So I’m sure people are tired of hearing of me talking about being in the real world via twitter, instagram…whatever….sorry but it’s a big step in my life. So you will continue hearing about it. This post is a bit of a bitch fit and also a bit of an explanation of what public health is. Though I must say, I will be talking about my internship on my blog but I will not be posting huge details about every little thing I do or work on.
First, that isn’t professional. Second, when I get off from my internship daily my mind needs a break. I will be posting (as requested) outfits I wear occasionally, big projects I’m working on, about friends I meet…you know ect. It will not become the focus of this blog. The focus of this blog is my journey of running.
So I guess I’ll explain my internship a bit to ya’ll. I am a public health major and have more of a focus in promoting healthy habits/concepts. I want to work on a college campus promoting wellness campaigns.
Uhh WTF does that even mean?
Although helping people losing weight and being a personal trainer sounds fun…that isn’t what I’m doing. I have a very strong basis in nutrition (I’ve taken quite a few classes in it for the health major) I don’t want to limit myself to be a nutritionist. HEALTH IS MORE THEN THAT!
So please-when you say you are educated in health…reading healthy living blogs does not qualify you.
I digress.
This fall, I’ll be working on a few programs ranging from suicide prevention, to peer education (regarding a broad array of topics), to promoting a smoke free campus, to promoting safe sex. Every part of health you can think of.
Here are some things that the term public health can and does cover:
Health is wearing a helmet on a bike.
Health is making good food choices most of the time.
Health is taking care of you before taking care of someone else.
Health is striving not to smoke.
Health is being balanced.
Health is exercising regularly.
Health is maintain healthy habits and admitting that no one person is perfect.
So while I’m working in public health, it’s fair to say my primary task is not helping others lose weight. The term health(believe it or not) refers to many other things besides calorie counting and how much exercise can you do daily.
*This is not meant to take a stab at anyone, it is just merely an observation and I’m tying it back to my internship.
Question for you: What does health mean to you?
It was cool to learn a little more about your internship. I’m excited to hear more in the future 🙂
because I just entered the real world three months ago, I can relate to all of a sudden excitement and transition time that you are going through. I am super interested in your job and can’t wait to hear more about it. I love this type of health, not all about weight and all.
I feel like the blog world *really* needed this post! I know from experience that it’s very easy to get carried away and think you’re an expert on a subject just from reading about it on the internet for a while. So thank you!
And good luck at the internship 🙂
I think health encompasses a lot…emotional health, physical health, spiritual health, intellectual health (sounds good…you all know what I mean), etc…I think their needs to be balance in all aspects of ourselves to have a truly healthy self.
Health is so much more than just losing weight and exercising and eating right. A lot of people don’t get that. It’s just hard to find the whole balance and understand it all the time though. When I went into recovery I was told health meant gaining back the weight I’d lost and that was it. They said that once that happened i would be healthy which was very far from the truth. Good luck at the internship!
Yeah, I have to give most bloggers on health-related career paths the side-eye because they always focus on food, and it’s horribly ironic that they’re going to be advising people when they’re clearly pretty, excuse my language, f***ked up about food themselves despite ‘recovering’ from an ED.
I like your approach much more. I think you have a much better and more informed perspective on things.
Health to me generally means mental wellbeing before everything else, probably because my mental health has always been so poor, even when I’ve been physically relatively okay…so I treasure not being a ball of anxiety, depression and mania more than anything else in the moments when I’m not falling to bits. EMO moment over.
Loving this post Hollie, and I also like it even more because of your Public Health status… that is what I just graduated with a degree in 🙂 From the person that has been dealing with/tolerating disordered eating for years and years, health means finding a balance with everything. I go from one extreme to the next, but it always goes back to pretty much hating on my body on a regular basis. That of course needs to stop and I want to find what works for me in my daily life- food wise, activity, my interests, what I do with my time… When I find that, am happy, feel the ability to “splurge” and not worry about it, love myself for WHO I am, that is when I am healthy and what health means to me.