Hello friends. Happy Monday and welcome to our new blog series. In this series I will be selecting a different celebrity each week and trying, as much as possible, to eat and workout like them. I know what you’re thinking. Another workout challenge? Didn’t she fail every challenge she’s tried in this category. Well, yes, I have. But I will continue to try until I get it right. And isn’t that the whole point of a journey? So, let me tell you about the week the challenge was to eat and workout like Natalie Portman.
Eat and Workout Like Natalie Portman – The Plan
So, first off let me give a bit of information on why this plan and where I got my information. There’s a site that I have stumbled upon a few years ago. It’s called Superhero Jacked. On this site you will find plans for celebrities, characters, athletes and you can get a lot of this for free. There are some aspects of the site where you need to pay, but you can get by without. Paying just goes deeper into the plan. But I can’t afford to pay right now, so I am using the free options. On this site is a selection called Female Celebrity Workouts. This is where I have made my plan from. The founder of Superhero Jacked, Mike, has done the research. I just have to follow.
Why This Challenge
I’ve seen YouTube videos where they have done similar challenges. In this case the creator has done their own research and will go based on that. They make a meal plan, or follow one they find online. These videos are honestly some of my favourites to watch and I’ve always wanted to try it for myself. The first time I attempted a challenge like this I wanted to go for a month. But it felt like too much of a commitment, especially if the celebrity and I have different food preferences. That is why, for this series, I will be following a celebrity’s diet and workout for only a week. Plus, let’s be real. I don’t have the bank account or time to live like that for a month.
Eat and Workout Like Natalie Portman – The Diet
Now, this wasn’t my favourite to start with, but here we are. For those of you who do not know, Natalie Portman is vegan. I am not. I will enjoy a vegan meal here and there, but long term – I missed eggs so much! Yes, more than meat. I love having some form of eggs for breakfast when I have the time to make breakfast. But, Natalie is vegan, so last week, I was mostly vegan. Why mostly? This last weekend was Easter, and my family had switched the day they have the family gathering so that I could come. I was not about to throw that back in their face by saying I couldn’t eat anything because of a challenge. But for the most part, I ate vegan.
The Ups and Downs
Now, I did go online and look up a 7 day vegan meal plan. And the food did sound good. My husband and I went shopping – no he did not join me in the vegan meals and that’s okay. So, I had set myself up, mostly, for success. Unfortunately there were days where I just didn’t have the energy or motivation or desire to make what was on plan. So, I made a few changes, while staying as true to the vegan diet as I could. Other than the gathering, the only slip up I had was when I made a toasted tomato sandwich. Unfortunately that bread was made with lard, so not vegan. But otherwise I did really well and I’m proud of myself. Plus I got to eat some delicious meals.
Eat and Workout Like Natalie Portman – The Workouts
So, because I’m insane, I started with a crazy first. The workout plan I loosely followed was when she was training for Thor: Love and Thunder. Did you see her arms? So, you guessed it, there were arm workouts. The plan that was laid out for me was 3 days of upper body focused workouts, while the other days were focused on Pilates or Yoga for recovery. Now, why did I say loosely followed? Because I’m too poor to afford a gym membership and I do not have a chin-up bar in my house. So I had to modify the workouts in some instances. Same with when she was supposed to do a sprint. I chose other workout moves for those.
Progress, Not Perfection
Did I succeed in following this workout plan? Not entirely. There were 3 days where I did not workout. Although, one of those days I had to move some furniture at work and that felt like a workout in itself. But, going from only one workout a week to 4 workouts a week is a huge improvement for me. And two of those were upper body focused while the other 2 focused on recovery. Although I still think Pilates is not recovery. I was just as sore after Pilates as I was for upper body days. But, I did feel good about doing those workouts, so we will see how that improves over the next while.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, I respect the hard work that Natalie had to put in for the role. Her trainer did say that they had to give her vegan protein shakes to keep up with her protein needs, and I understand that. While I didn’t make a bunch of protein shakes, I did try to incorporate as much vegan protein as I could with chickpeas and peanut butter. The food I ate was good – there was one smoothie that was just fine, but not sure if I would make it again. It wasn’t a terrible week by any means, but I was very excited to have eggs this morning. And it was good to explore different workouts.
Moving Forward
So, I’m going to be doing this challenge for the month of April. I’ve selected the next 3 celebrities I’ll be following for workouts and diet. Now, I use the term diet very loosely. Meal planning is probably the more accurate term, but I don’t know exactly how they eat. I will be using the information that I find on superhero jacked. This week there are workouts planned out, so I don’t really need to find workouts on YouTube. Just follow the plan. Now, some of the moves Mike calls different names than what I’m used to, so I have had to look up how to do them. And I will have to modify any that I can’t do due to not being able to afford a gym membership.
Let’s Do This
After April is done, I’ll see how popular these blogs are, as well as how I’m feeling. If I’m loving it and want to continue, I will. If the blogs are doing well, I will. Now, if the blogs are not doing well, but I’m having fun, I’ll still do them but not blog about it as frequently. But I’m hopeful that I’ll see the results I want to see. I’ve already noticed one success. I didn’t feel bloated or uncomfortable in my body last week. There’s still a long way to go before I see the final result, but I am excited to reach that goal. And we all know that anything can happen if I try.
