About

May I introduce myself?

Hey there, I am Ksenija, a 20 something recent BA graduate in Economics and East Asian Studies from Germany. After that I started studying International Management (MA) with focus on marketing and sustainability. I do also work part time in the marketing department of a private university.

5’3-short-me loves healthy cooking, working her way through piles of books regarding the most different matters, getting her ass kicked in various workouts, tumbling around the internet and travelling the world. You can say that I am kind of a freak for languages: I do already speak 4 and am learning the fifth at the moment. What else is there to say? I am extremely inquiring, love a good challenge, miss serious kickboxing-classes, adore Zuzka Lights workouts and The Daily Hiit, enjoy watching Biggest Loser contestants getting their asses kicked, think that there is nothing better than a morning workout to start the day, spend my lazy days watching movies and series or reading (everything from books, magazines, blogs to stuff on my kindle), and I really do enjoy life best with my boyfriend, best friend or family!

There are quite a few books that inspired my journey to health significantly and that I would love to recommend to everyone:

First of all Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food” builds the base of my healthy eating believes – “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” just sums it up best. If you are not such a big fan of reading books as I am, I recommend that you watch the documentary: Hungry for Change, which goes in the same direction and provides a great base of information.

In the beginning of 2011 I stumbled over “The China Study” from Prof. Campbell and it turned my view on health upside down for a while. I chose to eat vegan for about a year and most of the recipes you are going to find on my blog do not include dairy, eggs or meat. Some other great sources regarding the benefits of a vegan diet and amazing recipes are Kris Carr’s “Crazy Sexy Diet” and her recently published “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” (also a great basic cookbook for people who want to learn cooking with vegetables) and Alicia Silverstone’s “The Kind Diet”. Both of this great Ladies have their own blogs (1&2) and are still an inspiration for me, though I made some adjustments to my diet over the last year.

My body started to crave non-vegan foods – starting out with seafood, which I added pretty soon, later followed by eggs and some dairy (I still enjoy my soy milk) and recently even some meat (especially beef and chicken). So I did some soul searching and I admit, I was confused for a while and not sure how to handle these cravings. On the one hand I am still convinced that vegan foods are great for your body and I want to avoid animal cruelty as much as possible, on the other hand my cravings where proofed right by blood tests which showed that I was severely iron deficient, to the point of being anemic. I also did gain quite some weight over the course of 2012. Of course I wrote my bachelor thesis and started my master studies, but I also believe that the uncertainty what to eat and refusing to feed my body what it asks for led me to have unhealthy alternatives as a form of compensation.

Thus I made up my mind and decided to follow a different, quite revolutionary route: If I crave it – I eat it. In my opinion this is the healthiest approach possible. I mean, being unhappy, having cravings and not enjoying the most beautiful thing in the world – F-O-O-D – how healthy can that be? (Leaving aside that it will leave you totally wrinkled up in sorrow, and that’s not too pretty.)

On related terms I am flirting with intuitive eating again. To loose some of the unwanted, depressing pounds I gained in 2012 I put myself under some harsh calorie restrictions in the beginning of January, and loosened them up a lot after recognizing how wrong this direction was, again. I am still counting calories and I will not say that I believe counting calories is terrible – it helps a lot of people to understand how their body works and which foods are high in energy or low – but it is not the easygoing healthy lifestyle I am aiming for. Currently I am reading Bethenny Frankel’s “Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting” after watching her Authors@Google video and must say that I like it so far, though I’ve been skeptic at the beginning. I promise to post a book review after finishing it. And of course a lot of your amazing blogs out there are a great source of inspiration and motivation. I know so many amazing women who made quite similar experience as mine and ended up being healthy, happy and chilled out about their eating. Just needed to mention it at this point: you are truly the BOMB!

Oh and there is someone else who wants to say hello and will be making an appearance once in a while here:

Lilou is my even shorter, quite time-consuming and always begging for attention compaign. She loves to jump on everything in her reach, cuddle with any stranger she meets (I bet she would be quite happy to show you the way to the really expensive stuff, just a hint, Mr. burglar!), eats my plants and I can’t wait for the few hours she gets too tired to play and sleeps anywhere she falls on.

Enough of the bragging, let us come to the serious stuff: What is this blog about, what can you expect and what the hell has a ninja to do with it?

Meet the Ninja

This little beauty, drawn by my boyfriend, pictures my passion about health, food and fitness and is therefore everything this blog is going to be about.

You will find a lot of healthy (and healthy-fied) recipes, me bragging about my always changing, never boring training routine and also my view on various topics regarding healthy living and from time to time probably something completely unrelated, hope you don’t mind.

I am done with bragging now and I am amazed if you actually read until the end of it. All that is left to say: Nice to meet you! Hope you enjoy your stay and feel welcome to leave a comment wherever you would like to.