Nutrition Quarterly Fall 2022

After learning how to treat myself better and breaking some bad habits, I now understand what getting older and aging really means – absolutely nothing. " " NUMBER AGE ISJUSTA By: Kelly Fisher For the longest time I swore I woke up feeling a different age every morning. Some days I woke up feeling bright, young and ready to meet the day. Other days, I woke up feeling a hundred years old wondering exactly why my back hurts and I asked myself “do I absolutely have to get out of bed today?” After reflecting on why my days varied so much in feeling, I realized that how old or young I was feeling was not only a mental state, but how I was treating my body. I came to this small revelation upon meeting my boyfriend’s family for the first time last 4th of July. The first family member I met was his grandmother, who at the time and unbeknownst to me, was ninety-four years old. She was vibrant, quick-witted and extraordinarily intelligent. As we were getting to know each other, she mentioned planning a trip to Las Vegas for her ninety-fifth birthday. I tried to keep my look of shock to myself when I realized she was about twenty years older than I had pegged her as. In that moment, I realized that the only reason that I would ever have mornings where I woke up feeling a hundred years old was all due to how I treated myself. Age meant nothing to her other than getting to plan another birthday party for herself. I wanted to be like her when I was ninety- five; in all reality, I wanted to be like her now. I was a twenty- two year old aspiring to feel as good as a ninety-five year old. So from that day and moving forward, I decided to make a change, multiple changes, for that matter. The first thing I changed was my drinking habits. Now, I thought that I was acting my age by drinking alcohol during the week with my friends, but really I was hurting my body and causing myself to perceivably feel a lot older than Nutrition Quarterly · Series 3 – Volume 4 11 Featured Articles