My Lifestyle

I have always been slightly envious of my sister. She is beautiful, strong, smart and healthy- and she has never, ever mistreated her body and only treated it with care. She has always eaten exactly what she wants, but remains active and healthy.

I, on the other hand, have not always treated my body with the respect it deserved. When I was in high school, my steady diet included McDonalds, cheese, cookies and Pepsi. When my youngest sister became anorexic, I changed drastically as well. I fell to below 90 pds, which is significant as I am almost 5’8.

I took my life back, however, and now am healthy and fit, not too big and not too small. I have found my Goldilocks lifestyle.

How do I maintain this? Well. I have been blessed to be raised in a family where this is a common sunday afternoon activity:

Or swimming in our pool all afternoon. Or snowboarding in the winter.
Or this: (but we won’t get into that)…

I have been raised on wind surfing, waterskiing, snow boarding, wake boarding, rock climbing, dancing, running, and sports. And I am grateful. It is where I gleaned my love for running and what motivates me to train for my half marathon this fall.

Food is a touchy subject in our household because I was anorexic and my sister still is. NO ONE in our house voices it when they have a fat day and we never diet at our house. I believe it is good, I am just sad it only came about through tragedy. I eat quite a bit because I train very hard- I run almost every day, not including all the other activities I do.
Some of my favourite foods are Starbucks lattes with honey, all natural peanut butter, my mom’s fresh whole wheat bread, gooey brownies, corn on the cob, the occasional burger and sweet potato fries.
I eat everything- sometimes too much, sometimes too little, but the way I see it- that is being alive.

This past weekend, I was talking to one of my best friends who is an exchange student from France. I was telling her (over my soulvaki and french fries) that I was not getting much sleep that weekend and eating really really REALLY poorly.

She looked at me and said in the way that only French people can: (as if I was absolutely dim)
“But that is LIFE!”

Thank you, my dear friend, for reminding me that enjoying oneself is LIFE! I intend to live it.

Cheers!