Growing up, I never really monitored what I ate. I was a competitive gymnast and trained over 20 hours a week. I ate what would make me feel full and what would give me energy to get through lengthy practices and late night homework sessions. It wasn’t until I got to high school when I started to be more cautious about what kind of food I was putting into my body. I tried to eat less processed and fried foods. I also tried to incorporate more protein, fruits and vegetables. Of course growing up in Hawai’i means that spam is simply too staple. I tried to limit it to special occasions. I’d say that this mentality lines up pretty well to this day.
An intentional choice that I make regarding food consumption is that I stray away from any supplements or “add ins” that have not been recommended by my physician. This includes diet pills or even extra probiotics. This is solely because I don’t want to upset my stomach or take something that could adversely affect my health when I don’t have a real problem to begin with. I do enjoy yogurt, kimchee and even a calcium or immunity boost in my smoothie but these instances are in small quantities and are not very frequent.
Perhaps a non-intentional choice I make is that I haven’t drastically changed the type of food I eat or the portions I eat. My diet has been pretty constant throughout my life since I grew up in the same city my entire life. Even though I moved from Hawai’i to Oregon in college, I didn’t really change much in what I ate. I just had to adapt to not having local favorites such as poke and poi mochi. This means that my microbiota has also been pretty constant throughout my life.
