Thoughts from a dietitian.

…A dietitian that struggles with her own chronic diseases and feels conflicted each day on what is deemed “good health” or “bad health” or whatever label you want to call it.

What does “good health” mean?  If you ask any number of people, each one of them would tell you a different definition. Some say, “someone who goes to the gym and eats healthy”, some would say, “someone without any chronic disease” and there are plenty of other definitions of what the word “health” means. So, who is right?

Here is the dictionary definition: “the state of being free from illness or injury.”  Interesting, isn’t it? So, does it mean that if someone who has a chronic disease can’t be healthy?

I write this to stimulate people’s minds to think of what health means to them. As a dietitian and someone who struggles with some rare diseases, I think of true health as “being within yourself, with full intention of taking care of the body and mind that was provided to you as you see valuable”. This could mean going to the gym most days during the week, or eating 2 cups of fruits and 2.5 cups for vegetables a day per the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, or following the recommendation of protein, fatty acids, carbohydrates and hydration based on your individual needs maybe provided to you by a Registered dietitian, or being within a BMI of 18.5-24.9kg/m2. Or this could mean simply being happy within your skin.

Why did this come up for me to write?

My “health”! When you have a chronic illness with no cure, you find your perspective may change. There starts to be more conversations about “your new normal”. In other words, your new idea of what “health” means to you. This has started to really sink in for me. Going from a renal dietitian that truly loved working in the field, being an active mother and wife, exercising 5 x a week, and eating generally as the dietary recommendations would say, to someone who had brain surgery and now has become “the patient”. I struggled even walking post-surgery. Eating had become a second thought. I found myself staring out the window and seeing life pass me by. I felt sad and even angry for a while. But then, I started to do more mediation, mindful movements and eating. I started looking at the world as it is, whether it was sunny and warm, or raining and cold. I saw the birds flying. I am still a dietitian, a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, ETC… but how I am those things has shifted into a different ME.  

What would you change your definition of health to mean?

I would love to hear from you!