Universal Connectivity

           As a child, food was a luxury. There were many nights where I would be forced to scrounge a meager meal together with generally less than ideal ingredients. Not only that, if there was a treat – potato chips, candy, ice cream, whatever – if you didn’t eat it when it was there, the chances were high that you wouldn’t get any so, much of the time, you would eat when you weren’t hungry or eat far more than a single serving since you didn’t know when you might get a chance to have that treat again. So, that was my early education in food – get it while you could.

            In the reading, the definition of malnutrition is any condition caused by excess or deficient food energy or nutrition intake or by an imbalance of nutrients. When reading that, it dawned on me that I had only ever associated malnutrition as a deficiency in nutrition and never the other extreme. This state of malnutrition is how I have existed for most of my life. While I wasn’t particularly heavy as a child – in fact, I was quite fit due to my involvement in swimming and dancing – I still had a very unhealthy relationship with food. I was diagnosed with endometriosis when I was 14 and the condition left me bed-ridden for the better part of two years and while my activity level plummeted, my food intake did not. Between my eating habits, my prescriptions and side effects from treatments, my body changed drastically.

            I put on nearly 50 lbs over the course of those two years and even then, I was the thinnest person in my family. I didn’t really give it much thought. It wasn’t until I injured my knee eight years ago that my weight really started becoming an issue. I’m glad that the role of genetics in weight retention has begun to be taken seriously as a factor for physique. It’s something that I’ve had to fight against my entire life. My parents and both of my siblings are overweight. Even at my heaviest, 270lbs, I was still the thinnest person in my family. At 22, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and that same year, my father was diagnosed with Type II diabetes. The dangers of my lifestyle were become more and more real to me.

            So, I made a change. I started small – controlling my portions, limiting my sugar intake, making healthier snack choices. I was still limited in my activity level due to my knee injury. It’s really hard to exercise when you’ve got a bad knee and no access to low impact options; I kept my changes focused mainly on my diet. I started to see some improvement but life has a way of making you stumble once in a while. Eventually, my efforts to care for myself got put on hold, as I was caring for my fiancé. His health became a priority, as he was very ill. In 2006, he passed away due to complications with a genetic condition. This left me feeling lost, alone and empty and, to some extent, I hid myself in comfort food – as some are apt to do.

            I got to a point where I was tired of being tired, sick of feeling sick and so over being in pain. So, I started to take my health and fitness more seriously. I cut out all sugar from my diet except for the small amount I put in my coffee and honey that I put in my iced tea. I have stopped going to fast food joints almost entirely – and I find when I get lazy and cop out, I end up feeling sick and sluggish afterwards, reinforcing my conviction to eat healthier. I am conscious not only of the calorie information of my food but, also about the ingredients – steering clear of anything with high fructose corn syrup. I no longer drink any soda and every day I feel better and look better. I’m proud to say that in the last year I’ve lost a total of 42 lbs and I’m down another 2.5 this week. I work out four to five times a week – at least 30 minutes of vigorous cardio – not to mention all the additional walking I get roaming around campus. I’m well on my way; continuing with my 2lbs a week weight loss, in 45 weeks, I’ll be at my target weight of 145lbs.

            I can’t remember when I didn’t know that our bodies and everything we do to them are interconnected. You cannot put junk in one in and expect it to simply pass through you without affecting something. Everything has an effect – inside, outside – our thoughts, our actions, what we do, what we say, what we project, what we ingest. It is all connected. I know I can reach my goal and I'm currently taking a nutrition class and I look forward to gaining more tools to help me get there and a deeper understanding as to why my body works the way it does.