From Then to Now
In college, living a healthy balanced lifestyle is hard!! Before even going to college everybody hears about the “freshman 15.” I was determined that that was not going to happen to me. When I got to college I was walking E V E R Y W H E R E and thought all those people were crazy. I told people that there was no way you can gain weight in college because all you do is walk… freshman year flew by and I gained some weight, but not much. Here comes sophomore year, thinking that this was going to be my year… I knew where my classes were, I knew how to get around the college town, I had my friend group, I lived in the sorority overflow dorm and LOVED my roommate, so I was ready for sophomore year. Little did I know I was not ready… people did not warn me about the sophomore 30!!! Sophomore year was a bust for me. (Literally... I was about to bust out of my pants…) I also got extremely homesick, which never happens. Ever! In the middle of the spring semester I was ready to pack up all of my stuff and come home, but I couldn’t. I knew I had to finish the semester. I was having anxiety attacks and had to force myself to study (the night before tests) and force myself to go to class. One thing I didn’t have to force myself to do though was eat. I relied on food to get me through the semester. Papa Johns, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chilis, the cookies in the cafeteria, sonic blasts; they all were my best friends during that time. I would call my mom in the middle of night crying because I missed her and wanted to come home so bad. She talked me into staying the rest of the semester (that happened multiple times during the weeks I had left). It was weird though because I do not cry, and I do not get homesick. I loved going to school 4 ½ hours away and loved my friends.
I have always been told that I have the best intuition and my intuition was spot on this time. My mom had been keeping something from me and was not planning on telling me until I came home for the summer. At the same time that I was having anxiety attacks, my mom was going through biopsies, MRI’s, and ultrasounds for breast cancer. My mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2015 and I felt like our world had stopped and everybody else’s was still going on.
I ended up finishing my sophomore year and then packed everything up and came home. I took the year off from school and took care of my mom while she was going through chemotherapy and radiation. During that year I knew I had to start taking care of myself and felt like there was no better time to start. I joined a gym and set goals for myself as to where I wanted to be in a year. During that year I lost 20 pounds, decided that I wanted to major in dietetics, and just completely changed my whole lifestyle and wanted to help others change theirs too.
Now (3 years later), I have lost 45 pounds, I am in my senior year of the DPD program, and still passionate about helping others change their lifestyles for the best. College was not as smooth of a transition as I thought it would be and during this time my life has changed a lot. What I have learned from this is setting goals and keeping goals brings about positive change.
I have always been told that I have the best intuition and my intuition was spot on this time. My mom had been keeping something from me and was not planning on telling me until I came home for the summer. At the same time that I was having anxiety attacks, my mom was going through biopsies, MRI’s, and ultrasounds for breast cancer. My mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2015 and I felt like our world had stopped and everybody else’s was still going on.
I ended up finishing my sophomore year and then packed everything up and came home. I took the year off from school and took care of my mom while she was going through chemotherapy and radiation. During that year I knew I had to start taking care of myself and felt like there was no better time to start. I joined a gym and set goals for myself as to where I wanted to be in a year. During that year I lost 20 pounds, decided that I wanted to major in dietetics, and just completely changed my whole lifestyle and wanted to help others change theirs too.
Now (3 years later), I have lost 45 pounds, I am in my senior year of the DPD program, and still passionate about helping others change their lifestyles for the best. College was not as smooth of a transition as I thought it would be and during this time my life has changed a lot. What I have learned from this is setting goals and keeping goals brings about positive change.
-Hailey Estes
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