Andrew Ruinshteyn, Period 8, 3/18/22

 Andrew Rubinshteyn Period 8

3/18/22

1) I have a family history of some medical conditions that are prevalent from both sides of my family. Around this age was when certain members of my family got these conditions, so fairly recently I started worrying about them. More recently, I went to a doctor and was told that I have a few things, primarily hypertension. I think I developed that partially because of predisposition and family history, but I think the fact that I gained weight over the last year or two contributed, and having high blood pressure is indicative that it’s also fairly likely that I have hyperglycemia and hypercholesterolemia too. Because of that, my goal at the moment is to lose weight through exercise. While I don’t think that losing weight will completely solve the problem, since I do have a family history of all three, I think losing significant amounts of weight will help curb the issues.

2) This is something of a two-sided coin for me. On one hand, I haven’t really changed my diet, in the sense of what food I consume. I still eat the same food, just less of it, which isn’t ideal because I don’t generally eat healthy. For me specifically, I don’t think it’s realistic to, for example, start eating a lot less animal products and more vegetables for the sake of improving my diet. However, on the other hand, I have actually shown some resilience in a few ways. First of all, I’ve cut my daily calorie intake to less than half of what I ate in a day just three months ago, even if I am eating the same unhealthy food. I’ve also started exercising daily, whether it be tennis team practices or going to the gym for cardio on days with no practice. The result of that is that I’ve already lost just upwards of 15 pounds, and am still on track to lose more. I still want to lose more, but I think I’m on the right track.

3) All things considered, the people around me have been pretty supportive. I think aside from people though, I personally feel during my day to day than I did two months ago, in terms of being able to play tennis longer before feeling too tired, or even just during walking up stairs feeling slightly less out of breath in the morning. I think the response towards me has been positive in essentially every sense of the word.