Nutrition 101: Part 1 - Introduction

Before we begin discussing the topic of nutrition, I'd like to clear a few things up and tell you about my journey to better health. 

First of all, I do not claim to be an expert in this area. I'm still very much a student when it comes to health. 

Secondly, I'm not trying to say that you need to eat 100% according to the principles I'll be writing about. Everyone has their own standards. I just hope that you're able to learn something and be encouraged to try to live a healthier lifestyle.

Lastly, don't get the impression that I'm a health-freak (well, maybe I am a bit) and never eat anything I consider unhealthy. Just over the weekend we ate fast food. And I like to be polite when I'm at another person's house and eat whatever they have to offer. But I try to make healthy choices when I can.

Let me tell you about my journey: 

I have been concerned about my appearance/weight since I was a little girl. When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I heard that someone had mentioned that I putting on some weight. I was horrified. Immediately I put myself on a diet and lost weight. 

At 13, I started to put on weight once more. Again I set myself on a diet. I called it the "half diet" - I would estimate how much food I would normally eat and only take half that amount. I was hungry a lot, but it felt good to see myself get skinnier. 

At this point my ideas about nutrition were very limited. I was definitely following the low-fat craze. I made many smoothies with skim or low-fat milk and ate apples for a snack. I was hungry, so I would eat every part of the apple except for the stem and the seeds. 

During this time we were also doing a lot of bike riding. Needless to say, I was able to lose quite a bit of weight. At my lightest I was about 92 pounds (I'm 5'2"). This could possibly be a healthy weight for some people, but this was NOT good for MY body. 

Then I began to dig a little deeper into the nutrition aspect of food. Even from a mainstream source (I think it was a Reader's Digest article) I was able to discover that not all fat is evil. 

One day Reuben's mom (who has always been a great source of knowledge about health/nutrition) loaned a book called Eat Fat, Lose Fat to my older sister. It really opened my eyes about healthy fats being essential to good health. From there I continued to read about traditional nutrition.

And so I relaxed and let myself eat again. It felt good. Of course I put on some weight, but that was what my body needed. I had to give up my crazy notion that being super thin was the ideal form of health. Again, some people are naturally thin and healthy, but it wasn't a good thing for my body. 

Ever since then I have tried to make good food choices. I eat until I'm full and I can easily maintain a healthy weight. Of course I still struggle with body image - what woman doesn't? But I try to stay grounded in reality.

God gave us our bodies to live in and we should take care of them, but our obsessions about looking a certain way shouldn't be more important than our character (I'm talking to myself when I say this because it's something I still need work on).

Okay, I'm done preaching.

Up next I'll get into more particulars about what I believe to be good nutrition choices.

Thank you for reading my story! How about you? Have you ever struggled with weight/body image?