Welcome to Eat, Write, Run!

I love to eat.  I love to run.  I have a love/hate relationship with writing.  Eat, Write, Run was born out of my commitment to eating right, running (and/or exercising), and just living the healthiest and fullest lifestyle that I can one day at a time.  And the best way for me to set this commitment in stone is to write about it.

Background

I am 27 years old and grew up on the east coast – but I now live on the west coast.  I moved here after finishing grad school in 2006.  I have a Bachelors and Masters degree in Information Systems/Information Technology, and  I work as a project manager for a large tech company in the San Francisco Bay area.

Exercise

I have loved running since I was young.  My dad was a runner, and I always wanted to do everything that he did – so by default I wanted to be a runner too.  He used to go out on his runs (too long for my little legs to come along) and then take me for a jog around the block when he got home.  As I got older, the runs got a little longer until eventually I was able to go along with him on his routes.  In junior high school, I joined the gym and started going regularly.  I found that I really enjoyed it – just putting on my music (started with a portable cassette player, and eventually graduated to a portable CD player) and having time to myself, just doing my own thing.  It quickly became a routine part of my life, and has been ever since.  I am really thankful that I was introduced to exercise from an early age because I was able to make it a habit.  I continued my running and gym-going through high school and college.  Although my weight has gone up and down, my exercising has always been consistent.  Nowadays, when I don’t get to go to the gym or to exercise, I don’t feel good.  I love to share that excitement with other people, and can’t wait to pass it on to my own family when I eventually have kids.

I love to run in races and have participated in many.  In 2006, I ran my first marathon – the Silicon Valley marathon.  The training and the actual marathon itself were such awesome experiences, I couldn’t wait to do it again.

In 2008, however, I was rushed to the emergency room with severe abdominal pains.  I had an obstruction and perforation in my colon and had to have immediate abdominal surgery that evening.  I was in the hospital for three weeks, was released and went home for a week, and then had another complication and had to go back for an additional week.  During most of that time, I could barely get out of bed or walk, let alone try any exercise.  It was really difficult, both physically and mentally.  About a month after the surgery, I started walking.  Very, very slowly.  I couldn’t go further than 100 yards or so, and could barely make it up the stairs in my house.  Three months after the surgery I was able to start going to the gym again, although I was very limited in that I could only do the elliptical or the stationary bike – things that didn’t involve moving or working my core at all.  Six months after the surgery I was able to start running again.  That was TOUGH.  I went from being able to run a Boston-qualifying marathon time to barely being able to jog a half mile before having to stop and rest.

The journey was long and hard, but I am now back to complete health and can do any exercise or activity I want.  As horrible as the whole experience was, it really made me appreciate my life and my health and all of the amazing things that my body (no matter how imperfect it may be) allows me to do every day.  I no longer take anything for granted and recognize that each day is a gift.

After building running and exercise back into my life, I trained for and ran the Lausanne Marathon on October 25, 2009.  My time was a little more than 1/2 hour slower than my last marathon, and it was definitely no Boston qualifying time.  But I enjoyed myself and proved that I can do this.  I am (we ALL are) so much stronger than we think.  Next marathon up?  Hopefully Pittsburgh (my hometown!) in May 2010.

Nutrition

As far as eating, nutrition and weight go, I have really run the gamut.  Growing up, I usually ate pretty healthily.  My parents taught me good eating habits and, as I mentioned before, I was always very active.  I maintained a healthy weight throughout childhood and high school without much difficulty, even though I have always had a monster sweet tooth.  The first time I remember really worrying about my weight was before my junior prom when I was shopping for a dress.  All of a sudden, my legs were chunky… my arms looked too big… my stomach stuck out.  One day, a friend showed me diet pills that she was taking.  They were ephedra – this was before it was banned and it was really big at the time.  I took some, and although I felt jittery and uncomfortable, I lost some weight before the prom and was really happy.  Looking back, it was probably just water weight and definitely was temporary, but at the time that didn’t matter to me.

When I started college, things changed.  I was still really active, but started eating a lot of junk – you know, the pizza, oreos and beer diet.  I also had a hard time adjusting to life away from home (even though I was only 1/2 hour away from home) and went through a break-up with a long-term boyfriend which led to a lot of emotional eating and self-soothing with food.  I gained 30 pounds my freshman year and was completely miserable when I went home for the summer.

Over the summer, while back at home, I exercised like crazy and went on a diet.  I was determined to lose the weight before I went back to school in the fall.  But things quickly got out of control – I started restricting my food intake more and more until I was literally starving myself.  I lost the 30 pounds I had gained and then some, and was really happy with myself when I went back to school.  Everybody complimented me, saying that I looked great, which fueled my restriction and over-exercising even more.  I continued to lose weight.  Whereas emotional eating had been my stress-reliever freshman year, food restriction became my stress-reliever during the summer and sophomore year.

To make a long story short, I got down to a dangerously low weight and my friends did an “intervention” by going to the authorities at the school.  I was really upset and angry with them at the time, but now I see that they were only trying to act in my best interest and were genuinely scared for me.  The school put me on “health probation” and set up a bunch of conditions that I had to meet in order to continue my education there.  I was no longer allowed to live on campus, and had to enter treatment for my eating disorder.  Thus began a long and painful road of hospitals, therapies and the like.  For the next six years, throughout the rest of college and graduate school, I went through phases of binging (purging) and restricting, gaining weight and losing weight.  I went through some tough times emotionally; my parents got divorced after 23 years of marriage, I lost a friend in a car accident.  I moved away from home to the first time (to New York for grad school).  I felt like my life and my emotional state were in constant flux – up and down all the time.  Even though so many other aspects of my life were going well – I graduated with my bachelor’s and master’s both with highest honors, I got a great job and moved to California, etc. – I was never truly happy because I was so unhappy with myself.

I honestly don’t know how things changed.  It’s not like one day I just woke up and things were different.  I think that the surgery and going through that whole experience of starting over really made me appreciate my life and look at things a different way. Now I try to appreciate my body for what it can do rather than what it looks like.  And it can do a whole lot of amazing things.  I am grateful every time that I go outside and go for a run.

I have good days and bad days, but am happy to report that I have more of the former and less of the latter.  I always feel better when I eat better, so I do my best to eat as healthily and as naturally as possible.  I still have a major sweet tooth, but believe that the key is balance – everything in moderation.  I do not deprive myself because I know that leads me down the path to trouble.  I love cooking and baking, and I am always on the lookout for new recipes to try.

Although I don’t want to write all the gory details here, I am more than happy and willing to talk about my eating disorder, my past and my experiences to anyone who wants to talk about it.  Please feel free to email me if that is the case.

Disclaimer

I have no formal education in nutrition or exercise science – just a love for them both and my own personal research and experiences.  My dream is to pursue education in health and wellness, but I have a few other things I have to complete in my current career first (beginning with my PMI project management certification which I am currently studying for.)

Again, thanks for reading Eat, Write, Run.  I welcome any comments or questions.  Feel free to email me at:  Rachel@eatwriterun.com