Freshman year of highschool, I suffered through health class with Mr. Pryor--jk I actually loved it. He scared us with pictures of kids with herpes crusted on their eyes...which in actuality as an adult I've learned that everyone has herpes-literally, every person has been exposed to it and 1 in 4 people have the virus, many don't even know they have it so smile--it's ALL GOOD. ;) As you can see, I'm about normalizing that which has been seen as taboo. The best part was the nutrition section where back in the old school day, they taught the United States Department of Agriculture funded "My Food Pyramid." I was so down to start making healthy diet choices and share with others how to do it then that I created a project where I set a month's full of daily meal plans in order to fit all the required portions of each category. I even created quick recipes for select menu items and named my imaginary store the "Salubrious Shack" as I've always resepcted interesting names....
Little did I know back then, that this "Pyramid of Health" was actaully a scam to increase sales of highly government subsidized crops such as WHEAT, RICE, SOY and CORN rather than promote health. I just started with the base of 7-11 servings of carbohydrate holy SH*T, I gained 15 pounds in 1 year eating MAD BOWLS of OATMEAL---and so, much, bread it wasnt even enjoyable. It was sickenening and sad. Here I was trying to see if being a nutritionist was for me...and I got fat. With all that extra weight, I doubted myself and was debunked from running varsity in track--mad ego bust. I played volleyball and ran track all four years of highschool so I had the physical activity going on and I thought I had the eating on track but I somehow effed that up? But I just didn't feel good, I didn't look good--and the cycle repeated. I didn' think that being a nutritionist and promoting health could be for me as I felt like a fairly poor example.
Somehow resilience won. Now as a Registered Dietitian and Master of Public Health Nutrition, I'm like "HOW THE F(iberous vegetables) DID I GET HERE?! " I am not perfect--what is perfect anyways? I've had my bouts of eating disorders, every 3 steps forward, I got pushed back, or more realistically I pushed myself back. But I realized the importance in still fighting for what I wanted-- to positively influence those who have or had the same struggle--and even those who don't, to love their bodies and treat it like a Wonder of the World.
I'm not going to go into every detail of my psychophysical trips throughout the years--but what I did finally realize through my growth as a human---that you cannot be true and healthy when you're not good within as the hip hop queen Lauryn Hill herself asks "How you gonna win if you ain't right within?" The words that you speak to yourself and the thoughts that repeat in your mind, impact your spirit. When your spirit hurts, it's difficult to listen to your intuition--and with the loss of that--we lose balance. Our bodies are not harmonious with the our souls and thus we have physical ailments--we don't treat our bodies with the respect that we should. When our bodies are not healthy, they cannot exert that magical energy into the world--it cannot be a part of a community. I WANNA SEE YOUR MAGIC!!!! I believe that health is more than just empowering the individual--it resides in the depth that we all are a part of this earth. We all have beauty to share--and here is my start from the Salubrious Shack to *~YiNYaNGlow~*
I challenge you to read, pick, question, comment on whatever I share. I welcome peaceful discussion because I love learning from everyone. All I ask is that only kindness will flow through this site as I do believe the power of Will Ferrel's genius "EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY!!!"
SHOUTOUT TO MR. PRYOR! THANK YOU FOR INSPIRING ME! I HOPE YOU USE THE CHOOSEMYPLATE NOW, IT'S MUCH BETTER!