As a kid, you don’t think much about what foods you’re eating or how much you’re exercising each day. I never bought school lunch, but my mom would always pack me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with goldfish and a cosmic brownie. It wasn’t the healthiest lunch, but I knew nothing about nutrition at the time.

I was also thrown into sports. My parents put me in basketball at the age of five, and I joined the cross-country and track team in middle school. They would drive me around to basketball tournaments every weekend, and I rarely got a day off from my sports practice. …

In high school, I hardly knew anything about nutrition and maintaining a healthy diet. I would eat a bowl of sugar cereal for breakfast and grab a protein bar as my after-school snack before cross-country practice. Little did I know that the protein bar I was eating had 20g of sugar in it.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more conscientious of the foods I’m putting into my body, as well as looking at the nutrition labels a bit more closely before adding it to my shopping cart.

Now as a 22-year old, health is a huge part of my life and is a great passion of mine. I wasn’t always a health nut, but as you get older you become wiser and educate yourself more on the important things in life such as nutrition. …

Twelve years ago, I began my running journey. I was ten years old at the time, and my parents signed me up for a running club in our local community. We met three times a week, and I never knew how much of an impact it would have on my life.

As an adult, I’ve continued to run daily and it has gotten me through some rough patches over the years. Running is ingrained in me, and it’s something that I’m hoping to continue to do for the rest of my life. …

When I was in high school, I did hours of cardio a week. I was part of the cross-country and track team, and our training largely consisted of endurance runs with little focus on strength training.

It wasn’t until college when I actually started lifting weights. I decided to play basketball in college, and our strength coach gave us specific lifting workouts to do a few times a week.

Lifting was evidently new to me because I had only ever done cardio prior to college. However, I not only gained strength from lifting, but became more toned and fitter.

And, strength training is key in living a long and prosperous life. As you age, you naturally become more frail and it’s important to maintain your fitness to limit your chance of developing osteoporosis. …

Every year, thousands of people die from cardiovascular disease. It’s one of the most common illnesses that people are diagnosed with, and the number of cases will continue to rise.

While cardiovascular disease can be genetic, your diet and lifestyle have just as great an impact. It’s not something that runs in my family, which I’m incredibly grateful for, but people often forget that heart disease is often due to a poor diet and lifestyle choices — not genetics. …

Where I live, there’s little sunshine during the winter. January and February are brutal, often dipping below zero and reaching dangerous temperatures.

Although I’ve been exposed to the cold for years, I’ve never enjoyed it much. Aside from the beautiful snow and the twinkling icicles, I dislike how the cold, brisk air smacks you in the face, and how your hands crack if you don’t wear enough lotion.

Despite my sheer hatred for the cold, it’s one of the best times for runners to train. …

This past year has put a lot of strain on people’s mental and physical health. People have suffered in more ways than one from the pandemic, and prioritizing your health may not have been feasible in 2020.

While you may have become more lackadaisical in terms of working out, improving your fitness is something you should strive for in 2021.

While I remained active and have done a pretty good job of moving my body and working out in some way each day since the pandemic, I’ve been the most sedentary I’ve ever been in my life. …

I went vegetarian at the age of five, which may sound a little bizarre to some people, but my dad was a vegetarian and inspired me to become one at an early age. It wasn’t until I was eighteen when I adopted a plant-based diet.

Prior to becoming vegan, I didn’t know much about nutrition. I played multiple sports in high school and wasn’t too concerned with the foods I was eating. I was working out an incredible amount each day, and used that as an excuse to eat boxed mac n’ cheese and ice-cream weekly.

Despite having little knowledge about nutrition in high school, once I entered my freshmen year of college, I started to buckle down on my nutrition. I wanted to start eating healthier and knew that my current diet could be improved. …