So I am officially 30…the big 3-0! I was asked if I had any great epiphany turning 30, but I really don’t…(Unlike when I turned 29 :). I have been aiming to make some major life changes prior to my birthday…I think I have made major changes in my life just from last year to this year. I don’t feel a year older, but I definitely feel a year wiser!
One of the major life changes I am embarking on is aiming to live a healthier life. Not because I need to lose weight, and want to look good, but because health is just tied into so many aspects of life I can no longer ignore it! I would officially be a fool to not do better with my health. I am older now! In February and March, I taught the Tuesday night sisters’ class at church and I learnt a lot from my own lessons! In February, I covered a few mental health topics (depression, anxiety, illness, and grief). I was truly amazed to see how intertwined and integral exercise is to our overall mental health. Apart from the fact that diabetes is real, and runs in my family, I am also predisposed to clotting because of a protein S deficiency…That means if I get a clot I can get a stroke. Exercise would not only act as a primary method of prevention from these preventable diseases, but it would also aid in preserving my overall mental health. Besides increasing your lifespan, and living longer without major problems, exercise helps to boost your energy levels, improves your sleep, improves your overall mood, and improves your sex life. For a lot of major mental health disorders, exercise is “prescribed.” Exercise can prevent a lot of diseases including some cancers, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, hypertension, and helps regulate cholesterol.
Exercise is not a quick fix. It is not something we do just to lose weight or fit into the wedding dress. Exercise needs to be a part of our daily lives if we want to reap the benefits. I looked at my 80 year old father last week when he visited, and I said to myself, thank God he loves to exercise. He is living independently despite his MANY health complications. I truly believe it was his lifestyle of daily exercise that has preserved his life. I see 60 somethings that are limping, yet my father has managed to get by this far. Poor health is REAL…And poor health is almost guaranteed if we do not adopt a healthy lifestyle. Being old may seem so far away…Or getting sick may not really be on our minds…We young folks tend to feel or live like we are invisible. But just like we need to save for retirement, so too we need to prepare our health for our retirement years. I know we all want to spend those years enjoying life, enjoying the grandchildren, and having the energy to do things!
I grew up seeing my father exercise almost every day. From breathing exercises to yoga…Yet, I never inherited the super health bug. My exercise habits were sporadic at best and non-existent at worst. Coupled with that, I remember eating junk food from ever since I was 2 (I do actually remember!) and I have not been able to break the habit! Not only do I love eating snacks, desserts, sweets, chocolates, preserves (filled with sugar), I love eating it every day!! I also come from a country where we are used to a heavy starch diet, with very little emphasis on vegetables. Usually it came in the form of a cucumber salad, or a leaf of lettuce, sitting at the side of our plate. But ‘nobody does fight for it,’ and is often the last thing to finish. So I have ingrained in me a lifestyle of eating a heavy starch diet, little vegetables, lots of snacks and sweets, and limited exercise. I might not be 100 pounds overweight, but guess what; I don’t need to be 100 pounds overweight to get diabetes, or a clot, heart attack, stroke, cancer, or even a mental disorder! And so I am taking my own advice that I advocated for during the classes I taught on Tuesday nights, and making a commitment to make a major life change.
I will no longer exercise for the sole purpose of losing weight so that I can look a decent size. I will exercise because I have to exercise, just like I have to eat. We sometimes get caught up in telling ourselves that we are happy with our size, and we don’t have a weight loss goal. I realized for me that I can be perfectly happy with my size…but that does not mean my size is healthy. And that is something we have to be seriously mindful of. I looked at the body mass index and it suggests that I am 30 pounds overweight. If I lose 30 pounds, I would be on the tail end (borderline) of healthy. So that is my goal, to lose 30 pounds in one year. I will call it the 30 pound challenge. I am starting at 194 pounds (the heaviest the scale has told me I am). I would also mention that no matter what weight I have been 150, 160, 170, 180 etc. I was never truly happy with my size, I always looked at myself as fat, and always felt that I needed to lose weight. Now, losing weight is not about fitting into a smaller size dress (though I would appreciate that), but it’s about being healthy, and truly being in the healthy category. By losing 30 pounds I would decrease my chances of getting many of those preventable diseases I mentioned. It’s easy to look at me and think that I am not that overweight, what’s the big deal, will it really make that big of a difference in your health!? YES!
Let me tell you this…I went to the family doctor for the first time (remember that post I wrote about using your health insurance? Well I finally used mine!) and she ran a bunch of tests- my iron was low, my sugar was high, I was lacking in vitamin D to the extent that she wrote a prescription, and good cholesterol was low. It just shows that you can always “look and feel good” but that does not mean that you are where you need to be. I would encourage you, as I encourage myself, to lose the weight you need to lose so you would be at your prime healthy weight…If you are already in the healthy weight category, then focus on being healthy to be healthy, not just to lose weight. We have to make it part of our everyday lifestyle.
Well I mentioned that besides the inconsistent exercise my diet was not the best. Well, I have been referred to see a nutritionist since my sugar was ‘borderline’ and I have been encouraged to reduce my starch, and increase fruits, vegetables and lean meats. So with that, I invested in a Caribbean vegan cookbook. NO I am not going vegan or vegetarian but I do need to explore plant life and become better friends with it. I need to learn what is out there and find creative, fun, and tasty ways to cook it. I am even going to challenge myself to eat more fish, and less of everything else. I am hoping I can go to eating chicken and other meats once a week and fill the rest of my week with fish or just vegetarian dishes. All with the aim of eating a healthy and balanced diet. My friend introduced me to a term called “flexitarian.” That is basically someone who is eats like a vegetarian most of the time but eats meat from time to time or whenever they feel like it. I like that, because I often find that vegans or vegetarians function like it’s a religion. Especially vegans…(no offence to the vegans out there) but they start going into its bad to kill God’s creatures and all of that, and that’s a bit much for me. But I do recognize that whatever your reason, eating healthy is always smart, and for that reason I will investigate more. I hope that I do not become a health fanatic, eating nuts, and hay. LOL. I don’t think I would though.
Another thing I want to explore is eating more organic foods, and buying food from the whole foods store and the farmers market. That would take a bit of planning, and extra budgeting, and just simple trial and error. I know for a fact that some of the foods produced in the US negatively affect me. When I am in the Caribbean, my diet does not change much…I eat much of the same foods since I cook a lot of Caribbean foods, but I noticed that my acne would reduce significantly! When I get back to the U.S. my face breaks out again. I am now convinced that the chemicals, preservatives, or something in the food is negatively affecting my skin…So I am going to learn to be more diligent of what I eat, and try as much as possible to eat natural, organic products. A few years ago I started purchasing organic milk (even though it’s twice the price) because of some documentary I watched. There was an unsafe chemical that was in regular milk. I can’t even tell you exactly what it was, but whatever it was, it was enough to convince me to start buying organic milk. It’s interesting that organic milk lasts significantly longer than regular milk…why?
I can no longer ignore that there really is a difference in natural organic foods...In the Caribbean we don’t really have organic food…that might be because the farmers naturally practice organic farming or use a lot less chemicals, and growth hormones than in the U.S. We didn’t have to worry if the fish was farm raised or caught in the “wild.” For the most part fish came from the sea, not a manmade pond. I recently learnt from a sister that the farm raised fishes have more mercury in them. Gosh, another thing to worry about…I didn’t realize there was really so much to think about when it comes to food. She was even telling me that if she eats chicken it has to be cage free. Goodness gracious! This is too much to think about. Right now, I just want to eat a healthy diet…Let’s start there first, I will worry about farm raised, and cage free later.
AS of today I have not made any drastic changes. I did join the YMCA on April 1, and plan to go to the gym after work, at least 4-5 times a week. I plan to do a mixture of aerobic and weight exercises. My office would be moving in less than 3 months. Since the Y is a block from my office, I am hoping that my momentum would continue even though the new office would be 20 minutes away from the Y! Some basic things that I have done long ago in an attempt to be healthy was to give up sodas and replace with water. I try to drink only one glass of orange juice or fruit juice a day and the rest in water. I use a water bottle (I now have 5 water bottles) instead of buying cases of water as I used to because global warming is real (reduce, reuse, recycle!). I try to buy healthy snacks like granola, but the cheese curls still go before the healthy snacks. Hopefully when I write again I would have a better report.
I will keep you posted on my 30 pound challenge and my new journey to better health. I hope you jump on the bandwagon and join me on the road to a longer, healthier, and better life!
Cheers!
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