of strangers, BUT if you are not happy down deep inside, your fitness will only take you so far. The same goes for money, ever hear the saying that ‘money can’t buy happiness’, it’s true. Money can provide you with temporary happiness. If you’re feeling depressed, maybe buying a new pair of shoes will make you feel happy and more confident but once that immediate high wears off then you are right where you started. Your issues still exist and until you face what is lacking in your life you will not be able to find your happiness. How many times have you felt upset and gone to food for happiness? I know I have more than I can count. But what my journey has taught me is that food only brings temporary happiness not true happiness.
It’s time to stop, reflect, and connect with what makes you happy in life and what does not. Be grateful for what makes you happy in life (and I don’t mean a fancy car, a designer handbag, or the money in your wallet) and figure out what is dragging you down. It is your responsibility to choose to ‘fix’ those things in your life that are not bringing you happiness. If you don’t decide to correct those issues, resentment, grudges, or conflicts then you have no right to complain or feel sorry for yourself because YOU are enabling those issues to continue in your life. It’s time to stop living in the past, start living in the present, and be grateful for the bright future ahead. Your thoughts and attitude towards life is what you will attract. If you think you will have a great time with your relatives on Christmas then you will. If you think there will be drama and you will experience pain then you will!! Your thoughts are more powerful than you know and it’s time to start believing and acting like you can create a life that you have always wanted because YOU CAN. No more excuses, no more pity parties, no more negative assumptions, JUST POSITIVE THOUGHTS!
FOOD, MONEY nor ALCOHOL will bring you true everlasting happiness. Happiness is created by your actions and thoughts. 2013 can bring you everything you’ve always wanted but you need to make the first move. Start today by thinking of all the wonderful things you are grateful for in your life and don’t waste another minute thinking about the things you don’t have. If you feel like you are on a negative thinking streak, don’t bring anyone else into this whirl pool of negativity unless you are willing to make a change and need help. Negativity can cause both stress and illness and in the end it’s not worth it.
FIND YOUR HAPPY and START LIVING IT!
âItâs amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesnât matter who gets the creditâ
Here’s a shot Paul Buceta took of Fatima and I this summer. It’s still hard to believe that my first competition was only last year, September 2011. So much has happened since and this quote represents why we’ve been able to make some of our dreams become a reality. Team work is where it’s at! I really looking forward to 2013 and making my first debut as a PRO in August 2013. Wow, it feels surreal to even type that but I’m going for it! Lets do this!
Fatima and I wrote an article that was published in this month’s issue of Fit&Firm. I think this article is really useful for anyone who is doing a photo shoot for the first time or even someone who is experienced. It’s loaded with great tips on how to prepare and make the most of your photo shoot session. I hope you get a chance to read it!
New to the modelling world? Need tips on how to make the most of your next photo shoot?
Check out Fit & Firm Magazine - October 2012
âLOOKING AT A PHOTOSHOOT AS AN INVESTMENTâ p. 112-115
http://fitandfirmmag.com/Written By: WBFF Pro Fitness Models, Fatima Leite Kusch and Theresa Jenn LopetroneTeam Blessed Bodiesâ Models: Brandi Gagnon, Theresa Jenn Lopetrone, Marilyse Mayerhofer, and Fatima Leite Kusch.
Read my guest blog for Tosca Reno: MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH SUGAR
My before photo was the worst condition I let myself get to. I was overseas teaching in South Korea when I reached my highest weight of 175lbs (âŚor more. I stopped weighing myself). This was not the person I wanted to be and it certainly did not feel good. Finally, enough was enough.
Not even my closest friends have seen this photo and it took me some time to decide to release it or not. But after some thinking, I realized that I needed to. It is apart of my past, story, and journey. The good news is that I made it through the battle but every day I continue to fight to keep on winning.
I felt it was necessary to show this before photo because I didnât always look the way I do now. For the people who donât have a history with me, you would not know this about me and in fact it may surprise you. I didnât want to leave the window open for any excuses you may have as to why you canât reach your goals and that is a huge piece to why I am showing you this photo. I say this because I used to have a whole bag of excuses for why I could not reshape my body. It wasnât until I saw my first âbeforeâ photo of one of my Oxygen magazine fitness model inspirations that I realized they werenât born like that. This is when a light bulb went off.
I am not super human or born with âgood geneticsâ and if I donât continue to practice my current lifestyle then I wonât look this way. Itâs simple, eat clean and train dirty consistently! You will fail along the way and this is completely normal. If you didnât fail or make a mistake then there is no learning involved. If you donât have any learning to do then you wouldnât be in your current situation. We are human and this is how we learn and progress; we make mistakes! Be thankful for your mistakes because they bring you solutions.
Thank you all for the positive comments, messages, retweets, reblogs, and âlikesâ. My journey is what it is because of you! Thank you for sharing your stories with me. I look forward to continuing my journey with you. Letâs help one another become our best selves.
Inspire and Be Inspired xo
For all your Oxygen magazine readers out there, which SPECIAL ISSUE is your favourite?
![“TOSCA, WHY CAN’T I GET RID OF BELLY FAT?”:
Tosca Reno sheds some light where our major problem area is concerned.
By Tosca Reno; Photography Paul Buceta
Tough Lessons from Tosca
I was counseling a woman who was concerned about being “skinny fat.” She was frustrated because she watched everything she ate and exercised. With her clothes on, she looked great, but with them off, she said it was a different story. It turned out, she ate sugar in the form of desserts, crackers, pasta and bread, and couldn’t do without her nightly glass of red. Her sugar load was high, and her body was essentially inflamed from the deluge. I highlighting where sugar was flooding in to her diet, and helped her find a way to slowly rid her body of the toxic mess clinging to her middle. I had a surefire plan for her, but she needed to be impeccable about her compliance, otherwise the cellulite and bloat would stay with her.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I train six days a week for two hours a day and I’m still fat. Why can’t I get rid of this fluffy middle?”
I’m not exaggerating; I have heard this complaint a thousand times. In long lineups at book expos, at the Arnold Fitness Expo, the Canfitpro, and even at the loo, women will whine about their unmanageable midsections. No joke: women have even reached over and hiked up my shirt to have a look at what is attached to my midsection.
Every woman – even many slim women – has some degree of puff, unless her body-fat levels are in the single digits. Would it interest you to learn that some of this excess may not be fat? Suspicious extra middle fluff may be the result of a chemical mixture about as complicated as Marshmallow Fluff.
While I was studying to become a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, it was fascinating what I learned on the topic at a seminar I attended. For example, bits of what we breathe, eat and are exposed to in this polluted environment unfortunately do end up in each of us, and, depending on the level of exposure, can potentially pose problems for our bodies. Fat is the safe storage compartment for toxic waste in the body. So, if you think you are doing a good job of staying clear of toxins, ask yourself what kind of water you drank today. Tap water can contain fluoride, chlorine and a host of chemicals that aren’t kind to your insides. You drove your car to pick up this magazine, didn’t you? Chances are, you breathed in toxic exhaust fumes on your trip down the highway. Did you drink water from a plastic bottle, microwave your food, walk through airport security or smoke a cigarette? Then you, too, may be full of toxins like the rest of us. Even the fillings in your teeth could be releasing mercury into your body every time you swallow, chew or talk. And this chemical soup is stored in your middle.
North Americans are eating about 150 pounds of sugar per person per year. This is a crisis of monstrous magnitude, creating bulging middles of aforesaid proportions. What sugar does to your insides is a lot like what a car wash does to the shiny new paint job on your BMW – scrapes the hell out of it. It can also cause inflammation in your body.
Inflammation is a necessary immune response by the body, but if you are inflamed 24 hours of every day of every week, you will soon put your body in a state of crisis. The end result: that puffy middle.
Out with the sugar and in with healthy fat. Yes, fat. It is something of a godsend to be able to feed your body delicious, saturated fat because it satisfies like sugar never can. My favorite is coconut oil. And don’t forget, with carbs comes sugar. For the last six months, I have eaten no bread, starchy carbs and very few grains other than quinoa, soaked oat groats and a few wheat berries. I have eaten three tablespoons of coconut oil every day (considered a therapeutic dose) and have discovered the flattest stomach this side of 50 years of age.
But the body needs a little help moving fluids around. That’s where lymph nodes come in – those nodules you can feel on either side of the neck right in the pain zone when you have a sore throat. They’re found throughout the body, and their job is to run toxins out of dodge. The lymph system is sometimes described as “the river by which all junk is eliminated from the body.” The lymph is squeezed through vessels in your body, collecting trash at every turn and getting it out via the liver and colon. Your big, beautiful muscles are the pump that squeezes lymph through the body. But if you are not exercising, you are not squeezing anything, except maybe into your jeans.
Skinny fat, puffy belly doesn’t have to be your reality. Do you have what it takes to vaporize it from your middle?
Remember, I’m always listening.
Tosca
[Source: Oxygen Magazine online http://ht.ly/dHdON]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_macfv8DVX91r43dlbo1_500.jpg)
By Tosca Reno; Photography Paul Buceta
Tough Lessons from Tosca
I was counseling a woman who was concerned about being âskinny fat.â She was frustrated because she watched everything she ate and exercised. With her clothes on, she looked great, but with them off, she said it was a different story. It turned out, she ate sugar in the form of desserts, crackers, pasta and bread, and couldnât do without her nightly glass of red. Her sugar load was high, and her body was essentially inflamed from the deluge. I highlighting where sugar was flooding in to her diet, and helped her find a way to slowly rid her body of the toxic mess clinging to her middle. I had a surefire plan for her, but she needed to be impeccable about her compliance, otherwise the cellulite and bloat would stay with her.
âI donât know whatâs wrong with me. Â I train six days a week for two hours a day and Iâm still fat. Why canât I get rid of this fluffy middle?â
Iâm not exaggerating; I have heard this complaint a thousand times. In long lineups at book expos, at the Arnold Fitness Expo, the Canfitpro, and even at the loo, women will whine about their unmanageable midsections. No joke: women have even reached over and hiked up my shirt to have a look at what is attached to my midsection.
Every woman â even many slim women â has some degree of puff, unless her body-fat levels are in the single digits. Would it interest you to learn that some of this excess may not be fat? Suspicious extra middle fluff may be the result of a chemical mixture about as complicated as Marshmallow Fluff.Â
While I was studying to become a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, it was fascinating what I learned on the topic at a seminar I attended. For example, bits of what we breathe, eat and are exposed to in this polluted environment unfortunately do end up in each of us, and, depending on the level of exposure, can potentially pose problems for our bodies. Fat is the safe storage compartment for toxic waste in the body. So, if you think you are doing a good job of staying clear of toxins, ask yourself what kind of water you drank today. Tap water can contain fluoride, chlorine and a host of chemicals that arenât kind to your insides. You drove your car to pick up this magazine, didnât you? Chances are, you breathed in toxic exhaust fumes on your trip down the highway. Did you drink water from a plastic bottle, microwave your food, walk through airport security or smoke a cigarette? Then you, too, may be full of toxins like the rest of us. Even the fillings in your teeth could be releasing mercury into your body every time you swallow, chew or talk. And this chemical soup is stored in your middle.
North Americans are eating about 150 pounds of sugar per person per year. This is a crisis of monstrous magnitude, creating bulging middles of aforesaid proportions. What sugar does to your insides is a lot like what a car wash does to the shiny new paint job on your BMW â scrapes the hell out of it. It can also cause inflammation in your body.
Inflammation is a necessary immune response by the body, but if you are inflamed 24 hours of every day of every week, you will soon put your body in a state of crisis. The end result: that puffy middle.
Out with the sugar and in with healthy fat. Yes, fat. It is something of a godsend to be able to feed your body delicious, saturated fat because it satisfies like sugar never can. My favorite is coconut oil. And donât forget, with carbs comes sugar. For the last six months, I have eaten no bread, starchy carbs and very few grains other than quinoa, soaked oat groats and a few wheat berries. I have eaten three tablespoons of coconut oil every day (considered a therapeutic dose) and have discovered the flattest stomach this side of 50 years of age.
But the body needs a little help moving fluids around. Thatâs where lymph nodes come in â those nodules you can feel on either side of the neck right in the pain zone when you have a sore throat. Theyâre found throughout the body, and their job is to run toxins out of dodge. The lymph system is sometimes described as âthe river by which all junk is eliminated from the body.â The lymph is squeezed through vessels in your body, collecting trash at every turn and getting it out via the liver and colon. Your big, beautiful muscles are the pump that squeezes lymph through the body. But if you are not exercising, you are not squeezing anything, except maybe into your jeans.
Skinny fat, puffy belly doesnât have to be your reality. Do you have what it takes to vaporize it from your middle?
Remember, Iâm always listening.
OMG! I am just seeing this now!! Thank you so much! I’m completely flattered and to think that you think I’m funny too?! I knew I made myself laugh but it makes me happy to know that I make you laugh too! xo
Day Three - A picture of your inspiration. What features do you like about this person?
Theresa Lopetrone! She is and always has been a super duper mega inspiration. When Iâm at the gym about to give up before my last circuit or when Iâm pushing out the last rep, I think about her. When Iâm trying to say ânoâ to some very tempting food, I think âwhat would Theresa do?â She went from totally average and slightly overweight with absolutely no muscle, to this. And Iâm pretty sure sheâs not flexing in this picture. This picture is straight from Oxygen magazine. And to think, she only started her journey in April 2011. She is getting ready to compete in the WBFF Pro in about a month, and I just know sheâll get her pro card! I have been following her for exactly one year, and her progress is astounding. Not to mention sheâs pretty funny. If you donât already, you should all follow her!
http://thefameofhealthandfitness.tumblr.com/
(Source: veronicasjeans)
Here is a sneak peek photo from my recent shoot with Paul Buceta! What a great day!! I can not wait to shoot with Paul again!
3 FLAT-BELLY RULES!!!
I personally love a flat belly and I think you will find these Oxygen magazine tips useful!
1.) NOSH CARBS EARLY: I usually have the majority of my carbs before my last meal.
2.) CHOOSE YOUR FATS WISELY: My favourite healthy fats are nuts. For so long I stayed away from nuts and avocado because of the “fat” content but that’s because I didn’t know better. Your body needs these essential fats.
3.) GET SOME “VITAMIN I”: Performing HIIT workouts have made all the difference in changing my body and I find these workouts easier on the mind than doing an hour of monotonous cardio.
My good friend, Christina, at The Athletarian created this wonderful easy to follow chart for what kind of sugar is allowed if you are trying to eat clean and strike sugar (according to Tosca Reno).
What are your thoughts? Surprised? Not surprised?
