Health Journey: The Begining

Paris, 2012

It all began with a baby, a gluten baby. Do you know what I am talking about? When your belly gets kinda fat, firm, you feel bloated and all around disgusting. Well that was me, pretty much nonstop throughout my college years. Sexy, RIGHT?! 

 As a kid, I was a muscular, lean, and loved being active. When I hit puberty and my desire to be active didn't change but my body did. I got the "cute" prepubescent  pot-belly. I continued to grow into a teenager and was overall, pretty "average", though I had always seen myself as so much bigger than the other girls my age because I was so tall early in life. 

 I did Weight Watchers at the age of 17 (not really sure why) and I lost 25lbs, weighted the least I ever had, but still had a lot of belly fat. I began having lots of artificial sugars, processed food, eating low fat, and of course, drinking loads of diet coke. I continue my diet coke obsession through college and ate a mixture of low fat and college cafeteria food that my body just overall hated. Once I gained the initial 15-30 lbs in the first few years of college, I maintained that weight and lifestyle for a good 5 + years. 

At the time,  I had befriended a local family who chose to eat organic, read ingredient labels, work a little harder to make their food from scratch, they used all natural skin care and toothpaste, and they had chosen that lifestyle because their mother was fighting breast cancer. I was so curious, encouraged, impressed, and intrigued but the way they were choosing to treat her cancer through diet and lifestyle. I ate many delicious meals with them and, at that time ate whole wheat pasta, I became more aware of myself and my gut issues. I always ran to the bathroom after eating or in  the most inopportune places. I had terrible heart burn and crazy, painful, gas (ie. gluten baby).  This is when I first became truly aware of my health, or lack there of.

Pairs 2012

So that is the logistics of what I call "the beginning". The logistics don't portray the heart behind where I was at this time of my life. I basically spent a lot of time thinking about what I thought I SHOULD look like instead of appreciating and growing myself. You know in movies when they show a child and then that child grown up, they always use a woman that mildly looks like the little girl, but not completely? Well, that's what I always pictured growing up, that I would look completely different than I did as a child. That breaks my heart.

Paris 2012

*to be continued. . .

*the mother I spoke about beat her cancer through both western and alternative medicine!