I can't believe its almost Christmas! I love Christmas time! All the decorations, Christmas music, cookies, presents, friends and family and food! lots of food! With the holidays here, I wanted to share something that I had been struggling with, which is not eating, Now this may sound strange to some people, but I think its pretty common among teenager girls, more then we like to talk about. This was never a problem for me until this year, especially the summertime, when my schedule was at its busiest. It was easy just to drop a meal, once or twice I'd forgot to bring a lunch with me to work or I wouldn't bring enough to fill me, as I kept this up, it became a bad habit, I started getting used to not eating much at all, a little breakfast, a couple of snacks and then a really late dinner, I started craving crabs, sugar, and caffeine because I wasn't getting enough protein to give my body the proper energy it needed, after a while of this I had become accustomed to not eating much at all, I didn't think this was a problem for me until my parents began to notice my eating patterns and talked to me about it, they told me I was not fueling my body properly, I quite frankly felt annoyed at them, because I thought I just wasn't hungry, As the days went by I realized I didn't have enough energy to bike to work, teach young children swimming lessons, lifeguard a shift, and make a rescue if needed, I was not giving my body the nutrition it was needing. I started realizing that my parents had been right, so I tried to eat more healthy food on a regular basis but I found this extremely difficult because I just wasn't hungry, I found after a period of time of really just not eating anything, I had thrown off my metabolism completely, my body thought I was starving myself so instead of burning calories I was saving them. Our bodies get the energy they need from food through metabolism, the chemical reactions in the body's cells that convert the fuel from food into the energy are needed to do everything from moving, to thinking, to growing. When you eat infrequently, your body recognizes a "famine" situation and your entire endocrine system (powerful hormones produced inside your body that control how you grow, recover, and produce energy) is thrown for a loop, then too much of the food you consume is stored as body fat in preparation for the "famine" to come. So where do I find myself now after all of this, I'm trying to get back into eating nutritionally balanced meals regularly and even though I'm eating more then I used to I still sometimes find myself not wanting to eat, I'm fighting against the bad habit I had started and it can be very difficult sometimes, but I can say I am doing much better then I was during the summertime. Here are some tips to help you speed up your metabolism...
(1) Eat Breakfast: Your mom was right, it really is the most important meal of the day, eating just a small bowl of oatmeal, cereal, Greek yogurt with berries or plenty of others will help get your metabolism started off on a good track.
(2) Drink lots of water: 8-10 8oz glasses a day, more if you're working out.
Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Cameron Ashleigh
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