Love Your Body: Interview With Amber

Five questions for one of the editors of Her Campus Rider. Read on to learn Amber’s take on fitness, nutrition, and living a healthy lifestyle.

Q. What do you say to people who want to eat healthy, but like most, find it very challenging to give up??
A. It’s not all about giving up. I believe that whenever you give something up, you should be getting something just as worthy, or even more. Maintaining a healthy diet has to be a lifestyle, a commitment and just like all commitments, you sacrifice some things to gain other things. In this case, what you’re gaining is so much better than what youre missing out on, trust me! And remember, it’s the start that stops most people. Nike said it best, JUST DO IT!

Q. So what is a good approach or guidelines to beginning a healthier lifestyle? 
A. Food should only be an indulgent treat once or twice a week. Meaning, you should be eating to restore, nourish, and replenish your body for at least five days out of the week, storing your body with calcium, vitamins, protein and antioxidants. Fatty and sugary foods should be rewards. 

Q. What’s more important, eating right or working out? 
A. You honestly cant do one without the other. It kills me when people complain to me about not seeing results after their response to when I ask them what they’ve been doing is a beautified, starving myself. Or the opposite of that, I’ll be talking with someone who tells me he/she just ran four miles and is eating a cheeseburger with fries and a single leaf of lettuce on the side and a glass full of Coke and I’ll be like, “Wait, you said you wanted to get in shape?” Some people’s bodies may react to more extreme workout regimens while the other people with superfast metabolisms react more to a clean diet, but on the whole, doing both will give you what you’re looking for quicker.

Q. Have you always eaten healthy?
A. Absolutely not! Up until I was eighteen I thought lettuce was non-chewable and all vegetables besides corn and broccoli were disgusting. My diet consisted of fried, deep fried, processed, processed some more—nothing fresh, nothing beneficial. And the reason was quite obvious: It was because I was ignorant. I didn’t know that foods could help with my complexion, fight diseases, nourish my hair and nails—none of that. I thought food was just that—food. But it’s not. When you eat right,  you’re preventing, nourishing, reviving, and so much more. Eat right and you’re always going to be one step ahead of everyone who’s not. 

Q. Does it ever get hard?
A. I wake up everyday and say the same thing to myself before I get out of my bed, “Ugh, I don’t wanna go to the gym today!” And everyday I end up there for forty-five minutes sweating and working out hard. It’s all about discipline. There will always be hiccups, you just have to learn how to learn from them and use them as fuel for the future. Once you get the hang of it, its a smooth ride. It becomes more of a habitual thing than a conscious one, especially if you go about it the right way willingly. Like I said, I used to once think that I couldn’t chew lettuce. But one day I realized that I had been eating a meatless Caesar salad for dinner for almost three months and I had enjoyed it more and more each time.