Blogger Challenge: Picture of Health?

Kate at Courage 2 Start has set the next Blogger Challenge:

I'm asking you to paint me a picture. What is (to you) a picture of health? What is health?

This really got me thinking... to me, what is health? My first though was that it's not being sick, but being healthy is so much more than that isn't it.

I guess for me, being healthy is eating right, not being overweight and being able to run, when I want to run as well as to avoid health problems.

Thinking about the above statement, it makes me realise how far I really need to go to be able to consider myself healthy.  

I know I should eat clean (and currently am), but how do I make sure that this is the way I eat forever.  I do prefer to eat foods that aren't as processed, but I still would love to chow down on chocolate! 

Currently, I am not only overweight, but obese.  Yeah, I may not look it, but currently my BMI is sitting at 31.  If I lose 2.7kg more, I will be in the overweight range, and once I reach 73kg I will officially be in the healthy weight range.  Admittedly, that number seems so far away!!  (Today doesn't seem to be a very positive day - sorry all!  I am struggling a little today to even consider that I might reach my goals)

Being able to run... I have said (and still maintain) that I have no interest in being a runner, however, I have come to realise that it doesn't necessarily mean that I don't want to be able to run.  I remember a few years ago when I started to lose weight and eat healthy that I used to get so puffed walking up my stairs (I only lived on the first floor! lol) a couple of years later, I was playing with my nephew and I ran from the mail box up to the block of flats and up the stairs - and I wasn't puffed!  It was such a great sense of  accomplishment for me.  Until that point I didn't realise that I had become so much more fit!  I'd like to be able to have that sense of accomplishment again.

As for health issues.  Other than avoiding all of the usual suspects (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, (which I have 'beaten' previously) etc) I have also suffered from PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), which all in all makes it harder for me to lose weight, harder for me to conceive, a greater chance of miscarrying, missing periods, excruciating pain, a greater chance of type 2 diabetes and a greater chance of developing insulin resistance.

About 6-12 months ago I was at my lightest weight and I had my hormone levels retested and they came back normal - meaning no more PCOS!!!  Now that I have pretty much put on all of the weight that I lost over a 3 year period (how on earth did I do that?! grrrr!!) I am scared that my PCOS might come back again - I don't want to be in excruciating pain again, or worried about whether or not I can conceive.  I want to be healthy and able to rely on my body to do what it is supposed to do.

And coming to that conclusion, I guess that is exactly what being healthy means to me:

For me, health is being able to rely on your body to do what it is supposed to do with no obstructions, no detours and being able to be fit enough to run when I can an eating clean.