What Does Being "Healthy" Really Mean Anyways?

 The Pursuit of Human Health

What does being healthy really mean anyways? 

Well, I guess it depends on who you ask. A general family practitioner may call you healthy if you're on less than two medications. Perhaps a coworker might call you healthy if they see you always bringing salads for lunch. Maybe you'll even think of yourself as being healthy by resisting the urge to have another piece of that chocolate cake that seems to be trying to hypnotize you into eating the entire thing without restraint. Merriam Webster dictionary defines healthy as "the condition of being sound in body, mind or spirit" and unfortunately it seems to be the norm to be suffering with some type of illness, condition, allergy, sensitivity, or even hormonal imbalance in todays world. 

As for me, I have been pursuing what being healthy means for me as it applies to every aspect of my life. A few of those main areas would be food, movement, rest, medicine, supplements and social interaction. But inside each category there is so much to unpack. The purpose of this blog is to be able to write down the things I have learned and am still learning as I navigate my way through the mazes of trends, fads, and just downright wrong information out there pertaining to human health. This may be one of the most applicable subjects especially nowadays with so many preservatives, chemicals, and plastics all being in and around our food, let alone all the toxins and chemicals we are exposed to in our day to day life, hidden within so many household products. So many questions are being raised about the trajectory of future generations and what we need to change right now to avoid further disaster. Inside all of the information, I hope to present my journey to others as a way to enlighten and provide accessible and applicable knowledge to improve the lives of those that read.

A little about me, I don't like to be vulnerable but who does? I figure that if my vulnerability can help someone else then it's worth the difficulty. So here goes... 

I was always the chubby girl growing up. Somewhere around 7 or 8, my body seemed to hold on to extra weight and I could feel the judgement of others even if they pretended it didn't exist. Although sometimes, I'm sure it could've been imagined on my part. After all, going through your adolescence and teenage years is hard enough if you look "normal". I remember watching the biggest loser TV show and feeling like, that's what I needed to do. "I need to just crack down and restrict my calories as much as I can while exercising till I don't feel well", I would think to myself. So many times I tried to incorporate harsh diets, restriction, fasting, extreme cleanses, or just exercising as much as I could. Some of the attempts worked temporarily and I would lose 10, 20, maybe even 30 pounds, but it was short lived. Once I reached the point where it was just unsustainable, the pounds would come pouring back on and would be accompanied by a few more than when I first started. Great. 

After years of these cycles I decided that those attempts kept making me worse off so I stopped trying and started looking for real solutions. By this time, I was in college facing an undiagnosed panic disorder and intense anxiety. It got to a point where for the span of roughly two months, I would sleep on my parents floor, not wanting to be alone, afraid that I might die in my sleep and afraid to fall asleep. This whole ordeal took a lot of out me and the people around me especially my parents. I can't thank them enough for the times they just were there with me through it. I was able to finish college successfully, although if I had been treated I may have been able to achieve higher grades. I was just thankful to make it out with a bachelors in Biochemistry and double minor in math and preprofessional health. 

For as long as I could remember I wanted to go into the medical field and I was trying to set myself up to be able to take the MCAT and possibly apply to med schools but my anxiety and panic were always getting in the way. Right before I graduated, Covid-19 happened and that took any hope of trying to go to med school out of my system so I applied for fulltime work at my local grocery store. This led into a corporate job working with nutrition facts and labeling which has also been so educational to my personal health journey. But I'll get into all of that later.

My background in science, health and math enabled me to understand medical papers, podcasts, and Youtube videos I may not have otherwise have had the patience to decipher. I'm definitely not claiming to have all the answers just so that's understood but, I have learned a lot and this is where I hope to share everything I've learned and continue to learn. Join me on my health journey and maybe start your own if you haven't already!