Hi! I’m Emily, the person behind Beyond The TextBook! Thank you so much for reading my blog. Here is a little bit about me and the blog.
I’m a 20-something teacher and grad student.
I love my family and friends – FAMILY (those that you are born with, and those that you make for yourself) are very important in my life.
I have never had a cup of coffee or an energy drink in my life. GO TEA!
I don’t drink soda.
I don’t own a microwave.
I can eat a bag of chocolate chips in one sitting.
I like to burst into spontaneous dance parties. (is it still considered a party if it’s 1 person?)
Leading a healthy life is something that is very important to me. It always has been, but lately I’m enjoying exploring just what this means for my life right now. Here’s where the blog comes in. The purpose of this blog is to document my journey through leading a healthy lifestyle while creating a community in which to do so. I don’t really know what I’m doing and don’t claim to…I wanted to create this blog as a way to share what I’m doing with others – a place where we can motivate each other into leading healthy, fulfilling, and fun lives.
“So what kinds of things are we talking about here?”
Exercise – Well, I’ve never been really athletic and I’m looking to change that. Six weeks ago, I started running for basically the first time in my life. When I started, I could barely run for 2 minutes straight! Well, I stuck with it and am proud to report that after 6 weeks of training, I ran my first 5K! I don’t think I have ever been so proud of myself, and it is definitely something I want to continue. Sticking with running is also what has motivated me to start this blog – to document my travels through leading a healthy lifestyle in numerous ways.
Food – Right now, I don’t label myself in any way when it comes to what I eat. Due to digestive issues and severe lactose intolerance, I have always eaten pretty healthy foods. Though the foods I eat have been generally healthy, the way I think about food has not always been. Having spent many frustrating years of my life getting sick after eating and not knowing why, I started to develop an unhealthy relationship with food – I hated it for making me sick and was scared of it for not knowing how I would feel after I ate. This led to years of me being afraid to eat – so much so that it controlled everything I did. All my thoughts would revolve around eating – when would be the best time to eat, what would be the safest food to eat, what foods would go with each other and not make me sick, how much time I should wait before eating and going somewhere, etc. Well eventually, this way of thinking affected my mood, my weight, and my overall well-being. I realized that what I was doing was actually making me sicker and I needed to change.
So that’s what I’ve been doing. Slowly but surely I’ve been trying to eat more and think less. I think that reading blogs has honestly changed my life because it made me realize that there are so many yummy options out there for foods that I can eat and feel happy with my choices. I now really enjoy food shopping and have found that I love to cook and experiment with new things…something that I never thought I would be able to do. Starting this blog is so meaningful to me because I am documenting a new chapter in my life. Before, I have never really enjoyed opening up to people about my disordered thinking about food, but now I am willing to be open with it, learn from it, and move on.
Please join me on my journey through a healthy lifestyle; we can all learn from each other!
Please feel free to shoot me an email at beyondthetextbook@hotmail.com – I would love to hear from you!
*Emily* 
