Healthy Makes It Happen: About Me

Hello and Welcome to
Healthy Makes it Happen!

My name is Lilia [like Lily with an "ahh" at the end :)]

I'm a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis with a possible major in Finance or Operational and Supply Chain Management and a minor in Spanish or Italian [<<What a mouthful!]. I'm originally from a suburb about 45 minutes outside of Chicago. I love being near such a great city :)

My whole healthy-eating journey started about freshman year in high school. Growing up I was known as the "Chip Girl". I loved potato chips and snack foods galore! Anything crunchy, processed and that came in a bag was absolutely dee-lish-ous! Fortunately, my mom was informed about healthy choices and always tried to make sure we had healthy options in the house. Every night she would make sure there was a home cooked meal on the table and every day she stressed the importance of fruit in our diet. I am so glad that she tried to instill good habits in me and my 3 other siblings growing up.

Never the less, entering high school meal card in hand, I found my way to the popcorn chicken and Poptarts in the cafeteria. I had never really thought about diet or healthy eating, and especially since I was very busy participating in cross country and marching band that fall, it never crossed my mind how caloric, processed, and overall unhealthy these things were in my diet. Upon entering sophomore year I began to take diet into consideration. Unfortunately, I still didn't understand actual healthy options but instead focused on the "healthy brand images" products projected. For example, snack every day was a highly processed, unnatural protein bar. Lunch was focused on calories but still included white refined carbs with no nutritional value. That was the year I saw the movie "Food Inc.". This movie changed my life. I watched it three times in one weekend and declared to stop eating meat at restaurants. The movie said that this was an easy way to control where you were getting your meat from. Coming from a meat loving family, this seemed do-able. Shortly after I became an loose vegetarian.

The whole time, I wasn't trying to lose weight. I had never weighed myself. Instead, I was trying to just feel good about myself. That summer I went to Cambodia for a service trip, and without even trying I lost a bunch of weight. Maybe it was the highly active lifestyle, or the different diet in which I was inherently eating less food.

Cue Junior year...
As many high schoolers can tell you, Junior year is the peak of stress. Between ACT testing, making sure your college resume is chock-full of activities, and realizing your grades count more than ever, there are countless things running through your mind. I chose not to have a lunch hour that year and to fill the time with a class. Basically, every day I would wake up and eat as much as I could in the 15 minutes before I had to leave for school. This included leftovers from the previous night and huge chunks of dinner bread dipped in the Costco sized Marnantha jar of Almond Butter. The next time I would eat would be after school before cross country practice- I would only eat a few crackers (Ryvita or Dr. Kracker). Not too healthy right? I would then come home and eat 1 plate of dinner and drink a large glass of Gatorade. Many nights I would be hungry as I fell asleep. To top it all off, that September I decided to go vegan. The rest of Junior year pretty much progressed the same. I basically controlled what I was eating too much and was not focused on nutrition at all. I was not getting all my proper nutrients and had major gaps in my diet.

December my parents decided that I should give up the Vegan diet because I wasn't getting proper nutrition. I was upset, but understood their concern. Over the next few months I started my research in nutrition. This is when I realized I loved learning about nutrition and healthy eating. Although I wasn't vegan for those next few months, my meat intake was limited (about one or two meals a week), and I would have at least one vegan meal a day. Sometimes I would have completely vegan days. I soon realized that I felt my best after eating a vegan meal and that following summer decided to go vegan again. To my parents, I argued that I was way more informed about nutrition and the types of food needed to sustain a healthy diet.
Unfortunately, the summer going into Senior year, I was at my lowest weight and my parents were deeply concerned. After the following 6 months of struggle, it was made clear to me that I had no option but to gain weight. Except, I had lived the last 2 years trying to improve myself and feel better about myself and the weight had come off. How was I supposed to just gain 10 or more pounds? I tried a second attempt at fast weight gain by going to the grocery store and loading up on snack food that I had always wanted to buy: Late July Oreos, Earth Balance, Annie's Granola bars, etc. I also made myself countless batches of cookies and cakes to constantly eat. Instead, this made me feel sick, bloated, full, and get massive headaches. This is when I realized that healthy makes it happen.
Eating a healthy, clean, diet can help you gain weight. It can help you lose weight. It can help you bulk up. It can help you have a stronger immune system. Fight disease. Gain confidence. Have more energy. Anything you want to accomplish, a clean, healthy, whole foods diet can help you accomplish it.
So here I am. Trying to repair the years of misunderstanding about my well being with a clean diet and healthy lifestyle. It is a journey, not a destination, and although sometimes it's hard, other times it is rewarding. Join me in self discovery and proving the countless benefits the balance of healthy eating and living gives.