The Shakti Gymnast

The sound of "vegan athlete" always scares people for some reason. Actually, "vegan" in general scares people. Most people question if I'm getting enough protein and calories to support my intense training. I make sure to get enough protein and calories by eating beans, nuts and nut butters, protein shakes, lentils, and oats. And sometimes my "snack" will be an entire meal. I just listen to my body. If I'm feeling hungry, I eat and I will keep eating until I feel full enough. I allow myself to eat whatever I want as long as the food is vegan and low in sugar.  Why are you vegan?  I'm vegan because I feel like I have more energy with this lifestyle. I was vegan up until 12 years old, and then started eating animal products because I felt like that was what I needed to do in order to gain weight. Thinking about it now, I realize that I was having a growth spurt and just needed to eat more food! I remember that I used to sleep a lot when I was on

I'm sure a lot of gymnasts have heard their coaches tell them at a meet, "Visualize what you're going to make your routine look and feel like before you compete."  In the compulsory levels, I didn't really know the reason why my coaches were telling me that, but I did what they told me to do and most of the time, I performed how I visualized I would do in my head. In the beginning optional levels, I still visualized, but not nearly as much as I used to in levels 4 and 5. As I decreased the amount of time I spent visualizing, I saw a decrease in my performance at meets; I realized that I was not as confident and prepared as I should be going into my routines. In the beginning of last year, my sister recommended I read  Extreme Focus by Pat Williams and Jim Denny to help me learn some tricks to help me tap into my fullest potential. As I read the book, I began applying what I learned to my gymnastics and saw a dramatic increase in my performance, efficiency, and

I feel that having the right mindset in sports and schoolwork is my key to achieving success. Here is a list of the qualities of my personal mindset in gymnastics and school: 1. Positivity.  On days when I feel the most happy to be at the gym and practice my skills, I notice that my gymnastics improves dramatically. I am able to do the skills I was having a hard time with in the past and do harder skills with ease. These days used to happen pretty infrequent for me until I started practicing daily gratitude and positivity. Now I have infrequent "bad" days! Even on these "bad" or tired days, I try my best to stay positive. I notice that when I am able to get past these days, I only get stronger the next day.  2. Focused.  When I am focused, I get into this state of what I call "flow." Before I enter this state, I must embody positive emotions and feelings. I then focus that energy into what I am doing and enter into the flow state. When this happens,

Hey everyone! It's been awhile. Almost five years to be exact. I feel as though I'm writing to an old friend that I haven't talked to in a long time. A lot of things have happened in those five years and I am excited to share my stories, knowledge, and experiences on this blog. But first, I would like to set a SMART goal for this blog and share it with everyone reading. Maybe it'll even inspire a few of you to set a SMART goal for something you want to accomplish this year.  Allow me to explain what a SMART goal is: A SMART goal is Specific, Measurable, Attainable (however, I believe all goals are attainable no matter how big or small), Relevant, and Time-Based. By writing a goal down in this way, you create a clear and trackable goal. This will be my second SMART goal I have made so far this year. Here we go... S pecific: I want to blog every week starting on February 8, 2021 and ending on January 1, 2022. I want to accomplish this goal because I believe I will inspir