Melissa Sions

I just noticed I’ve already surpassed my goal! 53 books so far. I have two more months, though, and at least four more books to read for school. I’ve also bought a ton of books lately for fun, so hopefully I’ll have some time for those soon!

I’ve actually been working on this since this past spring. There were often flyers for it available on my university campus, and I had been researching it for awhile. I finally got up the guts to call before the end of the school year and go in to speak with someone. The women’s health center is affiliated with my university, so I felt pretty safe going with them, and so far they’ve been really nice. It’s taken months of paperwork, blood tests, ultrasounds, and appointments, but I’m about to start this process. Part of the motivation comes from a desire to help infertile couples, especially since in New York, their problems usually happen because they put off having children (which, unfortunately, is one of those trade-offs for a labor market that accepts women but doesn’t accommodate their possible simultaneous desires to have families). I’m also not really planning on doing anything with them, so why not, right? The compensation, too, is nice for a starving college student in an expensive city.

I’m a bit anxious, though, so if anyone reading has experience with this and can offer tips for coping, I’d be appreciative. (:

Eating has always been the one major impediment to me getting in really good shape. I grew up in a household where my father, who was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in his mid-40s, wasn’t in the least bit health-conscious, and indulged my junk food urges from a very early age, and as a result I’ve come to the ripe old age of 21 with a lot of bad habits. For the last three years, I’ve gotten much more committed to exercise than I ever was in my entire life, and it’s been great! But I have slowly come to the conclusion that I’m never going to be as healthy as I want to be if I don’t learn to eat better than I have.

So far I’ve done a lot of research on vitamins, local and sustainably grown food, ingredients to avoid on labels, and on some good cookbooks so I can start being much more conscious of what I put in my body day-to-day. My boyfriend’s even volunteering to help me buy cooking utensils! I think this is going to be a lot of fun; my main goal in this is not so much to lose weight (it’d be nice!!), but to (a) improve my body’s performance in physical activities I enjoy and (b) take a proactive role in preventing diseases I could get later on.