Health

I have always wanted to be skinny. Before I knew any better, from about 13-21 I would just not eat much to stay skinny. For breakfast I had nothing, for lunch I had a snack size bag of chips and I'd eat a little bit of dinner, I would never skip on the candy though. I used to drink A LOT of soda, as soon as I woke up in the morning and right before bed, I was drinking soda. Right around my 18th birthday I was working almost full-time at Blockbuster, a senior in high school working on a senior project and had a very busy social life. I would wake up at 5 for school, go to school all day, again I did not eat much all day. After school I'd get an hour off where I'd sleep a little and then go to work from 4-10 or 11. After work I'd usually hang out with someone until 12 and then go home and sleep for 4 or 5 hours. At work I would eat the movie size candy they sold and have soda. I started feeling really thirsty all the time, I could barely see, even with my glasses on and I lost around 20 pounds (I weighed about 85 or 90 pounds at 5'1".) I was sick and missing a lot of school. My illness lasted about a month before I was diagnosed with mono. Two weeks later I got really sick again and went in to see an on-call doctor who then diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes. I was hospitalized and had to learn how to test my blood sugar and give myself shots before I could be released. Now, 8 years later, I am reading about processed foods and the additives put in them and how they mess up hormones. I realize now that all that crap I ate was creating insulin resistance. I guess my pancreas just gave up... I wish I had known all this when I was younger... maybe I wouldn't have diabetes now... One, of several good things I am learning, is that I don't have to starve myself to be skinny (I know, you're thinking "duh, stupid!") I just didn't know. Another good thing is that my kids won't have to suffer the same things I did. We will be staying away from refined sugar and grains, high fructose corn sugar, artificial color and flavor, etc. I am also learning all kinds of awesome work-outs from my cool sister-in-law, Joy. She has been sending my a WOD (workout of the day) everyday now for a few weeks to help me get in shape. Honestly, I go through days where I feel totally motivated and ready to exercise and other days where it's the last thing I want to do. I am really excited about this lifestyle change though! I love feeling good and having so much energy and also feeling good about how my kids eat and their activity level. Yay for eating and using our bodies the way God intended us to! Now, I am not going to worry about being skinny, I am going to just be healthy.

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