I am a 23-year-old girl looking to live a healthy, happy life. I live with my wonderful fiance Jacob and our fabulous pooch Goldielocks. I'm currently the healthiest I've ever been, and I'm as happy in my personal life as I could possibly be!
As a child, I was very unhealthy. I was always underweight until late in high school, and I was horribly unfit. I remember hiking with my dad and stepmom when I was in elementary school and absolutely DYING after just 20 or 30 minutes. The physical fitness tests were my enemy, especially the mile run. I started running when I was 13. Just a quarter mile at a time (that was all I could do at first!), but slowly I worked my way up. I kept running throughout high school and college, but I also became a gym rat and gave up the outdoor running thing for a while. I was still healthy and active, but a 3-4 mile outdoor run was my limit. I had no idea that I had a distance runner buried deep down inside! In the summer of 2009 I got inspired by a friend to train for a half marathon. I've now completed one half and one full marathon and I can't wait to do more (and to do them faster)!
As a kid, I hated eating anything that wasn't sweet. My mom had to struggle to feed me and my sister... we just refused to eat! While my mom cooked very healthy food, and we ate family dinners every single night, we were allowed to eat cookies and fruit snacks and all sorts of horrible processed stuff. If I would eat it, my mother would let me because it was so hard to get me to eat anything! I struggled with disordered eating in high school. I would obsessively counting calories (actually, weight watchers points) or throw up after meals. My lowest weight ever (as a teenager or adult) was 102 lbs as a sophomore in high school. By the time I graduated high school, I was doing better and had gained about 20 lbs. I ended up gaining 20 lbs MORE when I went to college due to beer, the dining hall, and mono (therefore no workouts allowed for 3 months). The biggest number I have ever seen on a scale was 140 lbs. I am 5'6.5 inches (DON'T cheat me out of my .5!), so 140 lbs is not overweight by BMI standards, but I have a very small frame and it was too much weight for me. The extra 20 lbs from freshman year slowly came off during my later college years and after graduation. I am at a healthy, happy weight now that is in between my heaviest and my lightest. Weight is something that's constantly on my mind, but I'm learning that making healthy choices matters more than the numbers on a scale.
My most recent health adventure is going vegetarian. I haven't had red meat or pork in years because I simply don't like them (and I never ate them when I was struggling with disordered eating, so I got out of the habit). But I did eat chicken, turkey, and fish almost every day up until a few weeks ago. My main reason for giving up meat entirely is that I have IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and meat seems to aggravate it. Also, I don't really like meat very much, so giving it up is not hard for me. I'm trying to eat less dairy and eggs because they too seem to upset my system, and because I believe in animal rights and I know dairy farming is horrible. I love my yogurt and cheese, so I don't have plans to go full-out vegan anytime soon, but you never know what the future holds!
My journey towards health is definitely in progress, and I'm having a great time!
