In 2011, Chris Novoa’s mother died and he watched her health decline right up until the end. Novoa had already been dealing with enough in his personal life. He was smoking, drinking five days a week and his health began to decline.
Two years later, Novoa was working as a therapeutic staff support, supporting children with mental health disorders. During the work day, he was walking up to the second floor of his office and realized something needed to change.
“I was out of breath, out of shape and sweating,” Novoa said. “I am in my mid-20’s. I should not have this much difficulty.”
Overweight and ready to make a change, Novoa turned to what he enjoyed most: food.
While advertisers will tell you that all you need to do is take a pill to achieve one’s health goals, the truth is that a lot more goes into taking care of your body than a two-week medication given by an “as seen on TV” product.
– EVOLUTION OF PRACTICES, GUIDANCE AND AMERICANS –
In 2000, the U.S. The Department of Health and Human Services’ dietary recommendations for Americans for good health fell underneath three simple categories: Aim, Build and Choose.
Throughout the 44 page document, there are many statements, paragraphs and diagrams that only scratch the surfaces compared to the newest guidance for the 2020-2025 version.
While there is a 120-page difference between the version in 2000 and the one that is set to expire in 2025, there is so much more detail in the newest version because of the amount of data that has come out about people’s health in the past two decades.
Dana White MS, RD, ATC is a clinical professor at Quinnipiac University and the sports dietician for the 21 Division I athletic programs at the university.
White has 20 years of experience as a registered dietician and has witnessed first hand how things have changed over time.
“Nutrition is not black and white. It is very much gray,” White said. “There’s not a definitive answer, because it all depends on who you’re talking about.”
While people becoming overweight can lead to obesity, there is a mindset that comes from within a person about the decisions that they make to change those steps and get back on a path that is better for them in the future.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2000 and 2020, the obesity rate in America increased from 30.5% in 2000 to 42.4% in 2020.
As he watched what his mother struggled with, Novoa began his health journey while also setting realistic goals and not applying too much pressure to the point where he would revert to his old habits.
“I didn’t want to overcomplicate it for myself,” Novoa said. “Because I chose not to complicate things, I gave myself that mental flexibility needed.”
For Novoa, it was easy for him to become hooked to this new path that he was getting ready to embark on because of what he had experienced when he was at one of his lowest points in life.
“I have an addictive personality when it comes to things,” Novoa said. “Leveraging that for good and understanding that about myself…I think that there is a level of self awareness that is required.”
– THE CULTURE AROUND NUTRITION AND FITNESS –
Since the rise of social media, it has completely changed the way that we look at how we connect with people and learn new information based on studies that have been published in a book called “Social Media Communication: Trends and Theories” by Bu Zhong, a communications professor at Penn State University.
According to the National Library of Medicine, nutrition and the foods that we eat has gained more and more attention on social media as well since over 90% of adolescents have at least one social media account.
People have made whole careers on social media, telling audiences about the latest meals that they have cooked and have been able to grow a community of support to go for and ask for advice at a time when people can be in contact with another person at the touch of a button.
“I think a conversation about food as opposed to focusing on the nutrients is a good conversation,” White said. “I really like to see people inspiring others to cook more or make recipes.”
That sense of community digitally can also be said for people who have met in person in an aisle in a grocery store or even a gym.
When Novoa was first introduced to CrossFit in 2018 after doing many of the basics to take better care of his health. When he started consistently showing up to the high intensity and challenging classes, he realized many of the people he began to know and become friends with, were more like him than he ever could have thought.
“One woman that I had met. Her and I would do 5:30 a.m. classes with her. I just thought she was the most amazing CrossFitter. She was just this person I aspired to be like,” Novoa said. “She was very similar [to me]. She used to be overweight, she was an alcoholic. She was trying to find a better version of herself.”
Continuing with that sense of community, Novoa crossed paths with more and more people who have experienced a similar struggle and willingness to fight for a change. So much so that after a couple of years, Novoao became the co-owner of the same CrossFit gym he started out in back in 2018 with his wife, Sarah.
Now when someone steps in the gym for the first time looking to make that change, Novoa says be there with his story and showing them how easy it is to make that first step to bettering oneself.
“I was afraid. I had never worked out in front of people before,” Novoa said. “I let them know where I came from, the struggles that I have had and the struggles that I still have today.”
– THE PIECES ARE OUT THERE; HOW DO WE PUT THEM TOGETHER? –
Lori Krol is a certified Integrated Health Practitioner level 2, as well as a school nurse with a masters in health education. Krol has been taking on clients for the past year and a half and using her expertise to help her clients make changes from a holistic standpoint.
Through her education, she says many times when new clients come to her looking for a change is that the root cause many times is the gut and trying to reset everything involved in that area of the body.
“I start out every client with a functional medicine detox to open up the liver pathways,” Krol said. “If our liver is not functioning properly, we are not going to take in proper nutrition.”
After the detox and after some functional medicine tests, Krol will create a “bio individual protocol” that consists of different diets, exercise, stress reduction and removing toxins from the person’s diet.
“Getting them to heal their body naturally,” Krol said. “In hopes, a lot of times, they’re able to get off a lot of pharmaceutical medications.”
With nutrition and health, the destination is never as important as the journey. Waking up each day wanting to be one percent better than you were the day before is all one person can ask of themselves.
“They’ve got to be willing to take what I say and put it into practice,” Krol said. “Their mindset needs to change. Telling themselves, ‘yes I can change. Yes my body is meant to be healed.’”
Novoa says he has changed over the past 10 years, but he says the things that people see on the surface compared to what is still going on with his nutritional journey are still two completely different things.
“People look at me as the owner of a gym and they see the things that I am capable of,” Novoa said. “They wouldn’t suspect that I used to be a binge eater and still have to deal with those things.”
White, Krol and Novoa all agree that every nutritional journey is different for every body that wants to achieve more for themselves.