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When Healthy Living isn’t Healthy
I have always been a health and wellness-minded person. I believe it’s because I overcame leukemia at age three, ever since then I’ve recognized how important my health is and I’ve done everything in my direct control to be proactive in my mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health.
Growing up I educated myself on healthy diets, and even in the third grade, I got many cookbooks at the local library for healthy kids (written for the parent) which focused on low sugar, organic, whole foods, and the elimination of certain ingredients like dairy.
I felt so much better with these changes and I liked knowing I was being healthy. I felt in control and when I was eating this way, I felt good about myself. If I didn’t sustain it though, I wouldn’t feel good about myself as a person: so I avoided that as much as possible.
More recently, I stopped drinking alcohol in 2016 as I realized it was impacting my health while taking certain medications that interacted with it. Prior to taking the medication though, I was dependent on alcohol and I didn’t see that as impacting my health.
You could say I was less health-conscious during this time period, throughout high school and college where binge drinking was the norm continuing a few years after graduating.