An Introduction to Me

Hi everybody! My name is Lulu and I'm a 23-year-old student living in the Northwest (and all the meanwhile wishing I was somewhere warmer). I'm starting this blog because I'm absolutely obsessed with plant-based nutrition - a field I'm educating myself in both during school hours and when I should be out partying. Anyway, let me tell you a little bit about how I got interested in health before I really get this blog started.

I initially entered my first year of college with the goal of majoring in the field of physics. It was my ultimate dream to end up at a research facility, exploring and helping to unravel the mysteries of the universe. For two years, I made my way through several physics and calculus-based programs. My interest in the field of health education began, rather unexpectedly, after a nightmarish float down a nearby river in the summer of 2011. My friends and I were expecting a relaxed four-hour float down the river. Eight hours later the sun had set, the river was jammed and the water too low to carry us. There was no sign of our destination, so we dragged our rafts into the darkness of the woods, setting off in the direction of a distant railroad lamp. We eventually arrived at our parked cars, scratched, bruised, and suffering the effects of our journey through multiple patches of stinging nettle. Sleep that night was a welcome visitor, providing some relief from the endless tingling and burning. I clambered out of bed the next morning, some weakness in my left leg. Within a week I couldn't climb out of bed at all.

It was four emergency room visits and two months later before I had a diagnosis: a herniated disc. Conventional medicine provided me only with high doses of pharmaceuticals, and words selected to inspire fear. “This is hands-down one of the most severely herniated discs I've seen. Surgery is looking like your only option.” The physical therapy was a mere aside; it was supposed to keep pain levels manageable, but I was made to feel that my life would never return to normal unless I got surgery. Since the medical establishment I was dealing with couldn't provide me with what I needed, I had to turn elsewhere – from the friends and family I'd call on in the middle of the night for months on end when the pain would only allow me to sleep for an hour or two, to the shared experiences I stumbled upon online that made me feel not so alone in that world of unimaginable chronic pain. Frustrated by my slow progress, I redesigned my life around the twin goals of pain management and improved health, incorporating a healthier diet and strengthening and flexibility exercises. Eventually I did recover from my herniated disc, and all without the surgical intervention the doctors told me I needed.

If there's one thing crisis is good for, it's for showing us what's most important in our lives. My experience with a herniated disc not only made me grateful for every ounce of good health I possess, but thrust light upon the fiery passion I have for understanding the body's healing capabilities. During my back-pain-related struggles, I was made to view my own body as the enemy – as something I needed to placate with drugs, that had no knowledge to heal itself, and that could only be fixed by needles and metal instruments. Now I'm endlessly interested in the human body and how our environments shape our physical and emotional selves. One aspect I'm especially drawn to is the way in which nutrition affects the human body, and how the chemical structure of such food affects its healing properties. For example, I've personally experimented with low fat, plant-based diets, both 80/10/10 and McDougall in nature. I'm currently following the McDougall program and there are so many facets of this lifestyle that I'm eager to explore on a scientific level.

I'm graduating with my undergraduate degree this spring and I will be working toward additional prerequisites for graduate school for some time after. Meanwhile, I'll be blogging about my thoughts, favorite recipes, newly-found resources, and so on for all interested readers! I'm off to class now so I'll catch you later!