Challenge! (Your $100 prize is on its way!)
The challenge was to write an essay that answered this prompt:
If you were given the paid opportunity to write a weekly email newsletter to an audience of 10,000 subscribers, what topic would you write about and why?
Lisa shared a lively account of how she found her calling and saved her own life. Enjoy her winning submission:
Inflammation and Your Bio-Individuality
by Lisa Gianakakis
A little backstory to my “why.” In 2013 I bought a retail business. In 2016 the landlord did not renew my lease. So, I packed everything up, pioneered a website, and started selling my products online. I was married at the time, and my first grandchild was to be born that September. However, I felt the need for something more. I was overweight and depressed, and I found myself researching online: weight loss programs, diets, depression, and with that came wellness, yoga, health, self-help books, and so on. Then I came upon a course in integrative nutrition. I read the curriculum, found it very interesting, and signed up. I figured I could learn about nutrition, maybe lose some weight, and possibly overcome my depression.
That course led me on a wonderful journey through nutrition and wellness. In 2018 I received an integrative nutrition certification. To me the most fascinating and totally-makes-sense topics were about inflammation and your bio-individuality. I learned that inflammation for our body is a natural response and acts like the cavalry to fight and target infections and injury. Like when you twist your ankle and it swells. That inflammation we need. It protects the wound so it can heal or until medical assistance is needed.
What we don’t need is inflammation caused by an unhealthy diet and lifestyle. Because over time, this type of inflammation is a common root cause of allergies, autoimmune disease, pain, arthritis, aging, dot, dot, dot. I get it. Who doesn’t love bakery goods, pub food, pizza, chips, ice cream, cocktails, fried foods, etc.? I am right there with the masses. I’ve also learned you can have your cake and eat it too.
I am 62 years young and I have taken what I’ve learned and applied it to my lifestyle. I see a lot of individuals, friends, family members, and business associates suffering with inflammation and being overweight in their body. And I think to myself, They don’t have to be. It saddens me how our country is rated very highly in obesity and illness. And now there are drugs to help you get rid of the weight in a jiffy. But do the pharmaceutical companies have actual facts about the long-term side effects the weight loss drugs have on the human body? Seriously, a quick fix versus what the side effects will be five, 10, 15, 20 years after a person stops taking the drug(s)? That’s a topic for another day.
This is why I want to write a weekly email newsletter to help educate people about chronic low-level inflammation and its effects on the human body. Introduce them to the importance of incorporating healthy, delicious, no-drugs-needed, anti-inflammatory foods into their diet. And how some healthy lifestyle changes will increase their longevity, energy, health, and wellness. All based around their bio-individuality. The side effects: weight loss, healthy body, healthy mind, and spirit. At any age.
