Goodbye for now..

I can't wait for Christmas dinner!
(Even though I don't like turkey I enjoy the
festive atmosphere Christmas brings).

It's nearing the end of the semester and it's almost time to say goodbye to ALES 204. Five more days of school, one lab report and three finals stand between Christmas and me. I've learned a lot over the last four months in ALES 204 about social media and its importance in the nutrition field. Although I probably won't continue with tweeting and using different resources like LinkedIn I am glad I learned about them so when I am looking for a job as a registered dietitian I will be familiar with them and will be able to use them.

To be honest I didn't really understand what CV's were until we had a lecture on it. I thought CV was an acronym for 'cover letter' (don't ask how I thought made sense). Since the lecture I have learned that CV stands for 'Curriculum Vitae', which is more than a cover letter or resume. CV's are more in-depth resumes that include academic achievements as well as publications. Currently I don't have a strong CV considering that I haven't done any research, but I am sure as I continue my journey to becoming a RD I'll have research papers to add to my CV.   

One thing I really enjoyed learning about and participating in is blogging. ALES 204 is the first time I have ever been introduced to blogging, and I want to continue blogging even once I am done this class. Even though a few of these blogs are irrelevant to what I'll continue blogging about (mostly about my thoughts and nutrition) I'll keep this blog because I'm not ready to depart from this blog as silly as that sounds. Hopefully I will have more time to work on blogging and play around with settings ect.

Another aspect of ALES 204 that I really enjoyed was having to write about scientific articles; however I did my assignment on the open access movement. Making students write articles is a good way to learn about new things. I learned that a lot of my homework in university would be impossible to do without the OAM. Although there are some things I disagree about the OAM, which you can read more about in my Google document by clicking here. ALES 204 was also the first class that introduced me to Google documents on-line. It was so handy to learn about Google documents especially when it came to group projects like making an on-line poster with a group. It can be difficult to get together with people you don't know, especially when it seems like everyone's schedules conflicts. I was really thankful to learn about on-line Google documents.
Sometimes I think that my generation takes for granted the use of the internet. Which also got me thinking about the Wikipedia article that we all had to write about. I mean at first I wasn't pleased to have to write about something I hardly knew about. Also, how was I supposed to write about it if I couldn't use Wikipedia? From this assignment I learned more in depth how to use PubMed, I'm sure this website will be very helpful in the next few years of university.

Finally, I want my fellow classmates to check out Farzana's blog, I really enjoyed her introductory blog about how important communication is in the nutrition field. She also talked about how nutrition is so important in every ethnic group, and how fatal nutritional issues could be with miscommunication. (She also was in my lab class).




Here are links to a few of my comments I posted on fellow classmates blogs:
1. Sydney's blog 
2. Cassandra's blog
3. Kelsey's blog 
4. Alyssa's blog 
5.Jia-Feng's blog 
6. Andrea's blog  

Wiki what?

The assignment this week was to edit/add to a Wikipedia article. At first, this was the most confusing, and I didn't really understand our expectations. Were we expected to edit an article, create our own, or add to one? Where were we supposed to find the information about topics we don't know much about? Wikipedia is one of the most confusing websites to work with, and not to mention the different code words like 'anchor', and 'stubs'. I guess it makes sense to make it confusing to work with..that way not 'everyone and their dog' decides to add articles to wiki. I even found it difficult to pick a topic. I thought to myself, "what do I know? I'm just a university student". I began writing about 'bean salad', and I was excited because I was going to add in different nutritional tips about how good beans are for a person. However, once I realized I have never actually eaten a bean salad it was going to be difficult to write about it. Thus, I looked and looked., until I just went with something I thought I knew about. 'Hypergymnasia', I have never heard of this word until I started this assignment. It's just a fancy word for excessive exercise, sports anorexia, anorexia athletica; so many different words, and all meaning the same thing.

I started to enjoy researching more about my topic, because there is always more to learn. Even if you think you know everything there is about something; learning never stops. I got onto a few websites that I visit regularly like dietitians of Canada, forums for those with ED, and I find it very interesting to read everyone's opinion. The daughter, mother, father, sibling, grandparent, friend, classmate, researcher, doctor, patient, who knows or is the someone who is going through an eating disorder. I found a few websites that I have never been to before appealing to read such as NEDIC (national eating disorder information centre).
From this assignment I have learned a lot more about hypergymnasia, and a few more other websites to add to my delicious clouds. 

I was looking through other students wiki pages when I first started out to get an idea of what we are expected to do, and I stumbled upon Linday's blog. I especially found her updated wiki page very educational. I can't believe 9 million people are in pre-diabetic or are diabetic. Wake up world!

In the end I really enjoyed this assignment because now I can say that I have added to Wikipedia. (To be honest I think we were all a little frightened to start this assignment because the majority of students use Wikipedia to find information..in this case we couldn't.) 

  

Why Nutrition?

The last couple of weeks I've been asked by complete strangers, "why nutrition?" I simply reply, "because nutrition is important for everyone." As true as this may be, I first became interested in nutrition when my twin brother was diagnosed with sports anorexia nervosa. For those of you who don't know, sports anorexia is excessive exercise and limiting food intake. It was the start of grade 9, and the news hit my family like a block of bricks. The symptoms were all there, but we were too blind and too self concerned with our own lives to see the grim presence of anorexia stealing my twin. My family first found out my brother was sick when he had gone to the local doctor about a knee injury (which was caused from excessive running), and it was then our family doctor weighed him, and did a few blood tests to confirm he had an eating disorder. He was then sent to a psychologist in Camrose to see if anything in his family life may have caused him to become ill. We've had a 'normal' family life as far as we were concerned. We are small town kids, only moved once, had no  family deaths, got along great with our two older siblings, and had supportive parents. My family didn't really know or understood how terrifying anorexia was, however, we quickly found out from the monthly trips up to the U of A hospital at 4F4. Half a year went by and things had seemed to slowly get worse. It was our 15th birthday and I expected my twin and I to do our traditional birthday rituals of waking up at 6:59am, and then  I say happy birthday to him, then at 7:00am he says happy birthday to me..(it was the times we were born at). However this day was different, I found my brother locked in his closet. "Why, Why did this have to happen to me! It's not like I want to be like this," he cried out. We didn't have birthday cake that year because it just wouldn't have felt right. As the year went on, my brother's conditions got worse; I remember him telling me that there were weeks he can't remember and Christmas that year was a blur to him. He kept to himself at school and on occasions he would pass out in class and have panic attacks in gym class. My dad would find him running on the treadmill at lunch time while I was hanging out with our friends and eating lunch. Once my father told my brother to stop running at lunch he instead ran outside during lunch which sometimes was in -40C weather. What kind of disease posses a person to go to such extremes? 


It was the start of grade 10 when things were at the lowest of low. He weighed in at 75pounds, and he looked so sickly that the people in our community thought he was dying from cancer. His hair was falling out, he looked more like a skeleton than my brother. A room finally opened up, and the day of our older brother's birthday, we drove up to Edmonton, unloaded my twin's belongings and with a hug goodbye he was admitted into the eating disorder program at the U of A hospital. This was the toughest time for him and I, we had been inseparable since the day we were born. (My brother and I always 'stuck like glue' to each other, according to our parents). He then spent the next 6 months in Edmonton. Although Castor, our home town, is three hours away, I tried to spend every weekend I could visiting him. My brother made friends, even sneaked out of the hospital to venture around Edmonton with a few friends from the hospital. I got to know a few of the other patients on the unit; it was really intriguing to hear other people's stories of what placed them into 4F4. He was finally somewhere where people understood how he felt and could relate to him. After my twin met his goal weight after 6 months (which is one of the quickest inpatients the unit had ever seen) he surprised me and got our dad to pick him up and bring him home.

Now, at the University of Alberta, we are both back in Edmonton. He is studying kinesiology, in hopes of doing research or something in sports. Me, I am in Food and Nutrition in hopes of transferring into the Nutrition Major and becoming a dietitian. We have even talked about opening up our own gym, where he'd be the person trainer and I could be the dietitian. He is training me to lift weights while hopefully I can educate him in nutrition. 

So, why nutrition? 

I don't want to see others go through what my twin brother did. It was a heartbreaking experience for him, as well as his family and friends. He wants to be like those giant 'jacked' body builders, but the truth is, he'll never be like them. He's 5'7, 130 pounds, and his body will always look young. Anorexia stole my brother's growing years. I am so grateful that he is still here with me today, and I have learned so much about eating disorders from him. It's not always about having the perfect body or losing weight, but how food makes someone feel. He told me once that he felt weak, powerless if he ate. Today he has troubles socializing with friends, because when we were all teenagers, flirting, making friends, he was starving to find himself. Anorexia takes away a lot of someone's life, and it is something that isn't fully understood, and I want to learn more, so others can understand and be helped.


I checked out a fellow classmate's blog, Sydney, and I found her blog about 'Undernourishment and the Art of Wasting Less' very interesting. It's strange how holidays always involve food and bring people together. My brother actually asked me why everything always has to involve food. It's one of the reasons I love nutrition and food; it brings people together. 

So now I ask you.

Why nutrition? 

Facebook me!

Hello fellow bloggers,

This week's lab assignment for ALES 204 was to create a professional Facebook profile or page for ourselves. I decided to create a page for myself.

We assume that everyone has Facebook, and spend a lot of our time on it. However, this is not true, I have plenty of bosses, co-workers as well as family and friends who haven't converted to Facebook. I believe we should communicate with those who matter the most via face to face. This way emotions aren't lost through text or dependent on if we use ! or :). Another question is how reliable is Facebook? I would not look up a doctor or Dietitian on Facebook to get reviews. I would go onto what I would consider a more reliable source such as a government organized website like 'dietitians of Canada'.

This was how I felt until I stumbled upon Angela Komarnicki's blog and she had such a positive attitude about this assignment that it made me like a grump. I was also interested in her blog because like me she is in Nutrition and Food Sciences, and also plans on becoming a RD. From reading a bit more about Angela I soon realized a business Facebook page is important for companies and employers. You see, I am from a small town where everyone knows everyone, and so word of mouth is usually the most we need for references. I have realized that a resume, or even an interview does not give enough information to the employer, especially if they have ten to twenty interviews in one day..an employer could easily mix me up for another girl they had interviewed. A business Facebook page allows them to review me, and plus a page is easily accessible.

Click here to view my business page.
By completing this assignment and creating a Facebook page (it was my first time!), I learned how to add favourites to my page as well as what information is put into making a page. I also learned how to upload pictures and internal links in blogger! Here's the picture from flickr.