Queen V

This week I did something I thought I never would give in to- a cleanse. My coworkers and I have been  motivating each other to lose weight (working for a weight loss study may have been an influence!), so one of my coworkers suggested we do this cleanse to jumpstart this process. I have never been who has believed in drastic or strict diets (hence my previous post on obesity research and avoiding drastic changes for weight loss) but I became convinced that this would be a good way to start making healthier choices- ah yes, I didn't 'practice what I preach,' per say. I decided that trying out a cleanse would be a new way for me to challenge my body and to show myself that  I  can avoid unnecessary foods and additives as well as to clear out my body. Because this cleanse came with weight loss in just a week  I know that it will be a challenge to maintain it afterwards. In doing this cleanse I hoped to work on self control and prove to myself that I can make healthy ch...

As you probably already know, obesity is a huge health problem here in the U.S-more than a third of adults are obese- meaning they have a BMI of over 30 and 20% more body fat than normal. (A normal BMI is 18.5-24.9).  My main duties as a research assistant are to recruit, screen, enroll, and assess participants for a weight loss study. We recruit patients from health centers who meet certain criteria, the main one being that they have a BMI that falls in the 30-45 (obese) range. There are many people that view obesity as a problem of laziness or a lack of self control in diet and exercise. To be honest in the past I have had those same thoughts. However I have learned- especially from interacting with many people dealing with obesity- that other factors such as the social determinants of health greatly influence obesity so we shouldn't be so quick to judge. To a certain extent we as individuals can control what we eat, how much we eat, and how active we are. However many d...

After over a year of waiting filled with both excitement and frustration among many other feelings, I finally found out in October that I got invited to be a Peace Corps Community Health Volunteer in Rwanda, departing in June!  I'll be abroad from  June 2014 to August 2016. Now that I am less than 5 months away from my departure date I am getting more excited (and nervous) about leaving. So many medical and logistical things to get done in the next few months, but luckily current and returned volunteers have been very helpful in advising those of us departing in the next few months. When I received my placement call in October I was given the choice between Uganda and Rwanda. I have an Aunt and Uncle that live in Kenya and have worked in both of those countries, so from their advice and my parents' insight I decided that Rwanda was the best fit for me, especially for my specific job interests. I'll be working at a health center (location TBD during training in the first 3...

Seriously though, nothing was the same! If you told me last summer that I would be living in Chapel Hill for another year post-grad I probably would have laughed in your face and told you that I'd be on the other side of the world. But alas, I'm in year 5 of my Chapel Hill life! Wow, so it's been a bit over a year since I blogged, and a lot has changed since then.  I remember last summer I thought I would be leaving for the Peace Corps this summer for two years. Unfortunately my application was delayed for an extended period of time, so I found out last spring that I wouldn't know my placement until early in 2014.  I spent winter and early spring of this past year applying to jobs in the time that I thought was just between graduating and going to the Peace Corps, but as with many things, it didn't end up as planned; what I thought would just be a couple more months in Chapel Hill ended up being at least another year! I am currently working at the Duke Globa...

Wow it's been almost two months since my last post, but I luckily got an internship in Washington D.C. and started on June 7th! I am interning at a global health advocacy nonprofit organization called Best Shot Foundation, which focuses on childhood diseases, specifically Pneumonia. I am extremely thankful that I was able to find something last minute after my study abroad program was cancelled, and am really enjoying my job/ time in D.C. It's especially great because some of my friends from UNC are here and I've met a lot of people from other schools as well, including my roommates who are all awesome! I've been able to see and do a lot both work and non-work related which has been great. At the Best Shot Foundation I work 9-5:30 M-F as the Community Outreach intern, so for all the projects I work on  my main focus is to reach out to potential partners for our specific advocacy inititatives. It's really cool because I have gotten to research a lot of health rel...