#shan survival guide for her grandchildren

[mc-dude]

PSA TO YOUNG PEOPLE

pls get your goddamn nutrients.

im 26 years old and am having such horrible joint problems. i got zero protein or omega3 or any of the shit you need for being healthy my entire childhood/teenage years and at the time i was just like ‘lol fuck nutrition, im just gonna eat cereal every day and drink 3 energy drinks instead of water’. i literally stunted my own growth by about 4 inches (every other woman in my family is around 5′8″, i am 5′4″) by drinking nothing but caffeine during puberty. i went vegetarian at an early age but didn’t adjust my diet accordingly to get the amount of protein i needed to build muscles or literally anything else. my nutrition was so bad in college i literally like don’t remember most of college because i was just in a daze most of the time. and now that i’m finally trying to get healthier and working out, i’m experiencing all kinds of problems caused by myself when i was younger, shit that was easily preventable.

here’s some key shit i wish i did when i was younger:

make sure ur getting enough vitamin d. i went to the doctor a year or so after college and they said the normal level was between 40-60 and I had..... 2. for the love of god go outside for 15 min a day or take supplements. they’re super cheap at CVS/costco/wherever. it gets back to normal levels really quickly and can severely effect your life. having a vitamin d deficiency means you’re tired as fuck all the time, u got weak ass bitch bones bc vitamin d helps u process calcium (oh yeah u need that shit too, big time), and makes you more prone to depression. take that shit

make sure you’re drinking enough water. honestly, this was a huge one for me. I got UTIs like every few months and I couldn’t figure out why until I started drinking more water and they completely went away. caffeine doesn’t hinder water absorption until 800mg so tea and shit is still hydrating unless you’re going FUCKING HAM (pls, if you’re having more than like 200mg of caffeine a day u need to calm down). just have a big glass of water with every meal for the love of god, drink ur wator

EAT PROTEIN. u need so much protein every day, it’s fucking insane. i am 110 lbs and i need 100-120g protein a day to gain muscle. you need less if you’re just trying to be healthy but not gain muscle. look up a macro calculator for what you need to maintain your lifestyle and try to get in that general ballpark. this is the one I use. if you’re a vegetarian this is usually pretty hard to do compared to ppl who can eat chicken and shit so stock the fuck up on lentils, beans, seitan, tofu, quinoa, etc.. Invest in a protein powder and have one shake a day. I use prozis.com to find good healthy shit but they still shit everywhere. try to get one without any fake sugars or one with stevia as sucralose and fructose cause digestion problems. VEGA is a great vegan one if you’re lactose sensitive like me.

get enough Omega3 in ur diet. i just started taking this for my joints after getting approximately zero (bc its main source is from fish) for 14 years and it has literally stopped my acne. fullstop. i wanna go back in time and fucking shake my teenage self to just have some omega3 and how many face problems i coulda avoided... goddamn. i went on acutane and shit too. fuck my life. omega3 that contains EPA helps with breakouts, joint problems, and depression (a lack of EPA has been correlated to greater risk of depression), and omega3 that contains DHA helps with brain development.

for the love of god, cool it with the refined sugar. i know its hard to find shit that doesn’t have a million g of added sugar but just like... be aware of how much you are eating pls. eating fruits is fine bc of their fibre content but honestly that’s the only refined sugar that you should really be eating. if you look on the packaging and see ‘added sugar’ on the ingredients list put that shit down. refined sugar causes so many fucking problems and cutting it out of my diet made me feel so much better. you do get addicted to it however so it’s hard to go cold turkey, so just do it slowly over time. i promise you’ll feel better.

tl;dr

get 15 min of sunlight a day and/or take vitamin d supplements, drink more water, eat more protein, get omega3 in ur diet or take supplements, and reduce your refined sugar.

don’t turn into me, feelin like a grandma at age 26. take care of yourself y’all.