Life without Anorexia

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Monday, May 22, 2017

What is heath/healthy?

What is health/healthy?

It is so much more than a body size, weight or fat percent. Of course those are a part of being healthy, that an extreme overweight or underweight is medically not seen as healthy even if the person can subjectively feel healthy. Health can be seen from an objective and medical view or a personal and subjective view where health is more about a feeling rather than a medical status with symptoms and tests.

For me, health is both....  i have an illness which will always make me "sick" from a certain point of view, but in my own personal standard I am as healthy as i can be. Health can vary and is not the same for everyone.... for example if you have an illness your health can be the best its ever been according to you, but "health wise" still a lot worse than someone else without the illness - if this makes sense.
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Health is about a feeling to me. Its hard to explain what healthy feels like.... you need to have experienced the opposite to know what it feels like. But for me its about having energy, being alive, feeling happy, being capable. Not feeling sluggish or heavy or weighed down... instead just an energetic feeling and also a pain free feeling in the body. Sure there are days where i am slow and sluggish but for the majority of the time i have plenty of energy and feel positive and good!

Usually symptoms like relying heavily on caffeine, being extra tired, lots of aches, headaches, stomach pain and/or cramps, muscle cramps, brain fog etc are all symptoms that something isnt right. Those for me are signs that something in my daily life needs to change. For me personally, the more caffeine i drink the more tired i get and that is not healthy in my opinion and know that needs to change.

When it comes to exercise and food the healthy amount is different for everyone as well. There are recommendations and guidelines, but what actually works can differ from person to person and even differ from year to year for that individual. I.e how i ate and how i worked out 1, 2, 3 years ago differs from now, but that doesnt mean i was less healthy or more healthy back then.... it was just a different time in my life with different routines and what i did back then worked for me.But like i said, it varies and life changes and the healthy amount of food and exercise can change.

Health is about a feeling as well as medical symptoms, it is about your lifestyle, your thoughts, your behaviours, what you eat and how you exercise. Health is so much more than whether you weigh X or Y kilo or whether you have X or Y body fat percent.

Sometimes you might not even realise you are unhealthy or have unhealthy habits until you have changed them. For example that constant tiredness you feel and you think "thats just how i am... im just not a morning person"... its not until you finally have energy and feel energetic because you changed something in your diet or lifestyle, that you realise that the tiredness wasnt healthy or normal. So sometimes you dont even realise that the constant headache or stomach cramps arent normal until they are gone!

This summer, dont focus so much on your body or having a body shape, but focus on being healthy overall. On being happy and healthy and being capable of living life. Change habits or routines if necessary, analyze your own behaviour or see if something needs to change and focus on the feeling of health and not so much appearance!!! When you feel healthy you will look healthy and so much better regardless!


  1. I feel a bit cheeky asking this - but do any UK readers know where I can buy non dairy ice cream from? Tesco have the soya glace` but I don`t get on with soya too well.
    Thank you!

    1. Unfortunately I can't answer this but I hope someone from the UK can... have you tried a wholefoods store? :) or if they sell oatly ice cream which is made from oats or even rice ice cream... I've also seen that a new vegan ice cream called Frill is being sold in the uk....? Not sure where though!

    2. Frill - yes I have seen this in Waitrose. It is a bit expensive though - £5.00 for a small 4 serving tub but if it is nice then I guess its worth it! comes in three flavours but they only had two - berry and chocolate. You can buy it online through Ocado as well.
      Hopefully as it moves into summer more there will be more shops selling non dairy/vegan ice cream. I`m still waiting for the Ben and Jerry`s one to be available here - its been out in the US for ages. Tesco sell some of the Oatly range I`m not sure about ice cream though.

  2. I totally agree - health is definitely a feeling. When you feel well in yourself then you generally enjoy life/cope better.
    For me, having a vitality for life is healthy - looking forward to the day ahead and having energy. And when you feel good within yourself you look happy and healthy too. That to me is far more important than what any text book could say!

  3. Hi Izzy - could you tell me what the best way of "stretching" your stomach is - as in getting it used to eating larger quantities of food/bulkier,heavier, different foods than you are currently used to? Is it better just to eat more food at a time or eat more frequently throughout the day? I ask because I really need to adjust my portion sizes as I am not eating nearly enough and my diet is really made up of light, easy to digest foods. However I realise that I need to be able to eat more of a variety/type of food and was wondering how is best to go about this?