Day One

Although this is an assignment for my class, I find that I am excited to take the steps to create a personal blog that I will continue to use for my daily ramblings.

The class I am taking is Introduction to Nutritional Concepts.  I have learned so much through the 5 weeks of this class, things that will be a part of my journey toward health.

I always knew that nutrition was an important part of living healthy, but never had really paid much attention to what I was eating and how I was feeling.  Several years ago, I was diagnosed with Hypertension, High Cholesterol, and Type II Diabetes.  It was then that I realized I had to do something, but didn't know where to start.

I have kept up with some of the bad habits I have had all my life.  This has not been good on my body, and now I weigh the most I ever have.  It is time for change.  This will be my starting post, and I would like to lay out my plan, and some of the things I have learned on how to make changes here. 

This is me.  This girl did not realize that the things she was putting into her body, were really not all that good for her.  This girl had not yet been diagnosed with all her ailments.

Nutrition plays an important role in health.  Nutrition itself can not stop the ailments that would affect a body, but it does play a role.  Some things can be genetic, in our textbook Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies (Sizer & Whitney, 2017) it says  "any condition that shows up in several close blood relatives may be a special concern for you".  This can mean alcoholism, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, liver disease, and osteoporosis.  Many of these things ran in my family,  many of these things I ignored.

In ignoring these diseases, I let them begin in my own body.  Was some of it genetic, maybe.  Was some of it my own doing, of course.  I chose to not drink because both my parents were alcoholics, and I never wanted to put my children through what I had gone through, so why did I choose to eat myself into disease?

Now truly I am considered morbidly obese.   There is such a stigma being placed on those who are obese, because of health issues.  I get this it is important.  But being underweight is equally terrible, and hosts a whole set of other health issues.  Being underweight can cause reproductive issues, having malnutrition, osteoporosis, and other issues.  These issues are just as dangerous as being over weight.

 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)  If you look at this chart, you can see that many of the leading causes of death have to do with obesity and the affects it has on our bodies.  There is one way that we can make changes in these statistics, and that is to start paying attention to what we are putting into our bodies.  Now like I mentioned before, some genetics play a role in if you get these diseases, but really most of if depends on us.

This is why today on Day One, I am going to take a stand and make changes in my life, to prevent the progression of the diseases I have.  I will be sharing information that I have learned over the last 5 weeks, and I hope it can be of help.

Sizer, F. & Whitney, E. (2017). Nutrition: Concepts and controversies (14th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. ISBN-13: 978-1-30563937-9, ISBN-10: 1-305-63937-5

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention retrieved from  https://www.cdc.gov/