I've finally realised it, I need to make some lifestyle changes...

I've finally realised it, I need to make some lifestyle changes

All my life I thought that I was being healthy, making the right choices for my body and my life. 

And for a while they did seems like the right choices. Although I didn't realise it, I was lucky that I had very few medical problems, my "puppy fat" from my younger years just fell off without me trying and I had clear skin. 

But over the past couple of years, my luck has been slowly running out and know it looks like I'm now actually going to have to work towards getting back what was once my "normal" body.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm fairly happy with how my body looks now but the extra weight has decided to all just collect around my stomach which could really cause problems for my health in the future. 

You see, those with excess fat around the stomach area are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and heart disease in the future and considering that diabetes run in my family it's best for me to take action now rather than in the future when I'm in a doctors office and I'm being told if I don't make a change now then I'm in serious trouble. 

So yeah, now of this is for appearance reasons, but more for health reasons. 

I may only be 20, but surely the earlier in life you start to take your health seriously, the better. Especially as parts of my body already seem to be failing me...

I don't know how many of you reading this have read any previous posts, but in October of last year I was diagnosed with costochondritis; an inflammatory condition where the cartilage in my rib cage (more specifically that which is connecting my ribs to my breastbone) is much larger than it should be and it causes me extream pain every. single. day.

I have tried everything I can to ease and "cure" my pain: various painkillers, various creams, cold compresses, heat pads, even at home TENS machine. But alas, none of it has worked and I'm now on a waiting list for pain clinic but in the UK it can take a while to get an appointment. It's time to try and heal this damage from the inside with a mixture of de-stressing to give my body a fighting chance and getting all the vitamins and minerals I need to help feed the healing process. 

But there's more. I also have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) where if I eat just a little bit of the wrong type of food then uh oh. Everone get out of my way and tell me where the nearest toilet is.

May not be the nicest thing to talk about, having to rush to the nearest toilet due to a bowel condition, but hey, that's the way the world works sometimes. 

I don't really want to be feeding my body things which mean I'm going to spend most of my life in a toilet so what if I try feeding it things that allow me to live just a little healthier? Allow me to have more pain-free days than I've had in the last 3 years? Allow me to have more energy?

Which brings me to another reason I need to make lifestyle changes.

My energy, or lack thereof.

For a while, I put my lack of energy down to not being able to get enough sleep because of university and the fact that I would have to stay up to do coursework. Then the summer holidays started in May (and don't end till September may I add) and I thought "finally I'll be able to sleep more, have energy throughout the day and not find myself wanting to nap in the middle of the afternoon".

And I was able to get more sleep, and I didn't find myself WANTING to nap in the middle of the afternoon but ACTUALLY napping in the middle of the afternoon. 

It seemed that no matter how much I slept or still sleep, none of it ever seems to be enough for my body, and it's never a refreshing sleep but instead, I wake up with a feeling of grogginess, forgetting for a few minutes where I am or roughly what time it is in the day (morning? afternoon? evening?) and thinking about when I can next lie down and get some rest. 

I don't want my lack of energy to stop me from doing anything e.g. university and just life in general so it's time for me to tackle it head on and hope that a less stressful lifestyle filled with downtime for hobbies and relaxing alongside a healthier diet to help my body get everything it needs to create that much-needed energy from the glucose to either be used right away or stored to be used later.

Apologies for that little science tangent. In case you didn't know I study food at university and it is fairly science-heavy meaning I have all that knowledge up in my brain and it can find itself just coming out from time to time.

Then there's the effect it will hopefully have on my mental health. Having more energy to help me do more to keep depression symptoms at bay? Relaxing to help control my anxiety?

Of course, it's not a cure for mental illness, but it may help me have yet again have more good days than bad, which for anyone else out there with any mental health problems are a blessing. It means you can actually get on with having a normal life for a while.

Anyway, that's it. After many years of being lucky in health, time has finally caught up with me and now many conscious decisions are going to have to be made in order to give myself a longer and better future. 

Am I saying that I'm going to be able to make all these changes immediately? No. 

It takes time to build up a habit and that is exactly what healthy eating and taking time out to relax and give the body a chance to slow down are. Habits.

I'm going to make mistakes here and there. There will be times that a McDonald's craving gets the best of me and a burger may find it's way into my mouth. There will be times that I won't slow down because I have a piece of work that I want to get done and I want to get it done NOW!!! 

But my body will respond to those times and will let me know that the burger was a bad idea from the upset stomach it gives me. And that doing that doing the work rather than taking a much-needed break from the pain in my chest and the sleepiness that takes over my body. 

I'll write about what my exact plans are in the future in terms of food and lifestyle because, to be honest, I still need the work it all out myself so please, any tips, tricks and recipes are more than welcome in the comments.

So until next time,

Be happy, Be healthy, from Abbie xx