College Admissions Essay: Unhealthy Food Choices

I used to love junk food. Like for many people, McDonalds was my “go to” food for a fast, cheap meal in the midst of busy everyday life. I had always considered myself as a healthy person. My poor food choices never bothered me because as a teenager I had always been very active, participating in nearly every sport offered by my school and I had always been able to maintain a steady weight. My entire world was flipped upside down one day in freshman physics when a sharp pain in my abdomen hit me so hard I nearly lost consciousness. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in my teacher’s office with the school nurse looking me over and poking at my abdomen while asking lots of questions. Ever since freshman year in high school it has been an uphill battle dealing with and managing constant abdominal pain. After ruling out pregnancy, appendicitis, pancreatitis, and peptic ulcers, nutrition became my primary focus. I began to strictly monitor the types of foods and portions I consumed with the goal of identifying and isolating a food group that was potentially causing my abdominal pain to intensify after consumption. Monitoring my diet was somewhat simple due to the long hours I invested working at the hospital. Because of the intense pain and uncomfortable symptoms that would onset after eating, I would go 16 to 24 hours with no food at all. Getting sick at work was not an option for me. Clearly my idea of …show more content…
I am very deficient in a lot of nutrients likely due to insufficient intake of nutrient rich foods. I also often experienced signs and symptoms of dehydration such as lack of energy, muscle spasms and cramps as well as symptoms of possible UTI’s. Based on my results I set some short and long term goals which included a more balanced diet in general to improve nutrient intake and more water intake to reduce the risk of