Over the summer I worked as a coach and camp counselor at a church in my hometown of Fort Lauderdale. The job required me to move around a lot and create games for the pre-k kids to play, so naturally, I was going to play too. It was the best job in the world watching the kids hilariously turn every game into an all-out war, throwing everything they could at each other and descending into chaos.

I had to wake up at 7 every day to get ready for work and head over there to sit with the kids as they got dropped off. Did I mention this was during the summer? 7 AM in the summer. Not only is that early for me in the summertime, but that's early to be dealing with kids. Don't get me wrong, I love kids, but they just require a level of energy that I don't naturally have that early in the morning. The solution: coffee. I became a heavy consumer of the liquid miracle drug that enabled me to move all day like the energizer bunny.

With great power comes great responsibility, and my newfound energy was costing me. No longer could one cup at breakfast get me through my day. I needed to bring a mug with me to work to stay wired. Pretty soon that mug needed to be refilled at work so it was trips to the kitchen. All that coffee was acid in my stomach and down my throat, upsetting the natural balance.

On top of that, I had to make sure I ate big meals to sustain all those calories I was burning moving around all day. I snacked here and there but never gave the food enough time to settle before getting back into the game. When you move around before your food has gotten a chance to be digested can cause acid reflux. In addition, I was also consuming tons of food at once which is another contributor for reflux.

At the time, I had only experienced minor heartburn after eating things like chocolate cake after dinner. It was never really severe and was easily avoidable. Midway through camp, my reflux was so bad that I had a sore throat. In the first couple weeks of camp, I got strep throat, which is very common when working with little kids and giving them high fives. I took my antibiotics and felt better after a week. I thought this sore throat could be another case of strep. While I did end up getting strep a second time, believe it or not, my pain was caused by intense bouts of reflux that had been destroying the lining of my esophagus.

I was prescribed omeprazole which decreases stomach acid and promotes healing of the esophagus. What I really wanted was not to rely on a pill but rather change my lifestyle to accommodate reflux and ease myself back to health. I still get symptoms from time to time from over-eating, or drinking alcohol, or eating chocolate, or basically everything that is enjoyable to consume in life. However, it has caused me to lead a healthier lifestyle with a cleaner diet that takes care of my body.