Chapter 15 is all about how we can get and pay of health care. It had a focus on what we can do to figure out what the best health care plan is for us. We learned a lot in this chapter, and it was helpful with moving forward in our lives. While most of us may be able to stay on our parents insurance for a while longer, if we get a job after graduation itll be helpful to way our options.

There are different types of medicines that were talked about in the chapter. I really likes reading about meditation. I have tried meditation lately because I am trying to be more calm. I liked learning about the benefits which included memory! Meditation is good for gathering all of our thoughts and shifting our focus to see what is important and what isnt.

Meditation is good for my health aspect, because it helps me remember what the main reason is for why I work out, which is for my mental health. My goals for the semester as a whole has been really well. I am so glad that I took this class and was able to use it at as a mile marker. I have seen so much progress in my physical and mental strength, which is not something we often get from other classes! For my picture this week, I will be uploading a tik tok. Stay tuned!

I found chapter 14 interesting because of how much I learned about pollution. “Pollutant is a substance that contaminates some aspect of the environment and causes potential harm to living organisms”. A lot of the pollutants we have are human created from smoking, cars, planes, etc. The air quality chart was interesting and we can relate the change in air quality from humans with corona virus. A lot of countries who would have been rated with hazardous air qualities now have good air quality due to less people traveling.

“Climate changes relate to a shift in typical weather patterns across the world”. Climate change and global warming is something that we all often joke about especially in new England when we have a 75 degree day and the next is 25 degrees and snowing. We often just say that its typical but its not. I found the scientific evidence interesting because a lot of people dont think that climate change is real. I was so shocked that 2016 was the warmest year since we started keeping records in 1880. While it was nice, its sad that our world is changing as we know it.

While this chapter doesn’t really relate to my health aspect, it does relate to all of us in some way. We need to take the steps that we can to keep our air clean. I think that something we could all do is taking the opportunity to walk or ride a bike places instead of driving. I think that reusing items and thrifting clothes are also things I will start doing!

Chapter 13 is about violence and unintentional injuries. Unintentional injuries are listed as the first, second, and third leading causes of death. Violence at schools has become unfortunately more prevalent. Between school shootings and bullying violence at schools has increased. “Most recently, violence related to political demonstrations and counter-protests has erupted on college campuses”. I think we at BSU are lucky to say that we havent seen this on our campus, but it has been seen more at larger schools.

Factors that contribute to violence are “Primary aggression is goal directed, hostile self assertion that is destructive in nature. Reactive aggression is more often part of an emotional reaction brought about by frustration”. The chapter goes on to talk about what leads to aggression and a major one that stood out was stress, depression, and other mental health issues. It sad to say that during this time of social distancing, and job shut downs, there has been a rise in domestic violence cases. I think a lot of it has to do with people really struggling mentally.

The chapter gives examples of how to avoid becoming a victim. Speaking in a strong voice, maintaining eye contact, standing up straight, acting confident, and being alert. Ina time where a lot of people first meet on line it is important to have these skills in case of being put in an unsafe situation. Going on a first date in a group instead of alone is so important.

It’s sad that we even need to learn about these things. And as a girl, I find it so sad knowing that just because of how I look I may be a victim of violence. For a while I used to have a major fear of going anywhere alone because of it. I have learned to live my life regardless of the unknown, but its still so troubling. Before transferring to BSU I went to a school in new hampshire. I left the party early and told my roommates that I could walk home alone because the buildings where across from each other and it was a small school. I ended up being followed and chased after by a man in a mask, and found two random girls and asked them to pretend to be my roommates. When the man saw me talking to them he ran in the other direction and I found out the following week he had been arrested for kidnapping. I never in a million years though that scary situation would happen to me, but luckily I knew that often times there is strength in numbers which was why I talked to those girls.

On a lighter note, I am catching up this week on school work, it’s been beautiful outside and I have been doing and enjoying my workout outside! I’m remaining positive that life will begin to get back to normalcy sometime soon.

Well, lets start with me not knowing that I was 2 weeks behind… Its truly hard to stick to a schedule when there isn’t one to stick to!!!

Chapter 12 talks about infectious conditions and how they can be avoided, treated, and spotted. I think this chapter relates a lot to the pandemic going on right now. The chapter starts off with being mindful. I found it interesting that our bodies are constantly fighting off infections. It made me wonder how the coronavirus is so different. We fight off disease in our skin, stomach, blood, intestines… everything is constantly working. Pathogens are what enter our body and make us sick.

Risk factors that we can control include stress, nutrition, activity level, and sleep. This are things that I think we all take for granted. With everything going on, I have found it harder to maintain stress levels. I loss my job, my unemployment is all screwed up and I don’t know when or if I am getting paid, and I really have had a hard time trying to go about my new normal. I am proud of my increased activity level, because there is really nothing else to do. I think that being as active as I can is really helping me on my day to day. Not only does it take up a good chunk of my day, but it encourages me to eat better and I am exhausted by the end of the day. Knowing that risk factors that I can control are things that I have been doing makes me feel really good!

However, the book also mentions risk factors that we cant control. Hereditary, aging, and environmental factors are all ones that we cannot control. “One of the key factors influencing disease risk is genetics” (285). These factors are what make people more or less to get a disease or infection. “An emerging body of research indicates that mindfulness strategies may provide in your arsenal against infection diseases”(285). The stress and anxiety reliving technique is been found helpful because when you reduce stress and anxiety you tend to feel better and be more motivated.

In regards to my health aspect, I have still been setting goals and focusing on working out because I want to not because I have not. I find that eating good food that I want keeps me motivated because I never feel deprived. This week I ran 4 miles in just over 40 minuets, making me one step closer to my 7 mile goal!

Below I have picture of me relaxing by the pool, when I should have been doing my blog posts. HA!!

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In chapter 11 we learn about different types of cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and diabetes. I feel that each of these can be related to in some way. Whether we know someone who has experienced one of them, or if we personally have gone through one of these disease.

I think that the best way to avoid any of these diseases, besides being born with them is to live a healthy and active lifestyle. The chapter talks a lot about how living an unhealthy life can lead to many different types of cancers. “Lifetime risk refers to the probability that an individual, over the course of a lifetime, will develop cancer and die from it.” (270) The chapter goes on to explain that obesity is a risk factor for many types of cancers such as liver, stomach, and esophagus. I think we live in world now where we think that everything already gives us cancer. But, if we can avoid it by being active, and eating better, we should. This pandemic has caused a lot of stress on us, but I can speak for myself when I have been able to appreciate the smaller things in life.

I talked last week about how I started running. I ran 3 miles last week and was so impressed with myself. Something I never would have started doing if it hadn’t been for gyms being closed. I still have a long 4 miles left to reach my ultimate goal of 7 miles in under 70 minuets, but its something i believe i’ll do. Going back to the chapter, we also learn about how obesity is related to diabetes. I think we see this a lot in our older family members. I am constantly concerned that my parents don’t get enough exercise. My dad has suffered from different heart diseases, so I can relate to a lot of what the chapter mentioned.

For the rest of the week, i will continue working out, eating the best that I can, and remembering that this will end. I am starting to get a little crazy wondering when I can work, when I can go out etc. But it hopefully wont last forever!

The chapter starts off by describing what exactly physical activity is. “Physical activity refers to all body movements produced by skeletal muscles resulting in substantial increase in energy expenditure, but generally refers to movement of large muscle groups” (226). It goes on to describe that there are different categories of physical activity, for your health, for physical fitness, and activity performance. The chapter also goes on to describe the difference between muscular strength and muscular endurance which I found interesting. A few years back I joined a crossfit gym. Which was a perfect example of muscular strength. We’d perform few reps of one movement to see how much weight we could endure. Muscular endurance is more of the exercise that I participate in now. Where I do more reps of a lighter weight, this was also used in crossfit when we would do AMRAPs, or as many reps as possible.

I think we all can agree that there are many health benefits to exercise and thats why a lot of people do it. I did not know that it did however reduce the risk of some cancers. “After decades of research, most cancer epidemiologists believe that 25 to 37 percent of cancers can be avoided by healthier lifestyle and environmental choices”(233). I found this interesting, and also scary. Looking at the amount of older people that don’t live a healthy lifestyle and how at risk they may be. I also can relate with the chapter when it mentions that exercise can reduce the stress and improve mental health. There are often times that the last thing that I want to do is work out, but once I do I feel so much better about myself. I think sometimes people can get so caught up in the physical part of exercise that they don’t get to enjoy the mental benefits. Being able to clear your head and feel like you’re getting a fresh start!

I recently found out that I will be running the falmouth road race, (as long as they’re still having it) with BSU. Now, I am not a runner. And applied on a whim thinking that I wouldn’t get chosen and then did. I have however, loved that I have a new goal to try to achieve. Exercising is important to my health aspect because it allows me to live my life in balance. Incorporating outside runs has been fun and challenging. I set goals each week, and have been researching foods, specific exercise, and running shoes that would benefit me while I train. With easter this week, I found it harder to get myself to run and exercise and I’m not sure why I used easter as an excuse. I plan to get back on track this week and hopefully reach all of my running and strength goals!

I am providing a picture of the workout that I followed last week, I completed the first week of the program.

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During this pandemic I am sure that many people can relate to the struggles surrounding body image and weight gain. Chapter 9 covers many categories including obesity, disordered eating, and body image issues. Obesity has become more prominent in our culture because of the food options surrounding us. Portion sizes are larger, fast food is easier, and the healthiest options are often more expensive.

Figure 9.2 in the chapter displays some of the major negative health affects that obesity can have on us. “Obesity is linked to cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, depression, digestive problems, gallstones, sleep apnea” the list went on. Then number of health issues that are associated should be enough for us to realize that in order to live our best lives we need to take care of our bodies from the inside out. I found it interesting that there is a genetic component to a person appetite.

In relation to my health aspect, eating clean food is important to living a balanced life. As mentioned in the chapter, obesity can cause a lack of activity or mobility issues. I know we can all relate to when we eat to capacity, and majority of it is not that healthy, and all we want to do is sit down and digest. But at that point, we cant burn off anything that we’ve had to eat. This also leads us into the issue of body image and forming an unhealthy relationship with food.

The chapter mentions all different forms of disordered eating and eating disorders. The difference being that food starts to interfere with a persons life and when it does. I think majority of girls, myself included, have struggled with this. Again, the image in the chapter that shows a time line of when there is an eating disorder and when there is no issues is really important. During this time, I have found myself getting down on myself about what I am eating. Even though my options are truly limited. It’s easy to let the thoughts consume you as I have once let them before. In order to combat this, I workout daily (or almost daily, sometimes I want to sit in bed all day… so I do) and making sure that I can fuel my body but also allow myself to have the things I want as well. I have also used this time to make healthier snack options with thing I have found in my pantry.

During this uncertain time, it is important to remain positive, have a schedule, and remember that this wont be forever. I have had a hard time adjusting to very limited social interactions. But, I try to remember that when this is all over we can remember this time and be thankful for everything and everyone that we have around us.

I was excited to learn about this chapter. Nutrition relates directly to my health aspect of eating 80/20 while combining it with exercise. “Nutrition is the science that investigates the relationship between physiological function and the essential elements of the foods we eat” (177). We can all agree that it is increasingly difficult to eat healthy during this quarantine, mainly because there is a lack of food in the stores. The frozen food isle is mainly wiped out, or a very limited selection. Not to mention, my family has been trying to support local restaurants by ordering take-out, and I cannot turn that down!

Calories are described in the chapter as the amount of energy that is obtained from a specific food. A healthy balance of foods are carbs, proteins, and fats and they all have calories. What does not have calories are vitamins, minerals, and water. I found it interesting that the calories have increased from 1960-2010. “Americans consume about 900 more calories per day than they did 50 years ago” (179). The chapter goes on to explain that we are not increasing the amount of food, but the actual number of calories in the food have increased. Figure 8.2 is a great example how the size of food has increased.

Water is essential to our bodies in many ways, and I am thankful that I have always drank water. I can usually drink about 80 oz a day without even thinking about it. I was surprised to learn that human could suffer if they drink too much water. “Hyonatremia, a condition characterized by low blood levels of the mineral sodium” (182). This makes me wonder, how can we balance the perfect amount of water? When I make my meals, I do try to prep for the most part. Sometimes, knowing my cooked food is sitting in the fridge I get a little grossed out and don’t eat it. But, I will always make sure to make the entire pack of chicken, because I don’t mine eating cold chicken on top of a salad or in a sandwich (I can’t be alone, microwaved chicken is weird). Protein is the second most essential nutrient for our body. I make sure especially when I am working out, that I have enough protein in my body afterwards to rebuild the muscles. Proteins are described as the key elements in our bodies for developing and repairing blood, skin, and muscles. They’re also the key element for antibodies, enzymes and hormones (182). Throughout the chapter I liked learning about complimentary foods. This helps with optimal digestion and absorption or nutrients. When it comes to food labels, I do read them to get an idea of how much of something I should be eating, but don’t stress too much. I like listening to my body and eating when I am hungry and stopping when I am full. It becomes easy to beat yourself up knowing that in order to reach a certain body-image goal, you need to either eat past feeling full, or stop before reaching that point. As the chapter stressed, a well balanced diet is nutrient dense. I try to focus my meals on whole foods but allow myself to eat something that my not be nutrient dense (a few oreos for bed wont kill me).

Now for last week and this week to come, I am going to continue with listening to my body and eating when I am hungry. Lunch time has become one of my favorite meals, since I get to be more creative with my limited options. I try to always have a salad with chicken, and drink lots of water. I have struggled mentally with not being able to go to the gym. But, so far home workouts seem to be doing the trick. Getting creative with weights, towels, and stairs get my body moving.

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The relation to alcohol with my health aspect is something I have been eager to learn about. I specifically talked about the relation to these two things in a different class. Learning that there is a direct link between drinking and gaining weight. As college students we can find it challenging to cut out drinking all together because it can be very social. “Approximately 40 percent of college students engage in binge drinking” (153).

When I realized that drinking can completely negate a week of clean eating and exercise, I was shocked!! Since our bodies will always see alcohol as a poison, it never gives our metabolism a chance to recover. Especially while binge drinking. Binge drinking as described in the text is “A pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 gram-percent or above” (153) the book went on to say that this is also similar to drinking 5 or more drinks in one sitting. To combat this, I set a goal for myself to try to limit drinking to only one weekend day. While I was able to do this, I found myself drinking more than 5 drinks on a Saturday night.

I had also originally thought that certain drinks were ‘better’ for me than others. I normally drink beer, I dont really love beer but I liked that I had something to hold on to while out, and it took me a good amount of time to drink. So, if I did have 5 drinks it would take me a fair amount of time to drink. When i switched over to a vodka and soda, I thought oh less calories, this wont effect my body fat. However, as we learned in the chapter this isn’t entirely true. Since each standard drink will contain the same amount of alcohol it doesn’t matter what you are drinking. I also found that I would be more hungover after drinking the vodka than I was the beer. A hangover is “the physiological reaction to excessive drinking, including headache, upset stomach, anxiety, depression, diarrhea, and thirst”(158). I was getting more hungover since I was drinking more vodka drinks, and at a faster pace, than I was the beer. I realized that it made me less active the next day, so I wasn’t able to take the active rest day like I prefer. I also noticed that the vodka drinks increase my appetite, I never felt as full as I did off the beer… Hello, of course this would up my body fat!! This chapter explain it as if we drink an extra 150 calories per day, that could lead to an extra 12 pounds per year.

Now that we are all quarantined, it seems that a lot more young people are using this as an excuse to drink because there is nothing else to do. And I am guilty of that. I have how ever taken advantage of my gym being closed by being more active outside. Before being stuck in the house I told my dog for a week straight I’d take him for a walk and never did. I had that opportunity this week, and plan to keep it going. Out of all of this stressfullness that is happening, I have enjoyed being more present. I enjoy seeing other people outside while go for a wog (walk/jog). I plan to continue getting my steps in outside once gyms are opened again!

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“Addiction is a persistent, compulsive, dependence on a behavior or substance, despite on going negative consequence.” (131) I think that the books definition of addiction is a great way to start this blog off. Addiction is definitely something that everyone can relate too. Reading about the 5 steps really awoke something in me where I took a step back to analyze some of my behaviors and the behaviors of the people around me. Obsession is a habit that is easy to fall into when you have goals to achieve. It’s something that I wanted to make sure I didn’t slide into while focusing on my health aspect for this class. Knowing that yes, I want to work out, I want to eat mainly wholesome and healthy foods, but I also don’t want it to consume me.

While I feel that anyone can struggle with an addiction, the book talks about how people with low self esteem, risk takers, and people who have poor coping skills are more likely to experience addiction (133). The social learning theory “proposes that people learn behaviors by watching role models-parents, caregivers, and significant others” (133). Thanks to the lovely social media, I think this type of learning is happening more and more. It’s easier for men and women to compare themselves to the people they see behind a screen. When I set the goal for this semester of working out regularly and eating my first thought was how will my body look at the end of this compared to the start. Taking pictures and comparing them to the fitness influences on Instagram. But quickly coming back to earth reminding myself it should be what is on the inside that matters.

Addictive behaviors are behaviors that are mood altering. Truly, when I read the compulsive buying disorder I was like oh shit. Do I really think I am, no. But can I relate to how retail therapy can put me into a better mood? Yes. I think addictive behaviors are a more common type of addiction and one that everyone has once felt. Technology addiction… We all have that one friend that just WONT PUT THE PHONE DOWN!!! But, for our generation we forget to live in the moment. We spend more time watching our experiences through our phone.

In regards to my health aspect, I can relate to the exercise addiction. I have struggled with an exercise addiction before. When I set my mind to something, I want to achieve it. Starting in high school when I convinced myself that if I was small enough, I’d be a better athlete. One thing lead to another, and I soon became sick. Luckily I recovered from that time in my life, but I can sometimes see those patterns happening today. I just remind myself that progress over perfection, always.