What I Learned This Week 12/31/2016

Acute gastritis sucks. Migraines suck. Crying brings on migraines. My dad can be supportive. My parents can be oblivious. My sister does care. It's 39 hours of driving to Buffalo From Seattle.

This week has been filled with ups and downs. It started with Christmas and ended with New Tears Eve. I mean New Years. No really. I hope this new year was worth the wait and we do not come to regret January ever existing... ie inauguration day.

I am pretty much finished packing. I really have no idea why this move feels like a death march. Except that I am going to miss my dog more than I would miss life itself. He is my joy, inspiration, motivation, and therapy and I am going to miss him terribly.

Starting my Masters in dietetics does not scare me. Well of course it does. But not half as much as starting my life over again in a place I do not want to be.

I saw this things on TV where people starting med school wrote a letter to themselves before their first year as interns and read it when they finished. This week I started mine. It. Is. Rough. As with my YouTube channel, I am trying to be completely honest and open with myself and let me tell you. It. Is. Rough. There has never been a tougher moment of pen to paper in my life. Funnily enough, though, I am finding my thoughts to be a touch more optimistic than I would have thought before starting. Sure, it is still a self addressed letter full of regret, self-loathing, and fear but it is also strangely cathartic and deep.

By the end of the upcoming week, I will probably be somewhere in western Montana at a hotel after the first full day of drivering cross-country. Who knows where my head will be then. But for now, I wish you and myself an encouraging start to 2017 and hope that we learn to embrace ourselves, our choices, and our paths in this life and that leads to a better year to come than the one we just said Sayonara to.

Much love as always,
Shelby

Ps: look forward to new DIET content in the new year. This blog will work. And it will be what I promised over a year ago. I AM DETERMINED!

Link to New Years Re-Solutions :
SMART New Years Re-Solutions.
https://youtu.be/WHX3d4pHfuc
#Anxiety #depression #myoneresolution #crohnsdisease #newyearsresolution #fear #letitgo

New Years Re-Solutions

https://youtu.be/WHX3d4pHfuc

Humira: saving grace and bane of my existence

https://youtu.be/uT5-EjDgECM

Merry Christmas!

https://youtu.be/yjBDp0QTEm4

Coping with Crohn's

https://youtu.be/sB3ONieu2rw

Holiday stress [eating]

With all the stress, obligation, and frustration that almost always accompanies the holidays, Christmas especially, it is easy to get down on yourself and forget your motivations to better yourself and stay on track. There is so much food, rich and delicious food, that even if you eat the same amount, you are probably taking in at least 1.5x, if not 3x, the amount of calories and sugar you get on a normal day.

In life, you have to take pleasure where you can get it, and if food is really your passion, this is the time to through caution to the wind and indulge. Just try to remember not to overdo it.

But, if you are eating because you are stressed, annoyed, or otherwise depressed about the current situation, remember 5-10 lbs of holiday weight is not going to help or make you feel at all better. Do not put yourself at risk of developing problems later on or make yourself feel like you have to crash diet come January 1.

Dealing with stress and depression around the holidays, specifically when you feel it all year, is incredibly difficult. Try to take time for yourself, remember you can say no to parties and events. But neither can you close yourself off completely. Being alone and lonely at this festive time of year can push you down even further.

Pick an aspect of the season you do like, focus on it and make it your own. For myself, I love Christmas trees, so every year I go and make sure that I get the best tree I can find and then I decorate it in the style that makes me smile and feel festive. Then everyday until the holidays are over, I can look at the tree and put myself in a little better place.

Maybe you like cookies. Volunteer to make cookies for a party, your friends, coworkers, family. Maybe you can experiment with healthier versions that fool everyone into thinking they are the real full fat and sugar thing. That can be your little secret and maybe that is jus the thing you need to put a sneaky smile on your face this time of year-- then you can enjoy them too with less worry of developing a spare tire right around New Years.

Find something that calms you... And if nothing else, slap a smile on your face and fake it til you make it, if only for a few days and occasions, because the looks and questions of "are you okay?", may only deepen your holiday misery.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas 🎄!

A couple favorite quotes

Today's choices and habits are tomorrow's body and mind.

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got. I want something else this time.

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! New YouTube Channel

Hey All!    https://www.youtube.com/user/seslenkamp

So I just wanted to check in here and say: I started a YouTube channel. It is under my name: Shelby Slenkamp. This channel is where I will be posting vloggy type videos where I talk about personal things. The videos, hopefully, are also somewhat informative.

The goal is to eventually tie this blog and my channel together where there is at least one accompanying post here for every video there. This blog will focus more on the informational aspect and may have some posts that have nothing to do with the channel.

It is easier to put some things down in writing that talking to a camera - especially since I am an amateur with a camera and editting, etc.

Please bear with me while I move, yet again, and get the hang of posting both here and on my channel. It will be easier to post here while I am moving. Hopefully I can check in every couple days and let you know how it is going.
I wish everyone the best of luck - AND- I promise I will learn how to post pictures and interactive things here.

Here is a link to my first video: https://youtu.be/LdH2OZdxEw0
Go Watch, Share, and Subscribe if you think the channel sounds interesting!

Be back again very soon!

Blog Update.

It has been a good 6 months since I've made a blog entry. For that I apologize. Life has gotten the better of me.

To sum up what has happened: University of Hawaii's Dietetics program is the worst. I believe I have mentioned before that I already have a Bachelor of Science degree and had completed most of my science prerequisites before making the move down here to Honolulu. Upon arrival, I was then told that it would take an additional 3 years to finish the DPD program - which is equivalent to another Bachelors degree.

Unacceptable.

So, taking matters into my own hands, since I was not getting any help or explanation from UH Manoa, I decided it was time to let go of this dream and leave Hawaii. Trying to get help and figuring out what to do included being asked to leave the Dean's office and hours upon hours of tears, yelling, and screaming.

All that being said, I have since applied and been accepted to D'Youville College CPD program. This is a dietetics degree that is a BS/MS/Internship all in one. Right now, it looks like I will be done May of 2018. *fingers crossed

What that means for this blog is that the tone will be changing. I'd love to keep writing and sharing my experience of dietetics schooling but it will focus less on life changes and more on the program - what I am learning and how that experience is going.

My goals are to post 2x a week - most likely Friday night and Sunday morning.  Friday night will probably be an update on school/dietetics program details and Sunday will be a product, book, or other review.

Here's to another chapter in life and taking life one day at a time.

Please let  me know if there is anything specific you all would like to read about. Application processes, different degree options in dietetics, internship details, specific products reviews based on nutrition or accuracy, etc. I still fully plan on doing a Fitbit review and a comparison to other fitness trackers from a practical application standpoint.

Happy Easter and I will speak to you all on Friday.


- Shelby