In this article, professional food photographer, pilates instructor, and Best of Vegan contributor Sarah Kermalli (aka @sculptedkitchen) shares her personal journey of transformation and delves into the profound impact of two key aspects of her life: Pilates and veganism. Join her and discover how to begin with these habits that might change your life.
Table of Contents
Finding My Path To Pilates
I feel like I have many hats but aside from the family hat, the two frequent hats that I wear are the Pilates instructor and Food photographer hat. I stumbled into Pilates much like I did with being Vegan. University was proving too much for me and leading me to panic attacks and moments of anxiety that would have me in the emergency room.
After some time battling between thinking something was wrong with me and not knowing if there was actually something wrong with me, I was suggested to take Qi Chong and Pilates. I gave Qi Chong a good try and decided it wasn’t for me. Luckily for me, my university offered Pilates and it was a saving grace. I shortly became an instructor after and taught at exclusive clubs and companies and even taught at the university I went to!
What is Pilates?
Engaging in regular exercise is arguably one of the best approaches to improve your health and increase longevity. The other is what you eat.
Pilates is a mind-body exercise that focuses on strength, core stability, flexibility, muscle control, posture, and breathing. Exercises can be mat-based or involve the use of specialized equipment. Posture is emphasized to help correct shoulder, neck, and back issues.
Embracing Movement and Veganism for Health and Confidence
I can’t imagine my life without movement. I became vegan a bit later after I had my kids. Instagram may be touted for many bad things, but for me, it helped open doors to being so much healthier than I’ve ever been. Vegans get such a bad rap. I’m not too sure why. I’m healthier. I’m stronger. I feel more confident in my food decisions. Combined with a powerful way to move, I feel at the top of my game.
How to Begin Practicing Pilates?
Pilates may decrease back pain and improve sleep, digestion, mood, bone density, and increased muscle mass. All of these benefits might make you want to rush out the door and start your new Pilates practice. To begin a Pilates practice, follow these steps:
1. Beginning an exercise regimen
I think we want to exercise to solve our woes with our bodies. If you want to lose 10 lbs that’s great to set that as your goal but don’t dwell on thinking that the 10 lbs loss will magically solve other areas of your life too. The best way to achieve your goal is to enjoy the process. Enjoy how the movement improves your mood and how your muscles feel sore the next day! Find your “why” and enjoy the beautiful benefits along the way on your journey!
2. Utilize resources
Goals are attainable with countless resources. When the pandemic hit the world, I was wondering how I would continue my classes at home. I quickly made a poster in 5 minutes and posted it along my groups online and suddenly I had 100s of people interested in taking online Zoom Pilates.
There are a ton of resources to help you!
- Fitness tracking devices (Apple, Fitbit, etc)
- Gyms and fitness classes
- Zoom Classes
- You Tube
- Support from friends to go for a Walk or run together
3. What is your why?
Decide on what you are hoping to achieve and choose the Pilates practice that best helps you to achieve that goal (i.e. flexibility and core strength? Trying something new? Decreasing pain?)
4. Start with a beginner class
Start by taking a beginner class with the support of a qualified teacher. Taking a beginner’s class may seem too easy but it also helps to build foundation steps to not get overwhelmed when the moves get more complex. If you suffer from chronic back or neck pain, start very slowly and make sure to inform your teacher. Do not use Pilates to postpone seeing a qualified healthcare practitioner about a specific medical problem.
5. Enjoy yourself!
Make it about the process and the friends and skills you learn. I love it when my clients learn more about their bodies and how simple movements can result in a profound realization!
6. Safety Considerations
Whatever you do you need to make sure you’re being safe. Teaching online for me is not the same as teaching live. Considerations for pain in your back, knees, and hips have to be considered before you take a class. Be sure to tell your instructor!
3 Ways Exercise Supports Your Body
- Insulin sensitivity: You’ll need less insulin to get sugar out of your bloodstream. This allows your insulin levels to drop, which tells your gut cells to slow the conversion of sugar into more fat.
- Cortisol: It reduces cortisol. Cortisol packs fat around organs, where it produces lots of pro-inflammatory chemicals, which in turn tells the body to produce still more fat.
- New Blood vessels: Exercising builds new blood vessels through muscles and adipose tissues, which enables your body to burn more.
How to Begin Transition To Veganism
Movement is often split into cardio, strength, and stretching. Isn’t this familiar with how our food is categorized? Carbs, fat and protein? Without a better understanding of how to move, the moves we do can ultimately be like junk food for our bodies. We have to consider how each movement results in a specific adaptation.
Discovering Nutrient-Rich Foods and Transition Tips
By becoming vegan, I’ve been more keen and aware of eating well. I’ve tried fruits (passion fruit, pitaya to name a couple!) and vegetables (mustard greens, kohlrabi, and watercress to name a few) that I hadn’t heard of before. I’ve been anemic my entire life and it’s just in the last few years that it’s finally taking a steady upward curve in the positive direction. Incorporating squashes and other produce that are rich in color has helped me considerably! Tying this back into exercising, I approach food with the same mindset.
I don’t want to eat the same fruits and vegetables each day. It’ll provide my body with wonderful minerals, but there is so much out there to consider. Did you know that watercress is the most nutritious leafy green? It has 18 minerals and vitamins! Did you know chlorella has 58 grams of protein per 100 grams (not sure I’d eat 100 grams of it in one go!). Our plant world is so rich in minerals and vitamins and we can tap into all of the magic by varying our diets.
RECIPE: Stir Fried Veggies with Noodles and Tofu
Here are some things I did to help me transition to being vegan or transition my body to absorbing more from the new foods I eat:
Drink water
Drinking water is essential in helping your body adjust to new nutrients. It also helps you combat the urge to snack. It helps your kidneys and digestive system adapt to new foods.
Teas
I’m such a fan of drinking herbal teas. I buy them in bulk and make my own blends. I think it’s medicine in warm or cold form. I also am a fan of lemon water before eating your first meal.
Snacks
I’m not sure when it became a norm to be snacking constantly but there should be a gap of at least 2-3 hours between meals! Snacking can sometimes lead to poor food choices. Snacking can lead to an obsession of wanting to eat all the time rather than just allowing our bodies to become naturally hungry.
Supplements
I take supplements with my food. Some supplements I take are omega 3s, magnesium, zinc, vitamin D, k, and A.
Sleep and movement
Your body needs sleep to do the heavy lifting from the day. It has to take all the raw materials you supplied it with to build muscle, bone, and joint material to the limbs that you exercised that day. If you don’t exercise or lack daily activity, your body will not be able to put the food you eat to optimal use building lean tissue.
Planning meals
When I began, it was all too overwhelming for me to understand how to eat. Planning meals is a wonderful way to include a variety of produce in your week without going to the shop every day for ingredients. It’s more sustainable and it keeps you organized. There are so many resources such as:
- Vegan Cookbooks
- Free PDFs by your favorite blogger that you can download
- Web seminars
RECIPE: Tofu Scramble with Cashew Salsa
Bottom line
How Pilates Transforms Not Just Bodies, But Lives
Pilates isn’t just an hour-long routine that stops when the class ends for me. It’s changed my way of thinking about exercising. It’s not only made me stronger and confident but it’s also helped shape the way I sit, stand, and move. Our bodies were created to move. But, because the habitat of modern society limits movements with artificial terrain, man-made debris, and routines that make us sit so much it’s hard to create moving bodies. Pilates has helped me appreciate that the body works as pieces of a puzzle piece to create a whole picture.
For example, ankles are intimately connected to the health of the shoulders. Our inner thighs connect with our abs. If we have tension in the shoulder it may manifest in headaches or neck tension. If you have back pain, it could be the result of weak legs and shoulders! Don’t dismiss the small maladies because all the small deformations in your body’s foundation will translate into a steady stream of data to your brain that requires a constant back and forth with it. This will result in the sum total of many tiny parts. Our entire self.
Understanding Exercise’s Impact
We often think that ANY type of exercise will help improve the distribution of oxygen to tissues, but it actually doesn’t. Movement of any type improves the circulation only through the muscles that are being used for that specific movement. If you’re biking or jogging, only the muscles you’ve used for that specific exercise garner any benefits. Over time, heavy use of your body in one particular pattern makes strong tissues next to weaker ones, which creates an environment where an injury can slowly develop.
I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I do feel that Pilates does such a full-body workout and we utilize our toes to our necks to make a happier body. We need to think of exercising as nutrition as well. Movement nutrition!
Eating a variety of colors and including a variety of movements (not just 1 hour a day) really helped me become the person I am. I feel healthier and can lead by example with my kids.
More Articles You Might Like
If you loved this article on How To Begin on Pilates and Veganisms, you might also like more examples of Sarah’s work:
- One Step at a Time: Tips on Developing Sustainable Habits (with Vegan Recipes!)
- How to Create Stories with Food Photography: 7 Tips for Beginners
Delicious Vegan Recipes You Can Try
Vegan Meatball Subs with Cheese Sauce
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Disclaimer: the featured image used in this article was generated by AI.
