My whole life I have tried to be thin by eating healthy and exercising. But the big question people ask is why? Why do I do sit-ups every morning? Why don't I go to McDonalds, or eat deep fried food? All they see is Kristen, your average petite dancer, with a little chub here and there, but basically a livable figure. What they don't know is that almost all of my known family is obese, and that making those choices are my way of trying to prevent myself from also being overweight. Without even knowing it, while tyring to prevent this I was also following Prochaska and DiClamente's "Stages of Change Model." People often look like their family members, no matter what the environment they live in, or in other words most commonly nature overrides nurture, but for most of my life I have made it my duty to prove that idea wrong.
I come from an Italian family, where the women are mostly short and stocky. My mother, grandmother, and all of my cousins are overweight, and at a very young age I promised myself that I would never come to that. Most of them don't exercise, and generally eat whatever they want. Whole milk, fast food, candy, cake, and many other unhealthy foods are common items on their menu. Seeing this as a little girl I began to contemplate about what I could do to make sure that I didn't lead myself to a life of obesity. This acknowledgment of the problem is one of the first steps talked about in Prochaska and DiClamente's "Stages of Change Model." The next step in their model is action. As a teenager my first barrier was not being able to get my own food. Although my mom's cooking is wonderful, it is not healthy at all, so I began to practice portion control, as well as occasionally skipping meals. Another barrier I had was that because I was so young I couldn't go to the gym. Seeing alternate ways to exercise, I began to go running with my dog on a regular basis, and doing sit-ups and push-ups every night.