Caroleeena’s Journey to Health and Wellness

I was never the most athletic person

but I tried to psych myself up to play some sports, you know, to be healthy.

In high school, I briefly tried my hand at basketball

then at softball

then volleyball

It didn’t take long to figure out team sports were not my thing so I decided to try more solitary endeavors like gymnastics

and running

and though I persevered

well, you are what you eat

and I didn’t eat that well

I was a vegetarian who didn’t eat vegetables

so I attempted to change my ways

It didn’t go so well

I had some challenges

Finally I just gave up

My attitude was pretty bad

I’d raise my voice to the heavens and cry

In retrospect, I realize I had set unattainable expectations

and I was treating diet and exercise like punishment

so

It was

I told myself

I threw out all those stupid women’s magazines I’d been reading

and came to understand that even the women in them didn’t really look like that!

And those friends who could talk about nothing but dieting, exercise and clothes?

I decided to eat one healthy thing a day and I would eat as much of it as I wanted!

I began to choose food for color — purple, yellow, red, green, orange and blue

And for my exercise, I did the only thing that had never felt like exercise to me. I danced!

and I danced

and even though I’d had no formal training, I danced!

And then one day I saw Spiral dance with a hoop!

and I thought

I will teach myself!

And I loved it so much, I found excuses to do it where I had found excuses NOT to do things called exercise before!

and now