What “Health, Happiness, and High Vibes” Means To Me

Hello, world! Let me introduce myself. My name is Heather, and I live in a small city in Alberta, Canada (ie: a frozen wasteland, affectionately called “The Texas of the North”). I am a 26-year-old life enthusiast; I have tons of hobbies, and love going on adventures! During my pursuit of adventure over the last few year, I’ve lost over 120 pounds and also found self-love along the way! I have the most fulfilling and loving relationship I have ever known, and in September 2018 I’m going to be attending our local college as a personal training student so that I can be a badass like the Rock! If the Rock were a 20-something personal trainer in Canada, and also a woman, I guess. So, exactly like the Rock.

I’ve had some pretty crazy experiences over the years, like working in the middle of nowhere on pipeline jobs in northern British Columbia, where you have to drive for 3 solid hours in the blinding snow to get to the nearest town, or working as a clerk at an eye doctor (totally comparable – one of them was an excruciating ordeal which tested my physical stamina to the limit, where I had to deal with the worst people you can imagine – and the other had a lot of driving). Over the last 7 years, I have been on a mission to better my life, and in the process I’ve found the power of Health, Happiness, and High Vibes.

My journey for health started when I committed to losing 120 lb. Along the way, I’ve done (and drank) things I would have never imagined, and somehow found happiness and the love of my life in the process! I’ve started The H Words in the hope to inspire people all over the world to become the best possible versions of themselves. To help give them knowledge and insight through situations which I’ve encountered in my life, and maybe give the odd chuckle here and there, too. I hope that if you’ve ever had an experience like I talk about, that you leave a comment, so we can reminisce together about the bad times, and look forward to the good!

My history is I guess depressingly common – I grew up in a troubled home, barely knowing my father, and even though I lived with my mom, she was never around. I had no confidence, no knowledge of how to eat healthily, no example of what healthy relationships were like, or even how normal people should act on a day to day basis. Mix that with a little bit of anxiety and depression, and you had me!

At my heaviest, I weighed a whopping 290 lb. When I laid down, I struggled to breath. Moving around just to turn over was exhausting. I remember a certain kind of “yo-yo dieting” ever since I was 12. I would try to lose weight by only eating a certain type of food, following some fad diet, or somehow managing to eat well long enough to gain 30 lb, only to declare success, go back to my bad habits, and gain 50 lb back! I was miserable, not having the confidence to do the things I wanted to do in life. I had no voice, I was shy, and I would avoid any situation that would lead to a conversation like it was the plague.

I hated how men treated me during this period; I wanted to be a prize to someone, not a something that they settled for. Plainly speaking, I wanted to love myself, and I just didn’t. I had insecurities that made me a really negative person.

The turning point in my life, when I decided (and really committed to myself for once) to get healthy, was I was 18 and at my heaviest. Wanting to do things in life i could only imagine doing, I just decided it was time. I was tired of struggling to breathe, I was tired of being sick all the time, and I was tired of feeling scared of talking to people because I was fat. I went pretty hard on it, I read blogs, signed up on websites to track my fitness, tracked calories, weighed my food, the whole bit. I even got an elliptical (the sign of the truly desperate).

Although this was when I really started to see changes in my life, it’s easy to take things to extremes. I became obsessed with everything that went into my body, which is not exactly the healthiest behaviour in itself! This was when I really started to understand that weight loss is so much more than just a quick change of your diet or a few minutes on the bike. It’s getting yourself away from the addiction of sugar, carbs, alcohol, or whatever else you might be consuming in excess. It’s finding the unhealthy behavior in your life which are dragging you down, finding the things that are preventing you from really changing your life, and eliminating them. It’s about changing from a person who goes for a run, into a Runner. I realized that I had to change my mindset and have hobbies that would keep me active. I started doing everything! Biking, running, playing squash, softball, badminton, ping-pong, basketball, golfing… I guess I might have gone a little overboard here too, actually, come to think of it.

So I started walking, and then eventually started a running plan. Even though it was crazy hard to start, I got to a point where I could run for 30 minutes straight. I was so proud of myself to have completed something like this, and I was addicted! I lost almost 60 lb with my initial fitness kick, but I still wasn’t happy. I knew the time had come to make a lot of changes in my life, and stayed single for a year and a half while I took the time to figure out who I was. My diet improved, and I went through a phase of figuring out which foods work for me as I started dealing with irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia symptoms. For months straight, I ate a low carb, high fat diet and achieved a much healthier weight at about 170 lb! Over the last 6 months, I really started concentrating on fitness, using intermediate fasting as a tool and with running and yoga after long days to de-stress.

Looking back over the last few years since losing this weight, I can say that I am 110% happier! I am proud and loud about fitness, and I can’t even say that I feel like the same person that I was when I was 18. Now I can now clean the house with hardly any effort, and I get so many things done every day that I would have thought impossible before. Things as simple as carrying laundry up the stairs without losing my breath, fitting comfortably in an airplane seat with room beside my legs, and I could list 100 or more things I’ve noticed since losing weight. People respond different to you, too. People hold the door and make eye contact, and generally treat me like a fully realized human being! I’m not sure if it’s looking better, feeling better, or just me being more confident and friendly (okay, it’s probably that I look better, but I’ll take it), but it gives me more positivity to send back out into the world in turn!

Happiness was a big challenge in my life in my early 20’s. I wasn’t happy working job after job I hated, for people who didn’t appreciate you even if you went the extra mile. Working these terrible jobs really opened my eyes to how much easier it would be to run my own small business from home, and work on getting happier and healthier! Either way, my choice was kind of made for me when I was fired from my latest terrible job for taking sick leave! That gave me the final push I needed to start my small import business full-time. I had always sat around waiting for the right moment, but sometimes the right moment is never the right one, you just have to start on you goals and dreams! As Confucius said, “better a diamond with a flaw, than a pebble without”. At a certain point, it’s time to take control of your own destiny and create your own happiness.

But being happy to me isn’t just losing a bunch of weight. There are so many skinny people I see everyday and online that aren’t happy! Happiness is feeling comfortable in your own skin and doing what you love, whatever that might be. When I first started losing weight, I used to freak out if I had any food that was bad for me, and it would be a mental struggle every day feeling unsatisfied and hungry. Reflecting back on how I felt before and how I feel now, even though I’m not at my current goal weight, I feel amazing! I never have that feeling of “what if people are looking”. I’ve replaced that noise with “I hope that people are looking, so I can inspire them to live outside their comfort zones”. I run my own blog and my own business and I have tons of confidence!

I think Health, Happiness and High Vibes go together, because you can’t have one without the others. If you are always looking at the negative side of things and expecting negative things to happen to you, they will. Be happy for every day you are on this planet; it might sound trite, but if you take a step back and actually look around, the human race is a miracle. It’s a miracle how far we’ve come and how much we get to experience every day that we are alive. Be thankful that your generation has an iPad! Be grateful that you have a vehicle, rather than having to walk halfway across the city to grab bread! Keep your vibes high, your attitude positive, and the world will treat you the same!

Until next time, stay positive!