MY HEALTH JOURNEY

November 2014 was when I decided to make an enormous change in my life. I decided that I would stop making excuses for why I couldn’t change my unhealthy habits. Enough was enough. My health went in a downward spiral when I quit dancing. Things got even worse when I didn’t make the volleyball team in High School. I was absolutely oblivious to what giving up my main source of exercise would do to my body. There were many days when I would eat an entire roll of Ritz crackers with a huge pile of Nutella on top of each cracker. I gained a ton of weight. I kept telling myself that one day I would make the necessary changes to be healthier. I always thought about it, but never had any real intention to change my ways. Living with a single father was also a factor. I didn’t know any better than to eat exactly what he ate and the same amount. I thought that was normal. Boy was I wrong!

Once I made the decision, I had to develop a routine to keep up with my new life. The first few weeks were by far the toughest. The toughest day was when I was sitting in Chemistry class and I could feel the rolls in my stomach. I remember feeling that I wanted to give up. I felt like my hard work wasn’t paying off, but I’m glad that I pushed past that because although it took longer than I expected, my body caught up with my hard work. Even though there was a voice in my head telling me to just give up and eat an entire pan of brownies, I pushed through the temptations and used who I wished I was (who I am now) as motivation to keep going. I had made similar decisions before, to become healthier, but it always ended after only a few weeks. What made this different was my maturity. School taught me about calories, metabolisms and diabetes. I knew more about the norms for girls my age, which made it harder to deny the damage I was inflicting on my self-esteem and my body. I knew change couldn’t come easy, but deep down I knew I was capable and I knew it was time.

Being a teenage girl who lost a significant amount of weight, I can understand why my family and peers were concerned for my well-being. It’s common for girls my age, who have gone through a similar transformation, to develop an eating disorder. I think that what kept me from going too far was my knowledge of how damaging not eating enough nutrients would be to my body and my mental health. There were a few days when my mindset was not in a healthy place, when I told myself that I couldn’t eat something because of the calories. When I surpassed my goal weight, after only 6 months after starting, I was afraid to eat more calories, because I didn’t want to gain back all the weight that I fought so hard to lose. After doing more research, I realized how unhealthy those thoughts were. I slowly up-ed my calorie intake, continuing to exercise and eat healthy. There was a short period of time when I was not eating nearly enough protein. I started to feel weak and look very thin. My parents got very worried and expressed their concern for my health. I appreciated that they cared, but it was still difficult to keep hearing the same words over and over.

People I hadn’t seen since before I started losing weight would always say, “you look different” and then they would stare from a distance until they figured it out. At first it made me extremely uncomfortable, but eventually I took it as confirmation that I had achieved my ultimate goal, to be as healthy as I always wanted to be.

I know more than anybody how hard it is to become the healthiest version of yourself and I hope that others decide to as well. I would love to answer any questions you might have about any healthy eating topics. I am not a health professional but I can certainly give quality advice. Just leave a comment or direct message and I’ll get back to you.