I have posted many times about the importance of eating right and exercising to keep your body healthy, but after reading another blog this morning, I decided to write about one of the most important parts of living a healthy lifestyle; attitude. I'll admit, my attitude towards food has been like a roller coaster ride in the past 5 years. When I first got really interested in nutrition (my sophomore year of college), I also began to cut many foods out of my diet. I have never been a picky eater and would always clean my plate. I played volleyball, so I needed the extra calories to stay strong for long matches and tournaments. After 8 years in club volleyball and 2 years in college, I had enough and stopped playing to focus on my schooling. I began to look for ways to stay healthy (I wasn't looking to lose weight) and had a couple nutrition classes that really peaked my interest. By the summer of my junior year, I had lost about 20 pounds and my friends and family were telling me I was too thin and did not look healthy. I had lost my passion for food and was counting every kilocalorie that was going into my mouth.
As you can see, I wasn't suuuuper skinny, but skinny enough. The scary part was that I still didn't like my body. After that summer, the holiday season came up and I released all the tension I had towards food and gained those 20 pounds right back. My attitude towards food at this time was punishment. I would go on crazy binges and would actually tell myself that it was a punishment for not being skinny and for letting myself go. I felt extremely out of control.
I ended up going to my doctor who referred me to an endocrinologist to get some blood work done on my thyroid (we do have thyroid history in my family and it was time I got a check up anyways). Basically, he told me that all of my tests came back just fine and said my vitamin D levels were extremely low (about as low I you can go). As soon as I began to take the supplement, I immediately felt so much better! With the combination of eating unhealthy foods and being winter time in the mid-west, I was lacking the sunshine vitamin! Having too little of this fat-soluble vitamin can really mess with your temper and mood swings, which you can ask my family, I was definitely experiencing!!
I have finally gotten back to being myself in regards to my attitude towards food. I make sure to get as many fruits and vegetables into my diet every day, drink lots of water, eat whole grains, lots of /beans/nuts, and do some sort of physical activity every day. Sometimes I run, bike, walk, do yoga, or dance with the Wii!
The thing I want to stress most about this post is to make sure your life is balanced! There are 5 domains of health: physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and social. If all of them are healthy and taken care of, you will be happy and healthy!
All in all, I am glad that I had to go through that tough time because now, I can truly understand what some people are going through. When I get my RD license in a couple years, I will be able to help my clients even more by knowing what they might be going through.
As always, please feel free to comment or ask me anything you'd like. I would love to share my story to help others get through the confusing and frustrating times.
Luana ola!
