Blogger Challenge Week 5: Health

Time for the 12WBT blogger challenge for this week. There was a wee little glitch last week, so you may notice that there is no week 4, but never fear, because week 5 is here. And the question I’m answering this week is:

So, what does being healthy mean to YOU? What is it that has made you start this journey into being a healthier you?

This is a very interesting question, and one that goes deep with me. For so many years I’ve struggled with my weight – actually, my entire life I’ve struggled with my weight, but it wasn’t until I hit my mid twenties that I ever really thought of my weight as a health issue and what I could be doing to my body. Actually, it wasn’t until my mum was diagnosed with diabetes that I ever really gave it much of a thought at all.

When my mum was diagnosed, I said to myself, that if I was ever diagnosed with diabetes, then obviously I’d do something about my weight, and get myself “healthy”, and that it would be the one thing that could really make me give up sugar. Isn’t it sad, that I had to get diagnosed with something as serious as diabetes for me to want to give up sugar and fatty foods! When I went to the doctor a few months later and was diagnosed with pre-diabetes, that should have got me going on my path to healthiness. And for a while it did. But then I got bored with eating salad and fell off the bandwagon. I had no idea what I was doing, I would follow the diets that the women’s magazines had in there each week and hope and pray that I would get skinny (which I equated with healthy). I didn’t of course. But then, neither did I ever stop to ask someone for some proper help and guidance. This abusive cycle continued on and on until I joined a gym 6 years ago and went on their 12 week weight loss and exercise plan.

Finally, I started learning what it meant to truly be healthy, how to lose weight, how to exercise to help me lose weight and help my heart out. And I did lose weight, and was really happy with myself. For some reason, that I’m still not quite sure about, I kind of stopped going to the gym, and I started gaining weight back. I only knew I was gaining weight because all the new clothes I had bought myself were getting too tight again. I had yet to invest in a set of scales (they were the enemy).

Fast forward to nearly two years ago now. We were invited to a wedding where Mick was to be best man, and I was going to be meeting a whole plethora of his friends I had never met before and I wanted to make a good impression. I want Mick to be proud to introduce me to his friends (which he would have been, no matter what – seriously, what was I thinking?). So I joined up on the 12WBT challenge. This is where health/exercise/weight all started to really make sense and sink into my thick head. I’m proud to say that (including a few weeks before officially joining 12WBT) over that time, I lost 16.5kg and I did make a good impression at the wedding and now that we live over here in Port Lincoln, some of those people at that very wedding are now my friends (though I know deep down – they would have accepted me even if I hadn’t lost 16kg, they’re just great [normal, un-judgemental] people).

Even though I managed to gain back 10 of those kilos since Round 2, 2010 ended, in the back of my mind I’ve always kept that “healthier” attitude. I let myself slip back into some bad eating and not weighing myself and I had a few personal issues that helped contribute to that “feed my face now” attitude. But always, I knew to make sure I was eating more veggies and fruit, eat less fatty foods and exercise. But ah, the exercise – we have a love hate relationship exercise and I. I love to hate it. Simple as that really. And since finishing up Round 2, 2010 I have barely exercised at all, even though I know it does my heart and body a great deal of good.

The reason for me joining up again, is because I want to get it into my thick head once and for all that being healthy, doesn’t necessarily mean being skinny. That I can still have a bit of flesh on me and be okay. But that eating wisely, and doing regular exercise are only ever going to be good for me, while at the same time, being able to recognise that occasionally enjoy a piece of cake with friends is okay too. But most importantly, I want to have a child. I love Miss Princess, but she’s not mine, she never will be mine and she will always have her mother no matter what and I missed out on the first 12 years of her life. I admit it, I selfishly want my own little piece of Mick – a Mini-Mick! But before I do have a baby, I want to be able to get my head screwed on properly in regards to the food and exercise issue, because more than anything, when I have a child, I want to be able to teach him/her about healthy eating and about having a healthy well balanced life. I never want a child of my own to have to make use of a 12 Week Body Transformation challenge. I don’t care if my child has a little extra “flub” one day, so long as they understand what’s happening to them, and know how to change it and fix the problem – or issue – before it becomes a problem. I want to end this cycle of bad food and no exercise that seems to run in my family once and for all.

Phew, that was a novel almost, but there you go – that is what being healthy means to me and that is why once again I am doing the 12WBT, and why I will in all probability continue to do 12WBT for the rest of this year at least.

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