Hey, hey! I'm Erica. And I'm finally doing it. I'm an actor/singer/dancer/musician and personal trainer who's been on this awesome journey to finding the balance of health and wellness in one of the craziest career paths in the world. And since it's at the point where people are always coming to me for wellness advice, I figure it's time to start a movement. I'm calling it Mind, Body, Soul Food.
Everything Mind, Body and Soul... for the artist and the non-artist who could get a little creative.
How to somehow manage to stay in prime shape in a city like New York that is constantly presenting obstacles. The best on-the-go foods that will actually make your work day better. The constant struggle to stay inspired while juggling a job, social life, other endeavors, hobbies, and time for yourself!
That kinda stuff.
Let's face it: We all know how important our bodies are to our careers, relationships, and overall daily functioning. When we get up in the morning, the state of our minds and bodies determines how we approach what the day has in store for us, and ultimately, what we get out of it.
But somehow we find ourselves too "distracted" by everything going on that we forget to upkeep our bodies, minds, and souls so that we can actually tackle all that other stuff to our full potential! How crazy is that?!
Here's the big secret: it's all connected!
I had always wanted to achieve my absolute "best version of myself" and saw it as some ideal that would happen when I magically developed the time and freedom to devote completely to that. How unrealistic! Call me a dreamer, but after a while, I made it my business to find out how to do that, without majorly compromising anything else in my life.
*Here's where it started... My story (so far) is in these 3 parts:
The Freshman 15 Summer Stock 10:
I had just finished my sophomore year of college, and was working at a summer stock theatre in NH doing 8 shows in alternating rep. This meant 12-14 hour work days of rehearsals and shows 6 days a week, sharing a house with the rest of the company and relying on the company chef for food. By the end of the 3 month run, I had gained about 10 pounds and felt pretty awful. When I got back to NY, I promised myself that I would to whip myself back into shape... Pronto.
As fate would have it, as soon as I got back to the city my musical theatre program was hosting a group meeting for the department with the incredible power team Elizabeth Johnson (wellness coach) and Melissa Pharr (personal trainer) who spoke to us about wellness for the performer. I ended up doing a webinar crash course with them and was so floored by what I was learning that I was cutting out refined sugars, all processed food and flours, became the whole foods queen, and self declared master of the plank (seriously, let's plank duel!)
Now just to be clear, it's not that my diet consisted solely of Ben & Jerry's and Elios or anything. I was always a decent enough eater, and I was always very active as a perfomer. However, our company chef wasn't exactly concerned about refined sugars and whole foods. [For Example: We would come back to the house in between a 2 show day to find that it was "breakfast for dinner", be starving from an already long day, stuff our faces with pancakes, bacon, and eggs frittata, then it was off to another show of "The Producers" - squeezing on that pearl-studded bra and underwear for the big showgirl scene. We'd return from the evening show starving again from kicking our faces all night, go for whatever processed snacks we could keep around and pass out.] So it was more that I was coming from a summer of bad habits and for me, that 10 pounds was an earned and unwanted new friend. It's not much for a lot of people, but considering I'm a petite 5 foot girl, it was enough to make me feel like I was carrying around a little too much extra junk in the trunk. How was I supposed to do my absolute best work when I didn't even feel comfortable in my body?
The changes I made at first were lifestyle changes... Not diet quick fixes. That was the first really big key. And I didn't feel deprived. Sugar or white flour wasn't enticing to me anymore. Neither was going a day without engaging my abs and or doing the body weight bearing exercise that made me feel great. The weight came off with my newfound knowledge and persepctive and as I continued to learn and grow I realized it was only the beginning of my journey...
VEGAN?!? What about chicken?:
In my "Wellness for the Dancer" class my senior year, our professor asked us to bring in a health related article that we could benefit from as a dancer. My friend, Kayla brought in an article on this book called The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. It was all about how animal products are produced, how our bodies process them, and the effects they have on us. I was fascinated. I approached the book thinking,
"I mean it's interesting... But I'm way too italian to be vegan. I just want to see what I get out of it."Ha! Famous last words. I was horrified by what I learned. And my mother was also horrified when I told her that I no longer could stand the idea of eating meat and I definitely wasn't touching dairy. (When I say I'm italian, I mean that I'm literally the first generation in my italian family to be born here...)
"No meat or cheese?! Are you trying to kill yourself!?!"I'm lactose intolerant so at least I could justify that to my family... But it was fun how everyone thought I was just losing my mind. But alas, I took pride in being the black sheep and became the "crazy vegan".
...And it was so worth it. If I felt great before with my little whole foods kick, I had officially reached nirvana. My body worked like a reliable machine, I felt lighter, had more energy and stamina than ever, and I also felt more clear headed. Maybe the last part was the hippie in me coming out. But who cares, It was great.
Now, at this point, my athletic endeavors and living in a hectic city like NYC have lead me to be more of a pescetarian who avoids dairy, but this part of my journey taught me so much about balance and incorporating whole foods into my diet in a creative and diverse way.
Dig Deeper!
At this point, I had found the perfect balance, my diet was so much clearner, I got really into yoga and got such a kick out of sharing my new found wisdom with others.
Then I graduated college, wasn't dancing 8 classes a week, and was doing so much yoga that I was barely breaking a sweat in class anymore. I needed to shake things up again. The summer arrived and I decided I was going to do something totally crazy. I was going to do Beach Body's "Insanity" program. It's an extreme 2 month workout program famed for being "the hardest workout ever put on DVD". And it was, without a doubt, one of the hardest things I've ever personally done... but it also changed everything.
I had always HATED cardio. When I say HATED, I mean, I ran a 15 minute mile once in high school. Yeah. No, I'm not exaggerating. It was 15:04 or something. The reason why I adored my beloved plank so much was because it didn't involve running. True story.
But here I was, drooling over Shaun T and practically kneeing myself in the face in some of the crazy moves this man was yelling at me to do. I had never sweat so much in my entire life and simply squatting low enough to get my tush in a chair afterwards was a feat, because I was actually that outrageously sore.
After a brutal 2 months I was so freaking excited at the accomplishment. I had never felt so strong in my life. Like I said before, I just wanted to be in tip top shape, particularly as a dancer. But, despite that I tried to take dance class whenever I could, cross training is still a necessary component to keeping in shape. I'll never forget nailing the first dance call I did after completing Insanity and feeling really incredible. I felt great in my body, and had the stamina and form to really execute it - and that made all the difference.
Thus began my journey into holistic fitness...
The Punch Line:
Essentially, that's what it's been about all along - Being the "best version of myself" so I can get the most out of the important things in life. For me, it's my career that drives my thirst for wellness. I spent years being told that the artist must "take care of their instrument" and for the actor/singer/dancer that means your body. So "you must condition it to weather the circumstances of the life of an artist". That's what I aim to do. For non-artists maybe it's being full of energy or in good health for your children, or getting through a 9-5 work day without feeling like crap. But at the end of the day, your drive to get creative every day to uphold that will make all the difference.
Whether you're an artist for fun, an artist for profession or not an artist at all (how dr.seuss of me!), I believe that the trick to health and wellness is understanding how it directly affects every aspect of your life, how to connect it to the rest of your life, and being open to getting a little creative about it.
Why Mind, Body, and Soul? You can't expect to get healthy or fit without the mind (the knowledge to do so), Your body is your instrument, and you can't expect your mind and body to go along if you've got no soul or passion for the things going on in your life to be well for!
Maybe this is just some weird hobby of mine, maybe I'm just "talented" at it. OR maybe I'm onto something and it's a simply a matter of coming along for the ride and letting it change your life.
I've got a hunch it's the latter. But you'll never know unless you try, now will you?
Stay tuned.
;)
