 Guys, welcome back to my channel. If you guys are new here, make sure to subscribe and also follow me on Instagram. It would mean the absolute world to me. Today's video, I'm going to be talking about what caused me, inspired me, motivated me to start eating more fruits and vegetables, which I don't eat a lot of fruit to be honest, but eat more vegetables in my diet and just like be a little bit more healthy and conscious about what I eat. This is kind of like a story time as well. So I don't know if that's going to be entitled or not. I am still a really picky eater. So I will link down below the video I made about all the foods I actually eat. So if you want to check that out, then it will be in the description box. I've always been a picky eater. It's just who I am. It's what I am, I guess. I'm not ashamed of it because there are a lot of people that are more picky than I am. So I don't really like dwell on the fact that I'm picky. I have come a long way though with like trying new foods and stuff, but overall I like to keep it pretty simple to the foods that I like and everything. So I guess without further ado, let's just get started. So back in my junior year of high school, I had some really cool opportunities. I went to a People to People Ambassador Program for students that wanted to get into the medical field and it was really cool because I got to meet a lot of people that were interested in science and medicine. I gained a lot of knowledge and got to see Johns Hopkins, which is amazing. And I also have another story time about that was the first time I actually got bullied and it wasn't a very good experience in the regards of like the people in my group that I was with, but I did meet some amazing people. So it's not like all bad, but I did make a story time on that. So if you want to go check that out, it will also be linked down below, but that was one really cool trip. I got to go on my junior to senior year of high school. I think it was in between that little timeframe of like summer. And then I got to go to Goucher College for a dance summer camp. And that was also that same summer. So I had these really cool trips. I loved both of them because I love being creative and having a creative outlet with dance. And I also love science and like that sort of thing. So I'm very much a left and right brain and I'm like both. So I liked having those two trips because they kind of let me experience both of my interests, but I did learn from them that I didn't like just one. So I didn't like just dancing. Like I didn't want to be a dancer. That was a known fact. I love dancing and the closest thing to a dancer I've probably gotten is making my TikTok dances. If you're not following me on TikTok, follow me on TikTok. I liked both of the programs, but I know that I couldn't just do one or the other. That was a really hard summer on me. And of course it was like my first time kind of being away from my parents and being away just like in that sort of setting just because like I didn't really like travel a lot alone because there was no real need to travel alone. So that was like my first extended period of time away. And those trips were almost back to back. So two weeks here, two weeks there, that was a good time for me to be on my own and everything. And during this time, I was losing a lot of my hair. Like I remember when I was in the shower, I mean, I still lose quite a bit of hair in the shower, but I think that's because I don't wash my hair every day. So I was losing a lot of hair in the shower because I remember on both of the trips I had like special shampoo that we paid a lot of money for. Yeah, that was when I learned not to salt fates in my hair. So I think that was just due to some stress and I was probably kind of nervous during that time. So I remember like going to the doctor and everything. And then I was on these trips and I let's just say was not eating the healthiest. Like I remember on the goucher dance trip, I literally ate like fries. I think that's like the only thing I ate, which mind you, their fries are so good. Like I hope they haven't changed their like recipe because their fries are so good. But I think I had like fries and like a hot dog or something like that. I don't know, super like no vegetables, no greens. And I don't know why I just like, I didn't know. And I thought because I was like getting exercise and stuff, it wasn't all that bad because I was exercising and working out because I was at dance like throughout the whole day at the summer camp thing. And at the people to people trip, I just remember having like, I think I had like a lot of bread and just a lot of like starchy carbs, not that many vegetables or any like thing of nutrition. Also, I was pretty anxious and I still do this. You know like where your thumbs get like hang nails and like the skin kind of gets hard and stuff. Well, I pick at it like, I don't know what it is. I actually sell this TikTok of someone like saying why can't their hands just be like normal and like with no cuticles like peeling back or whatever. But yeah, like I pick at my thumbs, fingers, whatever. And I still do that to this day a little bit. It's not as bad as it used to be. Like during high school and during a little bit of college, well actually no, during college I stopped because I started getting my nails done and everything because I didn't want to pick at my fingers anymore. But definitely during middle school and high school, I did that and I'm not clinically diagnosed with anxiety. So I'm not going to like throw that word around any lightly but I do have some anxious times. And for some reason I think it's like an OCD thing maybe too but I just like pick at things. So it's just one of those things where it's just like compulsive I think is the right word that I just like can't stop. So I did that really bad. So like my fingers, well not all of them but like normally my thumbs would just bleed and everything. And it was just like really bad. And you know, obviously when you have open wounds they can get infected, right? And all the time my parents will be like, oh my gosh, it's gonna get infected. And since it never had gotten infected or anything, I didn't really see that being a possibility. So my thumb just like, you know, it would bleed and like I would sometimes wear a mandate on it. And sometimes I still do. So like sometimes you can catch me wearing band-aids and stuff in my videos. Fast forward after those two trips, I was eating very unhealthy. Yeah, I was like having like issues and everything. And then my family and I every year, as you guys know we used to before high school ended. So since we were babies until we were seniors in high school we had this thing called the Shaman reunion where we would get together with all the girls that I was adopted with and their families for reunion. Well, we had stopped doing reunions for a little bit during high school years I think but this was our last one. And this fell after the two big trips I had taken my junior to senior year. So I think it went people to people trip the goucher dance trip and then the Shaman reunion. So the Shaman reunion was held. I believe it was in Chicago. I'm not quite sure. We would always have one somewhere in the United States but I'm pretty sure it was Chicago. And I got very sick. So I was obviously picking up my thumb a lot because I don't know just like knowing senior year was like right around the corner. I didn't really know. I mean, well then again I was very set on like becoming a doctor. So like I think the pressure of like, you know colleges and like just trying to get into a good college so I could pursue medicine and like maybe have a good shot at getting into like a good medical school and stuff. Just like all of that was like really a lot to handle for me I guess at that time. So I was like really stressed out. So clearly we were on the Shaman reunion trip and I just remember like I was like fully fledged like picking at my thumb a lot and it was bleeding. And obviously a lot of people would say like doesn't that hurt? I mean yeah it does but I guess like not that much because like I'm still picking it. I don't know, it's super weird. And maybe I just have like a high pain tolerance when it comes to that but we went bowling and I think this is where I picked up my bacterial infection and my virus because I stuck my thumb that was an open wound. That was like was bleeding into a bowling ball and was bowling. I think we think that's where it came from. I got very, very sick. I remember I had pains in my head. Obviously I was like losing my hair and I was getting sores in my mouth and let me tell you that was probably the most uncomfortable thing I've ever been in. I would say I pretty much have a high pain tolerance but when it came to the sores in my mouth it was horrendous. The sores in my mouth didn't really start appearing until we were driving home from the Shaman reunion but I just remember I was very tired. My head hurt excruciatingly with some of the events. I had to like stay in the room because stay in the hotel room because I just felt so bad. I didn't really relate being sick to my thumb. So on the way home from the Shaman reunion is when I really started to get like symptoms and everything and on the way home we were having Hooters obviously because we were like, oh let's stop at Hooters. And so we stopped to eat our wings and that was when I was like starting to notice these like sores in my mouth. So I'm over here thinking that it's the wings because they might have been a little too spicy or something like that but on the way home I was getting more and more sick and obviously my body probably had little immunity. Like my immune system was probably not as strong because I wasn't eating well or healthy during any of that time. And I feel like my body just was like very weak. It was just really bad. So we finally get home, I go to sleep and I wake up and I noticed I was nervous because my parents were always nagging me about my thumb getting infected, right? So I looked at my thumb and I'm like, oh my gosh, it might be infected. So I just remember telling my parents like, hey, check out my thumb, like what do you think? And there was a line that was starting to like go up my arm and it was really scary because I just didn't know what was gonna happen. And at that time, knock on wood, like that was the only time that I had to go to the emergency room. And I was so scared, like I was so mad at myself for like letting it go and like not paying attention. So I definitely, I was super scared. They took my blood and they like tested it and everything. And they're like, you have a bacterial and viral infection. So I had two things going on in my body at that time that needed to be worn off. So I just remember I had to take multiple different like antibiotics at the same time at like after four hours like I would need to take another one. I had to go in to see my family doctor like every day to make sure that my thumb was healing well. It was so bad. And they gave me this like mouth rinse to like swish in my mouth to like help the sore so I could eat because I wasn't eating at all because it was just so painful. It was painful to talk. It was painful to eat. Oh, like I just don't even, like that's why I get a little triggered when I get a canker sore. But then again, I'm used to it. So like canker sores don't bother me that much as like maybe some of you because I had like a mouth full of that sort of thing happening in my mouth. So like one is like nothing to me but still it kind of does trigger me when I do get one and I hate it. But that's why I try to keep my immunity up because I read somewhere that there was like a theory that if your immunity is very good then your mouth doesn't get those sores as often which is really good because oh, knock on what again. I haven't had one and I've been trying to you know, always take my vitamins and like be healthy and everything. So fast forward to my first year of college. Valerie, I remember this. We were sitting at the student union in UCF and she was like, okay, you need to start like eating healthier because of like all this stuff. We kind of like had you know, one of those heart to heart mom, daughter moments and she was like, you gotta start like eating healthier and you don't have to stop eating what you want but like you need to throw in some like greens and vegetables and you know, protein, all of that stuff. So that's when I started on my Subway Kicks and I always had Subway. I love Subway. I could love the salt and vinegar chips. I love the wheat bread. I still love Subway. I just haven't had it in a while so but that's when I started my Subway Kicks. I learned to eat tomatoes and I learned to eat green pepper and I learned to eat cucumber because I wasn't like a big fan of any of that stuff and that's all the stuff I have on my salads. And then I think it was like the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college when I'm like, I really want to start eating salads. I like forced myself to eat a salad because I just wanted to be more healthy. Like I wanted to not ever get to where I was and it took, it still is a little bit affecting me today not as much at all as when it did in college but I still to this day have times of just feeling weak. Like my body just like feels weak sometimes. I don't know. For a long time I was pretty weak and I, you know, getting into like fitness and stuff really helped like build back up my stamina. I had such good stamina and dance and during high school and everything and then I feel like when I got so sick and everything it just wiped me completely out and I just really had to start rebuilding everything. Yeah, so that is when I forced myself to start eating salads. From there, I've just like tried to try new things. Like ribs are really good that I've tried, not recently, but like, I don't know that's just a good example I could throw in there but like I'm just more self-conscious about what I'm eating and what I'm putting in my body. That's why I try to stay away from fries. When I go out I can have fries but like I don't try to eat fries like a lot anymore. Before I end this, I also want to say Valerie did scare me. I think this is actually what forced me to start eating salads and like and really take her seriously is when she's like, you can develop scurvy. Yeah, so she was saying you can develop scurvy. People may experience pain in areas of muscles, fatigue, fever, loss of appetite, rashes, red spots, coiled hair, failure to thrive. Like, oh my gosh. She's like, if you're not getting like the nutrients you could get that. I'm like, oh my gosh. It kind of just like freaked me out. So now like that's pretty much what like steered me in the right direction of like eating vegetables and like learning to love them because I don't know. I am still not the biggest fruit person. I don't really like fruit. I'm gonna be completely honest, haven't had fruit. And I know that's really bad but I look at it as it's a lot of unneeded sugar that I don't really need to put in my body. Even though it's natural sugar, like I just, I'm glad that I don't really like them because of the sugar factor but I know it's still kind of bad but whatever. But yeah, that is the story about my viral infection and my bacterial infection and why I started trying to eat more vegetables and learn to love them. So I think that is going to be it for this video. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Make sure to give it a thumbs up. Don't get open wounds on your body and then touch a bowling ball. Also, learn to love vegetables and fruit. I do take a multivitamin so hopefully that's supplementing for something. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and I'll see you guys in my next video. Bye.