Why Here2Health?
I’m not a guru. I’m by absolutely no means an expert. But I believe I’ve gained some knowledge over the years worth sharing. If for no other reason than to inspire you to be a bit more attentive to your health.
I grew up as a pretty big kid. In 6th grade, I was just over 200 pounds, and needed to lose 15 pounds to be able to play football with my peers. I did this by lifting weights in my basement and not eating ice cream every night. Shocker. Eat less & move more is good general advice, but it does require nuance. I didn’t get to play football that year because not enough kids signed up for that weight class. The weight regain began, slowly but surely.
Come junior year in high school, I was up to 242 pounds and quite unhappy and insecure with how I felt about my body. I played 2 varsity sports, but was still very overweight despite being in shape and relatively strong. I’ll never forget the day I looked in the mirror and decided I was sick of it. I wanted more for myself. I had reached my lowest low. But there was almost a comfort in it. I told myself I had a long way to go, and that it was going to be brutally hard. But I knew that despite the discomfort to come, it would be better than staying where I was. Most of us have that moment at some point. Where we can no longer tolerate our current state of affairs. We want to change, and know we have to. But we’re putting off the work.
But the work is where the magic happens. The hard work. The process of embarking on bettering your health is one that has to be led with curiosity and intention. We do it with an end goal in mind, but all the magic happens between here and there. The hard work, that you don’t want to do, reinforces your realization that you’re capable of doing hard things. That same confidence trickles into every other aspect of your life. You walk a little taller. You hold yourself to a higher standard. You become a better, more attentive version of yourself. You’re doing hard things, because you know they’re necessary. You know the version of you that you strive for won’t be actualized by taking shortcuts and straying the path. You’ll fall off the wagon, make mistakes. But they’re only mistakes if you don’t learn from them. 2 steps forward 1 step back still gets you forward progress.
This entire journey is a learning process. Learning what works for you, what doesn’t, what’s actually important and what’s not. You recognize your habits and tendencies. You curiously wonder where they came from and why you do them. You learn to change them. Once you’ve changed your habits, you’ve changed yourself. You’ll get to your goal in time, as you are just a delayed reflection of your habits.
My first degree was in Kinesiology, the study of human movement. I learned how important movement is to maintaining a healthy and functional body. Then I attended nursing school, and learned all about physiology and the diseases that burden us. Now I’m in a masters program for nutrition science, primarily because I wasn’t satisfied with my education on the topic in my previous two degrees.
I’ve now been a bedside nurse for 3 years. I’ve dealt with varying populations of patients. Regretfully, most of them could have had a different health trajectory had they changed their habits earlier in life. My goal is to engage in conversations around health in order to make people more aware of the importance of their habits and lifestyles, so they can maintain their health and ability to live the life they want as they age.
Health means something different to most people, and I believe that’s okay. I started Here2Health because I wanted an opportunity to share my ideas, my thoughts and experiences regarding different aspects of health, and help others increase their awareness of their habits and behaviors.
